Wisconsin Dells RV Guide: Waterparks, Eats & Camps

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We RV’d to Wisconsin Dells and turned the trip into your complete guide—what it’s really like to tow in, which campgrounds to pick (and avoid with big rigs), classic mini golf, the Upper Dells boat tour, can’t-miss breakfast spots(Paul Bunyan’s Cook Shanty!), and a bucket-list supper club (Ishnala on Mirror Lake). We also share weekday crowd hacks, road-closure gotchas, height/grade notes, and what we’d do differently.

What’s inside

• Driving in: detours, county roads, shoulders, weekday hack

• Where we stayed: Sherwood Forest RV Park (tight turns, big-rig section, steep hill)

• What to do: Upper Dells boat tour, Ducks, Pirate’s Cove & Timber Falls mini golf

• What to eat: Paul Bunyan’s Cook Shanty (donuts!), Courtyard Café, Ishnala supper club, Cow’s Corner (Rome, WI)

• RV sizes that fit, parking tips, budget & our honest verdict

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Imagine this.
The most cheesy, corny versionof like a Disneyland.
Well, I'm not even gonna sayDisneyland, like six flags you
can imagine.
Throw some RVers in there, allthe Midwest bars and food, so
all of that stuff.
And what do you get?

SPEAKER_02 (00:20):
The Wisconsin Dells.

SPEAKER_00 (00:21):
That's what we're gonna talk about coming up on
the RV Shenanigans podcast.
Welcome back to the RVShenanigans Podcast.
My name is Ryan.

SPEAKER_02 (00:40):
I'm Lauren.

SPEAKER_00 (00:41):
And uh yeah, we're gonna talk about some
destination stuff.
So obviously, this is therelaunch, it's like 2.10, 2.1 of
the RV Shenanigans Podcast.
Nothing's changed since therelaunch of 2.0.
We've just moved everything ontothe channel.
So again, if it's your firsttime here, welcome.
Please do us a favor if you'rewatching on YouTube and consider

(01:02):
hitting that subscribe button.
I think as of this morning, withno videos posted to it, we're at
seven.
Two of them are us.

SPEAKER_02 (01:09):
I was gonna say the other two are our moms.

SPEAKER_00 (01:11):
Yeah, we post it.
No, they don't know how to dothat.
Um they they get what we tellthem to get.
Um, no, we we just we wouldappreciate it if you especially
if you're coming over fromMiller's in Motion, our main
channel, if you would considersubscribing over here.
This is our deep dive into allthings RVing and RV travel,
whereas over there we strictlylive on the travel side.

(01:32):
So if you're ever curious thehows, the whys, the planning
portion of some of our RV trips,this is where you're gonna find
that.
Plus right, plus deep dives intoother things.

SPEAKER_02 (01:40):
So all the details on the places we've gone that we
can remember.
Come come learn with us.

SPEAKER_00 (01:48):
It's also a casual interview kind of a situation.
We are more laid back than a lotof podcasts.
We just kind of chill and havefun and talk about stuff.
So uh, if you're listening to uson your drive day, we would love
to know that and where you'regoing.
That's always I'm always curiouswhere we're being listened to
and where you're going in theprocess of.
Because if you're on YouTube,great.
You get to see everything we'retalking about, but we really

(02:09):
design this as like a travel daycompanion kind of a thing.

SPEAKER_02 (02:12):
So but don't watch us on YouTube whilst driving.
That would be unsafe.

SPEAKER_00 (02:16):
Please no, just that's only for me.
I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_02 (02:20):
Moving on.

SPEAKER_00 (02:20):
I wanted to see her face when I said that.
So the Wisconsin Dells.
I think it's important to talkabout here what is the Wisconsin
Dells as of like a broad,overreaching, like why would
anybody want to go to there?

SPEAKER_02 (02:33):
That's a fair question.
Uh the first time I went, Ithought it was like this
combination of family-friendlyDisneyland-ish, plus a little
bit of I'm not gonna say tacky,but price gouging?
No, no, not the first time wewent.
That's true.
But um I'm gonna go with tacky.

(02:53):
Okay, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 (02:54):
But cheesy, corny, tacky, like Vegasy, crappy
Vegas.

SPEAKER_02 (02:59):
Vegas has gotten fancier, but meets Disneyland,
think 90s Vegas, and a lesserbudget.

SPEAKER_00 (03:08):
And when she means lesser budget, she's like much,
much, much lesser.

SPEAKER_02 (03:12):
Yes.
So, anyways, that's mydescription of it with love,
Wisconsin.

SPEAKER_00 (03:17):
It has a special place in our heart.
We're we're never overlyenthusiastic about going back to
a lot of like we like once wedeep dive a location, we're not
big into let's go back everyyear.
Right.
It's just not how we roll.
Like, I love going to WaltDisney World.
And when's the last time you andI went together?

SPEAKER_02 (03:33):
Oh, it's been several years.

SPEAKER_00 (03:34):
It's been more than that.
Amy was like 12 or somethinglike that, and she is now almost
20, which is terrifying.
Yeah, I think it was and so itit it's one of those things, and
I grew up going there because mywhole family's from Wisconsin.
In fact, I even wore this shirton purpose.

SPEAKER_02 (03:50):
But your family has this habit of like returning to
the city.

SPEAKER_00 (03:53):
Yeah, they've got three spots they like, that's
it.
Right.
Well, and so my family grew up,so my parents grew up in Madison
and Janesville, Wisconsin.
Um, my whole family's up there,my cousin still lives there, a
lot of my family's still there.
Um, I was born here in Texas,and so we went up a lot.
We typically were in Wisconsinat least two to three times a

(04:13):
year, holiday stuff, that kindof thing, Thanksgiving.
And then in the summers growingup, we went to the Dells almost
every year.
Rental.
That's right.

SPEAKER_02 (04:21):
So you're an expert.

SPEAKER_00 (04:22):
I'm an expert from back then.
Then there was like a 20-yeargap when you went between
college and now, and then we'veonly been back a handful of
times.
I'd say since we've beentogether, we've been twice.

SPEAKER_01 (04:34):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (04:34):
Once, right after we got engaged, we used it as a
jumping off point to see familythat she had never met before,
and then recently on the RV.
So um Wisconsin Dells is locatedreasonably centrally in the in
the in the United States.
It's not in the state ofWisconsin.
Um, to give you a referencepoint, it's probably about three
hours from Milwaukee.

(04:55):
It's about an hour and a halffrom Madison, and it's probably
about another hour and a half,maybe two hours from the Green
Bay Appleton area.
That's the big cities inWisconsin.
That's it.
Um, there are other towns,obviously, but um, yeah.
Wisconsin's a different placewhen you're getting up there as
far as the traveling portion ofit.

SPEAKER_02 (05:12):
There's more that I agree with.

SPEAKER_00 (05:14):
There's not a lot of huge interstates.
There is.
There's 90 and 94, and that'sit.
That's all they got.

SPEAKER_02 (05:19):
But when we say three hours, we don't mean three
hours on the interstate.

SPEAKER_00 (05:22):
No, and I think that's one of the things in the
RV portion of this that we'regoing to really talk about is,
you know, they're there becauseit's a state that freezes over
for a majority of the winter,they're built differently than
say Texas, where we don't freezeover everywhere, um, hardly
ever, kind of a thing.
And so they don't have theflyovers, they don't have the

(05:42):
massive interstates, and so it'sa lot of state highways, it's a
lot of back roads.
Texas, we call them farm roads.
I think they call them countyroads there.
Um, why they're numbers and orwhy they're letters and not
numbers, I don't know.
It confuses me still.
When you get turn on doublezero.
Nope, that's an O.
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (06:00):
But when we were driving up with our RV, um,
there was actually a detour.
There was one of the roads wasclosed and it was not well
marked.

SPEAKER_00 (06:08):
And it was well marked for cars, but when you're
in an RV, there's always thatquestion mark, right?

SPEAKER_02 (06:14):
Right.
So like it said basically theroad was closed, turn here
instead.
But then there was never a signthat said continue here.
And so we didn't know if we werejust supposed to like turn at
the next one and then it wouldput us on the other side of
construction or if we weresupposed to keep going.
And with an RV, that's a verydifficult decision to make.

