A Long Weekend Roadtrip through Indiana, Michigan & Illinois

If you’re new here, let me start off by saying Teddy is a huge Penn State Football fan. That’s where he went to college and we try to go to most home football games each year. In addition, we also try to go to at least one away game each season if we can.

In 2021 we headed to the University of Iowa and took a four day roadtrip through Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, & Minnesota for that game. In the fall of 2023, we traveled out to watch the University of Illinois game and made it a 3 day roadtrip through Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana.

DAY ONE

Stop 1: Flight from Baltimore to Chicago

While this one isn’t exactly a “stop” it is the first leg of our journey! We lucked out and ended up having an empty seat between us which you know is always the best. It was only a two or so hour flight so not bad.

Stop 2: Culvers for Lunch

After we landed, we were on our way to the next spot and needed to stop somewhere for lunch. I’ve had Culvers maybe once before but heard it’s good, so we tried it. Personally not my favorite but the fries were good.

Stop 3: The Found Cottage

This store is the whole reason we headed up the Michigan coast. Since we were visiting for a football game which is more Teddy’s thing, I added somewhere I’ve wanted to visit to the itinerary. I’ve wanted to visit this store for years so finally getting to go was a dream. We took our time wandering through the various booths and appreciating all the antiques and treasures throughout. I purchased one thing from here that was small enough to easily fit in my suitcase for the way home.

Stop 4: Bowerman Blueberries Farm Market

After our time at the Found Cottage, we headed back south toward our hotel for the night. On the way, we found a sign for this farm market and had to stop. We ended up with a few differently flavored donuts for a treat along our drive.

Stop 5: Saugatuck

We did no research ahead of time for this trip which is a rarity for us, but since we were mainly there for the football game, we knew we wouldn’t have a huge amount of time to do more. We stumbled across this little town and had to stop. We found a spot to park and then wandered into a few stores and then down by the water. I could see how spending a weekend here by the lakeshore would be an awesome trip.

Stop 6: Indiana Sand Dunes National Park

Our next stop was a new(ish) national park for us. Teddy had never been, but I had about 15 years ago on a trip but didn’t remember much of it. This is not a typical national park. Similar to how I mentioned that Hot Springs National Park is a bit unique, I’d say this one is similar. The park is not continuous so there’s a few different access points. The spot we visited, you had to enter through an industrial park which is just not the vibe we were going for. Once through the buildings, you can find a parking lot and then walk down to the beach. While the views from the beach are beautiful and you can see the buildings on the Chicago skyline, this is one of those parks where you have to really get off the beaten path to experience the park.

Stop 7: McVey’s Restaurant

After watching sunset on the sand, we found a spot for dinner in Lowell, Indiana. It was super cute and nice to just sit and rest for a bit after a pretty full day of flying and driving. After dinner we drove to Bourbonnais and checked into the Best western which is where we stayed for two nights.

DAY TWO

Stop 1: Penn State V. University of Illinois Football Game

We woke up and drove about an hour south toward Champaign which is where the University of Illinois is. We paid for parking in one of the lots and then walked by all the tailgaters on the way to the stadium. If you’ve ever been to a tailgate at Penn State, the volume and chaos is high. Walking through the tailgating at this game gave more church potluck vibes. It was wild how different they were.

The stadium was made of brick and was very clean and pretty. It is about half the size of Beaver stadium which you can tell when approaching it. We sat in the PSU section and had a great time cheering on the Nittany Lions!

Stop 2: Dinner in Bradley

After the game, we headed back toward our hotel through many farm fields. We stopped for dinner at the Hoppy Pig in Bradley and grabbed tacos and a buffalo chicken salad. We picked up a few snacks and then headed back to the hotel and watched more college football before calling it a day.

DAY THREE

Stop 1: Starved Rock State Park

While it was a crummy weather day where we were, we still wanted to get outside so we found a state park to visit. So we checked out of our hotel and headed toward Starved Rock state park in Oglsby, Illinois. We grabbed a slice of infamous breakfast pizza from Casey’s on the way. One of my favorites kinds of pizza is breakfast pizza (RIP Red Baron Sausage Scrambles) so this was a treat. While we wanted to go the entire way back the trail, it was just too muddy and rainy for us to make that fun so we went back a ways before turning around.

Stop 2: Downtown Naperville

After leaving the state park, we headed toward Naperville, IL which is right outside of Chicago. On the way, we found a coffee shop called Jeremiah Joe’s and popped in before continuing on our way. We parked in downtown Naperville and started walking around downtown. We ended up stumbling upon an art show downtown and I ended up buying two prints from the same photographer. It took me a bit to find a frame that would fit their thickness since they’re already matted but now both of them are hanging in my office and I love them.

After checking out the art show, we grabbed lunch at Sullivan’s Steakhouse. We double checked in the windows if we were dressed up enough to go in or not and it was pretty empty around 2 pm so we went for it. I got the Delmonico Sandwich which had ribeye, gruyère, arugula, and horseradish on a baguette. It was the best steak sandwich I’ve ever had. After that we walked into a few more shops before heading on toward Chicago.

Stop 3: A Walk in Chicago

Since we still had some time before our flight, we decided to head into Chicago and explore a bit. We parked by the waterfront and took a walk along the lakefront trail and then along the riverwalk. We walked a few miles and then headed back to the car and took a drive north along the lakeshore to enjoy more of the lake scenery. Then we headed to the airport for our flight back home.

Below is the general route we took for the weekend. The detour to the found cottage was definitely out of the way but more than worth it. I had so much fun browsing the various vendor stands. Overall, we had a great time on this trip and it was fun to have a few days just making decisions on a whim on what we want to do. Personally I wouldn’t enjoy traveling like this regularly, since I like to have an idea of how much time we do or don’t want in an area but it was fun for a long weekend.