I know you were hanging on the edge of your seats just waiting for the update yesterday. The truth is the Dells has been so uneventful that I decided to combine days 8 and 9 into one update.

In a nutshell, the Dells is not necessarily our thing. Never before have I been so reluctant to pay to do stuff. Everything here feels overpriced and underwhelming. Let me just do a quick rundown of the past two days and we'll move on.

On Friday we got moving at the now standard starting time of around noon and made our way to Mt. Olympus. I snagged some pics from the parking lot (really the best place at the park to get photos) while my wife put sunscreen on the kids. The day was uncomfortable again. High temperatures coupled with high humidity. The kids were practically screaming for the waterpark.

We got our wristbands and decided to cross the park directly to the waterpark. It seemed pretty nice (except for the severe lack of shade) and got settled in at the waterpark. From here we used the same drill as at Valleyfair. Daddy don't swim, daddy explores park for a while.

After almost two hours I returned to pick up the family. Everyone got "un-waterparked" and we went on our way. The kids wanted Dippin Dots so we made an immediate stop just outside the indoor waterpark and obliged, then we were off...for real this time.

My wife and daughter sampled the Disk-O while I watched some maintenance guys messing with the Robocoaster (turns out to be a new addition acquired from American World across the street). We moved on to the kiddie coaster, Little Titan's, as the sky suddenly began to look ominous. The forecasted storms looked to be moving in. The kids took two laps on Little Titan's while I decided to skip the credit whoring for a moment.

The clouds were rolling in fast. We decided to split up with my wife and son hitting the small selection of kiddie rides and my daughter and myself trying to bust out the woodies before the storm hit.

We jumped on Cyclops first. This is the coaster with the famed "You must be 18 to ride in the back seat" sign. We rode in the front/middle. Meh. Nothing too spectacular here. It didn't suck, but I've been on plenty better.

Next we hurried to Zeus. This time riding in the second seats. Bah! I hated this coaster. It felt really rough and the layout did nothing for me. I disapproved as the sky seemed ready to pour rain any second now.

We rushed up the Hades queue and found ourselves at the end of a line reaching the bottom of the stairs. Ugh. This was going to be close. The line moved faster than I expected but still much too slow. We were at the top platform (2, maybe 3 trains away from our ride) when the raindrops started. Nothing major, we were going to make it. The train rolled in and just then a flash followed by the rumble of thunder. Crap! They held the train without loading it. The line cleared and we met my wife & son over by the kiddie rides. A bit of frustration set in. We waited a few minutes but the rain only came harder. We decided to try to get to the car before it really started coming down. At this point we kind of hit the wall collectively. My son was tired and wanted carried and began fussing, I was hot and frustrated at my decision to hit the two inferior coasters first thus potentially missing the one coaster I wanted to sample most, my wife was cursing the hill to the gate. (My daughter is perpetually happy though) - the rain started hard before we made the gate.

We hopped in the car soaked and frustrated. I began cursing all things coaster.

We headed back to the hotel to cool off - both literally and figuratively. It was decided that we'd wait for the storm to pass then head back to the park to catch the two coasters we missed and some of the cool looking go-karts.

It took a while, but things looked up around 7pm or so. We got back to the park to see the rides running again. We parked, entered and made a beeline to Hades. We found the same line as before and stood firm with raindrops occasionally teasing. We made the station and slid our way towards the front of the station getting on in 1-2.

I think this ride was my first case of anticipointment in a long while. It was a good ride. A very good ride. Maybe even almost a great ride, but it wasn't the ride I had anticipated after reading so many of the reviews. My take is that it went too fast for the layout. Yes, it sounds stupid, but I couldn't shake the feeling that if the whole course from the lift to the end was taken just a bit slower that I would've liked it more. It seems to just be on the threshold of where woodies get too big and fast for their own good. That's about as well as I can explain it.

In the end I'd probably put it among my 10 favorite wooden coasters toward the bottom, but having just ridden Avalanche and Shivering Timbers in the past week, this one didn't seem to compare as favorably.

I know it's weird to kind of dis a coaster like that then turn around and say it's probably a top ten woodie for me, but that's exactly the mixed feelings I had for the ride.