SPEAKER_00 (06:33):
And I will say, we we went on this trip.
This was after we sold theValor, so we're in the Delta, so
much smaller, much moremaneuverable.
So we were lucky in the sensethat we didn't have the Valor.

SPEAKER_02 (06:44):
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (06:45):
Because the Valor would have made that drive a lot
more stressful.
It was just more inconvenience.

SPEAKER_02 (06:50):
There and like the turnarounds were very few and
far between.
So, like if you had made thewrong decision, trying to
retrace your steps would havebeen very difficult.
So we're trying to pull up,there's very limited internet
access, right?
Trying to look at Google Maps,we're trying to do all these
things, knowing you can't justpull off onto the shoulder
because there's no shoulder.

SPEAKER_00 (07:08):
Right.
And I think the other thing toois like understand when you get
when you have that happen inlike an interstate's closed,
right?
Like let's say you're goingthrough Oklahoma or something.
Right.
You get off onto state highways,and then you use state highways
to bypass and get back on.
Well, we're not on interstates.
We're on state highways.
And so the option off of statehighways is local streets.

SPEAKER_02 (07:26):
Farm roads, local streets, counting.

SPEAKER_00 (07:29):
You're going through farming lane, you're going
through neighborhoods, you'regoing, and you're gonna go
through like I'm using this termvery loosely, like downtown, but
think old timey Main Streetdowntown, not downtown Dallas or
I.

SPEAKER_02 (07:40):
Narrow, maybe short, maybe don't make turns.

SPEAKER_00 (07:44):
Not necessarily there.
I wouldn't make turns in thoseareas with an RVE.

SPEAKER_02 (07:47):
Exactly.
That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 (07:48):
I will say though, Wisconsin's a farming state.
It's predominantly what they do.
It's it's cattle in terms ofdairy and and farming.
And so most things are actuallylike I didn't necessarily have
an issue driving my duallyaround.

SPEAKER_02 (08:02):
No.

SPEAKER_00 (08:02):
The Dells, even even in the Dells.
Now, granted, it's a touristyarea, so the parking lots are
just very big.
And so you can kind of cheatthat by going to the back.
We were there during the week.
That's our pro tip, by the way.
Um, if you RV and you have theability to skip the weekends, go
in the week, it's always lesscrowded in these types of
scenarios.

SPEAKER_02 (08:17):
But those little farmlands and ranches made it
really cute to drive through allthose questionable county roads.

SPEAKER_00 (08:23):
It's beautiful.
It was adorable being stressedout if I'm gonna make this next
turn or not.
No, and Wisconsin is a verycharming state.
There's the rolling hills, youhave a lot of the stuff when you
get over by the Wisconsin River,and so yeah, beautiful, green,
lush.

SPEAKER_02 (08:37):
It was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 (08:38):
And and once you come into the Lake Delton,
Wisconsin Dells area, um, morethan likely you're gonna come
from the south.
There's an off chance you comefrom the north if you're
Canadian, I guess.
Um, but there's not, yeah.
I mean, the chances of youcoming from the north are pretty
small.
Even when you come from the westor the east, you still end up
coming in from the south.

SPEAKER_01 (08:57):
True.

SPEAKER_00 (08:57):
Um, just kind of how the highway system works there.
So getting in, once you get intothe Dells area proper, it's not
bad, but it is busier.

SPEAKER_02 (09:06):
It is, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (09:06):
And so there's Dells is kind of broken into two
areas.
You have what I call the NewDells and the Old Dells.
It's the old downtown MainStreet area, which is a
different street than now themain drag, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 (09:18):
With like the big, big hotels and amusement park
type stuff.

SPEAKER_00 (09:22):
Correct.
And so it's it's pretty, it usedto be a little bit of a gap
between the two.
It's filled in, it's gone.
That gap's gone.
Um the there's spots where thatmain drag in can get a little
tight.
It's not overly bad.
I wouldn't, I wouldn't even not,even if I had the valor, I
wouldn't question going down it.
Right.

(09:42):
Maybe take it a little slower inspots.
There's some spots that are fromthe original time that that area
was built that are a littletighter.
And once you look at the area,like a map at it, if you see
where like Noah's Ark is andthat kind of stuff, that's the
original where that grew out,and then it kind of you know
accordioned out from there.
So it gets a little tight, justthe lanes are a little smaller.
That's all it is.
It's not the nice big wide oneswhen you first come into town.

(10:04):
Yeah, and then they widen again.

SPEAKER_02 (10:06):
And the good news is that the speed limit really goes
down.
So most people are only goinglike 30 miles an hour, so you're
not doing quick things, and it'sstraight.

SPEAKER_00 (10:13):
The the thing you have to watch out for,
especially in that area, is morethe people looking around
walking.

SPEAKER_02 (10:18):
Yep, the pedestrians.

SPEAKER_00 (10:19):
And on top of that, people driving, trying to figure
out where they're going, wherethey're at, because you get a
lot of that too.
And not seeing the Midwestdoesn't have great drivers, but
we'll let you interpret that asyou wish.
In their own world?
No, well, you get to the Dellsjust like any other thing.
Like if you're driving for thefirst time in a downtown area,
what are you doing?
You're driving, but there's alsothe ooh.

SPEAKER_02 (10:40):
Well, I'm trying to figure out where you're going.

SPEAKER_00 (10:42):
Right.
And so there's that, andobviously, most people that
don't drive or tow an RV knowcomprending.
And so they don't realize youneed a little extra room or a
little extra berth, that kind ofstuff.
So that's driving into theDells.
Where did we decide to stay?

SPEAKER_02 (10:59):
I I don't say this right.
I can't remember the name of it.
I want to call it Peter Pans,and I know that's not right.

SPEAKER_00 (11:05):
You are close in theme only.
Sherwood Forest.
Not Neverland.

SPEAKER_02 (11:16):
The guy on the sign looked like Peter Pan.

SPEAKER_00 (11:20):
And Robin Hood.
Okay, fine, whatever.
Which is where Sherwood Forestcomes from.
Oh boy.
Apparently, Lauren needs tobrush up on her literature.
Um, okay, so we stayed atSherwood Forest, what was it?
RV Park and Campground.
And I remember in the video weshot, which we did a Miller's in
Motion video over not just thecampground, but the Dells as a

(11:42):
whole.
Yeah, if you want to see some ofhow and I ask, why campground?
It's because they allow tentcamping.
I didn't know that.
That or the cabins is what whatwas it?

SPEAKER_02 (11:52):
No, it was tents.

SPEAKER_00 (11:52):
It was tent.

SPEAKER_02 (11:53):
They do have some cabins too.

SPEAKER_00 (11:55):
Yep, they have cabins.
They have sheds that they callcabins.
They're small.

SPEAKER_02 (12:01):
Rustic cabins.

SPEAKER_00 (12:03):
Get the newer ones, just saying.
Um, if you if you can figure outwhich one's the newer ones, I
would grab that one first.

SPEAKER_02 (12:08):
But definitely like summer camp theme vibes.

SPEAKER_00 (12:12):
I would say most, there's always the resorts,
right?
There's always gonna be so likein this area, it's um uh what
was the Christmas MountainVillage is a resort and uh Ho
Chunk Casino, and that's weirdstill.

SPEAKER_02 (12:26):
Yes, that we're not making fun of that.
That's the name.

SPEAKER_00 (12:28):
It's it's it's like a wind star if you're from Texas
or any other Native Americancasino.
And so it's been there forever.
Uh it's just grown just like allthose other casinos have.
And so my I know my mom used togo there all the time.
And so um they have their own RVpark.
That's gonna be nice, concrete,wide sites, all that stuff.
Yeah, everything else in theMidwest, because it gets so

(12:49):
cold, they don't it like they'reclosed, those campgrounds close
for five months.
Right.
Sometimes six, sometimes four,because of the cold.
And so cold concrete doesn'tlove cold, it cracks.
And so a lot of these parks justput down gravel, um, chip seals,
whatever they call it, a lot oftimes, like in between that, and
and not concrete.

