On February 17, 2013, I left the cesspool that is the state of Illinois and came to Michigan to begin my new life at the age of fifty-two. Besides meeting and later marrying Karen, it was one of the best things I've ever done.
Michigan is a beautiful state. People mistakenly believe that the whole state is like Detroit. There are two things wrong with that view. First, although there are depressed neighborhoods of Detroit, the downtown area is very nice. Second, the rest of the state couldn't be more different than Detroit.
The state is divided in two: The lower peninsula and what is always referred to with capital letters as the Upper Peninsula. Even within the lower peninsula, there's a division: tradition holds that on a line from roughly Pentwater to Pinconning (a great cheese town), anything north of there is considered Up North (again, capitalized). As one drives north of that imaginary line, the towns become more scarce, the landscape becomes more recognizable and, in the autumn, becomes a wonderful palette of changing colors in the leaves of the trees.
It has one of the longest coast lines of any state. It has contact with four of the five Great Lakes. People who have never seen it before swear that Lake Superior is an ocean. It is said that one cannot go more than six miles in any direction without hitting either a river or a lake.
It has myriad small towns, pleasant paths like the Tunnel of Trees along Route 119 by Lake Michigan north of Harbor Springs. Saugatuck, Traverse City, Mackinaw City, Gaylord, South Haven, Holland -- there are plenty of picturesque towns that are worth a weekend visit in and of themselves.
Cherries, peaches, apples; fish, deer and fowl. The land provides plenty a cornucopia of goodness. Fishing and hunting are big here; the opening day of deer season is a holiday, with students especially Up North and the the UP getting the day off to hunt.
Fat Tuesday with its paczki, Opening Day at Tiger Stadium, and something peculiarly Detroit called Jobbie Nooner make Michigan unique. Of course, there's Motown and the Motor City. But there's also the Detroit Institute of Art, the Ren Cen (the Renaissance Center, home of GM) and Willow Run, where the arsenal of democracy took root in World War II.
It has some of the best and most challenging town and street names of any state: Dowagiac, Paw Paw, Gratiot, Schoenherr and my favorite -- the Tittabawasseee River. Tittabawassee just rolls right off one's tongue.
I am now rooted here. I don't understand why anyone moves from Michigan unless it's for a job or health reasons. I have a driver's license, a license plate, a voter registration card, a law license and a concealed carry permit all issued by the State of Michigan. But most importantly, since February 17, 2023, I've been here ten years.
It was a slightly scary thing to move here ten years ago, but I'm so happy I did.
(c) 2023 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles
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