I don´t know what first comes to mind when you hear the word "Michigan". I tend to think of industrial decline, Motown music and Sufjan Stevens, whose music I first got into by listening to his 2003 album "Michigan" (the singer-songwriter himself hails from Detroit).
My first exploration of the Mid-West continued with a three day jaunt into Michigan, which is less than an hour away from Fremont, my base in Ohio. We set off early in Jess's PT Cruiser and crossed into Michigan just by Toledo. After a couple of hours driving down the highway, we arrived in our first stop of Ann Arbor by mid-morning. Ann Arbor is on the edge of the Detroit metropolitan area. I had been frequently warned by people not to travel to Detroit as it is apparently America's most dangerous city. That still doesn't put me off wanting to visit (in fact it makes me curious to visit even more). However, this trip we decided to skip Detroit and make this brief stop in the much more genteel small university town. Our main reason was to stop for some good coffee. We certainly found this at the confidently-named Mighty Good Coffee in downtown area, and after a good cappuccino from experienced and friendly baristas, we wandered around the downtown area taking in some of the atmosphere before staying on for lunch at a great little hole-in-the-wall place which served some tasty Tacos for $2 on Tuesdays.
Our journey continued as we decided to head of the highway and hit the back lanes of southern Michigan as we drove towards our destination of Grand Rapids. Southern Michigan is flat like NW Ohio, but with a bit more variation in scenery, a few rolling hills here and there, pretty farms and a lot more trees.
After taking a few wrong turnings here and there, ending up at one point in the car park of an old people's home (where Jess jokingly threatened to leave me) we eventually found our way to Grand Rapids just as it was getting dark. We had randomly decided to make this the destination of our road trip after reading about the good coffee and craft beer. We had also found some amazing hosts on couchsurfing, Phillip and Loralee, who welcomed us like old friends with an incredibly tasty meal and local craft ale. They had also lived a summer in a remote part of the Westfjords of Iceland (see my blog on the West Fjords here: http://www.nordicadventurer.com/blog/2016/2/13/beyond-route-1-the-westfjords) and they were some of the most incredibly hospitable and talented people you could even hope to meet.
After a very relaxed night of food and conversation, the next day we headed out to explore Grand Rapids. Having just one full day in a city is sometimes challenging. There are so many options of things to do but on a limited budget and wanting also to relax, we tried not to over-stretch ourselves. We parked around the old historical district and found some beautiful old houses like this one:
We then walked to the downtown area. We found a bright and joyful wall mural, interesting churches, big glass buildings with amazing reflections and a riverside park with great views of the city. We stopped for our obligatory cup of joe at Madcap Coffee, with its minimalist designs and efficient staff, before moving onto what I had been looking forward to the most: a visit to the now legendary Founders Brewery. A few months before I had sampled my first Founders IPA in bar in Finland and was blown away. Now I was at the source. We passed on the brewery tour due to money and time constraints, but had a great pint in the brewery bar.
In the evening we were taken out by our hosts for an Ethiopian meal at a local place which I would have walked straight past due to its unpromising exterior, but this is where it pays to know locals. The food was top class, leaving me wished I had something so cheap but so good round the corner from me in Iceland..
Philip shared with us his incredible documentary about the village of Flateyri in Iceland which was a joint production with his wife Loralee, who is also an uber-gifted artist, and whose paintings adorned the walls of their east-side apartment.
You can check out the film here on Philip's website: http://www.stonekeyfilms.com/
And please check out Loralee's artwork too here: http://loraleegrace.tumblr.com/
After a wonderful two nights with our new friends, we headed back to Ohio, but taking a significant detour to pop over to see the Lake Michigan coast on the west side of the state. (The east side borders on Lake Erie and Lake Huron while the North borders Lake Superior. In the words of a bumper sticker I saw recently- "Four out of Five Great Lakes prefer Michigan").
The nearest point to view the lake was at Kirk Park, directly west of Grand Rapids. The park is set on a steep bank descending to a beautiful small sandy beach where you can feel the warm sand around your toes as the tide laps gently towards you. Lake Michigan is certainly a lot bluer than Lake Erie, and at least at this point, feels more remote and less industrialised. We wished we had time to stop here all day, but unfortunately had to make the return trip after a few hours.
After a long five or six hour drive back, through the wonderfully named Kalamazoo where we unsuccessfully tried to find coffee and Jackson where we unsuccessfully tried to find good food, we made it home late. The next morning we had to get up extremely early to take some of Jess's good friends to Detroit airport, back in Michigan once again. After getting confused with Highway junctions on the way back and accidently ending up driving into some kind of crime scene in Romulus, we made it back to Ohio where we were in time to see the sun rise over the Maumee River in Toledo and Perrysburg..
The third instalment of this blog series later this week will focus on a road trip down to the South of the USA, through Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee.