Don’t cross Iowa unless you start with a full tank of gas. It’s pretty vacant all the way across.
Hey! I resemble that remark. We have plenty of gas stops. Just don’t wait too long to fill up though, because stations in smaller towns are closed by 10 or 11.
I don’t think Asimovian will get this far south anyway. Good thing too, because I’d be hard-pressed to come up with sight-seeing suggestions. Unless you like subtle. (Very subtle.)
Mid May would probably be the ideal time of year. Spring is in full swing and the heat of the summer starts in earnest in about mid June. Mid April can be phenominal, but there’s always a chance of it being in the 40s and making outdoorsy stuff sucky.
One of my favorite things is the way Chicago explodes with life on those first few weeks of warm weather. The lakefront is to die for. The winter makes us experience and savor it so much more.
BLASPHEMY! It’s not a real pasty without rutabegas.
If you go the U.P. route, you could also go the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore near Munising (it’s on the way). There’s some great day hikes or you can take a boat and see the cliffs from the lake.
If you don’t go up north, you should definitelly go to Duluth before you leave. It’s an easy 2 or 2.5 hour drive from Minneapolis.
Early April is still “the very dead of winter” anywhere in the Upper Midwest. It won’t be snowy and pretty that time of year, just gray and bare and depressing. I’d recommend June so you can enjoy the beaches - anytime before then and the water will be too cold to swim in.
I say screw the Wisconsinites and stick to the state that the coolest people come from - Michigan! If I had some time to kill in my home state, this is what I’d do:
- go walleye fishing on Lake Erie (try to ignore the dead fish smell)
- eat at Zingerman’s deli in Ann Arbor
- shop in art galleries in Saugatuck
- eat at Hermann’s European Cafe in Cadillac
- gaze in quiet awe at Sleeping Bear Dunes, right before I barrel down to the lake
- get cherry pie at Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor
- visit lighthouses and wineries on Leelanau & Old Mission peninsulas
- eat fudge and ride horses on Mackinac Island
- eat pasties in the UP, and do all the stuff Athena mentioned
You won’t regret it. 
If you go to Traverse City, I suggest a detour to Sleeping Bear Dunes http://www.nps.gov/slbe/
Actually eastern Iowa can be quite scenic (esp NE Iowa).
Brian
There are literaly so many great places and things to do in Wisconsin, I can’t tell you them all. It’s more like tell me an area and I’ll give you a large list of what to see and do in about fifty miles. There are still some areas that are boring, if you need big cities though.
The Apostile Islands are a pristine day visit for most people. Only one island has any privite ownership, and half is a state park. You can not use soap in the park or wear tanning lotion in the water, because it takes a couple years to break down in the water. Unless you get there after a flood, you can see the bottom of the lake from the cliffs of the islands. It is crystal clear. Bayfield is right across from Madeline Island which is the one that has resisidents. You would like board in Bayfeld or another local town, or a cabin and take the ferry to Madeline or a boat trip to one of the other islands, and see the light houses,or super wild woods and wetlands. The adventurous can kyak between islands and go into the archs under the island edges. I’ve seen French Voyagers 20 in a boat paddling along in custom, 6 inchs above the waterline. I was nervous whith that and I wasn’t in it. Many of the islands have a few hike in primative sites you carry out everything back from. You must register in Bayfield. You schedule a water taxi to take you out and pick you up. They have a meuseum on Madiline with artifacts from the first French and Indian settlements. The stuff is hundred of years old and unique. You can ride a clipper ship, take dinner boat tours, and there’s some race they have during the summer. There’s stiil much for just there. I didn’t even get farther than the immediate area, but that’s it.
[Referee Signalling an Official Timeout!]
There is a third way to Wisconsin via carferry on the charmingly named SS. Badger from Ludington ( which has a lovely little town and it’s own sweet lighthouse over to the Cheese State.
Really, Michiganderians, you should know about these kind of things. C’monnnnn, people!
I call a game misconduct and charge all Homies to spend the afternoon at Bronner’s during Xmas season.
[resume discussion]
(I love the west coast of the state. Ann Arbor is awesome, too in the eats, food & lodging and Stuff to do. It is probably the cultural highlight of the state. )
Saugatuck is a great half day exploration with its cutesy shops and eats. Fantastic indy music store with a small section of books ( I haven’t been there in three years, so maybe the book section has expanded.)Open Door Music There is also, if you are into this kinda thing, an excellent children’s toy shop called Sandcastles down inthe building on the water. It’s Mother store is in Holland and should not be missed. Saugatuck is Michigan’s Gay little commune. It has the nick name of Sausagetuck.
Driving north you will hit Holland ( very clean and very Dutch. Don’t go on a Sunday as everything shuts down, thanks to the Dutch Reformists there.) There is at least one good indy book store here, on the main street, whose name I cannot recall at the moment. Many good restaurants. You can see a spectacular sunset from the State Park, depending on Michigan’s lovely weather, for $6 or so. Get there early for a front row parking spot, bring a pizza and walk along the pier and take pictures of Little Red, the light house. Loads of sand. Oh.dear.god. is there ever. Wear Teva’s or go barefoot until the peir. Dont’ even think about swimming. I’ve been there in May and late june and never seen anyone in the water.
