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July 31-August 4, 2013: International Route 66 Festival, Joplin, Missouri
Day 1: Wednesday, July 31, 2013 Below is an interactive map of our trip, tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. Feel free to browse and refer to the map for details about where we traveled, the photos were taken, etc. You can zoom in, or click the link below for a bigger, fullscreen map. Today’s the big day – we’re finally hitting the road for the 2013 International Route 66 festival, to be held this year in Joplin, Missouri. While I highly believe the Route 66 festivals should be held alternating in all of the various Route 66 states, for us and work schedules it’s obviously easier for us to…
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July 7, 2013: Day 3 – US 12 Heritage Trail, Michigan
Above is the trip map tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. Click the link above for a bigger map. Our final day, we left our hotel in Indiana and went back up into Michigan to complete our journey on US 12 across Michigan. We made a short side trip hoping to locate some of the elusive Amish berry pie, but it was really elusive! We visited a few non-Amish farmer’s markets, hoping for even regular Michigan berry pie, but even that proved futile! But a road trip is always fun anyway. We crossed into Indiana and spotted a couple of old motel signs in Michigan City: I…
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July 6, 2013: Day 2 – US 12 Heritage Trail, Michigan
Above is the trip map tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. Click the link above for a bigger map. We started out the day by heading into Mt. Clemens for breakfast at Louie’s Ham & Corned Beef with Thomas and Becky Repp, owners of American Road Magazine. After a very filling meal, we said our goodbyes and Pat and I headed into Detroit to start our westward trek on US 12, the Heritage Trail. I’m not a big fan of unfamiliar urban environments, because the area’s quality and safety can shift from one street to the next, so with our route plan firmly in place, we followed it…
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July 5, 2013: Day 1 – US 12 Heritage Trail, Michigan
Above is the trip map tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. Click the link above for a bigger map. We got an early start today (good thing, it turns out). We started out on all local roads, following US 36 from the east side of Indianapolis. I have the iOS app “Roadside Attractions” from the people at the cool website Roadside America, as well as an add on to our Garmin Nuvi. These apps feature the offbeat roadside attractions from their site. I knew it would be fun to start adding visiting some of these places to our travels. I immediately had a few attractions I wanted…
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July 5-7, 2013: US 12 Heritage Trail, Michigan – Overview
This trip was inspired by one of the radio ads in the fine arsenal of “Pure Michigan” advertisements. I love Michigan, and it doesn’t take much to sell me on this beautiful state. But these Pure Michigan ads are pure genius…pure enjoyment…pure road trip daydream bliss. I stop what I’m doing to listen to the ads when I hear them each weekday morning. I am easily mesmerized by the music, Tim Allen’s voice beckoning me to visit various Michigan locations. For the past few weeks, I have been hearing this one on US 12, the Heritage Trail and Coldwater Country. “We go this way to school, that way to work,…
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June 7-9, 2013: Mounds State Park – Anderson, Indiana
This weekend we *finally* got the trailer out and camped somewhere other than our own yard! We had reservations at Mounds State Park for Friday and Saturday nights. We were going to see Huey Lewis and The News Saturday night at Hoosier Park Casino, and Mounds State Park is a small, but very nice, state park close to the casino. Here was our spot for the weekend, in a small loop right next to the airport. We saw many small planes taking off and landing throughout the weekend. Here are a few photos inside our Serro Scotty, featuring our new turquoise bedding, throw rug, and turquoise storage tubs under the…
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May 10-19, 2013: Overview-East Bound and Down
Back home again in Indiana! Wow, what a great trip that was. It was loads of fun as Pat and I explored many two lane roads throughout Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont (just a hint), New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Here’s the overview of our trip, and posts for each day will follow (and will be hyperlinked below as they are added). May 10-11, 2013: Not much to report, as these were “get from point A to B as quickly as possible” travel days. Slabbed from Indianapolis to Dubois, Pennsylvania on Day 1, and DuBois to Connecticut on Day 2. May 12, 2013: Spent the morning in Waterbury visiting a friend, then…
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May 19, 2013: Day 10 – East Bound and Down
Above is today’s trip map created using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. Click the link above for a bigger map. Today was the final day of our journey, and so far it’s been a great one! After checking out of the motel, I opted for just coffee today. After having so many big breakfasts and a big dinner and dessert last night, I needed to give my stomach a rest. We continued into Erie on State Road 5, which was the Circle Lake route, and found a Dunkin’ Donuts in town. We made our way back to the scenic route and passed by this motel where we stayed several…
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May 18, 2013: Day 9 – East Bound and Down
Above is today’s trip map created using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. Click the link above for a bigger map. We checked out of the motel and decided to have breakfast in town at the local establishment, the Chef Diner. The food was very good and very plentiful here, as was the local conversation. 🙂 We continued west on US 20 throughout New York, and we quickly approached the Finger Lakes area, but not before passing through some nice country, with rolling hills. Seneca Falls was recommended by a friend to be a good place to spend a little time, a nice town with shops and restaurants, etc. But…
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May 17, 2013: Day 8 – East Bound and Down
Above is today’s trip map created using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. Click the link above for a bigger map. We were initially thinking of spending an additional day in Lake George, but considering the peak tourist season didn’t start for another week and very little was open, we decided to plan on coming back another time in season. After checking out of the motel, we did a little exploration of the site of the former Gaslight Village Amusement park, comparing some areas of the site to old photos we found on the Internet. I don’t remember much about the place, except the Cavalcade of Cars was a very…