(13:10):
And so the chances of yougetting like a concrete pad in
anywhere in the Midwest is is onthe rarer side of things, right?
And so, with that also beingsaid, Sherwood Forest has been
there for a hot minute.

SPEAKER_02 (13:23):
That's what I was gonna say.
For the amount of time it's beenthere, I feel like they were
taking pretty good care of it.

SPEAKER_00 (13:28):
Oh, I agree, yeah.
And it's it's one of thosethings too that inevitably RV
parks up there, the turnaroundbetween winter and summer, it's
things get literally destroyedin the winter.
Absolutely.
Because of the harsh conditions.
And so for them to turn thataround and be able to use it for
the summer requires a lot ofeffort.
So a lot of times with theupgrades, you don't like
something's got to really breakso that they have to completely

(13:50):
replace it and pay someone tocome in and do it, versus that
kind of stuff.
Like the pool's a really goodexample.
Like everyone's like, oh, thepool's heated in the summer.
That makes no sense, and it'sclosed in the winter.
No, it's so the pipes don'tfreeze in the winter.
That's the real reason why it'sheated.

SPEAKER_02 (14:03):
But like every day there were people out on their
little utility vehicles doingprojects.

SPEAKER_00 (14:08):
So this is an old park, it was cut, it's coming up
on its hundredth anniversary.
Yeah, it's been around since thelate 20s, early 30s, sometime.
It's better, it's a staple.
I remember it when we when Iwent as a kid being there.
Because you know, like most RVparks aren't gonna be in like
the main area.
This kind of is.

SPEAKER_02 (14:25):
It kind of is.
It was walking distance toseveral things, which is why we
picked it, to be completelyhonest.

SPEAKER_00 (14:30):
We we could have gone, so Christmas Village is
where our first choice that onewas sold out, and I would say,
but you're gonna drive in foreverything, right?
Um, if you Sherwood Forest hadsome availability, we went over
Memorial Day weekend and theweek following.
Yeah, so our issue wasn't duringthe week, it was better than a
doornail during the week.

SPEAKER_02 (14:49):
It was, it was kind of nice.

SPEAKER_00 (14:50):
Our issue was our first night or two, and so we
were struggling to findsomewhere that had availability
for those first two nights, andI really dislike moving the rig
midweek if I have to.

SPEAKER_02 (14:59):
And I know we went on Memorial Day weekend, we
should have known better, butthat was the way the schedule
lined up, and the week was fine.
It was only really a day or twoago.

SPEAKER_00 (15:08):
I was gonna say we landed on Memorial Day, yeah.
So it that was a fun maneuveringtask.
Um, I will tell you, if you areconsidering, like if you're if
you're listening to this podcastor watching it and you're
considering going to the Dells,here's my disclaimer of Sherwood
Forest.
I would a thousand percent goback.

SPEAKER_02 (15:23):
Oh, yeah, I would too in our rig now.
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (15:27):
I would not uh if there's only a handful of sites
that I would be okay taking abigger RV to.

SPEAKER_02 (15:33):
Yes, and mind you, we have a 30-foot travel trailer
for reference.

SPEAKER_00 (15:37):
So I would tell you that anything I would be fine,
I'd fine, I'd be fine taking upto a 35-foot travel trailer or
something that's below like 11feet-ish or down in height.

SPEAKER_02 (15:48):
There's a lot of trees, some really tight turns
in there, and a giant hill.

SPEAKER_00 (15:53):
Now, there is a pretty big section.
We saw some 40-foot motorhomesin there.
Right.
Um, we saw some big 42-footfifth wheels.
Um, it's just limited.
It's on the kind of northeastside of the park.
If you're looking at a map,because they're all they're not
facing north to south on themap, it's the kind of west side
or the left side of the map.

(16:14):
Because you can, when you gointo the park, you can take a
quick left there.
Uh, you go down, there was thatloop back by where the dumpsters
were.
That's right.
Down the hill.
If you're going to anywhereelse, you are either in a very
small and kind of the theoriginal park right there, which
is on the older side.
And otherwise you're going up.
I don't even know how todescribe that hill.

SPEAKER_02 (16:35):
That w with our dually and our travel trailer,
we were like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 (16:41):
I don't think we could have gotten up it with the
Valor.
Well, let me rephrase that.
I think we could have gotten upit, but I would have dragged
something.

SPEAKER_02 (16:46):
Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 (16:47):
A jack would have gotten messed up.
I would have dragged the backend.

SPEAKER_02 (16:50):
I was gonna say the back end was what I was worried
about.

SPEAKER_00 (16:52):
Right.
And so I wouldn't go up therewith anything over like 34, 35
feet and travel trailer land.
And I'm gonna say that with adisclaimer, depending on the
distance between your rearbumper and your tires.

SPEAKER_02 (17:03):
And the other thing was when you got to the top of
the hill, the vision was verylimited.
Yeah, and so you if and itturned in the middle of it,
remember, and there was kind ofa drop-off on one side.

SPEAKER_00 (17:14):
So not kind of a drop-off.
That was a big old honkindrop-off.
And mind you, we'reunrecoverable drop, let's call
it that.

SPEAKER_02 (17:20):
Exactly.
Like rocks on either side, biggiant boulders on one side,
drop-off on the other side.

SPEAKER_00 (17:25):
And a 30-foot drop, depending near the top.

SPEAKER_02 (17:27):
It was it was kind of tight, a little puckering.

SPEAKER_00 (17:30):
Yeah, and so like I didn't, I I had plenty of room
in ours.
I will say that and that's whyI'm saying like we're we're just
under 30 feet at 29 feet andsome change.
And we tow with literally thebiggest truck out there.
It's a 22-foot F-350 dually.

SPEAKER_02 (17:43):
It's not the biggest truck.
There's 450.

SPEAKER_00 (17:45):
It's the biggest truck you can get that's
non-commercial.
No, that's the same size, thetruck's the same size as the
450.

SPEAKER_02 (17:51):
Oh, it is?
I thought the wheelbase wasdifferent.

SPEAKER_00 (17:53):
The wheel base is a little wider, but it's not, but
the front wheel base doesn'thave anything to do with the
back wheel base.
It's it's reasonably the samefootprint, turning the same
thing.
Same lengths, same all thatstuff.
Well, that doesn't matter inthis scenario.
Okay, we digress.
Just accept that a 450, 350 arereally, really similar.

SPEAKER_02 (18:09):
Very close in size.

SPEAKER_00 (18:10):
They're both 22 feet long.
That's what we're going forhere.
Um, but it's it's I love thepark.
I would go back.

SPEAKER_02 (18:16):
Yeah, I would too.

SPEAKER_00 (18:17):
If you don't, I don't know that I would take a
gas-powered motorhome up therefor anything.

SPEAKER_02 (18:22):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (18:22):
I mean, maybe if you I don't I don't understand like
a class C if it could make it.
I wouldn't take a class A upthere.

SPEAKER_02 (18:27):
Um not up the hill.

SPEAKER_00 (18:28):
It's too, yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
Yeah.
So you can get in, just know bigrigs, stay in one area.
If it's full, go somewhere else.

SPEAKER_02 (18:36):
I agree with that.

SPEAKER_00 (18:37):
Don't let the camp people talk you into something
else.
Because uh know your rig.
Just be very cautious going in.
If you go watch our main videoon the channel, we actually
break that down prettyextensively.
I know this is a deep dive, butwe've been talking for 18
minutes.
We barely talked about actuallywhat we did in the Dells.
So um go check out that videoand you'll know all the things
about that park.
But I would go back and see thethings, but I would definitely

(19:00):
go back to that park.

SPEAKER_02 (19:02):
Um we never swam in the pool, but I'm kind of okay
with that.

SPEAKER_00 (19:06):
No, so the Dells pools, any pool in Wisconsin is
kind of an afterthought becauseagain, it freezes for so long.
And so it's not necessarily thatbig of a thing up there, right?
And on top of that, you're alsoon Mirror Lake and Lake Delln.
So the Dell sits between twolakes, there's a section where
they get very, very closetogether.

