Following our brief stopover in Minnesota, we had another long slog across the northern plains on our way to Montello in central Wisconsin. The combination of a painfully homogeneous landscape along I-80 and an alarmingly strong crosswind made for a drive that was stressful, yet boring at the same time. That being said, the final leg of the journey took us through the famous Wisconsin Dells area, which was anything but boring. With all its water parks and other tourist attractions, this place was basically a Midwestern Disney World. We had a great time simply driving through the downtown area and doing a bit of people watching with a particular focus on some of the outfit choices (a few of which were several sizes too small).
After about 30 more minutes of driving, we arrived in Montello and made our way to our home for the week – the Buffalo Lake Camping Resort. Conveniently located near, you guessed it, Buffalo Lake, this campground made for a great spot to chill out for the week as we had plenty of options when it came to entertaining ourselves without having to even leave the RV park. In addition to just hanging out by the pool and reading in the hammock, we also got the opportunity to bust out our new inflatable kayak! Although the lake was a little gross given all the algae, the kayak’s maiden voyage was a success and we managed to see a good chunk of the lake without getting too wet!
Overall, it was a rather uneventful week just spent hanging around the campground and enjoying the warm temperatures as summer was officially upon us! In fact, the only time we ever left the campground was to do a quick little trip around downtown Montello, where we spotted the waterfall shown in the banner pic.
One interesting thing about this campground was the composition of the other campers. Upon arrival, we quickly noticed that the vast majority of the other RVs within the park were there permanently, as evident by decks, fences, and other installments. However, what made this odd was the fact that most of the campers seemed to be unoccupied – or so we thought. Although they may have been vacant during the week, once Friday and Saturday rolled around, nearly every camper had one, if not multiple cars sitting out front. I don’t know if it’s a Midwestern thing or something particular to this campground, but these people were using their RVs as de facto lakehouses. Once again, it just goes to show how flexible and adaptive the RV lifestyle can be!
Although this wasn’t our favorite area, Montello/Buffalo Lake made for a great spot to stop, relax, and just hang out for a couple of days as we made our way up to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.