My son and I went on an epic road trip last weekend, crossing 4 states with 75 sports cars in a charity rally. We were in the car about 16 hours / 1,000 miles through the Midwest – navigating through 20 checkpoints & activities. That’s our car in the picture above!

The rally is like ‘The Amazing Race’ show on wheels. Great father-son activity. We drove smart, didn’t see a single police officer, and finished third out of all the teams. A great weekend. The rally has raised almost $350K for a Minnesota school for kids who are hard of hearing, or lost their hearing entirely.

On our way back from Chicago, I was amazed how how much of the Midwest I’ve covered in the last year. It was the eighth overnight road trip I’ve taken in the last 12 months – reaching Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit, St. Louis, Springfield, Green Bay, Minnesota’s North Shore, and a couple trips through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. (I also spent a few nights in Columbus, but I flew there for that)

Plotted on the below map, it looks like a big spider web. I would guess it represents close to 100 hours of driving …

I have one more trip coming up this week. A Jeep caravan from Minneapolis and across the state (‘Border to Border’) to the northwest corner where MN meets ND & Canada. It’s marked with dots on the map. A few other road trips have been discussed, but I don’t have anything on the calendar yet for late summer or fall.

As much as I complain about the weather in the Midwest half the year, the summers & falls are absolutely gorgeous. When I put together our retirement ‘Travel Framework’, these were exactly the kind of trips I hoped to take in the summer. Stay close to home and enjoy what we have here.

Related: Travel Planning Framework

What road trips do you have planned this summer? Are you taking more than you expected to?

Images: (c) MrFireStation.com