It’s been a couple of days since I’ve posted anything, mainly because I’ve had very marginal phone coverage, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been busy! I left Sioux Falls and drove almost straight west across the Great Plains of South Dakota. As I think I’ve established, I love mountains, but I’ve surprised myself by also kind of falling in love with these rolling grasslands! This is the area that’s always called the breadbasket of the country, and I…
After spending so many days wandering through Michigan, I was kind of looking forward to leaving it behind. Not because it wasn’t beautiful, it was wild and wonderful actually, but I still feel perhaps a bit too driven and want to keep moving. I also wanted to get my oil and filter changed, and Duluth, Minnesota seemed like the next big town where it would be convenient to do that. It still took hours of driving to escape Michigan, and…
I stopped in the town of Houghton last night and, before the clouds opened up, it looked like quite a nice place, with a large university, and one other claim to fame. That’s pretty important in the northcountry! But since I had a nice flat place to park, and I had passed the 5,000 mile mark on my trip the day before, I thought it might be time to check on the health of my Baby Blue. Toyotas are the…
The title of this post will make a lot more sense if you look at a map of the state of Michigan. The lower part is shaped a bit like a mitten with the thumb on the right, and the northern part is called the Upper Peninsula, The U.P. After my tour of the Ford Rouge Factory and leaving the Detroit area, I thought I’d check out the rest of Michigan. I had always heard that the Upper Peninsula was pretty, and… well……
It turns out that Detroit, Michigan is nothing like I thought it was. I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting — maybe I thought that a place called the Motor City would be… I don’t know… greasier? More blue collar? But I think the term Modern Industrial Complex applies much better, and with a Starbucks on every corner, major glass skyscrapers, and an excellent, if rather alarming, road system, I think any modern city dweller would be happy to…