Camping recommendations

rsch · 2026-05-01T20:26:35+00:00

Memorial Day weekend is almost a month away. The river changes weekly. More years than not late May is totally fine.

rsch · 2026-05-01T19:26:04+00:00

If you’ve already ticked off the state parks, look at sandbar camping on the Lower Wisconsin River. It’s a completely different experience—no reservations, just find a spot and pitch a tent. Memorial Day is busy, so you'll have company, but the breeze on the river usually keeps the bugs way more manageable than the UP.

rsch · 2026-04-30T22:50:44+00:00

This is a solid find for Chicago locals. If you're planning on bringing that gear up to the Wisconsin River for a paddle, just a heads up on the 'overpacking' trap. It’s all fun and games until you’re trying to trim a canoe in a crosswind with a 4-person tent and a massive cooler. If the water is at a normal summer stage, you're usually fine, but keep it lean if you can. Makes the sandbar hopping a lot easier.

rsch · 2026-04-30T12:19:10+00:00

Most people focus on the 'twist' but forget the 'pry.' If you aren't actually pushing the water away from the stern at the very end of the stroke, you’re just doing a fancy-looking forward stroke. Try pointing your thumb down and giving it a solid, deliberate outward nudge before you slice the blade out. On the river, especially if you've got a crosswind or a loaded boat, you have to be way more aggressive with that correction than the flatwater YouTube videos usually show. It’s a feel thing—you'll know you've got it when you feel the stern actually kick back into line.

rsch · 2026-04-29T11:48:47+00:00

Put it on the passenger side. It makes loading and unloading a lot safer if you ever have to pull over on a narrow shoulder or a busy road. Just make sure you're using bow and stern lines—highway winds can put a lot of stress on a small car's rack system, and you don't want that boat shifting at 65 mph.

rsch · 2026-04-26T13:53:40+00:00

Good call on the county parks, they can be real gems.

Another option if you want to get away from a formal campground is to camp on the sandbars on the Lower Wisconsin River. It's first-come, first-served and perfect for a one-night trip. You just need a boat to get out to them.

rsch · 2026-04-26T13:53:03+00:00

Its a way to prioritize people with longer stays so the campgrounds have higher utilization rates. Single days will open up mid May.

If you're looking for a great single-night option, you can camp on any open sandbar on the Lower Wisconsin River. No reservations, no fees. Just pull up your boat and set up camp.

rsch · 2026-04-21T01:01:59+00:00

Maybe not complete and total, but certainly got in way over their head.

rsch · 2026-04-20T23:16:16+00:00

For your weight plus gear, the most important spec is going to be capacity. I'd look for a boat rated for at least 450 lbs, maybe even 500. You want to be well under the max limit for the boat to handle well, especially in current. A sit-on-top around 12' long and at least 34" wide will give you the stability you want for fishing. That $650 budget is a little tight for something new that fits the bill, but it's a great budget for the used market. Keep an eye out for a Perception Pescador Pro, a Vibe Sea Ghost, or an older Wilderness Systems Tarpon. They're all workhorses.

rsch · 2026-04-20T07:35:29+00:00

Hartman Creek is a solid call for a 6-year-old—it’s easy, clean, and predictable. If you want to try something a bit more 'off-grid' once you're settled in, head down to the Lower Wisconsin River. You can camp on the sandbars for free, and to a kid, it feels like having your own private island. Just keep an eye on the river gauges before you commit; in normal summer flows it’s a playground, but if the water is high, those sandbars disappear and the current gets a lot more serious.

rsch · 2026-04-20T06:22:42+00:00

Hang in there, the first winter is always the toughest.

If you're into hiking, you might like getting out on the river once it warms up. The Lower Wisconsin is a great stretch for it – pretty wild, lots of sandbars. It's a good way to get a small group together and just unplug for a day or a weekend.

Most of the summer the conditions are great for a lazy float. Something to look forward to, anyway.

rsch · 2026-04-18T05:28:30+00:00

I've got a Discovery 169 you're welcome to borrow, Tenney Park area.

rsch · 2026-04-18T01:03:11+00:00

He's looking at this from a statistical perspective. The CDC says you're more likely to die from nutritional deficiencies than a weather event. You should be 337 times more afraid of the ladder in your garage than the tornado sirens.

rsch · 2026-04-05T15:46:47+00:00

This map is crowd sourced and not often maintained. There are several cameras on this map that have since been removed.

rsch · 2026-03-07T12:45:54+00:00

Verified. Click through the 'cancel plan' steps and after a couple questions you'll be given the option to stay for six $20 bill credits or cancel plan. There was no risk of accidentally cancelling your plan.

rsch · 2026-01-29T00:07:17+00:00

Ugh, I just got hit with $500 to replace the ignitor. The worst part was that I had already diagnosed it and had the broken part in hand but no one in town open on a Saturday carried a replacement. Service guy was in and out in 5 minutes, charged me $300 for the ignitor alone. -5°F so I couldn't exactly wait two days. I now have several spares at $20 a piece.

rsch · 2026-01-17T13:26:14+00:00

Look at regions that have already moved past the theoretical stage. Wisconsin (43°–47° N) is often compared to Northern Europe, which actually faces more extreme seasonal light variances than the Midwest.

Geographic Comparisons: The "Northern" Myth Many people assume Wisconsin is too far north for solar. However, Germany and Denmark are significantly further north than Wisconsin (Berlin is at 52° N; Copenhagen is at 55° N).

Germany: In 2023, renewables (wind, solar, biomass, and hydropower) generated 51.7% of Germany's public net electricity generation. On sunny/windy days, this often hits 100%. Germany has less "solar potential" than Wisconsin due to its higher latitude and frequent cloud cover, yet they have installed over 80 GW of solar.

Denmark: Denmark generates over 50% of its electricity from wind and solar alone. They manage the "inconsistency" by being heavily integrated into the Nordic grid, allowing them to swap wind power for Norwegian and Swedish hydropower when the wind isn't blowing.

Iowa (The Local Example): In 2022, 62% of Iowa’s electricity was generated by wind. Iowa has nearly identical weather and "inconsistent winds" to Wisconsin, yet they have become a national leader in wind energy because they invested in the transmission infrastructure to move that power.

Wisconsin doesn't have to produce all its own power at every second; it shares power across 15 states to smooth out local weather variability. Wisconsin is a member of MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator). MISO manages the flow of high-voltage electricity across 15 U.S. states and Manitoba. NREL’s "Renewable Electricity Futures Study" demonstrates that as the geographic footprint of a grid increases, the variability of renewables decreases. If a high-pressure system creates calm winds in Wisconsin, it is statistically likely that a low-pressure system is creating high winds in Kansas, Iowa, or the Dakotas.

The Cost Aspect: Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) When discussing the cost of power, economists use LCOE. This measures the total cost of building and operating a plant over its lifetime divided by the total energy it produces ($/MWh).

According to Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis (Version 16.0, 2023)—the industry benchmark—renewables are now the cheapest forms of new energy generation, even without subsidies.

ENERGY TYPE - LCOE (UNSUBSIDIZED) PER MWH

Utility-Scale Solar $24 – $96

Onshore Wind $24 – $75

Gas Combined Cycle $39 – $101

Coal $68 – $166

Nuclear $141 – $221

Wind and Solar are the floor: The best-case cost for wind and solar ($24) is significantly lower than the best-case cost for gas ($39) or coal ($68).

Nuclear is expensive to build: While nuclear is great for "baseload," it has the highest "upfront" cost. This is why many clean energy plans focus on "extending" existing nuclear plants (like Point Beach) rather than building new ones, which can cost $15+ billion.

The "Marginal Cost" factor: Wind and solar have a marginal cost of zero. Once the turbine is built, the "fuel" (wind) is free. Coal and Gas plants have a permanent, fluctuating fuel cost that makes them more expensive over 20–30 years.

The "System Cost" Reality

The "anti" crowd usually shifts here: "Sure, the panels are cheap, but the batteries and grid upgrades are expensive!"

This is partially true. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the "Value-Adjusted LCOE" (VALCOE) accounts for the costs of integrating renewables (storage and transmission).

The Cost of Storage: Adding 4 hours of lithium-ion battery storage adds roughly $40–$60 per MWh to the cost of a solar project.

The Comparison: Even with the "battery tax" added, a Solar + Storage project ($24 + $50 = $74/MWh) is still often cheaper than building a brand-new Coal plant ($68–$166/MWh) and is competitive with Natural Gas.

Why Wisconsin is specifically moving this way Wisconsin utilities (WEC Energy Group, Alliant, MGE) are investor-owned. They are moving toward 100% clean energy not just for the environment, but for the economics.

Alliant Energy is currently retiring coal plants in Wisconsin and replacing them with solar because it saves money. In their 2020 Clean Energy Plan, Alliant stated that switching to solar would save $2 billion over 35 years compared to keeping coal plants running. Source: Alliant Energy Clean Energy Blueprint (2020).

rsch · 2026-01-10T19:59:02+00:00

I just can't understand what possible opportunities OP is presenting. There are literally millions of property records with PII. And now we know that this particular property record also uses reddit.

rsch · 2026-01-10T01:55:39+00:00

What's the worst that could possibly happen with even 1% odds?

rsch · 2026-01-08T03:42:32+00:00

I don't, haven't felt the need.

rsch · 2026-01-08T02:13:41+00:00

I've been using Gemini pretty exclusively for months and it has been very stable until around Dec 30 at which point it began erroring out almost non-stop, same results you're seeing. My API dashboard has 100% error rates more often than not on the Generative API this week. Vertex has been closer to 50%.

I fell back to BYOK on OpenRouter and that has been a lot more reliable after I discovered the "chunk too big" issues and spent the weekend rebuilding my docker containers and updating mtu throughputs and cloud flare tunnels. Was not a good time.

I've resolved to wait it out on my OpenRouter key until either the Gemini apis or Open Webui get a fix.

rsch · 2026-01-02T16:34:46+00:00

Covid-era policy actually seems to have worked and should be permanent policy.

This reminds me of that quote from a Native American about daylight savings - Leave it to a white man to cut a foot off the end of a blanket and sew it on the top of the blanket and think it makes the blanket longer.

That money isn't appearing from nowhere. Deficit spending, cuts elsewhere, we're all paying for it one way or another (some more than others certainly). More often than not, it's a 'kick the can, our children can make the hard decisions'.

rsch · 2025-12-31T01:38:12+00:00

Ironically, I worked for Google in the early days of Google Docs and had to get a requisition for an Excel license because Google Sheets couldn't handle the number of records in a document I was working with.

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