Camping at Governor Dodge State Park

Governor Dodge State Park camping trip
June 3-4, 2001
Wisconsin, USA

"Welcome to Wisconsin State Parks! I'm sure you'll enjoy your visit. We have many amenities to make your trip fun, relaxing and worthwhile. And if you plan ahead, you'll always have lots to eat."

Thanks for the introduction, Ranger Don! We went camping to celebrate our ninth anniversary, which was June 1. The weather got in the way of our plans, but we had a great weekend nevertheless. First, we had reserved a camping spot in Kettle Moraine State Park, between Madison and Milwaukee, for the nights of Friday, June 1 and Saturday, June 2. But those dates fell in the middle of a month-long rainy spell that benighted the upper Midwest this spring. So it poured and thundered on Friday evening, and Saturday was cold, wet and dreary all day. We just forfeited our reservations. On Sunday, it cleared a little so we headed west, away from the main rain, to Governor Dodge State Park, hopeful and ready for hiking and such.

Here's the rest stop on Highway 14 in Arena, which is between Spring Green and Mazomanie, in the heart of Wisconsin's rich-earthed River Valley. This is the last photo on the roll, on our trip back home on Monday. We stayed on Highway 14 until it became University Avenue in Middleton, and then dropped off the film at Star Photo (best photo processing in town!), just minutes after this shot!

Check out how splendid Wisconsin's rest stops can be. This place is so nice, with lots of picnic tables and grills, it's a great destination for a family day trip from Madison. It's technically just a highway rest stop, but it's a lovely park in its own right. Beautiful scenery on the way, cool little towns to drive through.

Just east of the rest stop—you can't miss it!—is the giant mouse at the cheese factory that proclaims itself the home of Co-Jack cheese. The colby-jack mixes they make here are sold all over the country.

Here you can get factory seconds at half price—that is, delicious Co-Jack specimens, where the colby and jack cheeses didn't mix together in an aesthetically perfect pattern. Note the corner cut off the half-wheel, by the fingers of Don's right hand. That's like the way clothing factory outlets will cut into the tag of their factory seconds, to show that the product is somehow imperfect.

We got to see the cheese makers stirring huge tanks of cheese-to-be through the glass display window inside the factory store!

We got to the park, set up camp, and fired up our camp stove. We split a can of baked beans. Then we went for a hike. We saw a beautiful waterfall (not shown). It was kind of chilly. We got back to the campsite, sat around the fire, and started eating. There we stayed for the remainder of the camping trip. Hey, the campfire is the nicest place to be, right? And we didn't want to take a chance getting rained on in the middle of some trail somewhere, right?

These are Don's trademark camp fries. Delectable! Slice thin, heat a pot of Crisco until a potato slice dropped in bubbles briskly, and you're good to go. Put the pot right in the coals of the fire.

Breakfast Monday morning! Spam, eggs, and instant mashed potatoes. And good old-fashioned percolated coffee.

Note the little cubes of meat on a stick, in the bottom left of the photo. Those are Vesna's Spam hunks roasting on a stick. The Spam slabs in the photo on the left were fried in a pan.

Take your bratwurst camping! Any Wisconsin outdoor event is improved by the presence of bratwurst. These are Usinger's brats, from their century-old Milwaukee factory. They are the only non-MSG brats we've found in stores. Delicious! And so wonderful roasted over an open fire.

Note Vesna's special roasting stick, with many special scientifically designed twists and turns for optimal roasting. Above, the exclusive fine tuning knob is demonstrated. The fine tuning knob was very effective for micro adjustments in selecting the portion of brat surface which would be exposed to the heat. Unfortunately, there was no corresponding general tuning feature. In other words, one side of the brat cooked a lot faster than the other.

Thanks for sharing our trip to Wisconsin State Parks! Come again—we'll keep the coffee hot for ya!