STW1 Hop 7: Michigan City IN to Stoughton WI

220 miles via I-94, US 41, WI 50, US 12, WI 89, US 14 and I-90. Cumulative tow miles: 1439. Truck miles: 282. Cumulative truck miles: 2296.

See that U-shaped dip on the Wisconsin portion of the route? I can thank the GPS for that. I was following the map until we got to WI, but then I made the mistake of listening to the GPS telling me to turn left onto WI 89. That was a 20-mile detour, apparently due to the fact that the GPS was set to “avoid small roads” and it regarded the short section of county road – a perfectly fine, flat, nicely paved county road – as a small road that had to be avoided. I have since reset the GPS to allow small roads.

I knew that this hop was going to be difficult regardless of the route I took. For months I have been planning a route that took us south of Chicago, then north to the west of Chicago. However, a day before the trip, as I was verifying the route for a final time, I discovered that a critical section of IL 47 was closed for construction. So I had to reconsider the route that Google had been recommending all along – straight through downtown Chicago on I-94. Lacking a good alternative, I bit the bullet and hauled the RV through Chicago. Very slow, very heavy traffic, very unpleasant.

But the slowest and most unpleasant section was the very first 31 miles in Indiana: the final 25 miles of I-94 in Indiana were under construction, with lane reductions and zig-zag lane changes. The result: those 31 miles took an hour to traverse. The total trip, which Google predicted to be 3 hours and 45 minutes, turned out to be 5 hours and 15 minutes – about 30 minutes of that due to the WI 89 detour. Exhausting.

Our home in Indiana was the Michigan City Campground. Besides giving us a day of rest, this stop was near the Indiana Dunes State Park which struck me as a place worth a visit. I will report on that trip separately. The other activity was a trip to the Blue Chip Casino where we left $100 for the local Indians.

The campground was nothing special. We were in a pull-through section near the highway which offered no shade, but was fine for two nights. The road was not noisy. The older section of the park had some nice facilities – a very nice swimming pool, a new playground, a large dog park and a small but very attractive community center. But the sites were very small and cramped with a lot of older rigs. It had a shanty town look.

The best thing about the park was the pond at the front. I took the photo on the right while walking Rusty shortly after we arrived. That photo alone made the stop worthwhile.

I would return.

And IN is our 35th state.