Move: To Madison, WI (Day 50)

This blog entry is two days late due to ongoing moving obligations.

The most significant moving-related accomplishments in the past month have been the following:

1) Getting a Wisconsin driver’s license

2) Registering to vote in Dane County

3) Acquiring auto and rental insurance

4) Getting Wisconsin license plates for the car

Of the four, number 1 was the most convoluted, 2 was the easiest, 3 took up the most amount of time, and 4 was surprisingly easy. What made number 1 relatively complex was the required documentation. Essentially, if you’re moving to Wisconsin, and you need a driver’s license (in 2017), then you need to have at least the following:

1) Driver’s license from current (old) state

2) Birth certificate OR passport

3) Proof of local residency (lease contract, name and address page from your house title paperwork, etc.)

In situations (other than border crossings) requiring either the birth certificate or the passport, I usually bring both, as well as the Social Security card. It never hurts to bring all of them, and it sometimes helps. After you fill out the form(s) and get your picture taken, the clerk will scan the relevant proof-of-citizenship and -residency documents into the computer system. The clerk will then void your current (old) license, and issue a paper copy of your new permanent one. The permanent one will arrive in the mail in about a week.

With the new permanent driver’s license (the one that came in the mail) in hand, one is able to register online to vote. It only takes a few minutes.

Getting quotes for auto and renter’s insurance is always time-consuming. If you haven’t been through that process, what you do is look up a bunch of local insurance agents and brokers. Start making phone calls. You will answer many questions, having to tell the agent/broker/clerk that you don’t know the answer to at least some of the questions. You’ll write down the combinations of deductibles, coverage amounts, multi-policy discounts, and so forth. You’ll mull over the options. You’ll wait to hear back from agents that never call back. You’ll wonder if having one insurance company cover both the apartment and the car is worth paying an extra $20 or so per year. The alternative might be going with the cheapest auto and renter insurance quotes, but at respectively different companies. I cannot tell you what to do in this situation. Everyone will have different experiences, and likely go with different companies or plans.

What is remarkable is that most quotes for car insurance in Madison are less than half of what I paid in Houston.

Getting the license plates requires proof of residency (your driver’s license) and the title or registration paperwork for your car. The clerk didn’t ask for proof of insurance. Since my car still has a lien on it, all I had was the registration renewal paper that you get in the mail in Texas. The paper has the car’s VIN, weight, my name, and my old address, among other information. You fill out a short form, and hand that form and the registration renewal paper to the clerk. You never see your old state’s registration paper again. The clerk returns with the Wisconsin equivalent of the registration paper, and your new license plates. You pay a total amount of fees well over $100, and walk out with your new plates. I managed to receive one of the remaining six-digit Wisconsin plates. My car is now registered in America’s Dairyland. Yeehaw.

Volunteer: for your state's DNR

Whichever state you live in, there is likely a Department of Natural Resources that could use your assistance in helping scientists and technicians monitor and understand the environment. If you would like to be (or are) a “citizen scientist,” and like the great outdoors, then definitely look up opportunities. I have already walked around Devil’s Lake State Park, and was looking for way to get more involved with the Wisconsin State Park system or the Wisconsin DNR in general.

On one rainy Saturday, I volunteered for the Wisconsin DNR in their effort to monitor Chronic Wasting Disease in deer. The name of their project is The Southwest Wisconsin CWD, Deer and Predator Study. You sign up online or by calling them. Contact details are in the link.

There are two shifts: morning and evening. I volunteered for both, deciding that if I was going to drive 45 minutes or so from the apartment to Dodgeville, I should stay for the whole day. One of the goals of this move is to do things I’ve not done before, with only a minimum of preparation. This is the second new thing; the first is playing Sheepshead.

Volunteering for the CWD, Deer, and Predatory Study is hands-on ecological work. It looks something you might have seen on 3-2-1 Contact. With hiking boots, rain jacket, black nitrile gloves, and not-a-paid-employee-of-DNR orange vest, one walks with the crew in lines, either straight ahead or in a large spiral. Trees, slippery rocks, creeks, and nettle bushes make this tricky. This goes for an hour or so. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a fawn.

Most of the time, the fawn will lay still even as the DNR staffer lays their hands on it. The first step is to blindfold the fawn. For reasons that I don’t understand, blindfolding deer calms them down a great deal. After they calm down, you and the staffer determine its weight, sex, age, put a GPS collar on its neck, and attach ID tags on its ears.

