Beans & Cornbread in Southfield

After spending much of the year on the road in northern Michigan writing a canoe/kayak guide, it's a relief to get away from my diet of cheese burgers and beer at Up North taverns. Over the last several years, I've gotten to know more about the U.P. than my own home town -- Detroit. But that's changing, as I start work on a travel guide to the city.
Got a chance to eat at Beans & Cornbread in Southfield, an upscale soul food restaurant. They're going to get into the guide. The food was great and the service excellent. We went on a Tuesday night, so it wasn't too crowded. I had the pork chops in red eye gravy, and my wife, the fried chicken. I tried a bit of both, and while the chicken wasn't as good as the "hens" my Arkansas grandmother "fried up," as she called it, it was better than anything I've tasted in years.
The dinner was traditionally southern, with three sides. I had greens, black eyed peas and corn. Northern white people usually consider boiled green beans as the only vegetable fit to put on the table. In the south, you get more variety.
While at the bar, I had an interesting discussion with an African-American woman about southern fried chicken, and she struck a chord with me. I told her the chicken was just about as good as my southern grandmother's and she told me that there was probably an African-American woman behind that recipe. Her comment brought back a misty memory of something my father told me about such a black woman who worked for his parents. I wonder if she was the source. My father's dead, and I'll never know. Such are the mysteries of the south.

A fresh look at Detroit

On a recent evening, I checked out the Wayne State campus, and was happy to see students walking around, lights on in buildings, and Old Main, a building I took classes in 40 years ago, looking good. For me, it was a way to shift gears and get in tune with my old hometown. I spent the past year writing a canoe/kayak guide to Michigan, and spent much of my time in backwoods towns.
I'm now at work on a guidebook to Detroit, which will give me a chance to take a good look at my old haunts and see how things have changes, some for the better. There's a lot of great stuff to say about Detroit, especially lately. I was a bit amazed to see The New York Times do a story on Slows Barbecue in Detroit. Too often the national media shows up, takes a couple of pictures of the abandoned Michigan Central Depot and old auto plants, as a way to show the city's decline.
I've got a great opportunity to tell Detroit's story, and I'm going to take advantage of it. But I'm going to be honest. I was near Wayne State to have dinner at the venerable Mario's restaurant. The service is still top notch, but lobster night drew my wife and I there for dinner. We got there about 7 p.m. and they were out of it. It was a bit off putting. If you're going to advertise something, you've got to step up to the plate and do it. I'll go back, but I won't suck for lobster night again.

Favorite summer photo

Summer is on the wane, and I've just completed writing a canoe/kayak guide to Michigan for my publisher, The Countryman Press. When looking through the photos for the book that I took during my travels through the state this past summer, I still like this one the best. It was taken on the Keweenaw Peninsula in the U.P. A favorite place I'm going to get back to next summer when I have more time to paddle, not just write and take photos.

Where to be unplugged

You won't get any calls here, the Apostle Islands

A couple of years ago while fly-fishing the Yellowstone River in Montana, I couldn't resist calling my son to tell him about a large trout I'd caught. I didn't think the cell phone would work, by my fishing guide said they did so long as you could see a road. There was a ribbon of a freeway in the distance, and the phone worked. My son was caught in Detroit traffic, and we laughed about where we were.
I thought I was unplugged out there, and it was a good feeling to be beyond the bonds of wireless technology -- unavailable, as we once were just a few years ago.
There are still a few places out there in Michigan where you can disconnect. Here's a list:
* Copper Harbor. Cell phones don't work at the tip of the Keweenaw. I found it a relief while staying there for several days. If you go, and need a cell phone fix, you can drive to the top of Brockway Mountain.
* Western Upper Peninsula. I feel like I'm in a time warp when I visit places like Iron Mountain, Iron River and Crystal Falls. You're in the central time zone, and cell phone reception goes in and out, depending on where your staying.
* Pere Marquette River. Try a fall float down the Lower Peninsula, if you're looking to disconnect for a while. The high banks on the shoreline block cell phone reception.
* Drummond Island. Located in northern Lake Huron, the island has shaky service.
As for wireless Internet junkies, apart from Marquette it's a crap shoot. Sometimes you'll find yourself sitting in your vehicle near a public library to hook up.

It's time to visit the Upper Peninsula

With the temperatures in the 80s and 90s in southern Michigan and about 100 along the East Coast, its time to think about a trip to the Upper Peninsula where it's in the 70s. A cool drive along the shore of Lake Superior on M 28 is just the tonic we need this time of year. There are stunning beaches and an either calm or stormy Lake Superior. For many, the U.P. conjures up images of woods and waters, and there's plenty of that, but there is also a lot of urban culture. Try visiting Marquette, which has about 25 art galleries, Northern Michigan University, and a top flight hotel -- The Landmark. A bicycle trail follows the lake front through town, and restaurants and smalll cafes thrive.

Christmas in July

The hot weather probably has many of us wishing for Christmas in July. Well, here it is -- the Upper Peninsula town of Christmas in a photo taken in July. Christmas is a few miles west of Munising, and owes its existence to it's name. A small gift shop in the town doubles as a post office, so you can have your Christmas cards post marked with the word Christmas. There's also a casino, but I doubt if they give away gifts.

Misty, cool day on Beaver Lake

I'm back from a ten day paddling trip through the Upper Peninsula, most of the time I was on Lake Superior, but I found this lovely inland body of water, Beaver Lake, in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore between Munising and Grand Marais. There's a small campground and boat launch there, and it has a creek, Beaver Creek, that empties into Lake Superior, so you can get to the shoreline of the big lake. It's a bit of a trip. You have to get out of your kayak and "line" your boat through the creek, which means pull it. It's about a quarter mile to the big lake. Many of the days I was there, it was misty and cool, and I'm yearning for that weather again as I sit at my computer in southeastern Michigan editing my photos in 90 degree heat.