On County Roads, color tours, and Wolverines

Although I've lived in Clinton County practically all of my life, there are obviously plenty of roads that I've never traveled on before.

Thanks to my little trip around Bath Township this past week, some newly discovered roads are familiar now - and, hopefully they will be to our readers also as we start up our County Road series in today's paper.

Last Wednesday was a great day for a jaunt around the Bath area. Mostly clear blue skies, bright sunshine, with just enough Autumn nip in the air to be refreshing during walks on several 'road stops'. It was quite lovely.

There's no point in repeating information about the trip in this space - you can read the story - but several reflections are worth noting.

Although I was not surprised by the number of relatively new homes that can be spotted from Bath roadways, it still amazes me how spread out our neighborhoods are becoming. I suspect this fact will be proven again and again on trips through the remaining 15 townships.

Having grown up in the country, I can understand the attraction that a rural lifestyle holds for a growing number of families. It's hard to begrudge others who want to share the offerings that country living provides, but continuing development into rural areas does pose some questions that currently have few answers.

It would be interesting to go back in time 25 years ago and see what the roads I traveled on this week looked like then - even more intriguing to jump ahead to 2024 and see Angle, Peacock, or Clise roads in that era.

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Old dance hall at Park Lake

We would be remiss not to give credit to Gene Wilkins for providing the wonderful glimpse into Bath's past through the great photographs which he loaned to us.

The photos of Park Lake are particularly interesting, I think. That must have been quite a place in its hayday.

Thanks, Gene.

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Last Sunday was the appointed time for another road trip - the annual "Up-North Color Tour " where I play chauffeur to my parents. This year's tour was a quick day-trip to Charlevoix.

The choice of the pretty town on the shores of Lake Michigan was two-fold: we saw some beautiful leaves, and made a pit-stop at the home of my older son and his wife.

It's pretty nifty to have family living in a pretty spot like Charlevoix - we take full advantage of it at every opportunity.

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Lastly - since this newspaper is published on Sunday, the Big Game will be history by now. Hopefully, everyone will have behaved responsibly - particularly the Spartan fans who should be licking the wounds inflicted by the Wolverines.