(19:27):
Um, and most people go for that.
That's what a lot of the localsgo for, and then they just
happen to do the amusementparks.
In fact, if you've ever seen themovie Grown-Ups with Adam
Sandler, there you go.
That's kind of maybe not thatchaotic, obviously.
No, not that chaotic.
But that vibe.
Yeah, it's very much so.
A lot of Midwest families use itas a regional vacation area.
It's kind of a rent a cabin,rent a lake house, rent that

(19:49):
stuff.
You've got you can play on thewater, but then you also have
things you can do in town.
Just there are more attractionshere than some towns that do
that kind of a thing.

SPEAKER_02 (19:57):
So there you go.

SPEAKER_00 (19:58):
Um, with that, let's get into the fun stuff.

SPEAKER_02 (20:00):
All right.

SPEAKER_00 (20:01):
Not that this wasn't fun.
Um, but what were the reasons?
What were our anchors?
Like, what did we really want todo?
And I say this we plan trips.
We always kind of go, okay, wewant to go to this area, and
these are the handful of thingswe want to do.
We call them anchors.
And then around those anchors,they're the must-do's.
If we can get into all of them,we go.
And then we fill around thoseanchors.
Sometimes it's one anchor,sometimes it's six.

(20:23):
Like Nashville.
Nashville was just two or threeanchors, and then we filled
around it.

SPEAKER_02 (20:28):
Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 (20:28):
And the Dells, it's hard because I don't know
they're on the same caliber asanchors.

SPEAKER_02 (20:33):
No, I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00 (20:35):
And and even the ones that were anchors, I wasn't
worried about getting in or not.
Like we didn't have to have aticket or anything.

SPEAKER_02 (20:41):
Right.
And so also our food base.
Our anchors for the first timewe went, I think were totally
different than the anchors forthis time.
So like the first time, I wantedto do the ducks.
I wanted to do, you know, boattours and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 (20:55):
Well, and meeting my family, I would consider an
anchor too.
And so we had to spend time awayfrom the Dells or they had to
come in, depending on thescenario.

SPEAKER_02 (21:02):
So this time, definitely seeing family was up
there.
And then you have to play minigolf and you have to eat cheese
curds.

SPEAKER_00 (21:08):
Well, you don't have to eat cheese.
If you're lactose intolerant,you don't have to do it.

SPEAKER_02 (21:12):
We're not going to come around.

SPEAKER_00 (21:16):
Um, unless there's vegan curds now.
Up there, it'd probably shootyou if they tried to do that.

SPEAKER_01 (21:20):
No.

SPEAKER_00 (21:21):
No, but I will say, like, we wanted to do things we
hadn't done before, and thereare plenty of things to do.
And so we wanted to do a supperclub.
Specifically the number onesupper club in the state, which
we'll get into a little bitlater.
But um, you want we wanted to govisit my cousin and hang out
with him, which we actually gotto do twice, which was fun, a
little added bonus.
That's right.

(21:41):
Um, mini golf is on there.
I don't know that I would callit an anchor, but I do.
I I I one of the anchors I wouldsay that kind of it's it's a
little all-encompassing, butjust kind of relax and walk
around.
Like, since we've gone fromfull-time to part-time, that's
been one of my like I want to goto relax more and less.

(22:01):
I don't I don't feel like I haveto go a thousand miles an hour
all the time because we live inthe RV where we used to live in
the RV.
We'd go somewhere fun, and youwould just kind of like getting
out of the RV was the relaxingthing.
Now, the trip and being in theRV is actually relaxing because
we don't live in it.

SPEAKER_02 (22:18):
We RV'd, we've RV'd for what, three years now, and
this was the first trip where weactually had a campfire.
That's how relaxed you were.

SPEAKER_00 (22:26):
Almost by accident.
I don't know how it started.
No, I'm just kidding.
No, our neighbors had wood.
They were leaving because ofMemorial Day, and they were I
got chatting with them one daywhen Lauren was inside, and they
were very super nice and said,We have extra firewood, would
you guys like it?
Otherwise, we're just gonnaleave it in our site.
Sure.
And then we came back from lunchor whatever we did, and there
was a huge pile by some firewoodleft, or it means they

(22:49):
overbought for like three weeks.

SPEAKER_02 (22:50):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (22:51):
For like a three-day trip.

SPEAKER_02 (22:52):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (22:52):
Um, and so we we did our first campfire, and that
inspired us to move on topropane fire pits because we
don't do campfires because ofour allergies, and we can't
breathe for like two daysafterwards.
And so propane, all good, nosmoke.
So, um, any other anchors?

SPEAKER_02 (23:08):
No, I think that encompasses it for me.

SPEAKER_00 (23:10):
Sure, Noah's Ark wasn't an anchor.
World's largest uh water park,by the way.

SPEAKER_02 (23:14):
Not this time.
We did that last time.

SPEAKER_00 (23:16):
We did do that last time.
We did the quickly whole thing.
Yeah, we did literally everyride they had in what, like four
hours?
Yeah, it was a little chilly.

SPEAKER_02 (23:23):
It was nobody.

SPEAKER_00 (23:24):
So it was very not crowded.
So um, okay.
Well then as far as likeattractions, what did we do that
really stood out to you?
I attractions is a veryall-encompassing thing.
It is because like pretty mucheverything we did that's not
food.

SPEAKER_02 (23:40):
Right.
And that's kind of we did allthe things, and so I'm sticking
with my answer.
Mini golf.

SPEAKER_00 (23:45):
Well, but I know, but so mini golf, we did Pirates
Cove and Timber Falls.
We've done them before.
Lauren has two pictures fromthat original trip we went back
on when we first got engaged,and we kind of tried to recreate
them in a very poor effort.

SPEAKER_02 (24:00):
Pirates Cove is more well put together, I will say.
They have a variety of courses,and they will gladly tell you
how difficult they are and andeverything.

SPEAKER_00 (24:08):
Difficult does not equal fun.

SPEAKER_02 (24:10):
No, it does not.

SPEAKER_00 (24:11):
I would say, like, we just assumed the harder one
would be more fun.
It and I would say it wasactually probably one of the
more boring ones.
Yeah.
And so just I not necessarilythe easy, but somewhere in the
middle, I would say, is pick oneof the middle courses or the
medium courses.
Agreed.
Um, those are the ones that havea lot of elevation changes and a
little bit more fun.
Some holes are hard, some holesare not.

SPEAKER_02 (24:32):
Um, whereas Timber Falls, I'm gonna toss that one
also into the rustic rusticcategory.

SPEAKER_00 (24:37):
Or rustic.

SPEAKER_02 (24:38):
Needed a little bit of um upkeep, if you will.

unknown (24:41):
A lot of bit.

SPEAKER_02 (24:42):
A lot of bit, but that's part of what made it fun.
It was kind of like HappyGilmore, where you had to like
play the terrain, and it reallytested you.
And then at the end, there weregoats you could pet.

SPEAKER_00 (24:53):
I'm gonna note that's our second Adam Sandler
movie reference in this podcastnow.
So we're gonna go for five.
I'm just kidding.
I have to do that.

SPEAKER_02 (24:59):
And there was a donkey you could pet too.
So there were goats and adonkey.

SPEAKER_00 (25:02):
Okay.
I'm sure that was in BillyMadison somewhere now.
So there's three.
Um, so yeah, uh Timber Falls, wehave a picture of Lauren being
in an area she's not supposed tobe in, and I'm not sure why it
became one of our like pictures.
I think it was just because itwas like how we were back then.

SPEAKER_02 (25:17):
Yeah, it's because we're it's where my ball was,
and we were just trying todisregard all the the rails, all
the rules.

SPEAKER_00 (25:25):
Excuse me.
So, um, but yeah, mini golf's abig thing there, I will say.
Um we walk up and down, like wewe enjoy walking.
And one of the cool things aboutthe RV park is we could walk to
most of the things we're talkingabout, not all, but a lot of
them.
But a lot of them, yeah.
We could walk to both of thoseminiature golf places, and you
could walk to the old downtownarea, which we went down there

(25:49):
two or three times.

SPEAKER_02 (25:50):
Several times, and then they had this nice little
boardwalk along the lake, and itwas kind of scenic and pretty.
So it's very long.

