MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – An increasing number of people are taking to Wisconsin state parks during the summer for an outdoor favorite, camping.

Suzanna Topel has camped at Devil’s Lake State Park for over 50 years.

“Well, we love state parks,” she said. “We’ve been coming here since I was little… probably… I remember age two, three with my folks and then we took over, we began family camping with my children.”

Her family books their campsite 11 months to the day, the earliest you can secure a spot at a Wisconsin state park.

“Well, they’re kind of tricky. I have to say,” she said about the reservations. “You have to look far ahead, you can’t wait. You immediately either call the 800 number, because I’m old-schooled, that’s what I do. Or you book online if you’re computer savvy.”

Business operations sections chief for the Wisconsin DNR Chris Pedretti says while campers can book 11 months in advance, not many do.

“There is a perception out there that you have to do everything 11 months in advance because demand is so high. That’s not really the case,” he said. “In actuality, about 10% of our reservations are done at the 11-month window. So, there’s a big percentage of reservations that are done in between then.”

Pedretti adds that certain campsites book up faster than others.

“If you want to go to on Memorial Day weekend to Door County, there’s going to be a lot of competition for those sites.” But there’s a lot of other state parks and forests around the state that have sites available as well and they all offer great things to get out and enjoy the outdoors.”

With over 6,000 sites spread out across the state, there are plenty of options this summer. Even if you have your site set on one spot in particular.

“Sometimes you’re lucky, people will get cancel and you can get it. But if you want electricity, you’ve gotta grab ‘em while they’re hot,” Topel said.

Pedretti says people looking to book a particular campsite should keep checking their website as cancelations are made on a regular basis. He adds there is a notification feature that can alert your phone if a property becomes available.

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The crash happened about 7:10 p.m. Friday at the intersection of State 54 and Washington Street.

WISCONSIN RAPIDS – One person is dead following a motorcycle versus vehicle crash Friday evening in Wisconsin Rapids.

The crash happened about 7:10 p.m. Friday at the intersection of State 54 and Washington Street. According to the initial investigation, a vehicle was traveling north on State 54 at Washington Street and was attempting to turn left onto Baker Drive, according to a news release from the Wisconsin Rapids Police Department. The motorcycle was traveling south on State 54 and hit the passenger side of the vehicle, which turned in front of the motorcycle, the release said.

The driver of the motorcycle suffered serious injuries and was transported by ambulance to Marshfield Medical Center where he later died from his injuries, the release said.

The occupants of the vehicle were treated by Wisconsin Rapids Fire Department EMS and released at the scene.

The police department said it is not releasing the names of those involved at this time.

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Editor Jamie Rokus can be reached at jrokus@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter at @Jamie_Rokus.

Our political blowhard, Adam Murphy, joins to answer the toughest question: What should we hand to people landing in Wisconsin, like getting a lei off the jet in Hawaii? We also discussed the less-than-half effort from Republicans in the state Legislature to overturn vetoes, plus WIZM on Reddit.

La Crosse Talk PM airs weekdays at 5:06 p.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk PM wherever you get your podcasts.

Got some great answers from Murphy and callers to that question and spent a good part of the show discussing it.

We also hit on Republicans in the state Legislature (17:30) calling themselves back into session — the Legislature has been off since mid-March and wasn’t coming back into session until next year, after the elections — to try and override 36 of Gov. Tony Evers’ vetoes. You’ll be surprised at how big a failure that was.

Ended the show (33:00) talking about a post on Reddit about WIZM comments and whether or not they should be “moderated” or deleted. We did not have time to get to the part where someone said I was middle-left in political leaning.

Murphy has degrees in economics and political science from UW-Milwaukee. He’s also owns a small business, called Big Bang LLC in Milwaukee.