Happy New Year, and welcome back to The Open Road Ahead! As 2025 ended and 2026 began, my wife and I set off once again for a holiday visit with family and friends in the Midwest. Our drive took us through seven states, and we tallied over 2,600 miles of driving in ten days. Christmas was a wonderful time, as we enjoyed the holiday season with all the best Minnesota and Wisconsin have to offer.
But, of course, this blog is never about simple trips from Point A to Point B! Along the way, we detoured to have lunch at a total tourist trap (and loved every minute!), visited one of the most impressive collections of historic vehicles I have ever seen, and raced a snowstorm across the Great Lakes.
Let’s begin:
Holiday Drive to the Midwest – 2025
2,600 miles of driving during the winter, but still plenty of opportunities for fun along the way!Departing the Monday before Christmas, we had clear skies and unseasonably warm temperatures as we began our drive westward.We stopped for dinner in the town of Monroeville, a suburb of Pittsburgh. Max and Erma’sis a small chain of casual restaurants in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana.Max and Erma’s was terrific! Our server was friendly and attentive, the food was super tasty, and the restaurant’s atmosphere was relaxed. I ordered “The Best Cheeseburger in America” (their name), and while I don’t know if it was the best in the country, it was very good. My wife’s turkey burger (served on a gluten free bun) was also excellent. Bonus points for the free cookie that came with my meal! Fueled up, we continued our drive.We made it to the town of Elyria, Ohio, before stopping for the night at a Holiday Inn. Half the drive was complete – next stop: Wisconsin!We continued our journey the next morning, cruising through the remainder of Ohio and into Indiana. Near mile marker 65 on I-90 in the Hoosier state, we crossed into the Central Time Zone.After detouring around the city of Chicago and navigating mercifully light traffic in Illinois, we crossed the state line into Wisconsin. Five hours later we pulled into our family member’s garage, our trip safely complete.
A Midwest Christmas
While running last-minute holiday errands I made sure to give Grace, our 2014 Grand Cherokee, a good wash and cleaning. Consider it a reward for a job well done!It was an absolutely lovely Christmas! Mabel, our relative’s beloved canine companion, posed patiently for me while I took this shot right before our family’s gift exchange.A few days after Christmas the mild temperatures departed and snow moved across the Midwest.The winter weather made for a great opportunity to test the new Nokian WR G5 Remedy tires that we had installed on the Jeep before our trip. The tires were absolutely fantastic. While the previous Nokian WR G4 all-weather tires were very good, the new G5 model is exceptional in the snow, slush, ice, and everything else Mother Nature threw at our vehicle in wintertime.One of the coolest stops during our visit was dinner at the Willow River Saloon in the town of Burkhardt, Wisconsin. Established in 1869, the saloon is almost as old as the state of Wisconsin (admitted to the union in 1848).Friendly staff, good food, relaxed vibes, and arcade games? What else could a guy ask for?And the food was really, really good. I had the spaghetti and meatballs, which was quite tasty. My wife and our relative both had the Friday Fish Fry, served with a choice of two sides. Such a cool place to eat!Our holiday adventures would take us as far west as the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.One of my highlights from our visit to Minneapolis? Helping our friends’ kids finish this enormous Lego project. Does it look familiar?It’s the house from the movie Home Alone! It’s easily the most complicated Lego set I’ve ever seen – the instruction book is over 450 pages long!On our last day in town, a dear relative took us to Pier 500, a restaurant overlooking the St. Croix River in downtown Hudson, Wisconsin.Pier 500 is one of my favorite restaurants in the area – the food is always consistently good. My order of Cajun-spiced walleye tacos were delicious!After a fun-filled and enjoyable week, it was time to pack up the Jeep and begin our drive back to New Jersey.