SPEAKER_00 (25:55):
Something we didn't do, but I would say is worth
doing, and I kind of wish we haddone it again, um, was the Upper
Dells boat tour.

SPEAKER_02 (26:02):
Right.
There's an upper and a lower.

SPEAKER_00 (26:03):
Don't uh if you've never been before, do the upper.
If you're just looking to getout for a little less money,
yeah, fine, do the lower.
But the upper is much better.

SPEAKER_02 (26:10):
It is.

SPEAKER_00 (26:10):
Um, so that's where if you ever see videos, most of
the time they're from the upper,because that's the one that goes
to Stand Rock and goes up intothe state nature area and all of
that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 (26:21):
That's the one where you actually get to get off the
boat at one point and do somewalking around, and it's just
really pretty.

SPEAKER_00 (26:26):
You don't sit on the boat the whole time, the boat's
probably half of it.

SPEAKER_02 (26:28):
Yeah, and it's not like one of those speed boat
scary things.
This is like relaxing that too.
This is like relaxing Midwest,you know, boat door.

SPEAKER_00 (26:36):
The the puddler.
Yeah, it is.
Um, and you can do the speedboatthing too.
It that does not stop.
It is a it's more of a seepretty things as we terrify you.

SPEAKER_02 (26:45):
That is a different experience.

SPEAKER_00 (26:47):
Uh it looked fun too, though, in its own right.

SPEAKER_02 (26:50):
Okay, I also liked doing the ducks.

SPEAKER_00 (26:52):
The ducks are fun.
It's just when you've done them.
Like I'm pretty sure my mom canstill have that thing memorized.

SPEAKER_02 (26:58):
She probably does, but I've only been once and I
thought it was fun.
So I recommend doing the ducksonce.

SPEAKER_00 (27:03):
So we didn't do a lot of attractions.
This really was more of arelaxed trip for us.
Now, I'm gonna throw this in asour transition from food or into
like the places we ate and thefood and stuff.
Okay, but I also view it as alittle bit of an attraction.

SPEAKER_01 (27:17):
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (27:17):
Um, when my family gets together, we eat all the
time, constantly.
It's very evident by all of ourstatures.

SPEAKER_02 (27:24):
It is, it is true.
That is whole.

SPEAKER_00 (27:26):
My cousin has a restaurant and bar or a grill
and bar.

SPEAKER_02 (27:30):
Grill.

SPEAKER_00 (27:31):
It's fancy because it's got the E on the end.

SPEAKER_02 (27:33):
It's the grilly and bar.

SPEAKER_00 (27:34):
Sorry, Kent, if you hear this.
Um, no, it's called Cow'sCorner.
It is not in the Dells.
That's my disclaimer.
It's probably 45 minutes north.

SPEAKER_02 (27:42):
About an hour.
About an hour.

SPEAKER_00 (27:44):
So it's literally straight north on 18, I think,
is the highway, which runs rightout of the Dells.
In fact, what's funny is he's onthe same road that our
campground's on, just almost anhour away.
There are no turns, just a fewroundabouts.

SPEAKER_02 (27:55):
But I will say, like, unbiased, that was some of
the best food we had, too.

SPEAKER_00 (27:59):
I agree.
So everything's homemade, it'sall right there.
Unbiased.
It's completely biased.
He's my cousin and we like him.

SPEAKER_02 (28:06):
No, but like legitimately, we had what the
cheese curds, I think.

SPEAKER_00 (28:10):
Yeah, it's the only place we actually had curds, by
the way.
Right.
Well, fried cheese curds from arestaurant.
I mean, I've bought some.

SPEAKER_02 (28:15):
Some of the restaurants that were in town at
the Dells just um a littlecommercialized.

SPEAKER_00 (28:21):
Midwest is not known for their robust flavoring
profile.

SPEAKER_02 (28:24):
No, it's not.
And so I thought that the foodat his restaurant was flavorful
and fresh.

SPEAKER_00 (28:29):
Fried cheese curds and ranch is a stretch
flavor-wise, just to give you aballpark of an idea.
So just know like we're big onvery large flavor.
And so, like, whether it'sspicy, we like spicy.
If it's, you know, whatever, wewe like like typically more than
most people.
Old flavors.
And so things at somerestaurants in some areas,
especially tourist areas wherethey have to play it safe, um,

(28:51):
come across as a little blandfor us.

SPEAKER_02 (28:53):
Well, and I think a lot of the chain restaurants and
whatnot, it you could tell thatit was frozen at one point too.

SPEAKER_00 (28:58):
Yeah.
So so, but we we went up toCal's Corner.
Um, if you are in Central, soit's if you know where Sand
Valley Golf Resort is, um, justsouth of Stephen, it's south of
Stevens Point, about 30, 45minutes, north of the Dells,
about 45 minutes to an hour.
Um, it's in a ironically, inRome, Wisconsin.
Um, it's kind of funny becausethere's a Rome, Texas, and
there's all these other things,but um, he is it's just a good

(29:22):
place, and they're expanding,it's bigger, it's growing.

SPEAKER_02 (29:25):
So stop in, tell him we said hello.

SPEAKER_00 (29:27):
Yeah, and then I'm sure play the slot machines or
something.
Every time somebody says hi fromone of these things, he's
confused at first, and then hecalls me or texts me or
something, and so keep confusinghim.
Yeah, um, it's fun.
Uh, but so that was fun, andthen transitioning into food.
Boy, did we eat.
We did, but it's it's the mainattraction in the Dell.

SPEAKER_02 (29:50):
Kind of.

SPEAKER_00 (29:51):
So we have our bucket list places, and so I I
said like we wanted to try asupper club.
I have a breakfast place that wealways wanted to go to.
I regret not going to the other.
Breakfast place.

SPEAKER_02 (30:00):
Yeah, that's what I was doing.

SPEAKER_00 (30:02):
But that's more of a nostalgia thing.
I have no idea if it was gonnabe good or not.
We knew the other one was gonnabe good.
So I'm we're just gonna go inchronological order.
So as far as like food we ate,the first place we went to
that's worth mentioning.
And if it's not worthmentioning, we're not talking
about it.

SPEAKER_02 (30:17):
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (30:18):
Um, was the I forget the name of it, but the
breakfast place on the mainsquare that we went the very
first morning.

SPEAKER_02 (30:24):
Oh, that's right.
That was good.
I'm gonna pull it up whileyou're talking.

SPEAKER_00 (30:28):
It's a very mom and pop, which is kind of a rarity
now in the Dells.
Most things are owned by, well,Mount Olympus, which is a huge
resort conglomerate thing.
Um, but it is a mom and pop.
They took over an old restaurantthat was there.
There was a fire down there atsome point and they revitalized
this whole area.

SPEAKER_02 (30:44):
It's the courtyard cafe.

SPEAKER_00 (30:45):
Yep, it's in the courtyard on the main the old
downtown main street.

SPEAKER_02 (30:49):
That was unexpectedly good.

SPEAKER_00 (30:50):
It's about a half mile, but you can walk there
three quarters of a mile.

SPEAKER_02 (30:53):
Yeah, something like that.

SPEAKER_00 (30:54):
But you can walk there from the campground, and
we did mainly because Wisconsinbreakfast is our no joke.

SPEAKER_02 (30:59):
Yeah, right.
If you get the right one.
Um, and so and this was one ofthem.
Well, like if you go to Denny's,that's different.

SPEAKER_00 (31:05):
Right, yeah, sorry.
If you go to a mom and popright, yeah.
Go to Denny's, it's exactly thesame as every other Denny's.

SPEAKER_02 (31:10):
They were friendly, the coffee was good, the food
was really good.

SPEAKER_00 (31:14):
Yeah, it I'm pretty sure, you know, my cholesterol.
I had to go on a pill rightafter that meal.
But it's just it's just solidfood.
I got a skillet which had likeeggs and hash browns and
sausage.
So much gravy.

SPEAKER_02 (31:28):
Yeah, there was a lot of gravy.
And it was very good.

SPEAKER_00 (31:31):
But that's my preferred gravy.
You like cream gravy.
I do.
I like sausage gravy, which iscream gravy with sausage in it.
But um, and then trying toremember from there what was the
lunch places.
I'll just keep going withbreakfasts.

