Welcome to the start of my 2024 road trip that spans almost the entire month of October. I’ve basically taken no vacation this year and had nothing in specific in mind this year, so figured what better to do than become a willing nomad in search of some good old fashioned American road trip adventure. Focus is going to be two-fold: first, the main goal is just an excuse to see my family who lives way down in New Mexico; second, I’ll be trying to visit many places managed by the National Park Service that I haven’t seen before, and beyond that I’ll generally steer towards outdoor scenery but sometimes mix in quirky, funny, or downright strange locations too. Without further wordy words, I started later than expected because work couldn’t let me go. Resulted in a long night but I kicked off the trip with a peaceful sunset and very light traffic.
Clear skies didn’t last for long. Usually I’m a magnet for rain and today was no different. Here’s a screenshot of the radar. Notice how I’m in the middle of that green band? It basically followed me all the way to camp at Perrot State Park on the far west side of Wisconsin. That being said (spoiler alert) I had generally fantastic weather the entire trip otherwise with very little precipitation.
Camp tonight was just a quick pitstop even though I really do enjoy Perrot. For this expedition I’m trying out a couple of new Dometic GO Hydration Water Jugs and this seemed like a great place to fill up…until I was finished filling and noticed the sign right behind me saying there are elevated levels of nitrate. Sadly this is not surprising as this region has heavy agriculture & dairy, and the runoff of the farms over the years is probably to blame. But I normally ingest things that are much more harmful for my body so in this case I’m not too concerned.
The general route here is going to be Wisconsin -> Minnesota -> South Dakota to the Black Hills, then from there slowly matriculate on whatever scenic route I find interesting until I hit New Mexico. Then it’s a few days visiting family, followed by a return journey across Oklahoma -> Arkansas -> Missouri and then back north to home. Stay tuned and join me as I find my way and see some incredible places!
Lat = 42.5669289 , Long = -87.9647827 -- Show at Google Maps