Gribblenation

I had a lot of time today before I needed to at Metro Airport for my flight home.  Since I was bored, I headed out early to check out some places I used to live in the western Metro Detroit area in the 1980s.  I took M-59 as a back way to reach Union Lake Road and Commerce Township.  I was surprised to see the Dairy Queen at Union Lake Road and Cooley Lake Road I used to go to in the early 1980s but the Kentucky Fried Chicken (before it served crappy food and was called KFC) my family used to frequent has been replaced by a shopping center. I turned off Union Lake Road onto Willow Road which only had houses on Union Lake in the Mid-1980s, I recall some of the neighborhoods present now just being empty fields and marsh lands.  I used to live in a neighborhood called Willow Farm which was probably built in the late 1970s/early 1980s.  The park I used to frequent as a kid was present but was much less elaborate than the 1980s. I used to attend Scotch Elementary

I didn't have much to do on the 28th given that all had done well with the loop of the Great Lakes and knocking out two additional National Parks.  That being the case I decided to go to Hell which was pretty might right around the corner on County Route D32, you might say it is a "highway to Hell." Of course the Hell I'm referring to is Hell, Michigan.  Hell is located in Livingston County a couple miles southwest of Pinckney to be exact.  The community traces it's origins back to a saw mill that operated on Hell Creek in 1841.  Supposedly the name "Hell" according to local lore was either what German immigrants referred to the location as or it was called as such due to the swath of mosquitos that early saw mill operators had to deal with. Really Hell is nothing but a collection of themed buildings designed to capture the interest of bikers and passerby's like me who are bored.  The only other community called "Hell" that I'

The reason I swung all the way over to Cleveland was to visit some family that was moving to Florida in the following week and to cash in some hotel reward points to get another National Park in with Cuyahoga Valley.  I visited Cuyahoga Valley back in 2014 and found it to be worth another look, especially considering it really wasn't far from Chicago.  I made way up I-271 to OH 176 and took Wheatley Road into the park proper. I stopped at the Everett Covered Bridge which to my understanding was recently rebuilt but may have been constructed in the 1860s.  My understanding is that there were hundreds of covered bridges in the Cleveland area and the Everett Bridge is the only one left in Summit County.  Everett Road now swings around the covered bridge and the portion which became Oak Hill Road seems to be undergoing to construction. At the junction of Everett Road and Riverview Road is the village of Everett.  I don't know when Everett was founded but I do kn