UK citizen interested in Michigan

originally posted by: gr8skott
a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

I spent the first 36 years of my life in Michigan. Here is my honest opinion. It's cold. Wintery, bitter cold for 7 months of the year. Depending on where you are in Michigan (Western, Northern) when it snows, it snows a lot. Often. You have to move snow several times a day to keep your walkways and driveways cleared. You will have to drive distances to work in the snow and ice, for months. It's hazardous and nerve-wracking. The people in Michigan are sort of rude and harsh. I think it comes from surviving in such a difficult environment coupled with the despair of terrible economic conditions. Historically, Michigan was fueled by the automotive industry, which has nearly completely failed in the past few years. Food is more expensive in Michigan than other places, as well as other items, due to the fact that semi-truck drivers are reluctant to travel through such conditions and require extra pay to do so. Again, it's cold. And windy. And icy. Prepare to learn how to walk like a penguin to get from your workplace to your car after you get out of work. And then remove all the snow from your car, sit inside your cold car, and wait for the heat to melt the ice from your windshield before you can drive away. Snow is beautiful but the reality of living in it is harsh and unforgiving.

Edited to add:
I would highly recommend staying in Michigan for a couple weeks in January before you commit.

gr8skott, all good points about the winters here, esp up north. Living in the west central lower peninsula, I'd say that you have about seven months that are pretty good (April through October). April can be a muddy crap hole on rural roads though. November through December isn't so bad, but January up until late March is really cold at times due to the jet stream directing Canadian cold winds toward the south with lots of snow, esp. if you're within a county or two of Lake Michigan due to lake effect snows. In the lower peninsula there is a snow belt across the lower half that travels on the primarily westerly winds. I have heard that winters in the upper peninsula are extremely harsh. Many people travel south to warmer states during the winter, we call them snow birds.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

I don't know I don't live there I just imagine it's cold all the time like new England . I live on the coast and have my entire 59 years. I know New England cold relatives live in Massachusetts. I know long island summers (lovely I grew up there) and the golden warmth of a southern fall I've lived in the south east for 25 years. When I think of weather in the middle there especially northern Midwest I just think short summer's long winters. Hey we had white easters on long island so I'm sure Michigan has had many. Sometimes Easter is in mid March.

I grew up in the Detroit area, I lived there until I was 20years old. I moved up north and stayed put, that was 29 years ago. I now live 25 miles south of the Mackinac bridge. We get all 4 seasons here and I enjoy every one of them. I work at a golf/ski resort so I get laid off 3 weeks in the spring and 6 weeks in the fall. I've raised 4 daughters here and wouldn't want to do it anywhere else. In my area people are friendly, maybe not the tourists but we do need their money. In the summer I ride motorcycle when I'm not working. In the fall I hunt, hunt and hunt. In the winter when I'm not working I snow shoe and hunt. In the spring I get ready for the summer. I found my little piece of heaven when I was 20 years old and plan to stay here until the end. The only other place I would like to live would be in the smokey mountains by North Carolina and the Tennessee border. That is true motorcycle heaven but I doubt I'll ever relocate. To me anyplace south of Bay City is city and I have no desire to be there. I have no patience for the traffic and the city tough guy attitudes. My family still lives there so I do have to visit on occasion and I just get so tense. There is enough here to keep you busy and you can never truly see everything.
Things to look up:
Kitch itti kippi
Sault locks
Mackinac island
Copper harbor
Porcupine mountains (great hiking and amazing scenery)
Whitefish point (shipwreck museum and Lake Superior splendor)
Grand Marais (glass bottom boat rides over ship wrecks)
Pictured rocks
Harbor springs (big shots with $$$)
Munising
Traverse city (cherries and wine country)
Sleeping bear dunes (hope you like sand)
Lake Superior is amazing
Lake Michigan is nice
Tahquamenon falls
Oswald bear ranch (you can actually hold the Cubs if you get there at the right time)
Grayling (Air Force base, off road motorcycling)
There's so much more, this is just off the top of my head.

a reply to: chefc14

Thanks so much for the excellent information & recommendations. I feel bad for not coming back to this thread in good time - had some crazy stuff kick off in the last week or so, thus been really distracted. Anyway, my family & I are contemplating spending a couple of weeks in Michigan next year - perhaps even Christmas, if we can find the right sort of accommodation in the right location. We're definitely smitten with the idea of frosty landscapes, snowmobiles & skating on the ponds, etc. Will have a look & see what we can find - I will be checking out the items you mentioned as worth a look, so thank you for those too.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

Thanks for the heads-up regarding the harsh winters in the upper peninsula. From our limited research to date, we were thinking northern half of the lower peninsula, not sure on which town/ city yet. One thing I can say is that I'm really enjoying the process of learning about the state - it's given me a real boost to start considering possible future options as an ex-pat..!!

a reply to: tinner07

Great information, thanks. I'm really jiving with the idea of bonfires in the fall, sounds like my cup of tea (LOL - I won't be able to have my cups of tea in the states unless I import a kettle..!! )

a reply to: SteamyJeans

Thanks so much for the informative response - this thread's getting me fired up for the idea of moving out there..!

Nice thing about here is if you are into outdoor sports/activities, you can be involved in ALL of them. We get the best and worst of every season. Today is the first day of Bow Hunting season and is basically a Holiday. All summer you can hike, fish. camp, kayak, bike..you name it. Winter has snowmobiling, hunting, ice fishing, skiing.. And you're realy never more than 3 or 4 hours from beautiful parks and outdoor places to do these things. Upper peninsula, and west coast are as beautiful as anywhere in the country.. Mountains, beaches, rivers, lakes, forests.. I was lucky enough to spend summers "up north" either in the UP or on dads 30 ft sail boat, roaming lake huron up into Canada and the North Channel.

