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The Road Trip That Made Me
Sometimes I sit and wonder when I became addicted to road trips and all of the memories they create. Growing up, we frequently vacationed in northern Minnesota and drove some 800 miles each way from Indianapolis to our destination, which was a cabin at a resort on one of 10,000 lakes. But I think I can point to a trip 30 years ago in July of 1985 that really opened my eyes to what a road trip vacation is all about. It was July 4th weekend of 1985 when my mom, dad, and I loaded up in my folks’ 1977 Chevrolet Impala. I was getting ready to head into my…
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September 1-3, 2012: Lake Michigan Loop Redux
Prelude We haven’t been on a road trip or camped in a while and with our 10th wedding anniversary coming up, decided to take a trip over Labor Day weekend. Only two snafus: we needed to watch our 18-month old grandson until noon Saturday while my daughter was in college classes; and then the remnants of Hurricane Isaac were heading to the Midwest. While tossing out ideas, I wanted to originally camp in northern Indiana and visit the Marshmallow Festival in Ligonier, Indiana and the Blueberry Festival in Plymouth, Indiana. I’d just enjoyed 7 wonderful visits to the Indiana State Fair a couple of weeks ago and was having major…
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June 2007: Up in the U.P.
Going into the weekend of June 22-24, 2007, I anticipated nothing more than a 4 hour drive over to Illinois to enter our ’65 Corvair in the 4th Cruisin’ Route 66 to Litchfield on Car Festival, as we’ve done since 2004. Thanks to Mother Nature, that all changed. We awoke Friday morning to rain. The forecast for Litchfield was for up to 3 inches of rain throughout the entire weekend. We then decided spending two days in an $80 motel room in Litchfield, IL wasn’t sounding too appealing, so we canceled our reservation. We still wanted to make a 3-day weekend out of it, so we finally decided we’d take a…