Somewhere in the vast featureless expanse of Kansas, my daughter spoke up from the passenger seat: “California is great, but I really do love Michigan.” Or was that somewhere amid the blistering heat of northern Arizona? The waterless barren landscape of New Mexico? The endless brown horizon of eastern Colorado? Or the “seen-one-cornfield-you’ve-seen-them-all” blending of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana? Regardless of where we were last week, as I drove her home from a summer internship in Los Angeles, it was never lost on us how fortunate we are to be Michigan natives and have it as the place we wake up every day. Yes, this is an ode to Michigan, and there’s no question we were eager to make it back over the state line – especially my daughter, Carly, after three months away. But I also was grateful for the time together and the experiences we shared on the cusp of her senior year in college. We actually made two cross-country trips– the first, in late May/early June, delivered her to L.A on a slightly different route. The journeys combined covered 5,000 miles, 70 hours of in-car time, 13 other states and the entire Taylor Swift discography, annotated. We made sure to experience places we’d never visited, like Las Vegas and Santa Fe, we stopped in Denver and Phoenix to visit relatives, we ate wonderful regional meals and saw some truly beautiful scenery. (We also had flat tires on back-to-back days, one of them during a hurricane as we left California. Memories!) It’s an amazing country – diverse and vast. But that variety is spread out, and that often made the driving a numbing sort of tedium. If I say “Colorado,” you think of snow-covered mountains. But if you head east out of Denver, you will drive 6 hours before you see something other than scrubland or treeless pastures. By contrast, drive 6 hours from Monroe to Munising and you will see multiple states in one: Populated centers with diverse cultures; rolling farmland and forests; lakes and rivers. And lots and lots of green and blue. Yes, some areas of Michigan are more scenic than others. When I moved to the Bay City area in 1994, one of the locals quipped that “the view never changes” because the region is flat and dominated by agriculture. But the downtown has a wonderful riverfront, you’re a stone’s throw from Lake Huron beaches and 40 minutes on the highway will get you to the pine forests that mark “Up North.” We do have remote places – last year I took back roads on a trip from the Traverse City area to I-75 and remarked how sparsely populated it was in the middle of the Mitten. But I have a new definition of “empty space” after seeing the Great Plains: In Michigan, you’re never far from a town, a gas station or a shopping area. You certainly don’t need to pack a lunch to get to a Great Lake. I know every state has its virtues, and I’m certain that the natives will extol them with a sense of parochial pride. And we all know someone who will tell us that they can’t handle Michigan winters, the humid August days or the too-many-potholes/too-much-road-construction dichotomy. But having just seen nearly 30% of the continental U.S. in one summer, I can tell you that no state I have visited has the combination of temperate climate, access to fresh water, four-season sports, and world-class cultural, professional and educational amenities as does Michigan. Maybe that’s why we’re becoming a climate haven in a volatile world, as MLive reported late last year. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course. But to our travel-weary eyes, there was nothing more beautiful than a big, blue “Welcome to Pure Michigan” sign greeting us late Friday night. It’s good to be home. ### John Hiner is the vice president of content for MLive Media Group. If you have questions you’d like him to answer, or topics to explore, share your thoughts at [email protected]. | 