Saturday through Monday Halloween through November 2nd 2026 - Fall travels to Chicago and Wisconsin - Madison and drive to Chillicothe OH - 2 miles hiked with minimal elevation gain

The rest of our day Saturday didn't really have a focus.  I didn't have as much energy or enthusiasm as I had the rest of the days.  We went to the Ho Chunk casino near Bariboo but we weren't there very long.  When we got back to the hotel we rested for a while then walked over to D'Vino for dinner.  This is owned by the same person or people that own the bar next door, Woofs.  For being Halloween it was surprisingly quiet and we would have been able to be seated even without reservations.  My meal was originally going to be lasagna but they were out so I went with my backup plan, the half chicken roasted.  My chicken was out of this world flavorful.  It was served ripping hot and the skin was covered in delicious herbs and the meat was falling off the bone.  For being something I wasn't even planning to order, it was great.  When it came time to get desert I wasn't very enthusiastic (or hungry) for anything they had.  For Jim's sake we thought we should get something so we ordered the orange olive oil cake they seem to have every night and some vanilla gelato.  I ended up enjoying the olive oil cake so much more than I thought I would.  During our dinner the owner stopped by our table which was nice.

After dinner we went directly next door to Woofs.  It was still relatively early (8 pm?) but the mood was very different than the night before.  Instead of a bunch of people who knew each other and were having a quiet night out, it was amateur hour.  The people who were out just because it was Halloween and they wanted to get drunk.  Some people had creative costumes, some people were annoying and loud.  We didn't stay long.

The next morning, everybody was up earlier than we had planned on which was great.  We were on our way out of Madison before 7 am which was a big help for our long trip.  For different reasons, both Brian and Jim were really hopeful we could get home Monday night instead of Tuesday as was the plan.  I reworked our travel plans for the trip home.  Instead of going north in Wisconsin the East through the upper peninsula (UP) of Michigan, we went due south all the way to Bloomington/Normal IL where we had breakfast.  After breakfast we headed east on I-74 towards Indianapolis.  I googled some ideas for a good idea for a single stop visit to Indy.  It suggested a leg stretcher hike at a place called Newfields which I thought was a nature center.  It turned out to be an art museum but they DO have a walking trail which is being developed into a sculpture garden.  This was a very happy accident for our one stop in Indy since Jim loves art and Brian and I needed a walk.   The loop trail at Newfields will be very nice but for now it has a short section that is closed so it's more like walking 48% of a loop on one side and 48% on the other side with a little gap you can't walk at the far side.  There is a lovely modern visitor facility on the sculpture garden loop but it wasn't open when we were there.

 

 

After the  museum we headed east on I-70 which had a lot of construction and was pretty annoying.  Luckily we were able to ditch I-70 almost immediately after entering Ohio by heading south on US-35.  Our stopping point for the day was Chillicothe Ohio and we stopped for dinner in Dayton along the way.  The hand pulled Asian noodles from Kung Fu Noodle were amazing.  

 

The rest of the drive into Chillicothe was super easy and at least for Brian and I, our Best Western room was a welcome place to crash for the night.  The next morning we had a fantastic breakfast in a historic building downtown called The Coop.  Heading east we took US-50 to get to Marietta Ohio, a very historic small city along the Ohio river.  We walked around a bit on historic Front street but really we were focused on staying in motion so we soon headed north on Ohio highway 7 which kept us mostly within eyesight of the Ohio river for the next several hours.  I always take the time to meander along the Ohio river whenever we are in that part of Ohio or West Virginia.  We had a pretty disappointing lunch in Steubenville shortly before transitioning to fast moving Ohio 11 which headed North to meet up with I-90 East of Cleveland.  Jim drove that section also and we lucked out with extraordinarily light traffic the entire way including driving right through Erie at 3 pm which isn't always a relaxing journey.

 

We stopped at the first Thruway rest area after crossing into New York to use the bathroom, have a snack and switch drivers.  The rest of the drive was very utilitarian and mostly in the dark but it went quickly and easily and we were home about 8 pm.

 

So concluded our big road trip!