2014 Big Truck across the NW, Day 0

Here we go again.  This time we're going for the unprecedented 3 week trip. This has taken a lot of planning, rearranging of schedules, and understanding from our respective employers. To my knowledge, I have not had 3 consecutive weeks off of work and/or school since I was 12 years old.  This has been a long time coming. The rig is sitting out in the driveway, packed up and ready to go.  New tires (first set made it 42k and 12 years), fresh fluids, and the Jeep is sporting a new look with a lift and some other goodies.

We leave as soon as the female Beutes are ready in the morning - a time that has yet to be estimated with better than a 1 hour confidence interval.  Stop #1 is the Porcupine Mountains in the good ol' UP. Despite having lived our whole lives in Michigan, none of us have ever been there.

Here's a preview of the tentative (this one is quite tentative - other than the first 4-5 stops, we have no reservations) route.  Fairly ambitious, but very do-able given the timeframe.

This trip is going to be an interesting mix of National Parks, crazy natural features, cool towns, an aquarium or two, surely double-digit playgrounds, some great mountain bike trails, a few microbreweries, the furthest NW we can get in the 48, hopefully no incidents like this, and the 1st ever ferry ride with this whole mess.

Thanks for everyone's support, well wishes, prayers, etc leading up to this, I'm sure we'll be fine.

 

Tomorrow, hopefully a description of no traffic, no bridge line, site 71 being the best possible site at Union Bay campground, and gas suddenly dropping to $2.50/gallon for the next few weeks.