Would commuting from Grand Haven to Fremont be doable? (Grand Rapids: 2013, home)

[searching4info]

Would commuting from Grand Haven to Fremont be too hard of a drive, especially in the winter? MapQuest shows it to be 47 minutes, I assume from city limits to city limits, so I understand that it would be longer depending on how far south into Grand Haven one lives. My husband might be working in Fremont and while the town seems nice, I'm concerned with the offerings at the high school. My daughter is going into 11th grade and is scheduled at her current high school to take AP Gov't and AP Language and Comp. this coming year and AP Economics and AP Language and Literature her senior year. None of these classes are offered at Fremont HS from what I can see on their website and the few they do offer are not in subjects where she excels. I've looked at all of the towns within driving distance of Fremont and the closest city/town to offer close to what she was planning to take is Grand Haven high school. Also, my son is going into 9th and is scheduled in his 4 year plan for 3 honors Science classes as well as the AP Social Studies classes my daughter is signed up for and Fremont doesn't, from what I can see, offer any honors classes either. If this commute is not a doable one, can anyone recommend a city/town closer to Fremont than Grand Haven that might have more honors and AP offerings or correct me if I misread the offerings Fremont High School has? My husband has had a 45 minute commute through a snowbelt area in the past which was tolerable for him, but it was mostly all a straight shot down one highway that didn't have heavy traffic. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[tuebor]

Since no one has answered, I'll suggest a possible alternative: look into dual enrollment at Muskegon Community College. Perhaps you could live closer to Fremont (maybe in the North Muskegon or Reeths Puffer school district) and your kids could take classes at MCC instead of AP classes.

Edit: Mona Shores HS seems to have most or all of the AP courses you are looking for.

[searching4info]

Thank you so much tuebor. I've since found out that Fremont offers more AP classes through the county school system and they just bus the kids to another building for some half days. I'll have to look into exactly which classes that program offers but I'll also do some research on your suggestion as well. Thanks again!

[Bumbledor]

Yo. From a friend who commutes from Muskegon to Freemont.. The Grand Haven to Freemont commute would destroy you in the winter time.. Get ready for 2 hour commutes, in bad weather.

[searching4info]

Thanks Bumbledor, I was worried about that. We live up North and my husband drove 45 minutes straight down 131 to his job a few years ago and there were only a few days in the Winter that were bad and even then it was nothing like a 2 hr drive. From what I've read on city-data, the Muskegon/Grand Haven area get quite a bit more snow than we do in December, January and February. Would a drive from Coopersville inland more, to Fremont be better or about the same? Also was thinking about Sparta to Fremont, again since it's inland I thought the drive might be better in the Winter than closer to Lake Michigan.

[detwahDJ]

All roads around Fremont are iffy at certain times. The lake-effect snow belt is roughly Grand Rapids westward. Interstates get the most attention for snow removal, then major county roads. Side roads often are left alone or lightly sanded. I would live as close to work as possible just to avoid this wintertime nuisance, then travelling anywhere else is optional.
Newaygo and White Cloud are just east, with W.C. small and rustic. Places west are in the snow belt and also in the rustic national forest, so all depends on how many amenities you need close by. Here is the shopping in Newaygo, and except for a little bit further north on M-37, that's it. Fremont itself has more. Grant is tiny.
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4069.../data=!3m1!1e3

Sparta and M-37 are definitely better.
Hotspots for lake-effect are usually the Traverse City area and southwest Michigan - Allegan south, but you probably know this. It all depends on wind direction which is usually nnw to sse, but last winter we got winds directly east (yeah I checked them about every day).
Lake Effect Snow, Snowfall Averages in West Michigan, West Michigan Snowfall - West Michigan Tourist Association

Zooming this shows the general pattern from my experience over 10-15 years.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid...86827,8.113403

[searching4info]

