Trying to figure out this Michigan Trip

I am continuing to study my options to get to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I don’t want to have to go through customs, so I plan to drive down through Ohio into Michigan and then head north, but it’s an issue of figuring out how far I can actually drive in a day, how to avoid cities and traffic, and make for a pleasurable trip.

I was originally thinking I would on the first day drive out to Chautauqa County and stay in one of the state forests there and then the next day drive out to the National Forests in mid-state Michigan and from there go up to the Upper Peninsula. That makes the trip reasonable days and time wise but that’s a lot of driving to do on the second day, especially with Cleveland, Toledo, and Ann Arbor or Grand Rapids impossible to miss while driving through them on the interstates. And that means traffic crap. Not the quiet rural highways and interstates I prefer. Probably 9 or 10 hours of driving, when you figure fuel, pee and other breaks.

I don’t know if I am up to that kind of driving. The alternative is another stop along the way, another overnight, but that’s more time wasted on the trip. Time that I can’t spend in great woods of Northern Michigan. And I really hate motels and hotels, and developed campgrounds aren’t that much better in my mind. And with something like 10 weeks until the trip, quickly expiring, I don’t really have a good plan. Maybe the Finger Lakes look to be an easy default choice once again. I don’t have a state parks pass this year, but whatever, I have a mountain bike, and there is no fee for cyclists. But I still want to get up to Michigan.