My Exciting Proposal in Wisconsin
by Stephanie Witkiewicz
(Lake Villa IL)
My favorite memory of a trip to Wisconsin started as a nightmare and ended as a life changing and exciting experience!
As outdoor enthusiasts my boyfriend of 5 years (now husband) and I took several trips with friends with our ATV's to the Crivitz area. One particular trip was extremely memorable.
My boyfriend left his hometown in IL to pick me up at the University of Wisconsin Parkside where I attended college three hours later than planned due to problems loading our ATV's. Not 15 minutes into the trip we had to pull over on Interstate 94 to inspect our trailer bearings as they were running extremely hot, we were afraid we would lose a wheel and have to cancel our trip. After what seemed like forever, my boyfriend was able to go to a gas station and fix the problem. Then halfway into the drive while speeding along at 55 mph with many vehicles around us, one of our new ATV straps broke and to our horror one of the ATV's was literally hanging off the back end of the trailer with the back tires almost touching the pavement! Thank goodness we did not lose it. After pulling over and fixing it as best we could we got back onto the road. Our stress levels were high as we were the organizers of this trip and all of our friends (a group of about 20) were already at the campground we were staying at waiting for us. By this time we were once again ready to turn around and go home!
At that point after our hearts were racing from almost losing the ATV, being worried about the tire bearings and being extremely late, my boyfriend told me to open the glove box. Sitting in the middle of some maps was a small black box. He told me to open it and to my surprise it was a beautiful emerald and diamond engagement ring! I was stunned, after dating for 5 years and seeing several of my friends get engaged and married in a lot less time I finally got my ring! He told me he was waiting to propose to me on the ATV trail but with all the stress that had started the trip he said, "If nothing else goes right on this trip I at least wanted to make sure that this would, will you marry me?" So there we were driving down the highway getting engaged!
We made it to Crivitz for a rain soaked weekend of ATV riding and I could not have been happier! We have been married over 7 years. We love WI so much that we bought 40 acres in Boscobel and escape to Wisconsin as much as we possibly can!
