To Hell and Back- on a Friday afternoon
Stacie and I have both been stressed with jobs, relationships, living situations, etc. but neither of us had money or time for a real vacation, so we took a mini one last Friday. We decided to go to Hell. Hell, Michigan is about 2 hours from here, and rather significantly, the road to Hell goes right past Jackson Prison. Hell itself is tiny and we only spent time thei rto look in the gift shop and buy a t-shirt. I bought one that said "Hell Michigan Volunteer Fire Dpeartment" and looked remarkably like my father's uniform shirt (in fact, my mom didn't even notice the diff. until I mentioned it.) Stacie also bought a shirt and then we began a relaxed drive home. My favorite town along the way is Stockbridge. Its a quaint small town, but not in an obscene and overdone way, like Frankenmuth- home of tinny music piped into the streets and Bronner's Christmas Store, filled with acres of ornaments, tinsel, and life size inflatable reindeer. Stockbridge has the prerequisite number of craft stores, but it also still has in its core businesses such as insurance, dentist's office, and a local cafe that Stacie and I decided to try out. Down the road, attached to a gas station is the Dixie Cafe, but we opted for the smaller, more homey Barbie's Country Cafe. Its reasonable prices and John Deere tractor decorations attract mostly local farmers and people who work in nearby offices. We were teh objects of some speculative looks when we entered and sat down, and were the only patrons not on a first name basis with Barbie and the waitress Darlene. As we ate our lunches and an order of biscuits and gravy, Darlene sat in the back rolling up napkins and silverware, all the while chain-smoking with tar stained fingers.
Our trip was just what we needed to blow the stink of Kalamazoo off of us, and even despite a looooooooong traffic jam on the highway (a tailer had come loose from a truck and crashed to the side of the road) I came back to Kazoo relaxed and refreshed for more packing and moving. I had been to Hell once before with Val, and my fond memories were renewed by this trip.
Stacie and I have both been stressed with jobs, relationships, living situations, etc. but neither of us had money or time for a real vacation, so we took a mini one last Friday. We decided to go to Hell. Hell, Michigan is about 2 hours from here, and rather significantly, the road to Hell goes right past Jackson Prison. Hell itself is tiny and we only spent time thei rto look in the gift shop and buy a t-shirt. I bought one that said "Hell Michigan Volunteer Fire Dpeartment" and looked remarkably like my father's uniform shirt (in fact, my mom didn't even notice the diff. until I mentioned it.) Stacie also bought a shirt and then we began a relaxed drive home. My favorite town along the way is Stockbridge. Its a quaint small town, but not in an obscene and overdone way, like Frankenmuth- home of tinny music piped into the streets and Bronner's Christmas Store, filled with acres of ornaments, tinsel, and life size inflatable reindeer. Stockbridge has the prerequisite number of craft stores, but it also still has in its core businesses such as insurance, dentist's office, and a local cafe that Stacie and I decided to try out. Down the road, attached to a gas station is the Dixie Cafe, but we opted for the smaller, more homey Barbie's Country Cafe. Its reasonable prices and John Deere tractor decorations attract mostly local farmers and people who work in nearby offices. We were teh objects of some speculative looks when we entered and sat down, and were the only patrons not on a first name basis with Barbie and the waitress Darlene. As we ate our lunches and an order of biscuits and gravy, Darlene sat in the back rolling up napkins and silverware, all the while chain-smoking with tar stained fingers.
Our trip was just what we needed to blow the stink of Kalamazoo off of us, and even despite a looooooooong traffic jam on the highway (a tailer had come loose from a truck and crashed to the side of the road) I came back to Kazoo relaxed and refreshed for more packing and moving. I had been to Hell once before with Val, and my fond memories were renewed by this trip.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home