Ah, Kalahari.
Once a year since we were very young, my youngest cousin barely born, my family would take a weekend trip up to Wisconsin Dells and stay for three days at Kalahari. We have a lot of family photos taken here, and a lot of memories made here, and this summer my cousins and I decided to go for three days and two nights.
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When we were younger and all of our parents came with us, we would get conjoining rooms. My one aunt's family would stay in one room and the other aunt's family would stay in the other, and we would leave our doors open. On the first night of the trip, we would all usually stay at the hotel, watch movies, swim until the indoor waterpark closed, play games, and visit the Sweet Hut. The second night, a handful of the adults would take a shuttle bus to the casino and we would stay behind with my aunt and visit the Sweet Hut or the arcade, and watch a movie.
This went on for ten years.
When the tenth year rolled around, I was a senior in high school and our next trip would be the year I'd be away at college. This ended being the last year we all went to Kalahari as a group. One of my aunts took her kids a few years later, and this was my first time back since 2011.
On our last stay as a family, we had a surprise upgrade to two massive suites. Each balcony had a hot tub, my grandma and I had our own room and bathroom, and one of the memories I hold onto tight was everybody walking in for the first time in absolute awe.
Minus my oldest youngest cousin, my cousins and I decided to go this summer and we did things a little differently. We still ate at the Rock & Roll Denny's across the street as soon as we got into the Dells. We parked, checked in, and changed for the indoor waterpark right away. We went to the cheese shop we all used to visit, and brought cheese home for everybody. We ended our night at Moosejaw for dinner, and spent the night talking until we all fell asleep.
Due to going in the summer for the first time (we'd normally visit in the Fall,) we were able to check out the outdoor waterpark. Being honest with you all, body slides are not for me. I'm claustrophobic and I can't swim, so the outdoor didn't have a lot to offer except for the slide you see above.
I love telling the story of the slide, and I'm afraid typing it won't do it any justice, but here it goes.
Basically, it's the only four person ride at Kalahari. So, we all sat in our corner of the clover, that is not large enough for an adult human butt to fit in. It's a short dip down into a bowl where my youngest cousin's shoulder slapped off of the side of the slide. While in recovery, we went down the steepest drop I have ever been on. Terrifying doesn't begin to cover it because the drop takes you into a large ramp, and then out the end of the slide.
You can see it in this video at around 8:56.
After the waterpark, we went out to eat and changed into pajamas, deciding to hit the Sweet Hut and spend some time walking around because Kalahari is massive. Originally, we were on a mission to try to locate the suite we were in ten years ago, but we had no luck.
Ah, here comes the fun part of the story.
After crossing back into the Illinois border, barely, I get a flat tire.
Not an ordinary flat tire, but the plastic sheet under my car had cracked, broken off my bumper, and shredded my tire causing us to pull over to the side of a highway at the foot of a ramp.
While we waited on roadside assistance, a truck must have called highway safety to get us off the expressway. So, naturally, he kept us in the car and we rode on the bed of the truck about three miles to a gas station.
TL;DR, got a new tire, met some really nice people, only took maybe an extra two hours. WHICH for my first solo experience while being the oldest one in charge, was handled very well, I think.
I don't want to end this on a strange sentiment, but I will. Some things feel exactly the same and some things were way different. The smell walking in is the same, but things feel so much smaller when you're older. Not having my grandma there is not great, but having my cousins there filled the trip with more love and laughs than I could have asked for. Getting older is weird, trying to keep the magic in things is also not easy, but Kalahari is one of those places that holds the magic for us like it's waiting for us to come back and get it, and I'll always be ready to come back.
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