The roads in Michigan are in deporable shape, and I think that might be because Michigan is one of those states that "prides itself" on having low taxes, and pretends that having the resulting crappy crumbling infrastructure doesn't make them a sad laughingstock. Whatever, Michigan; I guess having all those low taxes has really helped you maintain a healthy manufacturing industry, huh? They have signs stating the hiway minimum speed is 55, but in our rig we can hardly maintain that speed without bouncing off the road.
Hiway 69 out of Port Huron was in really bad shape. After that, 94 alternated between really bad and not so bad. There were a few areas of construction, paid for no doubt by the recent stimulus funds. I'm not surprised that Michigan had road projects that were "shovel ready" but didn't have the money to pay for them. Ashleigh started to get motion sickness from the constant bumping. It was terrible.
The quality of the roads often seemed to vary by the lane. The slow lane was usually the worst, forcing us to drive in the middle or left lane. We hate to do that, because we really despise slow drivers who don't stay in the slow lane. We are a slow vehicle, one of the very slowest on the road, so we definitely belong in the slow lane, but what choice do we have? To drive in some of these lanes would shake the whole darn Jeep apart! As the locals would angrily pass us on the right I would look at their Michigan license plates and think, hey, complain to your representatives, tell them to raise your taxes to pay for better roads so that vehicles can safely travel in the slow lane.
The locals don't seem to notice the bad roads. As we bumped along at 65 miles per hour, they passed us in the gloom of nite at speeds definitely above 90, maybe 100 miles per hour. I wonder if the bumps are not apparent at that speed?
PS When we crossed the border from Michigan to Illinois, the roads got even worse! I paid eight dollars in tolls in Chicago to drive across roads that wouldn't even be acceptable in rural Alaska! What the hell!? Why do people in the eastern US agree to pay outrageous and annoying tolls, then drive on crappy roads!? Have they ever visited the western half of the country, where we enjoy nice flat high-quality roads with no tolls whatsoever? How does this situation arise in a democracy?
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Calling Michigan a laughingstock seems like poor form. The people of Michigan are obviously aware and are really struggling to survive the destruction of the state's primary industry. Counties in Michigan (the Detroit area and the Upper Peninsula) have some of the highest un-employment rates in the country--as high as almost thirty percent in some place. It seems kind of trite to rant about how the state's poor roads negatively your vacation during a time when it's unemployment rate is at a record high.
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