This is The World According to Buchs - Keepin’ it moving since 2003!

Judy & I went camping with Dan & Jen last weekend at Buckhorn State Park, which is right around Mauston. An enjoyable weekend was had by all.

The road getting there, however, was a different story. I spent most of Friday running around, doing various errands. The plan was for me to do my things, then meet Judy at her office in Brookfield after work, and we would head straight out from there. In my haste, I neglected to bring her packed bags along that afternoon - although in my defense, there was a slight bit of confusion in the morning as to whether or not she would take them with her to work. So, while we had planned on leaving town by 5:30, we were pushed back a bit. That setback was extended a bit when she ran into Brewer traffic on the way back to get her stuff. In the end, I think we finally got on the road around 6:45pm, and were looking at a 2-1/2 hour trip ahead (ETA 9:15 pm).

The road from Milwaukee to Madison on Friday night was clear sailing, although the skies ahead looked threatening. Just as we reached Madison, it began to rain.

Now, there are several levels of “it’s raining”. There’s the drizzle, the sprinkle, and the downpour. Then there’s the “wow, it’s really raining out” level, and there’s also the “maybe I should get a boat” level. We didn’t quite hit that point, but it was close. So, in order to see the road at all, I needed to push the windshield wipers up to their maximum setting.

We’re flying along in the left lane, probably doing 60-65 MPH, when the driver’s side wiper arm was chugging along - left, right, left, right, left left…. That extra left sent it clear off the car, dangling off the driver’s side. At that point, I may as well have shut my eyes - I couldn’t see a damn thing. I hit the hazard blinkers, and started to slow down. Traffic started whizzing past us, and I tried to pull off the side of the road - which I still couldn’t see. Not positive, but pretty sure that a loaded Semi just missed us in the process.

I managed to pull off into the grass, where I pushed the blade arm back onto the car. I started the wipers back up again, and it was pretty clear that the gears in the arm were stripped, and was working sporadically at best. We waited for traffic to die down a bit, and pulled back onto the road (right lane this time). The blade went out again after a mile or so, and we pulled over underneath an overpass for a while.

We had pretty much gotten to the point where we were going to stop and grab a hotel for the night when the rain stopped. We got a call from Dan, and found out that we weren’t too far from the campsite, and decided to forge ahead until it started to rain again.

We met those two at a bar in Mauston around 10:15 or so, and ended up at the (wet) campsite around 10:45. We managed to get a fire started, then put up our tent.

After all that, Saturday was beautiful out. Clear skies, 70’s. We spent the day on the Wisconsin River, lounging on tubes, towing a cooler full of beer behind us. I neglected to slather up with sunscreen, and am currently nursing my skin back from fluroscent pink to it’s natural pale hue.

The girls at Judy’s office found it hard to believe that Judy would be going camping. To prove that she was actually there, we snapped off a few shots of Judy, in her camping outfit, working on a fire: