dirty6
Ranger
After about a year of living in Wisconsin, summer rolled around and we had the opportunity to take another “Big Trip” with our 560 (Muiriel). We had lots of ideas and a lack of motivation to pick a route and build a plan, so it all came together pretty late. We considered:
With that shell, we elected to stay north and east with Michigan itinerary options rather than spending the bulk of our time driving out to ND and back. Thankfully, that helped us to dodge the wildfires in northern Minnesota that weren’t on the radar when we made these choices.
Initially, we drew up a plan for Oshkosh, then the ferry from Wisconsin across Lake Michigan, then a lazy wandering hook headed north in Lower Michigan, across the Macinaw Bridge into the Upper Peninsula, and back down to our Wisconsin home before re-setting for a couple days in Minneapolis.
However. That ferry was going to cost north of $800 (!!) for the car, camper, and 3x tickets. Considering the drive up and around the UP from Oshkosh would be 8-9 hours and the trip with the ferry would be 6-7 hours total, it didn’t make sense for us to spend that much to cut out 5-6 hours of driving while only shortening the entire trip by a couple hours. So we opted for the “out and back” route. The itinerary:
Day 1: Drive to Oshkosh (2-3 hours total), set up camp
Day 2-3: Oshkosh EAA and airshows
Day 4: Drive Oshkosh north, skirting Lake Michigan, across the Mackinaw bridge, and down to Traverse City
Day 5-6: Traverse City and local area “stuff”
Day 7: Drive Traverse City north into the UP with a tourist trap stop at Mackinaw Island
Day 8: Sault St. Marie
Day 9: Drive Sault St. Marie to Munising with a detour north to Grand Marias to allow a drive through Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
Day 10: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore cruise
Day 11: Drive home, clean and drop camper, re-set from “camp mode” to “hotel mode”
Day 12: Drive to Minneapolis, Royals vs Twins baseball game
Day 13: Minneapolis “stuff” and the Main Event: Mumford and Sons concert
Day 14: Drive home (or, in my case, get dropped off at the airport to begin a work trip)
I’ll add multiple posts to this thread with our activities along that itinerary and some pictures.
- Isle Royale National Park
- Minnesota boundary waters area, Voyageurs NP
- North Dakota - the only state I haven’t been to, either a quick jaunt to Fargo or all the way out to camp at Theodore Roosevelt NP
- Lower Michigan north of Ludington (we lived for a year in Michigan but never made it past Ludington)
- Upper Peninsula of Michigan
- Oshkosh EAA Airventure airshow
With that shell, we elected to stay north and east with Michigan itinerary options rather than spending the bulk of our time driving out to ND and back. Thankfully, that helped us to dodge the wildfires in northern Minnesota that weren’t on the radar when we made these choices.
Initially, we drew up a plan for Oshkosh, then the ferry from Wisconsin across Lake Michigan, then a lazy wandering hook headed north in Lower Michigan, across the Macinaw Bridge into the Upper Peninsula, and back down to our Wisconsin home before re-setting for a couple days in Minneapolis.
However. That ferry was going to cost north of $800 (!!) for the car, camper, and 3x tickets. Considering the drive up and around the UP from Oshkosh would be 8-9 hours and the trip with the ferry would be 6-7 hours total, it didn’t make sense for us to spend that much to cut out 5-6 hours of driving while only shortening the entire trip by a couple hours. So we opted for the “out and back” route. The itinerary:
Day 1: Drive to Oshkosh (2-3 hours total), set up camp
Day 2-3: Oshkosh EAA and airshows
Day 4: Drive Oshkosh north, skirting Lake Michigan, across the Mackinaw bridge, and down to Traverse City
Day 5-6: Traverse City and local area “stuff”
Day 7: Drive Traverse City north into the UP with a tourist trap stop at Mackinaw Island
Day 8: Sault St. Marie
Day 9: Drive Sault St. Marie to Munising with a detour north to Grand Marias to allow a drive through Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
Day 10: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore cruise
Day 11: Drive home, clean and drop camper, re-set from “camp mode” to “hotel mode”
Day 12: Drive to Minneapolis, Royals vs Twins baseball game
Day 13: Minneapolis “stuff” and the Main Event: Mumford and Sons concert
Day 14: Drive home (or, in my case, get dropped off at the airport to begin a work trip)
I’ll add multiple posts to this thread with our activities along that itinerary and some pictures.
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