I've lived in Petoskey for most of my life and briefly in Traverse City. My husband drove from Petoskey to Mancelona to work which is through a snow belt area and it was not horrible for him and only took more than an hour a few times (normally a 45 minute drive). Do you think the driving conditions from Fremont to Sparta would be worse than what this drive is? Fremont is a nice town but the high school doesn't offer a choir program (budget cuts two years ago) and my daughter's main interest is choir and has been most of her life so we need to find a town with good schools that also offers a choir program. None of the towns close to Fremont, including the ones you listed meet those requirements, and all but one town I think, near Fremont is smaller than Fremont with no shopping. Even Fremont has almost no shopping so we'd have to drive to Muskegon or Grand Rapids for everything we wouldn't buy at Walmart or the dollar store, which is almost everything except groceries and household items. I need to keep the drive for my husband down to 45 minutes in regular weather and no more than maybe an hour and 15 minutes on a bad winter weather day. How many days per winter are really bad for driving? There can't be that many surely? Maybe it's not possible to find a place close enough and we'll just have to live in Fremont despite the lack of a choir and adequate shopping. I've spent a ton of time researching this and keep ruling places out. If Sparta or Coopersville are bad drives in the Winter I've run out of possibilities. I just don't understand how so much farther south of us could have so much more snow and so much worse winter driving. I thought we had it worse up here since even though you get more snowfall three months, your temps are higher so it melts off and doesn't pile up like ours does up here. I've visited the Grand Rapids area my whole life to visit family and many times in the late winter or early spring and there's no snow and it feels warm when back home we're still buried in the stuff and it's freezing.

[tuebor]

Originally Posted by searching4info

... Maybe it's not possible to find a place close enough and we'll just have to live in Fremont despite the lack of a choir and adequate shopping.

FWIW, that's what I'd do if Fremont seems tolerable. Commuting is a waste even when the weather is nice. I've had to commute before, and it wasn't worth the time spent away from my dog, let alone a family. If you find a place within 15 minutes of work instead of 45, your husband will have another hour a day to help the kids with homework or whatever. If you are lucky enough to find a place within walking or biking distance, the health benefits will be significant.

If no school choir is available, maybe your daughter could keep up with her singing by either (a) joining a church choir, (b) starting a glee club (shows leadership -- looks good on college applications), and/or (c) going to nearby Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp or Interlochen in the summer (the money saved on gas will help pay for this).

[detwahDJ]

Originally Posted by searching4info

I've lived in Petoskey for most of my life and briefly in Traverse City. My husband drove from Petoskey to Mancelona to work which is through a snow belt area and it was not horrible for him and only took more than an hour a few times (normally a 45 minute drive). Do you think the driving conditions from Fremont to Sparta would be worse than what this drive is? Fremont is a nice town but the high school doesn't offer a choir program (budget cuts two years ago) and my daughter's main interest is choir and has been most of her life so we need to find a town with good schools that also offers a choir program. None of the towns close to Fremont, including the ones you listed meet those requirements, and all but one town I think, near Fremont is smaller than Fremont with no shopping. Even Fremont has almost no shopping so we'd have to drive to Muskegon or Grand Rapids for everything we wouldn't buy at Walmart or the dollar store, which is almost everything except groceries and household items. I need to keep the drive for my husband down to 45 minutes in regular weather and no more than maybe an hour and 15 minutes on a bad winter weather day. How many days per winter are really bad for driving? There can't be that many surely? Maybe it's not possible to find a place close enough and we'll just have to live in Fremont despite the lack of a choir and adequate shopping. I've spent a ton of time researching this and keep ruling places out. If Sparta or Coopersville are bad drives in the Winter I've run out of possibilities. I just don't understand how so much farther south of us could have so much more snow and so much worse winter driving. I thought we had it worse up here since even though you get more snowfall three months, your temps are higher so it melts off and doesn't pile up like ours does up here. I've visited the Grand Rapids area my whole life to visit family and many times in the late winter or early spring and there's no snow and it feels warm when back home we're still buried in the stuff and it's freezing.

Here are a couple of illustrations of why G.R. often escapes that lake-effect and how the south is often as bad as the north. Temps along the coast are generally warmer making the snow wetter and heavier. Last winter I drove from G.R. to Saugatuck after a snow squall, and the snow cover went from "dry to piled high" just within that 40 or so miles along I-196.

Snowed in: Map shows predicted lake-effect totals for West Michigan | MLive.com

Southern Michigan Weather Blog : Storm Chasing with Charlesimages ! | Weather Underground

Michigan snowstorm: Bitter cold and high winds set off lake effect snow | MLive.com

[searching4info]

It looks to me as if the areas I was looking at on Lake Michigan are all in the same colors as Petoskey with the exception of one of the maps showing between Grand Rapids and Lake Michigan in shades of purple in a small area while in Petoskey we were in the blue shades and going inland toward Fremont and into Sparta, there is less snow than what we get here. So my husband should be used to driving in whatever hits him there, wherever we end up in that general area. These maps are just great! Thank you so much!