Pure Michigan

As a lifelong Ohioan and a big believer in local tourism, I've got to hand it to the advertising genius who came up with the "Pure Michigan," ads.  They are absolutely great.  The music is perfect and the dialogue is perfect.  Makes me want to jump in the car and get to the Upper Peninsula as fast as possible, since that was the focus of the last ad I heard on the radio.

Pure Michigan ads have also featured Detroit which is about to declare bankruptcy, but the ad sure didn't make you feel like that.  It featured The Henry Ford Museum, a great place to see I'm told. 

Michigan is home to some very fertile farmlands and in fact, a lot of Michigan is undeveloped, except for in and around the large cities with whose names we are all familiar -- Flint, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Lansing, Troy and Farmington Hills for just a few.  And some of the wealthy suburban areas around the big cities, like Bloomfield Hills near Detroit.

Michigan is blessed with a huge shoreline and some amazing scenery, enough so that any number of my classmates chose to call Michigan home after college and remain there even now.

During my high school years, I got to visit Michigan for a cheerleading clinic that lasted five days.  It was a little spot called Brighton, Michigan, not that far from Ann Arbor.  The camp was in a wooded area and had its own little lake.  It was staffed by the UM cheerleaders who really made it fun, challenging, and worthwhile.  The amazing thing about the camp was that while the temperatures during the day climbed to near 90 and maybe higher on one of them, the nights chilled down to the 60s, making sleeping very comfortable.  Nothing like the nights in Ohio when I was a kid and I took a washcloth to bed with me to try and cool down. 

So I can see why people like Michigan and find the topography and the climate much to their liking.  Isn't it interesting that we end up in one place, like Ohio, and remain there.  Often it is a distant relative's decision to come here that ends up being why we are here, or at least why we started out here.  It can't always explain why we are still here. 

One thing I do know from the meager amount of traveling I've done is that home is easily moved to another location when family is along for the ride.  Like when we liked Maryland so much we actually considered moving there. 

The most wonderful thing about all of it is -- wherever we are either by choice, habit, or convenience, we always take along the most important family member -- God.  He rides along in our hearts and our souls as we traverse the highways of life and keeps us close also within the family of believers. 

We went to Mass in Oakland, Maryland several times on trips to Deep Creek Lake.  It's St. Peter's, I believe.  Each time it would be the same ushers, the same Mass, and it was like being at home.  For that bonding with God is what makes whatever place we happen to call home a great "temporary" home.

Have a wonderful Saturday.