Our original plan toward the upper peninsula of Michigan included three full days of driving across North Dakota and Minnesota, but we all agreed that we wanted to get to Petoskey a little quicker… hence the major TREK across 3 states to get to the great lakes region. I really wanted to stop at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Dickinson, North Dakota …..but it was just three hours driving from Spearfish – so I will have to add this to another tour another time.
We cut across South Dakota in record time as Skinner kept the door shut! He always says the best way to make time driving is to keep the door shut… and he did for nearly 12 hours.
We did make a pit stop for Dairy Queen Blizzards and a couple quick pee breaks for the pups.
I will admit that we really screwed up by not jumping on I90 and going thru Sioux Falls once we changed our travel plans. We ended up traveling on 212 across South Dakota making our way toward Minnesota. Around 10:30pm, just as we jumped onto 35 North, we found a nice rest area. At first it creeped us out because there was literally NO ONE parked at the stop. Usually that late in the evening, you can’t find a place to park with all the truckers and RVers fighting over available space for some shut eye. It was welcoming ( once we locked our doors and realized we were safe … LOL ) & we got some really good and very needed sleep.
On day two trekking toward the Upper Peninsula, we realized we were under ten hours from Petoskey. Now, normally Skinner would just run the entire day and arrive before sunset, but I suggested we find a quaint Harvest Host farm and relax a bit and enjoy taking in the scenery just off Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. We have never been in the area, so I wanted to not be in a hurry and be able to stop if we felt the urge.
We hit Duluth within an hour of our morning start, and we also missed a few confusing exits so we got a REALLY good look at Lake Superior! Back on the route as planned, the scenery was not as beautiful as I expected. I kinda caught myself wishing we had just ran across Wisconsin over the more northern route I selected. It would have been a bit faster and better roads. I expected to find some fun lunch spot en route or a few vista view pull offs... It just wasn't what I expected – and I had been spoiled by the overwhelming views of the Oregon coast. Now we know!
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