Final Drive: All Roads Lead to Chesaning

After a nearly 3 hour nap, the Bridge was no longer lit. Instead it was just waiting for that sun to rise. I just looked at the beautiful marvel and laughed to myself, thinking how I slept in my car on a road I didn't even know existed before summer began. Here, I was in the same place I was when I started this trip through the U.P. Back then, my heart and soul was full of curiosity and now it is full of generosity and memories that even this storyteller can't rightfully convey. But it was time to head home. The anxiety for this exam had been building up since the Porkies and I knew I'd be best served finishing my studies in Chesaning.

I paid the toll woman my $4.00 fee, thanking her and thinking: it only costs $4.00? She must not know the beauty of Drummond, a sunset at Whitefish Point and mining in the Keweenaw? As I drove past the five-mile stretch and into The Great Lake State's hand, the bright solar called our sun was creeping just beyond the horizon. I wanted to go back to the Porkies, to the metropolis called Marquette and to see how Ironwood would keep plugging away in this 21st Century economy.

I pulled into Alma at roughly 8:30, fulfilling a promise I had made to my aunt when she lended me her camping lantern months ago. "Marc, can you make our home in Alma part of your adventure?" she asked in late May. She made me breakfast as I told her and my uncle about the past five weeks of my life, my coming of age story, and about how much I yearned to be back on the beach with my law books, but how I needed to be home for these final days.

I hopped in the car. Now less than an hour's drive from my final destination, I looked forward to when I'd read this all again in one-sitting; I looked forward to when I'd be able to share these stories with my godsons, Drew and Ben; I looked forward to when I could take them to this paradise called northern Michigan. And then, looking at the sign that prompted me to turn left, I knew, now more than ever, that my father has always been right: All Roads Lead to Chesaning.