SPEAKER_02 (31:44):
I was gonna say, I don't really remember the lunch
places being memorable.

SPEAKER_00 (31:48):
So we'll just and we didn't go out for lunch a lot.
We typically would eat that backin the rig to kind of that's the
beauty of RVing.
We kind of cut costs, so we'd goback and have a sandwich or
leftovers or whatever we happento have around.
Plus, we always had to go backand check on the pups.
They made the trip with us.
Um the breakfast place I wish wehad gone to is called JB's.
It's right across from theflamingo hotel.

(32:09):
And yes, there's a massiveflamingo out front and Noah's
Ark, then main entrance toNoah's Ark.
Yeah.
Um, it's just on the other sideof the road.
I remember as a kid going there.

SPEAKER_02 (32:18):
So we need somebody to go and tell us if it's still
good or if it's just nostalgicto us.

SPEAKER_00 (32:22):
Well, I but I we'll we'll I can test.

SPEAKER_02 (32:25):
Oh, okay.
Never mind.

SPEAKER_00 (32:27):
Maybe I'll do that next week.
No, I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_02 (32:29):
There you go.

SPEAKER_00 (32:30):
Um, spoiler, I'm gonna be potentially in
Wisconsin next week for a fewdays.
Um it's I again, it's just Iremember sitting there as a kid
with cousins and my parents andaunts and uncles, and sitting
there, and that was ourbreakfast place.
My parents weren't big oncooking.
No, my mom did it, but it wasmore out of necessity than
enjoyment.

(32:50):
I enjoy cooking.
And so we eat at home a lotbecause I like to cook.
Um, there, when we would go onvacation, we ate out every
single stinking meal.
Yeah, y'all did.
No matter what.

SPEAKER_02 (33:01):
Legitimately, when I went with them the first time,
my pants did not fit cominghome.
We were only there for a week.

SPEAKER_00 (33:06):
You are welcome.

SPEAKER_02 (33:07):
Yeah, it was it's an issue.
All right, but breakfast in theDells.

SPEAKER_00 (33:11):
The best by far.
The best you and also mostgimmicky at the same time.
It is one of those rare momentswhen gimmick equals quality.
And I don't even know goodquality is probably the right
word, but it's just good.

SPEAKER_02 (33:22):
And they have something that we have never
cooked.

SPEAKER_00 (33:25):
The donuts.
Oh, it's not just a donut place.
So it's not Paul Bunyan's CookShanty.
This thing, like SherwoodForest, has been around for
freaking ages.

SPEAKER_02 (33:35):
And yes, there's a big blue ox in the front.

SPEAKER_00 (33:37):
It started.
I was looking at the thing andthe sign, it started in the 60s.

SPEAKER_02 (33:41):
Oh, I thought it was older than that.

SPEAKER_00 (33:43):
No, well, no.
Not a lot of the Dells is fromthat era.

SPEAKER_02 (33:48):
But you know, it's been there.
They have served the same food,I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 (33:52):
Literally, nothing's changed.

SPEAKER_02 (33:53):
I they may have the same waitresses.
I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 (33:55):
Maybe some of them, not ours, but ours.
Ours looked like she was 20 or18 or something, so not ours.

SPEAKER_02 (34:02):
But like, oh man, there's the benches, some of
them at the tables, and it'sjust it's it feels like okay.

SPEAKER_00 (34:08):
If you've ever been to like Fort Wilderness and you
walk in, they theme it to thiskind of stuff.
It's like they went in andthemed it after this place.

SPEAKER_02 (34:14):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (34:15):
They they literally made this feel like a Northwoods
shanty.

SPEAKER_02 (34:18):
But it's family-style food, they bring
out there's not a lot ofoptions.
It's breakfast.

SPEAKER_00 (34:23):
No, the only thing well, there are no options.

SPEAKER_02 (34:25):
Right.
There's you can choose what youdrink.

SPEAKER_00 (34:28):
I'm sorry, yeah.
Coffee, water, or juice.
Lots of options.
Oh, and it's Wisconsin, sonaturally they have Bloody Marys
and backcasts.
If you're unaware, Wisconsinlikes their alcohol.

SPEAKER_02 (34:38):
Yes, they do.

SPEAKER_00 (34:38):
And so there is no time that's off limits up there,
especially in the Dells, becauseit's a vacation area.

SPEAKER_02 (34:43):
So and you can buy the donuts to go.
The donuts are amazing, fresh.

SPEAKER_00 (34:46):
Don't get the ones that are day old that are a few
bucks less.
We made a boo-boo.
Also, they don't save for verylong.

SPEAKER_02 (34:52):
At the cash register, they're gonna say,
hey, fresh donuts from today, orthese from yesterday that are
like half off.
Don't fall for it.
Get the fresh ones.
We screwed up and make sure toeat them within like 24 hours.
They're just not as goodotherwise.

SPEAKER_00 (35:04):
It's one of those things, honestly.
If I go eat there, and then ifthere's another day we just
wanted donuts, I just swing into the because you can just run
to the gift shop real fast andjust grab them and go.

SPEAKER_02 (35:14):
And yes, for reference, this shanty
restaurant does have a giftshop.
Um, think about like the front,like Cracker Barrel kind of has
on steroids, if they it's athing.
Very similar to that.
Just it's just an experience.
It's an experience.
You gotta go.

SPEAKER_00 (35:28):
Cracker barrel is like old country store-esque.
Well, that's what they call it.
Yeah, but this is more likebackwood shanty version, which
is similar but kind of moreknick-knacks.

SPEAKER_02 (35:40):
Yeah.
And it's a little tight inthere.
Don't break things.

SPEAKER_00 (35:44):
She looked right at me when she said that.
So um, yeah, but that's by farmy favorite breakfast place.
It's for me though, it's alsolike when I go up, I tell my
dad, like, I'll fly up toMadison where he is, and we'll
go play like Sand Valley.
We go right through the Dallas.
I'm like, we should go earlyenough to have breakfast at Paul
Bunions.
He's the opposite.
He doesn't like any of it.

SPEAKER_02 (36:03):
It's keynote.

SPEAKER_00 (36:04):
So I don't care.
We eat his breakfast every otherday.

SPEAKER_02 (36:08):
That oh, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 (36:09):
For like a week-long thing, I have seven mornings of
him.
I can have one.
And so, but yeah, we do the menuis very simple.
It's bacon, sausage, sausagepatties, sausage links really
aren't a thing in Wisconsin forsome reason.
Um, eggs, they do biscuits andgravy, but they well, they
always give you the biscuit, butthey also ask if you want the

(36:31):
biscuits and gravy because noteverybody eats it, it's more of
a southern thing.
Yeah, but they do have it upthere.
We get it because I like it.
Um, pancakes.

SPEAKER_02 (36:39):
Yeah, and donuts.

SPEAKER_00 (36:41):
And then the donuts.
The donuts are like theappetizer.

SPEAKER_02 (36:43):
Oh, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 (36:44):
They are which is actually genius because you fill
up on it so you don't eat asmuch of the other stuff that
costs more money.

SPEAKER_02 (36:49):
But yeah.
So a couple of breakfast places.

SPEAKER_00 (36:51):
Oh, and the donuts, they're just a like cinnamon
sugar donut.
It's oh, that's true.

SPEAKER_02 (36:55):
There's no options either, it's not frosted.

SPEAKER_00 (36:57):
I don't know if it's baked or fried.
I couldn't tell you my lifedepended on it, but it is a
yeast-based donut.
Um, and it's just covered inlike a cinnamon sugar.
That's it.
It's really simple and it's justgood.
So um yeah, it's not like adonut counter when you go in and
it's like all these options now.
Um, that does it for breakfast,I think.
The rest of breakfast is we justate at the end.

SPEAKER_02 (37:17):
And lunch.
I wasn't impressed with lunch.

SPEAKER_00 (37:19):
But say we didn't eat, we ate at a brewery, it was
just okay.
Yeah, we ate at another placethat was just kind of okay, and
those were more crimes ofopportunity because we were out
running around and nothing we'drecommend again.
No, I again if you land there,good for you.
Get a burger, nothing bad orwrong with it.
It's just kind of mediocre.
But dinner.
Dinner.
Why don't you fire off ondinner?
But leave the big one for theend.

SPEAKER_02 (37:39):
Oh, because that's the only one I remember.

SPEAKER_00 (37:41):
Perfect.
Um, yeah, we again we we cook alot, and so we kind of
downplayed that.
Now, dinners, we did one.
Um, we ate dinner at my cousin'splace, which I said was very
good.
It was so then we'll just do theone.
Okay.
I would I would argue that thisis more than dinner.
That's why I was gonna leave itto the end.
But if we're at the end, that'sfine.

(38:02):
So it was Lauren's first supperclub.

SPEAKER_02 (38:06):
Okay, so comment below who has been to a supper
club.
Who even knows what a supperclub is?

SPEAKER_00 (38:10):
It's a club where you have supper.
Sorry.
It's what she deals with.

SPEAKER_02 (38:16):
Put down your hot coffee before you spill it,
cackling over there.

SPEAKER_00 (38:20):
If you can't tell, I'm not like if I'm even close
to talking, I'm not left-handed.
I have to do this whole move.

SPEAKER_02 (38:25):
No, I have not been to a supper club before.
I didn't even really know whatit was.
Um, but apparently it's it'ssupper.
Um, it wasn't even really aclub.
You didn't have to like pay duesor anything.

SPEAKER_00 (38:36):
It's just, but that you used to, and that was the
point.
And so um it it's also one ofthose things, some of them that
still are membership only, butthe smart ones stopped that.
Yeah.
Um so we went to Ishnala, whichis the number one supper club in
Wisconsin.
And I would say a lot of it isthe venue.
So I think supper clubs, it canbe anything.
I mean, there's there's two mainones in the Dells.

(38:59):
Um, there's the the Dell Club, DE L.
That is like the main drag.
It's more of like a almost likehotel, restaurant, and bar
that's been converted.
The idea between a hub.
Good thing we don't talk on apodcast.
Um the idea behind a supper clubis that it's a much slower,

(39:22):
elevated experience.
Right.
And so your meal doesn'tnecessarily take a ton longer to
come out, but it is designed towhere when you get there, you
don't go sit down right at yourtable.

SPEAKER_02 (39:32):
Imagine this in Wisconsin.

SPEAKER_00 (39:33):
They start with a drink and end with a drink and
drink in between, too.

SPEAKER_02 (39:38):
That's right.

SPEAKER_00 (39:39):
Um but no, it's designed where you can come and
relax.
They might have like some softlive music.
It's not a concert venue, butlike think a dude with acoustic
guitar in the corner, not evensinging.

SPEAKER_02 (39:48):
Say like tasteful conversation type music.

SPEAKER_00 (39:52):
Now, what makes Ishnala special, and we'll talk
about the Supper Club experiencewhile we talk about Ishnala, is
it is actually in a state park.
The house has been there for avery long time.
It was originally a house, it'sexpanded on since then.
It sits on Mirror Lake.
There is nothing around it.

SPEAKER_02 (40:10):
Nothing.

SPEAKER_00 (40:11):
And there's nothing.
That drive in, I think, is amile and a half from the main
road.

SPEAKER_02 (40:14):
It is beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 (40:16):
Yep.
It is, it's probably one of theprettiest dinner venues I've
ever seen.

SPEAKER_02 (40:20):
I agree.

SPEAKER_00 (40:21):
As a whole.
I mean, there's some cool stuffout there, but given that
there's the isolation factor.
Um and this one restaurant hashow many bars?

SPEAKER_02 (40:29):
Oh, what, four or five?

SPEAKER_00 (40:30):
I think it was five.

SPEAKER_02 (40:31):
But so the drive in is very kind of narrow, and I'm
gonna call it wild, likewildernessy.
It reminded me of like Cade'sCove Loop in the Smokeys.

SPEAKER_00 (40:41):
Like it's narrow, minus the valley portion, yes.

SPEAKER_02 (40:43):
Yeah, um, and it's just like there's a lot of Well,
here's a really good example.

SPEAKER_00 (40:47):
So this venue in the area around it was used in the
filming of a movie called PublicEnemies with Johnny Depp.
It was the John Dillinger moviethat he did.
So if you go to that movie andyou watch the shootout scene in
the woods, it's at night, soit's a little tough.
That's where they filmed it.
Okay, was along that road.
That was the road that they wereusing um when the cars would

(41:08):
drive by.
Ah.
And so it's very wooded, it'svery that area.
Um, but it is also very scenic,quiet, pretty, smells nice.
Absolutely.
All of the things, and then youpull up to a very janky parking
lot.

SPEAKER_02 (41:21):
It was.
That was a little interesting.

SPEAKER_00 (41:23):
I mean, it made sense.
And like this is barely bigger.
Like, I don't know how two carspassed each other on the road.

SPEAKER_01 (41:28):
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (41:28):
I think a lot of it's because there's not a lot
of in and out at the same time.
Sure.
And that's why it's okay.
Because a supper club typicallyhas one or two seatings, not
seven, like some restaurants.

SPEAKER_01 (41:37):
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (41:38):
And so most people come between four and five
o'clock, maybe six o'clock atthe latest, and they stay till
seven or eight.
And then between eight and ten,they start to fail, file out.

SPEAKER_02 (41:48):
I think when I was looking at their website, they
open at something like fouro'clock.
And they said that basically, ifyou a lot of the time, if you
aren't there, like when theyopen, you're gonna be waiting
hours.

SPEAKER_00 (41:58):
So, and we'll get into like hot tips at the very
end, which is coming up, butthey are typically very busy.
This was a little different, Ithink, because it was the week
after Memorial Day.
And I think they got bombardedover the weekend.
Maybe this is also Memorial Dayis kind of like the opening
weekend for the Dells becausethey're coming out of um in in
the spring, out of winter.

SPEAKER_02 (42:18):
Out of snow season.

SPEAKER_00 (42:19):
Right.
And so it's warm enough now.
It's now that's good and badbecause they're training people
still.
Like it they rely a lot oncollege kids and that kind of
stuff through the summer, and sothey have to train a lot of
people every year.
Um, but it's also like you haveMemorial Day, everybody's got to
go back to work.
So by Tuesday, it was it wasbetter than a doornail.

(42:40):
I mean, there's stuff happening,but most things were open.

SPEAKER_02 (42:42):
But did well for us.
We're okay with that.

SPEAKER_00 (42:44):
So we start off the evening, and I'll tell you that
this is a three-storyrestaurant, it's technically a
house.
It looks like two from there,but it goes down.
It does.
It sits on it, it's got its ownprivate beach, not like go swim
in it beach, but they do likebonfires when it gets the
appropriate temperature.

SPEAKER_02 (43:00):
I think that's where like the music stage was down
there.
They had some chairs you couldsit in.

SPEAKER_00 (43:04):
I mean, there's these stairs going down.
There's a bar down there thatwasn't open when we were there
because that area it was alittle wet and rainy, and so
they didn't open that.
There was a what they call theout overlook bar, which was
halfway down over on the leftthat had a bunch of its own
sitting.
That's kind of where we campedout.
Um, and then you've got the mainbar that was upstairs, kind of
attached to the restaurant, andthen you had another one
downstairs there.

(43:24):
So, um, and then there wasanother one somewhere else that
I don't really remember.
I think it was on the far side.
Maybe I think it was a lotsmaller than we didn't venture
over there.
No, we didn't venture to a lotof them, to be honest with you.
Um, but yeah, we sat there.
Their most popular thing is theold fashioned.
I will tell you if you're knownfor it.
If you're a fan of old fashionsand you go to Wisconsin, brush
up on your Wisconsin version ofold fashions, it's gonna confuse

(43:45):
you.
So old fashioned started inWisconsin.
Every other version of it, it'ssimilar but not quite the same.
Um Old Fashion's up there,unless you clarify, come with
brandy, not whiskey or bourbon,depending on which one you like.

SPEAKER_02 (43:57):
Don't be surprised.

