Up Nort h Kids & Family

Blue-ribbon hogs, top-of-the-ferris-wheel smoochin’, giant grilled corn cobs dunked in a vat of liquified butter and served on sticks—there are so many must-see-do-and-eats at the annual Northwestern Michigan Fair that our checklist these days has more items than a Gibby’s bucket has fries.

One item at the tippit y-top of our fave traditions? For at least a dozen years, Tough Truck has featured gutsy gals and guys driving as fast as they can around a sprint-sized dirt track chock full of sharp corners and jumps—the last one just before a mega-sized mud pit. Helmets are mandatory, neck braces recommended and race vehicles are the driver’s choice: big-wheeled jeeps, junkyard jalopies, Mom’s minivan and, unforgettably several years ago, a flawless Corvette driven by a man in the midst of a divorce. For real.

While finishing fastest is each competitor’s objective, finishing at all is a feat. Big-air crashes, airbag blowouts, sideways topples, full rollovers and the accidental ejection