Perhaps the most dramatic aspect is attaching the ID tags. Punching a hole in an ear seems painful. But, the staffer is careful to avoid the major blood vessels. The fawn appears to not notice. In the two fawns that I held in position, the animal seemed calm. It was as if it were asleep. I focused on its breathing and pulse. Knowing nothing about deer physiology or psychology, the breathing and heart rate seemed steady.

Most of the time, you’re riding around the Wisconsin countryside in a van or truck with wildlife technologists and biologists. The hills, prairie, and farms seem exotic to this guy from Texas. Even in the rain. Walking for hours in such terrain (along with the aforementioned slippery rocks and creeks) provides a great workout. Especially for whichever muscles control the lifting of your leg, and positioning of your foot. I apparently spent a lot of time trying to figure out which rock was the least slippery.

If you are a former Boy Scout, this activity might bring back memories of hiking on ambiguous trails through an endless countryside.

The staff at the DNR is great. They are funny, and passionate about the work they do. Hiking with them, and riding around in trucks and vans, was an honor and a privilege. I look forward to volunteering with the DNR again.

Go: to the (Mini) Maker Faire

 

Forward! To Mini Maker Faire!

What? I can’t see or hear you.

As member of Sector 67, I volunteered at the Madison Mini Maker Faire. It was a lot fun to help the group set up their stuff, and help several dozen people make simple fidget spinners. I even managed to park for free, relatively close to Monona Center.

To get free parking, find a spot near the event area really early.

If you have never been to a (Mini) Maker Faire, it is a nerdy gathering of do-it-yourself technologists. It is the electronic or mechanical (or both) extension of crafting, taking to elaborate and sometimes expensive extremes. If you volunteer as part of an organization, you usually get in for free. However, even in relatively small cities like Madison, parking at the event is almost never for free.

After about three hours of standing outside, helping families make their spinners, I ate lunch at Merchant Madison on Pinckney Street. For $10, you get a Mexican Pozole. It tasted good, especially after adding jalapenos, onions, cabbage, and tortilla strips.

It’s recommended.

Overall, a great day. While my Fedora was effective in shading most of my head from the sun, it was not so effective on my neck. The solution is a hat that has a flap on the back to shade the neck. Also, work gloves. Not only would this have made more comfortable the handling of the hot metal of the fresh, in-progress spinners, it would have shaded my hands from the sun.

 

Meanwhile, inside Monona Center, members of Sector 67 sold stuff.

Despite the hot sun, and the hot metal, we still had fun.

Our fearless leader, riding his Penny Farthing bicycle.

Visit: Devil's Lake State Park, in Wisconsin

As time goes by in the new town, the novelty of the move wears off. The necessary changes become further apart in time. Blog posts such as today's are intended to keep family and friends knowledgeable of events not otherwise specific to moving. Now, without further delay:

About an hour northwest of Madison is Devil’s Lake State Park. To get there, get on Beltline headed towards Middleton, and stay on it. The freeway ends, but U.S. Highway 12 continues towards Sauk City. You drive through pristine farm land and hills. After crossing the bridge over the Wisconsin River, you drive through Sauk City, and past it. The Highway widens and narrows as U.S. Highways do.

About four miles north a significant S-curve on Highway 12, turn right on Ski Hi Road to get to the Visitor Center South Shore. The road will end at a T-intersection. Turn right to continue to the South Shore. Turn left to go to the North Shore.

Headed towards the South Shore, you’ll drive on a narrow, twisty road, then pass a boat dock, and eventually towards the Visitor Center. You’ll have to pay for admission, and the price depends on whether you have Wisconsin plates, and whether you want a one-day pass, or an annual. A one-day pass for this Texan’s vehicle cost $11.

After parking, you can walk towards the lake, and around the pavilions. Eventually, you’ll see maps or signs for various trails. Ideally, you’ve seen the map beforehand.

I walked three trails: the Grottos, the CCC, and the Potholes Trails. Walking those trails, I unintentionally managed to avoid six major geological attractions as indicated on the map. Despite that error, the views were wonderful.

Click on any to enlarge:

If you can make out the hat near the center, it gives the picture a sense of scale

No hiking shoes were necessary, but may have come in handy on slippery rocks. I wore a broad-rimmed hat, and a long-sleeve shirt. If the temperature was above 60 degrees, I would have considered wearing a short-sleeve shirt and sunblock, or hiking earlier in the morning, or later in the afternoon.

The crowds were civil, even polite. Lots of incidental campers. One group was rappelling off one of the rock faces. Temps were in the 50s, and the sky was clear. A perfect day for a hike.