Michigan, the longest state

I drove for 14 hours yesterday and I am still not out of this blasted state. I made only one stop for a tour of the Iron Mountain Iron Mine. I'm not big on roadside tourist traps but once I learned that the tour involved wearing a hard hat and riding an underground train I forked over the 9 bucks in a flash. The tour was well worth it, and I put on my heavy coat so I would be warm and toasty. I saw all the other people on the tour shivering in their shorts and tank tops, but I still have ALL my gear with me and you have to remember that when I left home it was snowing.

The roadside signage in Michigan is most interesting. There are several highway signs that say, "Prison Area, Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers". First of all, if I feel like giving a prison escapee a lift, that is my business. Second, if there are so many prison escapees wanting rides along the roadway, I would suspect the prisons should review their security options.

There are also several billboards, many for poopycredit.com which is a company that helps people with disastrous credit purchase new cars. My take on it is that if you have bad credit the last thing you ought to be doing is making payments on a new car. Other signs are for various health insurance plans, apparently Michiganers have lots of health insurance options if they can actually spend time choosing an insurer, most of the rest of the country is busy trying to pinpoint the free downtown healthcare clinic. Another sign read, "Choosing a hospital is probably the most important decision you will ever make." I'm not sure about you, but if I suffer a car crash, a heart attack or a gunshot wound the hospital I will be choosing is the one that someone can get me to the fastest. Okay, Michigan, whatever.

I just arrived in downtown Detroit. For once I am in normalville lots of nice black people, heroin addicts instead of meth heads, and graffiti instead of blank surfaces. I can tell I am going to like it here.

2 comments:

epiphanyinbmore said...

Did you get to see the west Michigan coast at all? It's beautiful. My hometown is a small beach town in SW Michigan called South Haven.

In Detroit, make sure you visit MexicanTown (I recommend "Armando's") and Greektown.

Cham said...

I saw a lot of the Michigan coastline, mainly in that other Michigan, the one up north. It was very beautiful there, even though it was Independence day weekend there were very few people. Last night I saw all the people on the riverfront promenade in Detroit and I started to get homesick. I wanted to be on a promenade, just not this one so I started heading homeward.