The past year has been a nightmare and now that I’m vaccinated and have personal time to burn, it seemed like a perfect time for a road trip in my new MINI. Initially, I’d planned to drive to Greensboro and meet Bob there for a remote location of the Saturday Night Dance Party (with special guests, Mike and Jane). Sadly, two days before we were scheduled to leave, their daughter was diagnosed with Covid. Luckily, Gogo is doing well but Bob and I didn’t want to risk it. Bob backed out altogether and I scrambled to come up with an alternate plan.

I decided to take a trip around Lake Michigan by way of Minnesota. I set put the top down and the radio up and headed to the Wisconsin Dells right after work.

By the time I made it to the freeway, traffic eased up substantially and I made the drive in a little over three hours!

The next morning I set out for Duluth. The first thing I did was ask Waze to avoid any freeways. Then I set a course for the Apple Blossom Scenic Byway. Along the way I saw a lot of typical Wisconsin sites.

I stopped for gas and bought an apple fritter to take with me to the Apple Blossom Scenic Byway. However, it was raining pretty hard so a picnic appeared to be out of the question.

I missed the blossoms by a week!

The road was fun to drive, very twisty, but the low clouds and rain meant there really wasn’t a view. It’s too bad because the Byway runs across the mountain tops that overlook the Mississippi river and the views are probably stunning when they aren’t experiencing torrential downpours!

When the Byway ended I hopped on the great river road and hauled ass along the river. In Winona I crossed the Mississippi again and continued to drive north next to the river but on the Wisconsin side.

Along the way, I drove through nearly constant downpours.

Finally, I took a “shortcut” on a different scenic route. There was no traffic and it was very rural, so I switched to sport mode and fired up the Fun Button!

Afterwards I continued north to Duluth. Although I’m using this weekend to drive around Lake Michigan, I thought it would be fun to catch a glimpse of Lake Superior on my way. Thanks to the nice clerk at the Tru by Hilton Duluth, I can see it from here!