Bob

Way to open I know, but want to get some ideas before really planning a route and got loads of great suggestions a couple summers ago when asking about going to Indiana.

Thinking of initially winging it straight over, west through PA to Iowa and then up to MN and then Wisconsin and over the border to Canada for their side of Niagara and back to MA that way.

Would probably be over a week or so.

Looking on doing or seeing one thing a day, possibly another if on the way. So what must see/do things would you recommend?

username.exe

I did a similar trip several years ago, mostly hitting the cities for things to do and look around... Columbus, Chicago, St Louis, Kansas City and then Rapid City to see Mount Rushmore (truly underwhelming).
Toronto and Montreal were fun (Ottawa I would recommend giving a miss unless you truly want to see the government buildings).

To squeeze your itinerary into a week seems optimistic... you will be spending the vast majority of your time on the road. But hey, I love road trips so I understand where you're coming from

Bob

Minneapolis is the final destination, so Mall of America, has to be done.

A detour to Fargo is something I want to do, mostly because it's right by both of the Dakota's and even if it's only a technicality, I'd still like to cross them off my list....even if it's a 3.5 hr detour

A couple summers ago, when we hit Indiana, we detoured to clip Maryland after checking out Gettysburg and spent a couple days in Chicago and a day in Niagara Falls and 4th July in Saratoga Springs, NY which was awesome btw, so we've also hit Columbus, Cleveland, Indianapolis (Childrens Museum was amazing) and did that in 10 days.

Would be nice to spend more time, but time/budget gets in the way, especially with little kids. Probably spread this over 10 days if we can wing it.

Just casting a wide rope for things to consider, or definite things to avoid. Any nice scenic routes to consider that aren't the interstate that won't add massive amounts of time, even if it's just for a bit.

I'd like to avoid driving through as much of Ohio and Indiana again though, because there's only so much green corn/soy fields of flatness you can enjoy and I'd rather bomb through them to spend more time else where.

We definitely want to see Niagara Falls from the Canadian side and Toronto would be pretty much on the way, so would like to wing through there at the very least as a possible place to spend the night before the falls. We've done Montreal before, but would be fun with kids...

A straight run without detours will be about 1330 miles to the destination, which is a solid day or so of driving, but I'm not doing that in one stint...600 miles in one go nearly did me in. I don't know how the truckers can manage it

DebzinUS

Have you thought about going through Michigan? Cross into Mi from Sarnia....1-75 north to Frankenmuth, then Mackinac Island, St Ignace? Its a pretty drive through Northern MI.

MsElui

yes - that is a pretty drive. plus lots of 'pie' vendors along the road lol!

mackinac island is a fun trip too.

Bob

Not yet. We'd driven through the southern part of the state last time.

Was thinking of on the way back of going through Wisconsin and going over the border at Sault Ste Marie, either Rt 2 or 28.

Though that island and area looks lovely. Is there a ferry ride to Canada from there?

Not sure what we'd do in Wisconsin yet, or where to stop. Greenbay is about the only city I've heard of and Duluth. Greenbay is a bit of a detour though, if we're heading east from Fargo.

The Fargo detour could always be nixed, but for some reason, I really want to do it. I'm sure it'll be a huge disappointment and be utterly shit, but there you go

cxx

Michigan has some beautiful coastline and villages - Traverse City, Saugatuck, Sleeping Bear Dunes, etc. Have you thought about taking one of the ferries across the lake - from Ludington SS Badger, Lake Michigan Car Ferry | Manitowoc, WI - Ludington, MI or Muskegon http://www.lake-express.com/

In Southern Michigan Greenfield Village, The Henry Ford and the Rouge Tour are all worth doing too http://www.thehenryford.org/index.aspx

Seem to recall the Sault Ste Marie locks trip was fun, and when we drove through Wisconsin we passed through http://www.wisdells.com/wisconsin-dells.htm

Unless you want to sit in horrific traffic jams I'd avoid Toronto.

Bob

I had a quick google as I liked the idea, just wasn't sure how practical it might have been.

The Ford Museum was something I wanted to do last time, but was going to be to much of a detour and if we're running around the northern end of the state might be able, but it's something I'm not crossing off the list just yet.

sir_eccles

Data geniuses have figured out what the ultimate U.S. road trip looks like

Bob

I saw that too....looked like good timing.

Not sure how we'd incorporate it though

Bob

So the missus was reading about there being a meteor shower or something like that happening over northern Wisconsin around abouts when we'd be there.

That might be something to check out...would be nice to see a bit of something different out there.

Greenbay, is going to be a bit to much of a detour.

Bob

So things are still in the works.

NY folks, is Sleepy Hollow worth driving through? What about breakfast?

Might be moot as it would be rather early as planning to hit PA by early morning, but thinking of hitting the TPZ or is that a bad idea? Wasn't there some works going on with it?

Bob

And we're back. 3,630 miles in total over 14 states.

Pittsburgh and Cleveland were the low points. Minneapolis and Duluth were both fun surprises. Dubuque, IA wasn't that bad, certainly crossing the Mississippi was impressive.

Lake Superior was fantastic as was the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.

Also random places along the way included the Dum, Dum lollipop factory, a WW2 air museum in the middle of nowhere, Minihaha Falls in MN and Baseball hall of fame in Cooperstown, NY.

As bad as people said the traffic would be in Chicago and Toronto, which it was in sheer volume, it wasn't that bad to drive in, all very sedate compared to Boston, pretty polite and it all moved along nicely.

username.exe

Great trip!

I bet everyone is glad to be back sleeping in their own beds.

Were you able to avoid eating too much junk food on the road, or did you just accept your fate?

Bob

Great to be home!

We tried to avoid chain places to eat, or eat at a few that we don't have down our way like Bubba Gumps. Some fantastic local little places along the way that were a lot of fun.

We did hit one McD's in Iowa after driving through 10 towns which didn't have any petrol stations and everyone needed to pee in the worst way and another McD's on the way home because it was raining so hard we did the drive through. Irony there being, having driven through tornado alley and not a thing, there was one a mile away when we were in Cooperstown, NY and all had to huddle up in the museum atrium while the warning was going on and the power was flickering off

Eating out so much though, I put on all my pre-summer weight that I had lost biking