Great Lakes scouting report?

BA forums have always been a place I get great advice on beer, and sometimes other things, when I go to a new place (10/10 Los Angeles, San Francisco, Croatia, Belgium, Slovenia, and the Netherlands). I will be on another trip in August and want to keep this trend going.

For this thread, I am talking about a travel day I have on my way to South Dakota. I'll lay out my general plan to see what feedback anyone might have. As I will have minimal stopping time, advice should relate to quick stops, even better if things are to take with you (beer/food).

• Any extended stop must be dog friendly.
• I have a 19' trailer I am getting used to so I want to stay on easy-to-navigate roads and locations with easy parking for my shit-tier trailer skills.

1. I am hoping to reach the general area/distance of Toledo the previous night and leave early from there. Very little time to do much that night/morning but who knows.
2. Hoping to stop and get real Deep dish pizza in Chicago around 11 am. I currently have Pequod's Pizza (2207 N Clybourn Ave) targeted. It is open at 11, I can order ahead, it is not too far from the highway, and it looks like the roads are decent size near it with an OK chance for street or parking lot parking options to grab the food and go.
3. Stopping at The Hounds & Tap in Menomonee Falls, WI about 2 to let my dog get some exercise and a beer for myself to hydrate.
4. Stopping for the night someplace along I90, maybe near Blue Earth MN. Not sure if we will have time/energy for much then, but maybe.

Any bad ideas here or better ideas? Also for #3; any specific beers or general quality breweries to look for at that stop? Particularly something not easily found in the New England area.

 

My goal is to get to roughly the area of Blue Earth MN at the end of my second day so I can get to the campground in SD at a reasonable time on the 3rd day. Toledo is just a location that I am hoping to get near after the first day that also lines up ok with my travel stops the next day and the times' things are open. I have no specific interest or reason to stop there otherwise, so anything about 4-5 hours from the Chicago area is ok as well.

Regarding Pequod's. It is one of a handful of places listed as having a good deep dish that I can order ahead and get about 11. I was hoping to get feedback like yours to see if it was a good idea or not, and it seems it may not be. If you know a better option I am very open to suggestions.

Hopefully, I am correct that MSP is Minneapolis St Paul? I had considered doing this, but it adds several hours of travel between the end of the second day and the start of the third. I have two places there tagged currently if things change. Unleashed Hounds and Hops and Brew Park Plymouth. Seems people really like dogs up there.

Thank you, I will add those in and see how they line up with times and travel paths.


This purple line is the rough travel route for the second day.

 

I don't think I will be able to avoid at least one gas stop in MN. I'll keep an eye out for New Glarus.
Forager looks really good. Very interesting beer options. Parking doesn't look difficult in the area and their outside area is dog friendly.

Blue Earth is just a place that is about the right distance, near the highway and has an inexpensive campground to park at for sleeping. I had no idea about the former brewery. LTS and Little Thistle both have tap lists that I find very appealing. Both are dog friendly too.

 

Have you had the pleasure of driving through Boston with its traffic? I am curious how the two compare with each other. I always find traffic interesting as what people are used to often seems bad, but then when you compare it to another location it is lovely. I thought Boston was bad until New York and then I met LA. The Californians skit series on Saturday Night Live takes one a new level of hilariousness after driving in LA.

 

Now that I have finished my trip, I wanted to follow up on each respective thread as it relates to each of the regions I posted about. Each response is unique to that region so this starting text is the only thing I will be duplicating.

This one starts at the beginning and ends at the end. On our very first night on the trip we stayed in Ohio at the BrewDog DogHouse Columbus Hotel and Brewery. I was pretty excited about this one, but having not had their beer before and seeing this might be gimmicky, I was not sure what the reality would be. It ended up being a pretty amazing experience. Our dog was able to stay in the hotel room and go to most places including outdoor eating spots as well as a dog play area. Dog bones in lobby bowls and all sorts of small details. The room was pretty amazing as well. One fridge in the room has various drinks, mostly non-beer, and the bathroom has a "shower beer" fridge with a selection of beers to choose from. For the sake of science, I was sure to drink two beers in the shower.. pretty great! They also give you a free welcome beer from a limited set of choices and have a 2-hour window where you get a free stout to drink along with a free chocolate chip cookie. Generally, their beers were at least respectable and their Barley Wine was really good along with that stout.

Now to the end. Coming back out of South Dakota we stopped for lunch at Little Thistle Brewing in Rochester Minnesota before our 1-night stop at a local state park. Nice place that is dog friendly and welcoming as well. An amazing food truck that day. The stand-out beer was Back To Bruges.

The next day we trudged for a long time all the way to near Cleveland. One early stop was The Hounds & Tap in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. I had a decent Kolsch from Wild Minds but the real top was the friendly staff and the fun my dog got to have while I fueled up my gut.

This was followed by our second stop to make the second beer trade of the trip. Meeting us near Superdawg, @ChicagoJ brought many a glorious beverage for me to take home and I can't wait to crack one of the revolution barrel beers tonight. The Whoopski dawg was very good once I finally found a place to eat it safely.