So we get off of Hades with the rain still teasing and decide to rush to Pegasus to at least get the woodie credits at the park. We sat down in the back row, buckled our seatbelts, lowered the lapbar and then it happened again. Flash of lightning, rumble of thunder. The train emptied and we waited a moment pondering our situation.

After a few moments we just knew it wasn't going away anytime soon and there were some spectacular flashes of lightning decorating the twilight sky. We returned to the car again and sat for a while watching lightning and deciding where we should go next.

The rain never really came, but the lightning never stopped. There was no chance of more ride tonight and I wasn't about to drop the $32 a head to return the next day. I guess the remaining coasters (and all those cool go-karts) were a lost cause.

We drove up and down the main strip a couple of times hoping something would catch our eye, but everything seemed like the same old high priced non-entertainment. By 8:30-ish we had passed the sign at Alligator Alley promising an opportunity to feed the gators enough times that my daughter was practically bursting at the seams. We pulled in.

Long story made short. Again, ridiculous pricing structure for small attraction. Out of meat for the alligators for today. Hmmm. We checked out the tanks full of various reptiles, watched another family get a photo with the big albino boa and my daughter decided on a photo of herself holding an alligator. So we ponied up the $7.99 for a Polaroid of her holding a 3 foot long gator in front of a fake backdrop in the main lobby of the place. She loved it though and that alone made it worth it. The best part was just as she handed the alligator back to the girl working the photo thing, it pissed all over the place. As much as I would have loved the entertainment value of my little girl getting peed on by an alligator, it was probably better that it didn't happen with the mood we were all in.

We called it a night and went back to the room to research some ideas for Saturday. Guide books, coupon books, the internet...all were looked at. Boat tours at $26 a head. Cheesey haunted houses at $10 a head. It just wasn't there. We decided for an "off" day to collectively take a break and get back into things.

On Saturday we started very late with everyone sleeping in. I still wanted to check out Riverview Park so I headed out solo while the others went to the hotel pool.

Riverview played more like a permanent carnival installation and I skipped paying to ride anything and just quickly circled the park grabbing a few photos. No need to pay for two kiddie credits and a Galaxi coaster. (I sound like such a cheap-ass, this is so not me) In less than an hour, I was done. I decided to leave the car there and walk down the sidewalk a bit to take advantage f some of the photo opportunities from Mt. Olympus' parking lot. I blew some decent time there and made my way back to the car. I was back at the hotel about 2 hours after I had left.

Time for a bite to eat. Everyone decided they were sick of "on the road" food so we scored a random selection of eats from a local market and snacked in the room while watching the limited TV selection.

We knew we wanted to see some of the nature side of things so we struck out around 5pm with no plan but to look around for some scenic opportunities. We explored the back roads of the Dells for a couple hours. Different neighborhoods, coasting through campgrounds, any sidestreet that was passable. In the end we found that all the good real estate has been commercialized. To enjoy the rustic roots of the Wisconsin Dells, you had to pay. To be fair we did stumble across two spots. One boat tour place had a nature trail that offered limited river views, but views nonetheless and a public 'park' along Lake Delton that was little more than a backyard sized plot of land sandwiched between a hotel and a condo complex.

In the end we blew a solid three hours just exploring and it was probably the most relaxing and enjoyable time we'd spent here so far. We went back to the room and began getting things together for our departure tomorrow and even did some laundry in the hotel. The kids and wife watched Finding Nemo on the laptop while I took in Dateline NBC's show about the DiVinci Code. We decided to drive down the main strip at night one last time and maybe grab some of that fast food we were so tired of earlier in the day.

I took my camera along and we laughed as I tried to snap long exposure night photos of the tacky neon and light from a moving car, scored Wendy's and went back to the room to eat.

Tomorrow we make a short stop at Little A-Merrick-A on our way to Chicago. I can't say I'll miss Wisconsin Dells too much. Although in fairness, I think it had to do with timing more than anything. We crossed the halfway point of this trip and now the return to reality gets closer and closer, the wear and tear of 9 days on the road began catching up with us and the weather spoiled things little.

We did consider renting a boat and wrecking it just for fun though. (seriously)