Day 1: To Michigan

Day mileage: 563.1
States: Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan
Highlights: Ohiopyle, Mama Mary’s Hummus, McCourtie Park, CAA-Michigan
Noteworthy food stops: None
Overnight: Fairfield Inn & Suites, Jackson, MI

This post is Day 1 of our summer road trip. For more, visit our trip overview post.

The Route

Today was about mileage. Plain and simple. We needed to gain as much distance as was reasonable on the way to North Dakota. Traditional routing would have taken us around Chicago to I-94, but we realized it would not add that much mileage or time to go through Michigan and visit the Upper Peninsula.

The first iteration had us track through Ann Arbor. Cool, a college town. Then we realized that a priority geocache – CAA-Michigan – was just west, so we altered course slightly. This set us up well for a straight shot north on Day 2 through Lansing (yay, state capital) and Mackinaw City to the U.P.

In an effort to minimize time on the Pennsylvania Turnpike (affectionately, the “Penna Pike”), we contemplated adding Fallingwater to the trip as well. As much as I want to visit and tour the Frank Lloyd Wright house, research about the tours quickly squashed those plans. Advance reservations, timed entries, and minimum of 90 minutes on-site added up to “not this time.” But the route was still a good one, so we stuck with it.

About Our Day

We finished packing the car and hit the road. Though a little behind schedule, pandemic traffic meant that we had no difficulty getting out of the DC area.

Ohiopyle State Park
Although today was about distance and not attractions, having places to stop and stretch legs is always a good thing on long drives. Geocaches placed here encouraged the stop, and we were pleasantly surprised by what we found on-site. Looks as though there are a number of rafting and other watercraft opportunities as well. We took a quick stroll, grabbed an unexpected passport stamp for the Potomac Heritage NST at the Visitor Center.

Mama Mary’s Hummus
We always like to add local food to our trips. Somehow, I stumbled across this gas station in Olmsted Falls, OH (Cleveland suburbs) in my research and saw that we would be nearby. Yes. You read that correctly: gas station hummus. They didn’t have any of the platters available that you see on their Instagram page, but they did have all different flavors, so we bought a pickle and an everything hummus and a container of pita chips. They were both very good. Although not necessarily worth a detour, it is a quirky little place and certainly memorable. Glad we stopped!

We had Ancient Lake (GC2DBE) on the list. It is a 2001 cache in Ohio that is disputed (with Shawnee Lookout Cache (GC31A)) as the oldest cache in the state. We already have Shawnee Lookout and given the late start to the day and the need to get to McCourtie Park before sunset for the CAA-Michigan, we skipped the hike/walk. Perhaps another trip.

McCourtie Park
Added to the list solely because the CAA-Michigan is here, this not-so-little park in Somerset Center, MI was a pleasant surprise. It is a 42 acre historic estate with cement bridges and other attractions. We arrived to find an overfilled parking lot as the park was hosting Music in the Park. We found parking on the road (following the lead of many other visitors) and made our way to the entrance on foot. Guided by our GPS, we located the CAA, a nearby virtual cache, and completed the on-site Adventure Lab. Due to time constraints and the crowds, we did not attempt the bonus cache and, unfortunately, did not get pictures of the amazing bridges in the park.

The final leg of the day was to the hotel in Jackson, MI. Our only Marriott stay of the trip; it was fine. There was a TownePlace Suites across the road and, solely by exterior appearances, I wished I had selected that location instead.

No food reports today. In fact, we struggled to find even fast food places to eat. Between rural areas and many dining rooms still being closed, the drive-thru lines were incredibly long and slow moving. Even a rest area along the Penna Pike had only one eatery (Burger King) open, and the line wrapped around half the dining area.