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Carone
(our daughter) received a music scholarship to the University of
Michigan
at Ann Arbor. As she had her own car, we decided to accompany her
on the long drive from the West Coast. We left California on a
Saturday,
and needed to have her there by Monday afternoon for check-in.
Needless
to say, we covered a lot of miles each day. Afterwards, Dave and
took some vacation time and decided to travel back to California via a
northern route, stopping as we saw fit. We drove over 6500 miles
in just under two weeks. Presented here are photos from the
trip--any
image can be seen in more detail simply by clicking on it. |
| Near
Kearney, Nebraska, we saw signs inviting us to the Archway
Monument.
Listening in on their radio station ad, we were told that one could
point
radar guns at cars, and that the place was "awesome!". The
sculpture
on top resembles the most complex lightning arrestor I have ever seen. |
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We
stopped
to get some gas, and I wandered around the rural station while we were
stopped. The area was very lush and alive with insects, and
flowers
such as this one were blooming. It was quite pleasant. |
| We
drove through another entire day, having dinner at sunset at a truck
stop
not far across the Iowa border. We drove on to just past Des
Moines to Newton and stopped for the night. |
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This
time
we stopped at a Holiday Inn Express. This chain pretty much does
it right, although I wish their room rates were lower. |
| The
nice
thing about being on the road all day was the generally fabulous
sunrises
and sunsets. Here's sunrise after we hit the road the next day. |
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Iowa
seems
to be the home of this chain, of which I will make no other comment. |
| We
began to see the first substantial cloud cover of the trip this
day.
Fortunately, it didn't rain. |
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The
new
highway bridges with their concrete abutments unfortunately obscure
views;
this is all we saw of the Mississippi River. |
| We
stopped for gas near Princeton, Illinois. The look on Carone's
face
says it all: "I'm done with this!" Fortunately, there were
only a couple of hundred miles left to go. |
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As
we approached
the southern suburbs of Chicago, both traffic and industry
increased.
I-80 southeast of Chicago was a mess with construction and heavy
traffic. |
| Michigan
was quite green and pretty, with puffy little cumulus clouds in the
sky.
We were almost there. |
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We
made
it! We arrived at the dorms at UMich in mid-afternoon, which was
a good thing to do. A police officer told us the place earlier in
the day was a complete mess. We got Carone settled in her room
and
spent the night in Ann Arbor. We also spent the next day there,
too. |
| We
drove
the few miles to Milford, as I had lived there as a child up to age
5.
I remembered very little of the place, but enough that I thought I
could
find our old house. The town, however, was unrecognizable--it had
become very "tony". |
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I
found
my old neighborhood and remembered enough to speculate that this may
have
been the house I grew up in. Unfortunately, there were several
similar
houses, and I didn't have our old address. I remember playing in
the backyard and snow piling up against the ground floor windows. |
| We
decided,
the next day, to continue north, as Dave and I both wanted to see what
the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (the "U.P.") was like. As we left
in late afternoon from Ann Arbor, we drove only to Saginaw, which
appears
to be the home of a huge Delphi car chassis plant. |
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Once
again
we were up before the dawn to continue our voyage. This gorgeous
sunrise greeted us. |
| As
we headed
north, the only marginal weather of the entire trip showed up. It
was gloomy gray, but there was little rain. We stopped prior to
crossing
the Mackinac Bridge so I could get this shot of it. |
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This
was
obviously a popular spot for tourists, as the gulls came right up to
the
car looking for handouts. |
| This
sign
greets you at the toll booth, in case you forgot which way you were
headed. |
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We
headed to Sault Ste. Marie and started looking around. The city
is the
home
to the fascinating Edison Sault Hydroelectric Plant, which was placed
in
service in 1902 and occupies a building 1/4 mile long! To show
the
entire building, I had to take two photos and partially correct severe
perspective distortion. |
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