SPEAKER_00 (43:58):
Right.
And on top of that, so theythey've done a better job of
asking if you want a brandy oldfashioned or a whiskey old
fashion.
But then you also have sweet orsour.
And so if you like a traditionalfashion, you like sweet as an
FYI.

SPEAKER_02 (44:15):
There you go.
Learn something new every day.

SPEAKER_00 (44:16):
If you want something that's a little bit
more bitter, then you want sour.
I'm not a fan of the sour ones.
I also don't like, they also putthis huge freaking garnish on
top.
So my go-to order is a I'll do abrandy old-fashioned, but I like
the whiskey ones a little bitbetter.
A whiskey old fashioned.
I pick a specific whiskey.
I like bourbon trace or umWoodford Reserve and no garnish

(44:40):
because I don't need amaraschino cherry and an orange
slice poking me in the face as Itry and drink my drink.

SPEAKER_02 (44:45):
That's the only fruit you're gonna get up there.

SPEAKER_00 (44:47):
Is that fruit?
Yeah, your only fruit'stechnically a garnished drink.

SPEAKER_02 (44:51):
It is.

SPEAKER_00 (44:52):
You may get a gherkin and a bloody merry if
you order one before 10 a.m.
There you go.
Um but yeah, I think you justgot a glass of wine.
Yeah, you're not a I kept it.
You're not a big liquor personto begin with.
And so um, but yeah, we had twodown there, one just us because
we got there before him, andthen my cousin and his family
met up with us, and my secondcousin, what is Cal?

(45:13):
Cal's Corner, his restaurant'snamed after his son, Cal, who is
a junior?

SPEAKER_02 (45:20):
I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 (45:20):
He goes to the University of Wisconsin Madison.

SPEAKER_02 (45:22):
His rural smart.

SPEAKER_00 (45:24):
He is like a terrifying amount of terrifying
amount of smart, yeah.
Yeah, somebody else is like thatthat I know.

SPEAKER_02 (45:29):
Getting multiple degrees, going to law school,
the whole nine.

SPEAKER_00 (45:31):
Yeah, engineering school.
Or was it law school?

SPEAKER_02 (45:34):
Or both.

SPEAKER_00 (45:35):
It might be, I don't know.
It could be both.
Kids on the move.
Um yeah, I'm pretty sure he'sgonna be president one day
somehow.
That'd be cool until they lookup Kent's past, then he's
screwed.
I'm just kidding.
Um, and then uh we had dinner.
It's very think prime rib, thinkroasted chickens.
It's Wisconsin chicken, theplural.

(45:56):
Um no, but like that's the kindof meal vibe they have, like
seafood, like salmons, and it'sjust elevated.

SPEAKER_02 (46:03):
Yeah, I think I had a steak.
I'm not keen on ribeye, so I hada leaner steak, and but
everything we have was verygood.

SPEAKER_00 (46:08):
Yeah, I don't remember what I got.
I probably got a steak too,knowing me.
Um but we just kind of the wholepoint though, I think we think
we sat at the actual table forabout an hour and a half to an
hour and 45 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 (46:18):
Yeah, that was a while.

SPEAKER_00 (46:19):
And then we had another 30 to 45 minutes.
We hung out outside, and then wewent back to the bar um with my
cousin, and we hung out therefor another 30-ish minutes.
We went back, had one moredrink, chatted a little bit
more.

SPEAKER_02 (46:29):
But that's like what everybody does.
It takes a long time, and sothey're all just meandering
about.

SPEAKER_00 (46:35):
And that's kind of the beauty of the supper club
thing is it's really a slowdown, relax, enjoy what you're
doing, which I would argue thiscountry needs more of.
Of just slow down, have dinner,have a conversation, and enjoy
it.
Put your dang phone away.
Right.
Even though we were so a lot ofpeople ask in the main video why
didn't we film more of it?
It's because it's kind offrowned upon, that's why.
Um, I mean, they like thepromotion, but at the same time,

(46:56):
too, it's you didn't see peopleon their phones, let alone have
a camera.

SPEAKER_02 (47:01):
Right.
And we wanted to enjoy that timewith with family and soaking it
up.

SPEAKER_00 (47:05):
And so that's why we got a little more of a broad
overview and outside picturesand that kind of stuff.
So, all right.
Anything else from Ishnala thatyou're like, gotta do this,
gotta do that.
Hot tips, any of the foodthings?

SPEAKER_02 (47:15):
No, it was just it was really pretty, it was
relaxing.
It was.
I would I would take that overany of the in in the Dells
dinner restaurants we'd look.

SPEAKER_00 (47:24):
Yeah.
All right.
So would you go back to theDells again?

SPEAKER_02 (47:29):
I've been twice, I've done the things.
I think I'd rather go somewhereelse now.

SPEAKER_00 (47:33):
So I tell you, I would, but only in conjunction
with something else.

SPEAKER_02 (47:36):
Well, and I would only to see family.

SPEAKER_00 (47:38):
Oh sh well, and that's the hard part is like
right, it makes no sense.
Like there's nowhere where whereKent is unless you're at Sand
Valley Golf Resort.
There's only one other littlehotel up there, and it's like a
little boutique Airbnb, not myvibe.
Right.
Um, and there's no RV parks.

SPEAKER_02 (47:53):
So I would go that direction to see family.
I would not go that directionfor vacation or attractions.

SPEAKER_00 (47:59):
If we were doing like a cross-country trip and
like we happen to be up northfor something, like and this
doesn't apply to our lifestyleright now, but like down the
road or if you're a full-timer,I'd stop in for a few days and
have just relax and have somefun.

SPEAKER_02 (48:12):
Yeah, but we drove two days just to get there and
two days back, and I just don'tknow that it's worth quite that
for us.

SPEAKER_00 (48:18):
Not for us anymore, not after we've been there so
many times.
Um, and so especially me.
But yeah, I agree.
But if you happen to be up inthe area or you're looking for a
layover somewhere else that's alittle more on the relaxing
side, go go to Ishnala.
Sorry, I just kicked you.

SPEAKER_02 (48:32):
Go to Cal's Corner.

SPEAKER_00 (48:33):
Go to Cal's, yeah.
I mean, there there is some goodplaces to find food, not all of
them, but like your Ishnala's,Cal's Corner, Paul Bunyan's.
I mean, you can get through, Iwould say three-ish to four days
and eat really good meals.
Yeah, it kind of dies afterthat.

SPEAKER_02 (48:50):
Yeah, a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 (48:51):
So um, would you, if you went back, would you rather
stay in a hotel or take the RV?

SPEAKER_02 (48:56):
I liked the RV.

SPEAKER_00 (48:57):
Yeah, we lean towards the RV to begin with.
Obviously, this is called the RVShenanigans Podcast, but like we
talked about, and there's gonnabe an upcoming episode about
Nashville.
Like Nashville, we talked aboutif we went back, we'd probably
just go stay in a hoteldowntown, do a show, stay for a
couple nights and come home kindof.
Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 (49:12):
But no, they're in the Dells and Wisconsin in
general.
I would say take the RV, takethe dogs, take some of our own
food so we didn't we could fitin our pants when we came back.

SPEAKER_00 (49:21):
Which we did.
Well, you did.

SPEAKER_02 (49:23):
Yeah, I did.

SPEAKER_00 (49:23):
Even after all the donuts.
Okay.
If you have questions on theWisconsin Dells, please feel
free to ask.
You can do that through thecomments if you're watching on
YouTube or in the show notes.
If you're listening to this onApple, Spotify, any of the
podcast platforms out there.
Uh, there's a link to ourwebsite.
There's all kinds of stuffthere.
You can find our social links,contact us for them, all of the

(49:44):
things.
Um, and you can also find ourentire back catalog in one place
of all these podcasts.
So, how you doing over there?

SPEAKER_02 (49:54):
I'm not hungry after thinking about all that food.
No.

SPEAKER_00 (49:58):
Let's have lunch.
No, I'm just kidding.
Perfect.
Thank you so much for listening,and we can't wait to see you
next week with anotherdestination guide of somewhere
else we've been.

SPEAKER_02 (50:06):
Dun dun dun.

SPEAKER_00 (50:07):
See you next week.