"Don't go to Flint!"

When I mentioned to several people that I had a friend in Flint, Michigan, who I'd like to meet up with, everyone without fail all said, "Don't go to Flint." "It's a terrible place."

Yeah, well, I wanted meet up with Teri Henderson, so we went to Flint, Michigan.

And...

We had the best time ever!

I contacted Teri from our hotel in Davison, just outside Flint, the day before and arranged to meet her in a small shop called Stir The Imagination.

We foud our way to the shop the next morning, but Teri had been held up by her car breaking down. As we waited, we talked to Rhonda, the shop owner, and before we knew it, Geoff was off on a fishing trip [he caught a bass] with Rhonda's husband, Darryl, and I was in the shop having a lovely healing done by Becky Johns.

We stayed the next couple of nights with Rhonda and Darryl. Geoff got to go to Detroit to see a baseball match between the Detroit Tigers and the Pittsburg Pirates at the Tigers Stadium in Detroit. The Tigers won.

Geoff said that despite its reputation, the area of Detroit they were in looked a lovely clean city. We could also say the same about Flint. There were parts of Flint we only drove through, but didn't stop. They were run down and shabby. Unemployment and the downturn of the economy has taken a huge toll on places like Flint. It made us feel really lucky to live in Australia.

Teri and I in Stir The Imagination. It was wonderful to catch up and spend a day just talking.

Flint's main street looks amazing with its arches all lit up at night. The main street is all paved in bricks!

 And check out this amazing weather ball that lights up in different colours to tell you what the next day will bring. I can't remember the whole poem that goes with it - I'll ask Rhonda and then post the whole thing here later. The first part goes: When the weather ball is red, warmer weather lies ahead. That was true. We had amazing weather!

We took a day trip from Flint up to Muskegan to see Lake Michigan. More picture postcard stuff.

You would swear, would you not, that I was standing in the sea? That's Lake Michigan. And it was COLD! Glacier lake. Brrrr! There were people swimming in that!

 The sand dunes are being revigitated so they'll be like they were originally. It's very pretty.

A walk through the woods from the "beach".

We were shopping for caps and t-shirts when a couple of Flint's finest came in for their daily shoe shine. Very nice guys, quietly spoken and ready for a laugh or two, but you wouldn't want to tangle with either of these two.

Eventually, as in Benton and Brentford, we had to leave our new friends and venture onward across this great country. Photographs really do not do this place justice. The grand scale of the scenery, the colours, the wildflowers, the smells, it is all breathtaking. 

Spring time is definitely the best time of the year to explore this vast countryside. We've struck a few gray days, but very little rain. Now the days are getting warmer and the nights very pleasant. Yes, definitely come over here in late spring to early summer.