Road Trip Day 2: Chicago Traffic and Wisconsin Dells

The second day of our journey from New Hampshire to Montana was spent entirely on traveling. We ended up in Mauston, Wisconsin. We had originally intended to stop in a place called Wisconsin Dells, but when we got off the exit, we discovered that Wisconsin Dells is apparently the Las Vegas of Wisconsin. There were waterparks, an amusement park, themed resort hotels, and more people than we had seen since we left Chicago behind earlier in the day.

We stopped in to a couple of hotels, but the only one that had a double room left for the night was about twice the price we had planned to pay-- although it was a suite with a jacuzzi in the room and offered a free shuttle to the nearby casino. We decided to get back on the highway and look for a room in the next town. Mauston had a hotel right off the exit for the price we wanted.

In all we covered 617 miles on Saturday. We would have gotten further, but traffic in Chicago slowed us down considerably. It was stop and go for about an hour. We also got a late start, getting on the road about 9:00 am and stopping at a grocery store for supplies. By the way, sandwich meats and cheese cost about twice the price we are used to at the Giant Eagle grocery store in Ashtabula... On the other hand, in much of Pennsylvania and Ohio, gasoline was only about $3.43 per gallon, about 25 cents less than we are used to. In Illinois, it was back up in the $3.65 range and it dropped to $3.45 in Wisconsin. Be warned though, the very first gas station off I-90 in Wisconsin, Love's, was priced 10 cents/ gallon higher than the next one just a few miles down the highway.

Chicago as seen from I-90
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011. Do not copy.

We stopped for dinner at "The World's Largest Culver's," home of the famous Butter Burger. Well, the butter burger consists of an ordinary hamburger on a bun that has been lightly buttered before it was dropped on the grill for a light toasting. The hamburger patties themselves were even thinner than those found on a regular McDonald's hamburger. My son, despite our warnings, ordered the cod. Being from New England, he was disappointed. Culver's does not get a recommendation despite its prolific signage along I-90.

I'll also mention that as we waited out the traffic in Chicago, there was an air-show going on. We were able to watch the jets flying in formation and performing high-speed acrobatic maneuvers over the city, which helped to pass the time.

Our goal for day three of the trip is to reach Wall, South Dakota which will be about 645 miles and leave us only 8-9 hours away from Bozeman, Montana. With an earlier start and no major cities in the way, that should be no problem.