When we woke up Monday morning I started to call welding shops to see if they could fix up (and improve!) the camping trailer's bumper. Pretty lucky that I was an engineer on a ship in Northern Michigan so I had a few places in mind :) We found a place in Cheboygan that could weld it up to my specifications. (For my engineer friends: the failure mechanism was ductle tearing of the old weld seam where the longitudinal frames meet the bumper. In my opinion, the tearing was both from poor initial weld quality/corrosion at the weld and some overloading from the weight of the generator--I should have used a higher safety factor! I added two brackets, a square tube "transverse," and a stringer in addition to having the old welds repaired.) While the trailer work was completed, we ate and shopped in downtown Cheboygan. Tracey was not impressed but I enjoyed the trip down memory lane and we found some good deals on used children's books to keep Anne occupied. To sum it up, we got a late start away from Michigan on Monday and, after a long drive t'rough da U.P. we ended up camping near Appleton, Wisconsin that night. Tracey thinks the term "pasties" is funny (it's a meat pie). She thought the store name "Gram's Pasties" was especially hilarious.
After a couple hours drive on Tuesday, we pulled into the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells where we enjoyed the indoor waterpark. We picked it because it was the largest indoor waterpark in America and they had multiple sections for toddlers. Anne especially liked the wave pool but there were lots of areas where a water-loving-two-year-old could have a great time. Sorry, we don't have any pictures because we were using a waterproof disposable camera. I like Wisconsin and all, but the drive can be summed up with the word "corn." We camped in the suburbs of St Paul, Minnesota on Tuesday night.
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