I was given a couple of holidays between Christmas and New Years so I went with Pauline’s family on a road trip to Michigan. We spent a night in Detroit and a night in Saginaw, went to Frankenmuth (a Bavarian town, which seems to be popular in the US as there is one in Washington State as well) and to do some shopping.

The thing that struck me the most once I crossed the border was that there were a lot of American cars. In Toronto, we’re used to seeing all the brands, and perhaps a higher concentration of Hondas and Toyotas. But in Michigan, over some 3-4 hours of driving on the interstates, I saw 2 Camrys, 2 Volvos, 1 Odyssey, 1 Civic, and 1 Honda Insight — that’s it (and yes, I was specifically looking for non-American cars). The rest of the cars were Ford, Chevy, GMC, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Cadillac, Chrysler, Dodge, Mercury and a couple of Saturns. Most of them were either pick-ups, minivans, or SUVs. Man, I expected there to be a higher concentration of American cars in their automobile heartland, but I didn’t expect them to dominate to that extent.

Oh yeah, and Michigan roads suck, they’re all concrete.