[Starrman69]

I always considered myself to be in Northern Michigan when I was at Traverse City...

Once a troll, always a troll...(they live under bridges for those uninitiated with the antics of Yoopers...)

[magellan]

Originally Posted by huckster

I worked at the Zilwaukee Bridge for two years and all over the state for that matter for a long time on its' infrastructure projects . It is right next to Bay City. So I know the state pretty well.
ON the west side of the state the lower peninsula is scarcely populated and much is unspoiled or fruit farms
even south of Grand Rapids. Lots of LP , hillbillies there. The Allegan State Forest is over there along with the Barry State Game area. It is a midwest old farm house area.
If one takes a drive up Highways 63, specifically the section called A-2 where I worked in South Haven, Michigan- I kid you not- it is identical to driving near Alpena. There is no difference. Highway 63 is the old 31. A very old highway which ran from Alabama to Mackinaw, City,mi hugging Lake Michigan. An old fashioned Two lane highway with a lot of old, well kept motels... built many, many years ago. Before the Great Depression I would think. A lot of rich from Chicago have huge summer homes there overlooking Lake Michigan. It is quite a beautiful area with lots and lots of pine trees. Simply a gorgeous drive. Surprising.
I worked at the refurbishing of Sterling State Park in 2002, sure it was nice however it was nothing like Western Michigan.
The difference is very ,very , big.
When we excavated the stretch of highway we were to replace we were astonished to see it was still a Corduroy rd. In other words we removed the old pine logs still in place from underneath the Asphalt and gravel- Pine logs which ran cross to the direction of the highway.
This is very old road building technology; to put pine logs underneath unstable soil areas which were too soft to build roads upon perhaps one hundred years ago or more. The road sort of "floated" upon the wood, if you will. It worked too. The road was still holding up but the Asphalt was too "Alligatored" to save. The road's surface, was shot by 1988.

Can't believe I missed this post. That's awesome! I've been on Highway 63, very nice area. And it links up with or becomes Blue Star Highway if I'm not mistaken.

[Flint1979]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

At the bridge.

What bridge? The Zilwaukee? It certainly isn't the Mackinac Bridge considering you've already been in northern Michigan for quite awhile when you reach the Mackinac Bridge.

[Flint1979]

The Zilwaukee Bridge btw is about 8 miles from my house. It's still in Saginaw County and more so Saginaw than Bay City but it's in Zilwaukee. Half of the bridge is in the city of Zilwaukee and half of it is in Zilwaukee Township.