Road Trip from north Alabama to northern Michigan

[akt85]

This month, me and my mom are driving from Huntsville, Alabama to Mackinaw City, Michigan and take a ferry over to Mackinac Island. On the way we are taking I-65 to Indianapolis then I-69 to Lansing and then U.S. 127 to I-75. On the way back, to avoid Indy 500 Traffic and to check out a museum we want to see in Cincinnati, we are taking I-75 to I-71 back to I-65 with a detour on U.S. 23 to bypass Detroit via Ann Arbor.

This will be my first time in Michigan and driving in the Midwest. What can we expect as far as driving in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio this time of year in May, and other drivers in general, and construction on the routes given?

[GaryV]

As the saying goes, there are 2 seasons in Michigan: Winter and Construction. Somewhere you'll likely encounter it. Here's a resource: https://mdotjboss.state.mi.us/MiDrive/map

Use a mapping software to avoid the biggest delays. However in my experience, I've found that the Google Lady often underestimates the delay time for construction or accidents, sometimes vastly underestimating it.

When I saw this thread title, my first thought was, "US-31 the entire way!"

[Flint1979]

This month, me and my mom are driving from Huntsville, Alabama to Mackinaw City, Michigan and take a ferry over to Mackinac Island. On the way we are taking I-65 to Indianapolis then I-69 to Lansing and then U.S. 127 to I-75. On the way back, to avoid Indy 500 Traffic and to check out a museum we want to see in Cincinnati, we are taking I-75 to I-71 back to I-65 with a detour on U.S. 23 to bypass Detroit via Ann Arbor.

This will be my first time in Michigan and driving in the Midwest. What can we expect as far as driving in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio this time of year in May, and other drivers in general, and construction on the routes given?

They drive pretty crazy around here but on the freeway you can keep it around 75-80 mph and be fine. It won't be that bad weather wise so that will be fine. Any construction I can think of in Michigan along your route not sure about anything on 69 or 127 but 75 will have construction, right now the Zilwaukee Bridge is closed in the southbound direction and 675 is the detour through Saginaw. Also 23 has some construction in the Brighton area around the 96 interchange and a few exits are closed. Up North the Mackinac Bridge is down to two lanes (one in each direction). If you're driving slower by best advice would be to stay in the right lane.

[formulanone]

Be aware of Michigan Lefts; you'll either love them or hate them. (Probably depends on when and where you catch them.) I haven't been further north in Michigan than Traverse City, so I'm not sure if they are used in the UP. They seem to be more common in the Detroit Metro and larger cities.

US 23 in Michigan might be busier than you think during rush hours. It has HOV lanes.

I-65 can be bumpy through the southern third of Kentucky. My wife and I call them "sudden ski jumps". The road's smooth...Must be the soil subsurface?

I-65 in Tennessee makes up for it by having large potholes scattered everywhere.

After Florida, the state with the thickest patrol presence I've experienced is Indiana. Mind those limits; this is usually more of an issue on the busier rural roads. You'll go down from 55-60mph to 25-35 without much warning. If you let a faster vehicle go ahead to be the bait like I do, you'll be fine.

Remember it's apparently "Mack-in-awe" like "meemaw".

[hbelkins]

I-65 can be bumpy through the southern third of Kentucky. My wife and I call them "sudden ski jumps". The road's smooth...Must be the soil subsurface?

Karst topography. That's why there are so many caves in the area, and a Corvette-eating sinkhole.

[formulanone]

I-65 can be bumpy through the southern third of Kentucky. My wife and I call them "sudden ski jumps". The road's smooth...Must be the soil subsurface?

Karst topography. That's why there are so many caves in the area, and a Corvette-eating sinkhole.

That's it, couldn't remember the name of it.

[Flint1979]

Be aware of Michigan Lefts; you'll either love them or hate them. (Probably depends on when and where you catch them.) I haven't been further north in Michigan than Traverse City, so I'm not sure if they are used in the UP. They seem to be more common in the Detroit Metro and larger cities.

US 23 in Michigan might be busier than you think during rush hours. It has HOV lanes.

I-65 can be bumpy through the southern third of Kentucky. My wife and I call them "sudden ski jumps". The road's smooth...Must be the soil subsurface?

