The Fever

I want to go somewhere. I can't help it. The urge for foreign adventure strikes me at least once biennially. Unfortunately, my finances are ...well...  I'm in my "living in a box" phase of being a writer. So trans-oceanic travel is out of my reach.

So, I'll travel like a poor person, in  "vacation in your own backyard" kind of way. If one ganks a state parks sticker (because you can't go anywhere in Michigan without tripping over a state park) and pack a tent/ find a friend with a couch, we can travel for the price of gas and whatever weird resturants we feel like trying. So here are the contenders for mini-adventure.


1.Grand River adventure part A
 -- meet in Lansing, drive down Grand River into Detroit, stopping wherever I feel like, explore some part of Detroit, like Hammtramack or Greektown, and drive back however I feel like.

2.Grand River Adventure part B
 -- meet in Lansing, drive all the way down Grand River East, stopping wherever I feel like, explore Grand Rapids, and take the scenic route home.

Grand River Avenue is a non-expressway road that traverses mid-Michigan. It's everywhere. It's also been a weird life goal of mine to drive the whole thing.

4. Travel the entirety of MI-12.
 --All I know is we went down it once to get to Coldwater from Ann Arbor, and we ran across a mexican town and at least two dinosaur parks. Definitely worth a second look.

4. Explore Kalamazoo

5. Go to a Cherry Festival in Traverse City
 -- and do a wine tour. they have wineries up there.

7. Mackinaw Island!
 -- Act like a crazy tourist on a bike, then get dressed up with lace gloves and funny hats and go to tea at the Grand Hotel.

8. Go to the Soo Locks.
 -- stay in Uncle's Tribe's casino. Also, go to Canada for funsies.

Oh my God there is a Pancake Bay provincial park in that part of Canada. SOLD.

9. Find that upper-lower penninsula pastry shop. It's within an hour's drive of Petosky.
 -- while you're at it, go to Harbor Springs and Petosky and browse the boutiques like you're a rich person. Also like you know Richard Gere.

10. Drive around the thumb.

Goals of these trips

-- write an article about each one and get it published somewhere
-- find a cute and or delicious bakery in every town we visit
-- swim in all the Great Lakes attached to Michigan at least once
-- be in Canada (hey, its technically foreign travel)


Gold Star to the raging travel-holics