whiskeytacos
Observer
Hey everyone. My wife and I got home a little over a week ago from a whirlwind trip around the country. I left at 4am on Dec. 14, 2015 from Brooklyn, NY with a buddy of mine from the Bronx, NY.
Here's the truck setup for the most part before I loaded it down with camping gear and supplies.
The first day we hit 880 miles to my grandmother's home / family farm in Northern Michigan. Mason County, to be specific. That leg of the journey is usually without mention, save for my friend getting a speeding ticket immediately after I said "hey take it easy while we're on I-80, Ohio State Troopers are vicious." I woke up to the siren minutes later.
We arrived in Michigan to rain and wind, so after a few drinks we headed to bed in a home built in 1873 after a cooking fire on the lumber farm ceased production to build a house for the injured woman (my Grandmother's late husband's grandmother). It's a registered centennial farm and the land has been in the family since the mid 1800s. I forgot to get a current pic of the house.
After spending the night with family and seeing my father for the first time in years, we headed farther north to Petoskey, to see friends. I'll just say my buddy and his friend were in the same unit while serving in Iraq as Marines, and I had a hard time keeping up with the beers after 5 or 6 hours. Northern Michigan is a truly beautiful place.
I hit 25,000 miles on my Tacoma just before the Mackinac Bridge, where we were required to have an escort due to the high clearance of the vehicle and winds over 35 knots with 50 knot gusts across the span. Once we got nice and settled into the windy and sandy Upper Peninsula, we made our way to a campground at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The road in was wet, but nothing that required 4WD. We did have to clear a couple of fallen tree limbs, but once we made it to camp the rain subsided just long enough to cook dinner. Then the rain and wind returned.
part 2 up next
Here's the truck setup for the most part before I loaded it down with camping gear and supplies.
The first day we hit 880 miles to my grandmother's home / family farm in Northern Michigan. Mason County, to be specific. That leg of the journey is usually without mention, save for my friend getting a speeding ticket immediately after I said "hey take it easy while we're on I-80, Ohio State Troopers are vicious." I woke up to the siren minutes later.
We arrived in Michigan to rain and wind, so after a few drinks we headed to bed in a home built in 1873 after a cooking fire on the lumber farm ceased production to build a house for the injured woman (my Grandmother's late husband's grandmother). It's a registered centennial farm and the land has been in the family since the mid 1800s. I forgot to get a current pic of the house.
After spending the night with family and seeing my father for the first time in years, we headed farther north to Petoskey, to see friends. I'll just say my buddy and his friend were in the same unit while serving in Iraq as Marines, and I had a hard time keeping up with the beers after 5 or 6 hours. Northern Michigan is a truly beautiful place.
I hit 25,000 miles on my Tacoma just before the Mackinac Bridge, where we were required to have an escort due to the high clearance of the vehicle and winds over 35 knots with 50 knot gusts across the span. Once we got nice and settled into the windy and sandy Upper Peninsula, we made our way to a campground at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The road in was wet, but nothing that required 4WD. We did have to clear a couple of fallen tree limbs, but once we made it to camp the rain subsided just long enough to cook dinner. Then the rain and wind returned.
part 2 up next