I-65 in Tennessee makes up for it by having large potholes scattered everywhere.

After Florida, the state with the thickest patrol presence I've experienced is Indiana. Mind those limits; this is usually more of an issue on the busier rural roads. You'll go down from 55-60mph to 25-35 without much warning. If you let a faster vehicle go ahead to be the bait like I do, you'll be fine.

Remember it's apparently "Mack-in-awe" like "meemaw".

The lanes you are thinking of on US-23 are flex lanes, they are only open during peak travel times and can be used by anyone regardless of the amount of people in the vehicle.

[Flint1979]

And regarding US-23, it's a pain in the ass. There really isn't any part of it that I can think of that is even a decent drive. It's mainly four lanes (two in each direction) with high volumes of traffic, the flex lanes are open during rush hours in the peak direction and the only time you get a third lane is on the north side of Ann Arbor where M-14 is running concurrent with it. Other than that it's going to be two lanes of a lot of people driving too slow for a freeway. It especially gets bad in the Fenton area, Brighton area, Ann Arbor area and Milan area. I have seriously tried to bypass it before but there really is no good way to bypass it if you are going to Ohio. I have taken US-127 to Cincinnati before to avoid US-23 and I-75.

[akt85]

I do have another question. With the issues with trade right now between the U.S. and Canada right now, what is the traffic situation on the crossing at Sault Saint Marie at the moment? Is it still possible with a passport to go across the bridge to Canada for a day trip at Sault Saint Marie and then back to the U.S.?

[Flint1979]

I do have another question. With the issues with trade right now between the U.S. and Canada right now, what is the traffic situation on the crossing at Sault Saint Marie at the moment? Is it still possible with a passport to go across the bridge to Canada for a day trip at Sault Saint Marie and then back to the U.S.?

Yeah. All the border crossings are open.

[vdeane]

I do have another question. With the issues with trade right now between the U.S. and Canada right now, what is the traffic situation on the crossing at Sault Saint Marie at the moment? Is it still possible with a passport to go across the bridge to Canada for a day trip at Sault Saint Marie and then back to the U.S.?

Yes, but there's the chance that you could win a free all-expenses paid vacation to El Salvador.

Seriously, I haven't crossed the border this year, but as I understand it, things are mostly normal for US citizens, though sometimes customs on either side might give more scrutiny than previously, and CBP has been known to ask for people's political opinions; phone searches going into the US are also a lot more common than they used to be.

[NWI_Irish96]

I do have another question. With the issues with trade right now between the U.S. and Canada right now, what is the traffic situation on the crossing at Sault Saint Marie at the moment? Is it still possible with a passport to go across the bridge to Canada for a day trip at Sault Saint Marie and then back to the U.S.?

Yes, but there's the chance that you could win a free all-expenses paid vacation to El Salvador.

Seriously, I haven't crossed the border this year, but as I understand it, things are mostly normal for US citizens, though sometimes customs on either side might give more scrutiny than previously, and CBP has been known to ask for people's political opinions; phone searches going into the US are also a lot more common than they used to be.

We're going to Toronto in June. Before we reach the border on our way back, we're deleting all social media and financial apps from our phones.

[akt85]

My mom and I took our road trip to Michigan last week. Heading up there, traffic was manageable once we got north of Nashville. We were quite surprised how much less traffic there was on I-69 and U.S. 127 in Michigan. Headed back, we hung out for a few hours mid-afternoon in Frankenmuth and let Detroit area rush hour traffic die down. U.S. 23 between Flint and Toledo on a Thursday evening after 7 P.M. was no problem despite the construction north of Ann Arbor.

I must say, the Midwest is very pretty away from the cities with all the farmland and barns by the main highways. Indiana, Michigan and Ohio seem to have the right balance of billboards and open land unlike the South which is littered with billboards by the interstates. I also liked the 75 MPH Speed Limit on I-75 in northern Michigan.

Despite going to Sault Saint Marie and the Soo Locks, we did not cross the bridge into Canada and try coming back into the U.S. and risk running into a less than friendly border patrol agent. However, the toll booth attendants at the Mackinac Bridge and the Ohio Turnpike were very friendly (found out it would cost $1 to go from the Maumee exit where our hotel was to I-75 to visit the Museum of the Great Lakes in downtown Toledo).