Need to get out of Appleton, WI - 7 day road trip

[melf]

Hello,

My husband and I are travelling with our two small dogs to anywhere but here. We are open to any ideas that you may have. The travel dates are tentatively Mar. 9-16...only 7 days. I don't want to go to the east coast at all or travel through Nebraska and/or Kansas due to wanting to see more adventurous sights. We are planning on travelling in our conversion van, so we will be able to pull over and camp anywhere. I'm interested in going south along the Mississippi River to see how far we can get but I am open to ANY OTHER ideas. We enjoy: pulling over for random-who-would-make-time-for-that sights, hiking, camping, photo ops, beautiful landscapes and interesting facts/historical locations. We are in our late 20's as well, so any ideas on bars/restaurants/events along the route would be greatly appreciated! Thoughts, suggestions???

Thank you in advance!

Mel F.

[Lifemagician]

Hi Mel, and Welcome to the Great American Roadtrip Forum.

Have you thought of hopping in the car and hitting the road to wherever.... No knowing what you may come across. No knowing what will catch your interest, or where the next sign may lead you.

Lifey

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

I think your instincts are dead on. If you want to get out of Appleton and don't want to go to the East Coast or the Great Plains, then an exploration of the Great River Road is definitely in order. The thing is, the Great River Road is not a single highway. It is a collection of roads in different states that have in common only that they run more or less along the Mississippi. To learn more about each segment, you would have to do a search on {state name Great River Road}. The other thing to keep in mind about driving down the Mississippi, is that despite the river being a major transportation artery, large cities are the exception rather than the rule. For every St. Louis, Memphis or New Orleans (That's actually about all of them!) there are dozens, if not scores of Keokuks, Hannibals, and Cape Girardeaus - great little towns that are a pleasure to walk through and explore at a relaxed pace. I would actually recommend that you plan on visiting those three towns, as well as Nauvoo, Vicksburg, and Natchez. The other thing to note about the Mississippi is that it is a natural bird migration route, the Mississippi Flyway, and so there are many, many national wildlife refuges and state parks all along its length. The state parks make for great places to pull up for the night and enjoy being 'on the river'.

With your available time, you could easily get all the way to New Orleans at a relaxed pace (Be sure to cross the river at least once by ferry.) and still have time for an alternate route back. The one I would suggest is the Natchez Trace from Natchez to Nashville and then northward on US-31/US-231 past Mammoth Cave National Park, US-41 through historic Vincennes, and then cutting over to Champaign to pick up IL-47 to swing wide of Chicago on your way back to Dairyland.

AZBuck

[melf]

I have thought of that but I'm unable to release my "planning" personality. I do want to take as much in as possible and would like to research a route before hand to see interesting sites that we may miss if we winged it. My husband has the same thoughts as you, so we'll see if I'll be able to do that on this trip.....:) Thank you for your input!

[melf]

Thank you so much for the info, AZBuck! I was thinking that New Orleans may be too far of a stretch to make it to, but worth a try! I'll definiately look into the little towns that you have mentioned as I'm more of a small, relaxed town person, than big cities. Mammoth Cave National Park would be something worth looking into for a day or two. Thanks!