Farther north is
Muskegon but there really isn’t anything to do there.Not that we’ve ever found. North of that is Whitehall/ Montague very quaint. Montague is microscopically small, but they have an indy bookstore there with coffee. Nice people. White hall has a few shops, don’t really recall much as we stay with friend there and never see anything unless I volunteer to go off to get something.
Traverse City is one of my favorite places. It is the Cherry Capitol of the world and also has some really good wineries up in the bay area.
If you go in mid spring, there is cherry festival that will guarantee you having everything you could never imagine being covered in cherries or flavored in cherries. It’s a bit of a comedy, according to a neighbor who has done this kinda thing.
The downtown is alot like Ann Arbor. Lots of cutesy shopping and places to eat. Trendy beautiful people in their yuppified/hippified lifestyle. It is very very very hard to get a room on the weekend in the summer ( if at all if you don’t plan a head, I know from experience. With no reservation and a plan to wing it, we were SOL.) Several awesome bookstores. One is called, Treetops (or something with trees in the title. Just Spec.tac.u.lar. The other’s are nearly just as good.
If you drive south and around to Wisconsin, you and stop to see the Amish in Shipshewanna. It is a short jog out of the way and interesting.
The UP is amazingly beautiful. It is also amazingly huge and a bit of a drag to drive the entire stretch, though it is an interesting thing to see all the different housing standards on your drive ( from the No Housing Codes were utilized in the reconstruction of this trailer to the McMansion types that crop up every once in a great while.)
And, true to form, there are casino’s just out side of Traverse City and dotted all over the UP and Great White North, eh. If you are into that kinda thing.
I’ve read that sentence a few times, and it’s still not making sense.
Don’t do the northern route if you’re not doing it in July through October. April in the UP is really, really miserable. If it’s a cold April, it’ll be full on winter - 3 or 4 foot snow banks, probably grey or black from the accumulated dirt of the previous few months. If it’s warm, think 3 or 4 feet of snow melting all at once, full of dirt and gravel. There’s a reason we call it “mud season.”
A lot of the activies I mention (Mackinac Island, boat rides, hiking) are only open/doable in the summer. And April ain’t summer in the UP.
June can be nice, but it’s buggy.
On the other hand, there ain’t no better place to be in the summer and fall. It’s gorgeous.
I knew my codnative functions were going to Hell last night, yet I posted.
Redo:
Many of the islands have a few hike in primative sites. You carry out everything back from the islands.
A little add on:
Snake Island is to be avoided. It’s solid with them.
Re-Redo:
Many of the islands have a few hike [hikes] in primative [primitive] sites. You carry out everything [that you brought to] the islands.
Fortunately, there are no poisonous snakes native to Wisconsin.
Great. So they’re all immigrants, then?
I was kind of surprised you were the first person to mention this. My good friend and coworker, whose parents we would be visiting when we went to Ann Arbor, used to work there. I have been treated to their desserts before! But she tells me that the absolute best thing about it is the sandwiches, which don’t travel as well. So I’m looking forward to the opportunity to have some fresh Zingerman’s! I’m told that they are world-famous, and with good reason.
Blah…what a trade-off. I’m really, really not big on bugs, but if that’s the only time of year where we can do some of the fun touristy stuff without seeing the yuckage, I suppose I can suck it up. Jakeline will attest to the fact that I freak out and go into Terminator mode if so much as a small fly dares show itself inside my house.
I can’t begin to tell you how much that idea appeals to me. Again, I’ll have to check with the wife, because part of the joy is in the drive. How long do these ferry rides take?
This sounds really, really tasty except for the fact that I don’t think I’ve ever tasted a rutabega. I’m a little frightened, since I tend to be picky about vegetables. But I’ll definitely pick one up if we’re out that way.
er, if you don’t like bugs, don’t come to the UP. At least not in the summer, and especially not in June. The skeeters are usually gone by July and August, but there’s still flies (thankfully not the biting ones, at least not in most places).
I can give you my assurances, however, that there are NO bugs in the UP from December through March 
Rattlers
Iv’e seen a skin that someone kept after killing it that was mounted on his wall. I have seen a 10inch one on a path while hiking. The bluffs along the Mississipi are full of them. The resisdents have to be careful in the spring, because they show up all over the towns.
Wow, I didn’t know there were so many Madisonians here. I wouldn’t rule out Chicago, but it’s up to you. If you do make it, sounds like a Dopefest should be in order too. Definitely an afternoon beer on the Memorial Union Terrace is suggested.
Not mentioned is a place for the best pies in the world. On your way from Madison to Minn is a place in Osseo, near Eau Claire, called Norske Nook. Go, and eat. I always have 2 pieces at least. The owner was on Letterman once making her pies there. She said they didn’t turn out because the dairy products in NY didn’t match what she used in Wis.
The ducks in the Dells might be ok, but be selective in the Dells.
Pictured Rocks, someone mentioned, in the UP is on my short list this summer or nect.
If you want to avoid crowded and chaotic Madison and really relax, head toward the Mississippi River, and visit the beautiful green hills of Southwest Wisconsin. Vernon County and Crawford County, for instance.