I had to get up at 3:55 a.m. to take my girlfriend to the airport at 5:30 for her flight (we couldn’t get on the same flight...long story). My flight left Sacramento at 9:00 a.m. and my girlfriend greeted me at the gate at Chicago’s Midway airport. We rented a Mercury Sable

UPPER MIDWEST ROAD TRIP

April 25-May 3, 2000

I had to get up at 3:55 a.m. to take my girlfriend to the airport at 5:30 for her flight (we couldn’t get on the same flight...long story). My flight left Sacramento at 9:00 a.m. and my girlfriend greeted me at the gate at Chicago’s Midway airport. We rented a Mercury Sable and headed out for my friend Peter’s house in Traverse City, Michigan - 310 miles away. Traffic was stopped for miles going into Chicago so we were glad to be going the other way.

We ended up at a little hole-in-the wall Italian restaurant just north of Grand Rapids, Michigan around 10:00 p.m. and the owner was nice enough to serve us even though he was closing. I noticed several hunting photos on the walls and asked the owner if Ted Nugent hunted near here. He laughed and said Ted stole his guitarist from his band years ago, and he hunts with him occasionally (he pointed out a few pictures of Ted on the wall). My navigator fell asleep but I still managed to find Peter’s house. We arrived at 1:30 a.m. I hadn’t realized that Michigan was an hour later than Chicago. Anyway, it was a LONG day.

The next day, Peter put the top down on his Jeep and took us all over the Traverse City area seeing Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan, wild turkeys, the Old Mission, Old Mission Lighthouse which is on the 45th parallel halfway between the equator and the North Pole and a winery. The weather was clear but it was pretty cold riding in the open Jeep.

On Thursday, we woke up at 5:30 a.m. and headed up to St. Ignace to catch the 9:30 ferry to Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Island in Lake Huron. We crossed the Mackinac Bridge, which is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world. Everything was closed on the island (except for one shop) as the tourist season was a few weeks away but we walked around (no vehicles allowed on the island) and saw the Grand Hotel (featured in the movie “Somewhere in Time”) built in 1887. It has the longest porch in the world stretching 880’. We also sneaked into Fort Mackinac. It was actually pretty nice without a million tourists there but there were many workers painting and fixing up everything getting ready for the tourist season. The old Victorian houses there were in perfect condition. It’s very picturesque and reminded me of the Village in the old 60’s show “The Prisoner”. Mackinac Island is also known for it’s fudge shops but none were open yet.

After catching the ferry back, we parted ways with Peter (we drove up separately) and headed up into the Upper Peninsula to Whitefish Point where we saw the Lighthouse built in 1849 (the oldest lighthouse still in use in Michigan). I also would have liked to seen the Shipwreck Museum there that has an exhibit of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank off of Whitefish Point in 1972. It was closed

until the start of the tourist season in a few weeks. Being from California, I’m not used to places not being open in the winter because of the weather.

At least the Tahquamenon Falls weren’t turned off - they were our next stop. We hiked to the upper falls, which was really nice. After the falls, we drove to Marquette where we spent the night.

The next day, we saw the lighthouse in Marquette and then headed for Fargo, North Dakota. We bought a cooler and food so we could stop at rest stops for lunch for the rest of the trip. This was the only day that we got some rain but it didn’t matter as it was our longest haul - 527 miles.

From Fargo, we drove south to Sheyenne National Grassland. I read that they had lots of trails for bird watching but we never found them so we left for Minneapolis, Minnesota where we hiked around the Mississippi River and saw the Minihaha Falls (a trickle due to the drought) made famous in Longfellow’s “Song of Hiawatha”. The weather was even warmer there and the further south we went, the more leaves and flowers were evident.

We stayed in Bloomington (a suburb of Minneapolis) about a mile or so from the Mall of America. We went there that night and walked all four levels and had dinner at Hooters - didn’t try their famous hot wings though. We also didn’t ride the roller coaster. The mall is pretty impressive even though I don't like to shop.

The next day we headed for Effigy Mounds National Monument along the Mississippi River in Iowa. We hiked a few miles of the trail and saw several mounds and great views of the river. The mounds were burial mounds created by Native Americans up to 1,000 years ago. Some are in the shapes of animals such as bears and birds and the largest is 137’ long. A great place! From there, we drove on to Madison, Wisconsin to spend the night.

In Madison, we drove around the university campus (OK, we were lost) and finally found the Capitol building. We then headed for Milwaukee. The Freeways in Milwaukee are really crazy - some have 2 or 3 numbers making them real fun to navigate. We stayed near Germantown which I thought might be interesting to see but there really wasn’t many German places there - only a few restaurants that weren’t open. We thought about touring the Harley-Davidson factory but they weren’t doing tours on that day. We did walk around Veterans Park on the shore of Lake Michigan. That night, we met my girlfriend's sister-in-law and her sister who live there. They are two wild and crazy women and we ended up at their favorite hangout for a beer. They had us in stitches. They also have that funny cheesehead accent, eh.

From Milwaukee, we drove the really short (90 miles) distance to Chicago where we started from 9 days earlier. We found a parking garage downtown ($16 for about 3 hours) and headed up to the Skydeck of the Sears Tower for an incredible view of the Windy City. After that, we drove toward our motel near O’Hare Airport. We somehow ended up in a neighborhood where we really didn’t belong and of course ended up in a dead-end street. Linda was holding a map and I had thoughts of Chevy Chase asking directions while his car was being stripped in “Vacation”. Well we made it out of there with nothing more than a few strange looks - all part of the adventure although I don't think my girlfriend thought it was too fun. I was thinking about seeing the Cubs-Houston game at Wrigley Field that night but we opted to watch the Sacramento Kings beat the L.A. Lakers in a playoff game on TV instead (hey, we have fan priority). The next day, we went to Jackson Park to get a nice view of Chicago from the lakeside and then saw the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Museum had a great Titanic exhibit which included many artifacts brought up including the largest chunk of the hull. We also got a tour of the German U boat, U-505 - the only enemy ship captured intact by the U.S. on the high seas during WW II - a great piece of history!

From the Museum, we drove directly to Midway Airport where we had a lot of trouble finding the rental car return. After a long period of high anxiety, we finally got to the gate with 30 minutes to spare and even got two seats together on Southwest with boarding passes 82 and 83. Midway is a small airport but they are building new terminals and it was a real zoo!

We ended up driving 2,500 miles through seven states. Overall, it was a great trip. I didn’t see my favorite bird (the Cardinal) but my girlfriend got to see plenty of hers (Canada Geese). It was nice paying $1.21/gal.for gas instead of the Sacramento price of $1.67. One thing that is better here though is the total ban on smoking in restaurants. I didn’t appreciate that until this trip. I’ve now seen 49 states and hope to chase tornadoes in Oklahoma soon. I still want to go back to some states if I ever get the time, to see some of the National Parks, etc. that I missed the first time around.