Day 20: 6/21/24
From: Garretson, SD (Palisades State Park)
To: Fort Atkinson, WI
Distance: 469 miles

I wake after 4 hours of sleep and see a message that came through on my phone an hour or so after we left the campground. (I should still be sleeping right now, I’m exhausted, but my body says no, apparently. Adrenaline memory?)

We made the right decision.

Now, we just need to go back this morning and find out if we still have a tent and clothes to collect or if it’s all been washed away… We eat breakfast at the hotel, take showers we weren’t expecting to have this morning, and get dressed in the clothes we came in. Then, it’s back to the campground to see if we still have a tent, sleeping bags, and clothing. I know I said we were done camping after this night and that I looked forward to a few days in a hotel, but I didn’t mean I wanted to give up all of our tenting supplies for the future.

By the light of day, we can see the creeks and rivers in the area are absolutely flooded. The rain is still coming down, though with less force.The roadways back into the campground are passable, including the bridge that was flooded last night. (Though it’s covered in debris.) We get back to our campsite and are shocked to find most of the runoff creek water has subsided off the site, though it’s still flowing swiftly and carrying a lot of water into Split Rock Creek. Most importantly, though? Our tent is still standing. And everything in it is (mostly) dry. The tent is actually fairly soaked through from all the rain, but we don’t think the floodwater ever came all the way to the tent. We pack up as quickly as possible since the current forecast calls for more heavy rain and even the possibility of isolated tornadoes. No thank you. We’re ready to leave.

The GPS takes us a strange route  back to I-90 (dirt roads that are called “streets” and “avenues” despite being dirt), which we can only assume is due to closed, flooded roadways. And we must be right. Because when we finally do make it back to I-90, we see more devastation. Every creek (and there are many) is flooded so far over its banks, it looks like a full-blown river. Have you ever seen a tractor trailer on its side in the middle of a river? As of today, we have. We pass several more accidents due to flooded roads. As a result, the westbound side of I-90 is shut down, but the eastbound side remains open. We are grateful for that at least. 

But the rain isn’t finished with us yet. Husband drives through alternating downpours and light rain for the next two hours. We finally drive out of it, only to drive back into it again an hour later when I’m driving. We are absolutely astounded that a storm this big can be dumping this much water for this long. And it continues for most of our way to Wisconsin. The skies are dark and dangerous and I miss the Pennsylvania mountains that break up this kind of weather so it never lasts so long. We marvel again and again that we’re still driving through this horrible weather.

We finally reach our hotel not far outside of Madison, WI and we are relieved to be off the road. (And the hotel has the sweetest antique tap bell I want to grab for an uncle who collects them… I refrain. Barely.) The last 24 hours have been quite the ordeal. We still have a few more days and one more destination before we head back to Pennsylvania, but I think it’s safe to say that as much as the last three weeks have been an incredible adventure, we’re looking forward to returning home.

We watch a little television, I catch up on the blog, and Husband and kids take off for the jacuzzi for a half hour before bed while I read. I don’t know where they all find the energy to hop in a hot tub at 10 pm, but this trip is about seeing and doing, so have at it, fam.