Itinerary

The shakedown leg

Two hundred miles and three nights is the right first stop — far enough to shake something loose, close enough to fix it. Anything that rattles between Xenia and Archbold gets dealt with here, not in Manitoba.

Hookups

Full hookups on a pull-thru, so this is the one place early on to top the fresh tank, run the Truma hard, and confirm the EasyStart brings the A/C up on shore power without tripping.

Worth the walk

Sauder Village itself is next door — a working 19th-century living-history village, glass blowers and a working farm. Three nights makes it worth a day inside the gate.

It is a military installation

Camp Grayling is the Michigan National Guard's post and the trailer park sits inside the gate. Eligibility runs to active duty, Guard, Reserve, retired, DAV, Purple Heart, former POW, veteran caregivers and DoD civilians — have the credential in hand at the gate, not buried in a drawer.

Sites

About 70 wooded sites: 60 standard campers on 20/30-amp with water, sewer and cable, and only five true big-rig sites with 50-amp. At 23 feet the Globetrotter fits the standard sites without argument. Season runs the first Saturday in May through September 30, so mid-August is comfortably inside it.

One night, in and out

Straight shot up I-75. Arrive, plug in, sleep, roll. Refill water here — the next two nights are thinner.

First battery night

Hiawatha National Forest — no electric, no sewer. This is the first night the 200 Ah of Battle Born and the MultiPlus carry the trailer alone. Easy for one night; a useful read on where the Cerbo sits at breakfast before the harder stretch in North Dakota.

Crossing the Mackinac

The route runs I-75 over the Mackinac Bridge into the U.P. Steel grate deck in the inside lanes, crosswinds off the straits — outside lane, hands loose, no sudden corrections with a trailer behind.

The lake

Au Train Lake is quiet water in the middle of a national forest, twenty minutes off M-28. Loons at dusk if the weather cooperates.

A parking lot, not a campground

Host-style overnight in the cidery lot — no hookups, no water, no dump. Self-contained on batteries again, second night in a row. Arrive inside business hours, leave in the morning, and buy something; that is the whole arrangement and the reason it keeps working for the next rig.

Level and lit

Urban lots are rarely flat. Chock and level before unhitching anything, and pick a corner away from the delivery door and the dumpster run.

The long day

289 miles across the U.P. and down through Wisconsin, the longest leg so far at four and a half hours. Duluth arrives late in the afternoon; the descent into town on I-35 with Lake Superior opening up ahead is worth having a camera reachable.

Recovery stop

Shortest leg yet at 146 miles, and the first full hookups since Grayling after two nights on batteries. Dump, flush, fill, charge, laundry. Everything the next stretch will not offer.

An Airstream club park

Member-run park on the Mississippi, one of the oldest Airstream club parks in the country. Expect to be recognised by the rig and to lose an hour to a conversation about the caravan.

Last easy resupply

St. Cloud is twenty minutes west — the last full-size grocery, hardware, and RV parts within easy reach before North Dakota.

Positioning night

One night, full hookups, pull-thru. The job here is to arrive at Minot on Saturday clean, full, and empty — fresh tank topped, both grey and black dumped, batteries at 100%. Do all of it before pulling out.

Prairie wind

I-94 west of Fargo is open country with nothing to break a crosswind. Watch the flags, not the forecast, and plan the fuel stops on the leeward side of the pumps.

The buffalo

Jamestown keeps a 26-foot concrete bison on a hill above the interstate and a live herd, including white ones, below it. Five minutes off the highway.

No hookups — but water and a dump station

Juniper has drinking water, and a water fill and dump station that runs May through October 1. That makes it the last full service point before four nights across the two park units. Arrive with tanks empty and leave with them full.

Watch the trees

The Park Service warns that rigs over 13 feet of height risk damage from the cottonwoods over the loop. At roughly 9'9" with the Starlink mount the Globetrotter is well clear, but the branch that catches an awning arm does not care about the average.

Generators 8 to 8

Generator hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. with an effective muffler. Two nights on batteries with a mid-day Onan run inside the window is comfortable; running the Truma on LP rather than shore power is the whole point of the tankless.

Entrance fee

$30 per vehicle for seven days, and the interagency pass is honoured — one pass covers both the North Unit here and the South Unit at Cottonwood two days later. Fourteen-night maximum stay, not a factor at two.

The North Unit

Quieter than Medora by an order of magnitude. Bison on the road, the Little Missouri below the campground, and a scenic drive out to Oxbow Overlook that runs the length of the unit.

No hookups and no dump station

This is the thin one. Cottonwood has seasonal potable water and nothing else — no electric, no sewer, and no dump on site. Dump and fill at Juniper before leaving the North Unit; Medora is five minutes away if something has to be dealt with mid-stay.

Four nights off-grid, ending here

By departure on September 1 the trailer will have been four consecutive nights without shore power. Two Onan runs inside the 8 a.m.–8 p.m. window will cover it easily; the Orion keeps the batteries fed on the 79-mile hop down here regardless.

Cell service is unreliable

Coverage in the South Unit ranges from moderate to none depending on carrier. Starlink has clear sky over the river bottom, which makes it the primary rather than the backup for these two days.

Shortest leg of the trip

79 miles, an hour and change — the shortest drive between any two stops on the whole run. A morning move, with the afternoon free for the Scenic Loop Drive and the prairie dog towns.

First shore power in five days

Electric sites and a dump station. Full reset: dump both tanks, fill fresh, charge to 100%, run the water heater on shore power, laundry if the park has it.

The lake

Sakakawea is the third-largest reservoir in the United States by area, held back by Garrison Dam right next to the park. The dam tour and the national fish hatchery below it are both worth an afternoon.

September light

The first two nights of September on the northern plains — lows starting to drop into the forties. Not a furnace night yet, but the first stop where the heat might come on before dawn.