Historic Attractions Museum
We departed early the next morning as a snowstorm came through the region. I-94 in western Wisconsin was… interesting. It appeared that the highway had not been properly treated, causing ice to form on significant portions of the road. We saw numerous accidents and spin-outs as we crawled our way eastward. Fortunately, the Jeep (and the Nokian tires!) kept us safe and secure. About two hours later, we finally emerged from the worst of the weather.Wisconsin Dells (often referred to as “The Dells”) is a town centered around a scenic river gorge. Over the 20th century it became a noted resort destination, and now features numerous water parks, restaurants, and tourist attractions. Each time we drove past The Dells previously I would always remark to my wife that someday we should stop and see what the area all about. That someday arrived! My wife decided to take me to Buffalo Phil’s, a family-friendly restaurant that can seat over 500 guests, has two levels, and even features its own resident Lego artist. So… yeah… a tourist trap.Well, consider me trapped! This is but a small portion of the Star Wars universe that was recreated with Legos. This section featured a recreation of the Battle of Hoth from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Absolutely unreal.Star Wars not your thing? That’s ok. You can also travel the world!Long wait for a table? Kids need a break from the car? Buffalo Phil’s features a massive arcade where you can spend your time (and money).If you ask for a “train table,” your food will be delivered via model railroad.As for the food? It was… not awful. My chicken wrap was fine, although a bit bland. My wife had barbecue pork (tasty), served with mashed potatoes (which arrived cold), along with coleslaw (decent). Honestly, the tortilla chips and salsa were probably the best part of our meal. The restaurant did discount our meal on account of the frigid potatoes. Am I glad I went to Buffalo Phils? Yes. Will I go back? Probably not unless I’m looking to keep a troop of kids entertained during a road trip.Did I mention The Dells are a bit of a tourist trap? That’s ok, because it meant I got to fill up our Jeep while standing beneath a life-size dinosaur at this gas station.We arrived in the town of Beloit, Wisconsin, as snow was falling once again. We contemplated driving into downtown Beloit for dinner, but then noticed a bar near our hotel. The reviews looked promising, so we headed over to check it out. Plus, the name had a certain appeal to this kid from the Garden State!The food and service at Jersey’s Bar and Grill was terrific! I got a chicken bacon ranch wrap which was divine (I consider it a “make-up” wrap after my somewhat unsatisfying lunch) and my wife’s order of chicken breast, mashed potatoes (properly hot) and mixed vegetables was equally tasty.Buffalo Phil’s may have had model trains to deliver food, but Jersey’s had this roving robot assist the servers in getting entrees out to waiting customers. Quite cute, actually.After a good night’s sleep in our hotel, we made a quick stop at Blue Collar Coffee Co in downtown Beloit. Blue Collar is a small, local chain with locations in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Idaho.The coffee was fantastic! We grabbed our liquid fuel (and some free Blue Collar Coffee Co swag) and headed out to the car.Ten minutes later, we were across the Illinois state line in the town of Roscoe. Our destination: Historic Attractions, an automotive museum we had noticed on our drive out a week earlier.Historic Attractions is a car museum, but also much more. You begin your tour in the Old West, an exhibition that includes items such as this stagecoach from 1865.Annie Get Your Gun? The museum owns sharpshooter and Old West icon Annie Oakley’s shotgun.The museum has a sizable collection of artifacts from movies about the Old West as well, such as this prop train that was used by MGM for several films in the 1930s and 1940s.As the museum moved into exhibits on the 20th century, the first stop is for The King of Rock and Roll: Elvis Presley and his 1972 Lincoln Mark IV.Other pop stars on display included items from Buddy Holly and the incomparable Marilyn Monroe.The race car collection alone was worth the price of admission.As a kid, my dad took me to watch drag races each summer at tracks in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. One of my favorite cars was the Hawaiian Punch funny car, owned by Roland Leong. It was awesome to be standing in front of it, over 35 years since I last saw it in action.The top fuel dragster class was designed for pure speed – a tubular frame chassis with an engine, a transmission, wheels, and the driver. In the mid-20th century, the typical dragster had the driver sit behind a supercharged, nitromethane burning engine, while straddling the transmission. Drag racing was already a dangerous sport, but this design led to more than a few injuries when the motor or transmission failed.In the early 1970s, racer and inventor Don Garlits moved the driver’s seat in front of the engine and transmission, a life-saving innovation that is still the design benchmark today. Five-time world champion (and Pennsylvania native) Joe Amato’s 1998 race car was on display.Even people who aren’t fans of racing may recognize the name Richard Petty, a legend in the sport of stock car racing. His beautiful 1960 Plymouth raced in the 1960 and 1961 NASCAR seasons.Turning the corner, my inner 8-year old gasped and giggled in delight at seeing Bigfoot – my favorite monster truck from my childhood. Monster trucks entertain crowds by crushing cars, wading through deep mud, climbing over impossible obstacles, all while revving their very loud motors. What’s not to love?For only the second time in this blog’s history, I’m including myself in a photo simply to give you a sense of scale of this behemoth.The museum also has the largest collection of cars of US Presidents, such as this 1965 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine that was owned by President Lyndon Baines Johnson.