It's been a while since I've visited Wisconsin. It was last October to be exact. This was when I stopped in Marshfield on my way to Thunder Bay to get the amethyst for Victoria's engagement ring. Beyond that, I pretty much snow birded and stayed where it was warm in Texas.
We actually did get snow in Texas in the winter, but nothing like they got in Wisconsin the week before I came. They ended up setting records with almost 2 feet of snow in April! Even without the snow, I knew there was going to be a huge shift in the weather. While the storms were mostly past, I checked what weather I would encounter. It was much colder than Austin!
Wednesday I left for Wisconsin. It was a cloudy day but overall not too bad. I packed the car and got ready to go. I had to get fingerprinted for a new contract job I was picking up. I did that and got a carwash before hitting the road and heading north.
I decided to be a cheapskate and avoid tolls. Instead of going through Fort Worth, I went through Dallas and went up US75 into Oklahoma. Eventually, I'd go on US69 and then US169. The roads became two-lane highways, but overall it was a very scenic drive.
My route took me through Tulsa. Of course, I had to play Tulsa Time by Don Williams.
I got through Tulsa fast, and it was back to the middle of nowhere driving. The sun was starting to set, so it was very scenic. The weird thing is I had no clue what state I was about to go into. As I eventually got closer to Kansas, there would be signs for "state line." I didn't know if it was Kansas or Missouri I'd be going through. I just knew whatever state line was getting closer as I drove.
The state ended up being Kansas. I got to Kansas, and it started getting dark. I took some pictures of the prairie and then drove more in the dark. My goal was to get past Kansas City and then spend the night at an interstate rest stop.
I made it to the rest stop and slept for the night. It was around 30 degrees when I woke up in the morning. I bundled up and actually slept pretty well. After sleeping, I hit the road and tried to get to Wisconsin as soon as possible.
I started seeing a little bit of snow north of Des Moines. The further north I drove, the more was piled up.
When I got to Wisconsin, my directions started getting dumber. My GPS avoiding tolls ended up wanting me to also avoid civilization. The sad thing is there aren't any tolls in Wisconsin, but you can read about my dirt road adventure here. I pretty much took the back roads to my parent's house. I then got there and saw there was still a lot of snow piled up.
The temperature change was going to be interesting to deal with. At least things were supposed to warm up, but it was going to take a little getting used to. I know I've blogged about how much weather changes on a cross-country drive. While I didn't run into any bad weather along the drive, I could see spring this year looks very different between Texas and Wisconsin.