Welcome to the start of my 2021 Wisconsin road trip. The past few years this has been my go-to choice for longer trips, and frankly there is no place I’d rather be than in the big woods in fall when the colors are changing. This year started off poorly but by the end became quite fruitful – stick around and I’m sure I’ll have some great photos to share.
First obstacles: I was planning to leave town on 9/24 but this was the same day the new iPhone 13 was released and I wanted one bad for the camera. I’ve been suffering with a dying iPhone 8 for a while and was worried it would die on me during the trip. Not ideal to switch phones the day you are leaving but I do this stuff for a living so it’s not too big a deal. As I was planning to leave town I took a look at the weather…it was what I would call less than ideal. I decided to skip camp for the opening night and leave in the morning instead.
Second obstacle: I made it to my first destination, Governor Thompson State Park, with no issues. Weather was beautiful – warm temps with a touch of crispness in the air – and I set up camp with a relaxing pace. As I just finished setup and started rearranging my gear, I took a sip of my iced tea and was surprised by an unexpected visitor: a yellowjacket that was rather displeased with being inside my mouth.
Since it got me inside my mouth the pain and swelling was near immediate. Not even ice or Benadryl did anything to help, but this was as bad as it got. I spent several hours monitoring my condition in the parking lot of a Dollar General (closest place I got cell reception) and eventually killed my battery from listening to the radio and needed a jumpstart. No problems with my throat or anything else swelling so I went back to camp and tried to sleep. Next morning was a tiny bit better but I wouldn’t return to normal for about 2 days.
More or less I lost a day and a half but accidents happen and it could have been worse. The next morning I began the real adventure with some new photography tools.
Lat = 45.3407516 , Long = -88.2403793 -- Show at Google Maps
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