“The buck stops here!” Among the special features of Harry Truman’s 1950 Lincoln was a raised roofline for passengers wearing top hats.While I enjoyed seeing Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1939 Ford Deluxe, what I appreciated most about this exhibit was the museum taking care to show FDR as he live many years of his life: a wheelchair rider.Among other Presidential memorabilia is this chair used by Abraham Lincoln in his personal study at the White House.The criminal world was also well-represented, such as this 1932 Cadillac from the gangster era of Chicago. The holes in the windows? Those are portholes. For machine guns.This 1976 Cadillac Limousine was created to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the founding of the United States.Look closer and you will see that the car is covered in 120,000 coins, each hand-shaped to match the contours of the car’s body. The car’s value when completed in 1978 was $250,000, or about $1.2 million in 2026.This solar car, built by students at the University of Minnesota, participated in several endurance races. Capable of reaching 83 mile per hour, its achievements included driving the entire length of Australia from east to west.How about this 1967 Lincoln Continental limousine? It was used by Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion.The museum took a grim turn with displays on vehicles and artifacts from Nazi Germany, a reminder of the dark days when fascism nearly consumed the world.The 20th century exhibits included this 1950 ZM limousine, a gift from Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev to the Prime Minister of Norway.The museum has a large (and thorough) exhibit on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This 1956 Cadillac Secret Service car was the vehicle immediate behind the Presidential limousine in which John F. Kennedy was riding in Dallas, Texas when he was assassinated. The exhibit also includes the taxi that assassin Lee Harvey Oswald used to escape the crime scene, as well as the ambulance that took Oswald to the hospital after he was later shot by Jack Ruby. Grim, indeed.On a lighter note, the museum houses numerous cars from film and television, including a Batmobile from the 1989 Batman movie.I, for one, particularly enjoyed seeing “The Family Truckster,” the Griswold family’s station wagon from the 1983 hit film National Lampoon’s Vacation.When I was a little kid, I remember watching reruns of the Andy Griffith Show with my grandmom… so it was pretty cool to end my tour with a stop by the police car from that show! After a fun morning, it was time to get back on the road toward New Jersey.We made it to Maumee, Ohio, a suburb of Toledo and enjoyed a New Year’s Eve dinner at P.F. Chang’s, the upscale Asian eatery chain. Please join us in a belated toast to welcome 2026!Only a few minutes after arriving at our hotel, a heavy band of snow passed through the area, dumping several inches of wind-blown snow on the ground. My friend Josh (whose cross-country winter adventures have been featured on this blog before) is a former US Navy meteorologist, and he kept us updated with information about potential winter conditions during our drives to the Midwest and back. He recommended stopping in Maumee before 8:00 pm… talk about good advice!By the next morning, the snow had cleared, leaving behind partly cloudy skies and chilly temperatures in the teens. We motored onward toward home.Despite the numerous times I’ve driven the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the novelty of the mountain tunnels in western PA has never worn off.Around 8:00 pm on New Year’s Day, we rolled back into our garage. Grace, our Jeep Grand Cherokee, was an amazing machine, transporting us in comfort, safety, and security. Along the way, she crossed the 130,000 mile mark. Onward!Now if you’ll excuse me… Grace urgently needs a bath.
Wrapping Up
I hope you enjoyed this account of our cross-country adventures. If you are visiting northern Illinois, I would highly recommend stopping by Historic Attractions. The museum has closed for renovations until April 4, 2026 when it will reopen. During regular operating hours, it is open from 10:00 am – 5:00 pm Tuesday through Thursday, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm on Friday and Saturday, and 10:00 am – 5:00 pm on Sunday.
Thanks, as always, for coming along on another journey down the open road ahead, and Happy New Year!
Glad you had a good and safe trip to the Midwest. Lots of great pics and stories here. I’ll have to check out that auto museum sometime.
We just watched a documentary about JOE’S assassination and we’ve been by the area in Dallas. Just got tickets for a car show near Dallas on March 8 so we’ll try to go see the site of his assassination that weekend.
The museum is really cool – I think you’d totally enjoy it. There was a lot from the JFK exhibit that I didn’t include – I’ll be interested to hear your take when you get there. Thanks for reading!
The Open Road Ahead 
Glad you had a good and safe trip to the Midwest. Lots of great pics and stories here. I’ll have to check out that auto museum sometime.
We just watched a documentary about JOE’S assassination and we’ve been by the area in Dallas. Just got tickets for a car show near Dallas on March 8 so we’ll try to go see the site of his assassination that weekend.
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The museum is really cool – I think you’d totally enjoy it. There was a lot from the JFK exhibit that I didn’t include – I’ll be interested to hear your take when you get there. Thanks for reading!
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