The Journey Below the Great Lakes – Virginia to Minnesota

We left Utt’s Campground in Virginia for our last leg north before we turn West. Our first stop was visiting friends in Ohio.

The drive day was grey and cold through the mountains of West Virginia. The amazing skyline views and the coal veins running through the mountain cut-ins were a nice treat. They were a nice distraction from the $40 in tolls. Several of the interstates in the Northeastern US are toll roads that would cost a day of fuel to circle around, so leave little choice but to take them if you want to save time.

We split the drive and found a great Harvest Hosts, Georgetown Vineyards, in Cambridge, Ohio. This Harvest Hosts was just off I-71 (follow their directions if you tow a big rig). We let them handle dinner, dessert and wine and enjoyed a walk on the trail–which included deer who were not happy we were on their path.

After a restful night, we continued the short journey to our friends in the morning. We spent the long weekend moochdocking in their driveway, enjoying family dinners together, exploring Cleveland’s West Side Market, Amish Country, attending church, and even getting Luna a much needed grooming appointment.

From there, we set out for Indiana. We made time for a museum that has been on my bucket list for quite a while, that also happened to be a Harvest Hosts stop with electric hookups. The Auburn, Cord, Deusenberg Automobile Museum is adjacent to the National Auto & Truck Museum and offer a campus family pass to visit both ($60 at the time we visited). But what drew me in was the Dillinger Tommy Gun on display and the backstory of it. So we booked 2 nights and had a full day to enjoy strolling the museums and this great little town. Since this week also held 2 back to back nasty storms, it was a good place to stop and let the weather pass, luckily, without incident for us.

Next, we needed to get past RecPro and figured we’d see our friends at Keystone RV Company while there, so we headed an hour north. Keystone has a few first come, first serve camping spots, we made no plans after our visit, hoping to score a spot there, and we were in luck. We saw some familiar faces, and others we missed. The next day, we took care of what we needed at Rec Pro, then headed on our way.

With Memorial Day Weekend upon us, we stopped to rest, reset and resupply. We snagged a spot in Milton, WI at Thousand Trails BlackHawk Campground (site IV51) just in the nick of time. This will be the last Thousand Trails along our route, so we wanted to save while we could. We took the time to visit the Milton House Museum, learning the history of the town’s first family and their ties to the Underground Railroad–even getting to walk through an expanded version of the original tunnel. Before leaving, we got some community service hours in for May and did a campground clean up.

After the holiday, we set off to see friends in Minnesota. We split our stays at a Riverside Park (site 3), close to them during the week. It was a great little spot in the town of Princeton, on the Rum River and a short walk into town. We also hopped over to explore the Mall of America while there and WOW!

When the weekend arrived, we caravanned with our friends to Burlington Bay Campground (site 32) on the North Shore. The cold weather and wind decided to join us, but it didn’t stop us from seeing some awesome places along the shores of Lake Superior like Palisade Head, Gooseberry Falls, Lutsen Mountain’s Alpine Slide (where there were still SNOW patches at the end of May!), and finished the day with coffee and donuts and a walk along the marina in Grand Marais.

When it came time to leave, we realized how amazing Minnesota is and how much we still want to see. It left us to decide whether to extend our time in the lower 48, shortening our time to explore Canada, or stick to the plan.

Join us for the next blog to see what we decide as we make our way to Alaska!

Oh, and make sure you are following us on Facebook or Instagram-where I’ll be breaking down our weekly travel and costs every Monday starting June 8th, and YouTube where we will be vlogging our journey from supplies to camping and sites every other week.

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