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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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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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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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September 2011: Impromptu Lake Michigan coast road trip
Pat and I decided on a last minute overnight road trip. Not being able to decide where to go, I fired up Google maps on the iPhone and sized the map to fit an area within 5 or so hours’ drive. We then closed our eyes, turned the phone and pressed down an area along the map’s edge. That would be where we’d go. No offense to Pickneyville, Illinois, but we weren’t thinking that would be our prime destination. Plus, it was still too close. So we scrapped this plan and simply opted to head north into Michigan. We thought it would be nice to stay as close to the…
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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…
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September 2005: Lake Michigan Loop
We started out of Indy Saturday morning, following the old alignment of US 52 (Lafayette Road) out of town, hooking up with current 52 north of Lebanon, then merging onto US 41 west of Fowler, IN. We took 41 through NW IN, and then followed it along Lakeshore Drive through Chicago. We found our way onto Sheridan Road which stretches from Chicago well into Wisconsin. Through Kenosha, we found the list of motels (most of them) in question. Some were nice…others were…well, you know. After going through Milwaukee, we jumped on the Evil I for a while. We roamed around Port Washington for a while, then stopped at a Piggly…