Literally, AMAZING. I have so much enthusiasm for the prospect of a move now, it's unreal. Going to be working my butt off over the next few years in the hopes of raising the necessary funds to go native in snowy Michigan...!!

Seriously, thanks guys, this thread is really helping me to straighten out my priorities..

I've only been living here for a little over 2 years, but Imma nitpick from an outsider's point of view here! It may be helpful for someone looking to come here to have another transplant's POV, too.
I'm in W MI in the GR metro area, for what it's worth.

originally posted by: gr8skott
a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

I spent the first 36 years of my life in Michigan. Here is my honest opinion. It's cold. Wintery, bitter cold for 7 months of the year.

It is? Have the last 2 winters just been abnormally mild? It got cold, but I wouldn't call it all that bitter, and I'm from Florida, ha. I think realistically, that bitter stretch is more like 2 months, with chilly 40 & 50 degree highs the flanking months. And the occasional dips down further, of course.

Depending on where you are in Michigan (Western, Northern) when it snows, it snows a lot. Often. You have to move snow several times a day to keep your walkways and driveways cleared. You will have to drive distances to work in the snow and ice, for months. It's hazardous and nerve-wracking.

Well, yes, it does snow a lot in terms of collective inches, but it seems to be in waves where we get a few inches or even a foot. Then it melts, and later, rinse, repeat a while before it accumulates & doesn't poof. I was looking at bare ground on Christmas our first one here, plow piles aside. That's compared to November, when it had dumped varying amounts of snow for something like 10 or 11 days straight. But we had bare ground a month later, lol. "Hi, welcome to MI, southerner! Feel my schizo seasons!"

The shoveling doesn't bother me much, it's just time-consuming. I keep threatening to get a snow blower, but that threat has yet to be followed through on. I'd recommend the OP not waffle on it like I have and just invest in one, it obviously makes the chore a whole lot easier & faster.

The icy roads though, does bother me. "Treacherous" comes to mind for a few times. But I'd assume that's par for the course anywhere it snows all winter, and doubly so for anywhere more than just pancake terrain.

The people in Michigan are sort of rude and harsh. I think it comes from surviving in such a difficult environment coupled with the despair of terrible economic conditions.

Oh bro, no, no they're not rude, trust me on this one. Michiganders make the fabled southern hospitality look like a damn lie.

Historically, Michigan was fueled by the automotive industry, which has nearly completely failed in the past few years. Food is more expensive in Michigan than other places, as well as other items, due to the fact that semi-truck drivers are reluctant to travel through such conditions and require extra pay to do so.

Don't know about automotive, but there are jobs-a-plenty across multiple sectors at least in W MI, it's why we came here from Tampa Bay. There aren't any there, at least nothing that pays enough to survive the steep CoL there. You're making the Retirement State look pretty bad by comparison, truthfully.

I'm going to pretty adamantly disagree that food is more expensive here at least in our area, it's dirt cheap to us. We're used to a much sharper mark-up on everything. We're getting a really good bang for the buck for the fresh foods up here. Now, it's probably true that in the more remote areas food's marked up, but that's equally true for the FL Keys. That's some expensive basics down there. Or anywhere remote or costly to ship to. I'd rather eat the cost of food (pun intended) in MI than HI, for example.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

You seem like a very enthusiastic outdoorsy person, this state is very amiable to that. Whatever you want to do outdoors, it's there to be done. I've spent more time outdoors here than I ever did in FL, I just can't stay indoors. For the most part, the weather is amazing. Sure, it has it's bona fide bi-polar days where it swings wildly in temperature from sunrise to sunset, or you get surprised with a clear miss on the forecast and have torrential rain for a day or two. But it's a wonderful place to spend time outside, it really is. Even a walk in the rain is wonderful to us.

Or maybe we were just so desperate for a change in latitude that we're nuts, your call

Glad to be of help!

I would pretty much agree with what everyone else has said. I'm not sure about the rudeness tbh..

Like was said above, certain things like a snowblower and a jeep will make life much easier , but many people get by with a shovel and sedan..
Just be prepared to be literally snowed in and not able to leave your driveway .. Hasn't happen to me in 6 or 7 years... At the time Flint was not great about plowing the neighborhoods .. Not much you can do... But it can happen.

Good luck to you. Personally I plan to be here for the rest of my life. If I win the lotto I would go northwest Michigan..But I'm happy right here. If I did move out of state it would be Colorado or the northwest .. Oregon, Washington, nor cal.. Most folks that I know that leave tend to go to those places.



a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

Welcome to the neighborhood. All those cheap groceries must be coming from Meijer eh? Much better than pube licks .



a reply to: Nyiah

originally posted by: SteamyJeans
Welcome to the neighborhood. All those cheap groceries must be coming from Meijer eh? Much better than pube licks .

a reply to: Nyiah

ROTFL, one who knows the jokes about Pubic's XD

Pretty even mix between Meijer and Aldi, with the occasional stop at Family Fare. Which would be the Publix of MI in terms of atmosphere & pricing, as far as I can tell.

Lol I have family in Tampa and was just there last week so it's fresh in my mind.

I have not been to Aldis tho my mom lOves it. I grew up a mile from a meijer so to me that's the only grocery store in the world . I live about 15 minutes from meijer and shop at a place called VGs.. Way more expensive it almost worth the drive to Meijer . Oh well .

Thanks for the laugh.

Ps being In Grand Rapids you Better be shopping meijer and eating your cereal becaus that's what made that town... And now beer

a reply to: Nyiah