Woes of Michigan

It's been a tough late summer for the state of Michigan. The Appalachian State saga has left its university football team broken after they originally had dreams of BCS dancing in their heads. Of course, the poor souls should have been told the truth beforehand, that they were simply an overrated team from an overrated conference that ESPN loves and has to build up in order to get people to watch. The Wolverines were on Fantasy Island, and App State became "de plane" that got them off of it. In the last several years, we've watched the big shots of college football schedule these lower-level squads for what seemed to be an season opening exhibition. They had to know the underdog was bound to bite eventually and sure enough, it did.

Now here is another possibility of what could have caused this mayhem. Could it have been possible that Appalachian State and its fans were completely irate by the time they arrived in Ann Arbor? Have any of you driven Michigan's interstates lately? Well I did about a month ago. And it might have been the most frustrating expressway driving experience I have ever had. On our targeted highway for getting through the "mitten state," we ended up being in several traffic backups due to spotted road work all along the way. I will give them this, that they did warn us with signs about that highway. But we finally decided we had enough, and found a nice little four-lane that would take us down to the next available interstate that also went in the direction we were targeting. Well, it was the same way, with probably the worse backup we had yet. Folks, if you are working on one highway, do not try fixing the alternate at the same time!

At one point, we did get off and take some back roads, which I am not afraid to do. You keep going in one direction long enough, you'll get somewhere. And I believe we made better time. But isn't that what our freeway system is for, to help us move through an area quickly? Not County Road 15! But this is not happening in Michigan right now. I might have been frustrated enough to give the Wolverines a game that day as well.

But to learn something from this. I feel better putting money into a state's economy if they are hospitable to us visitors. And that even includes providing us an open road when we are driving through it. I know road work has to be done, but it must be better planned. Michigan may need to be avoided by as many as possible until they get some work done.