The place that I wished I lived....

The place that I wish I lived in would be Iron Mountain, Michigan. An odd place coming from somebody who has lived in Mississippi their entire life, I know. I once was given the opportunity to visit Iron Mountain when I was married. My ex-husband Dan surprised me with a trip so I could get away from Mississippi. The trip was set to be a 5 day trip, 2 days of driving and 3 days stay in Iron Mountain, MI.

The reason why my ex-husband Dan went was because he wanted to go hunting and had heard from a family member that there was a wide variety of animals that you could potentially hunt for in that general region of the country. We left Mississippi and drove through the beautiful jagged terrain of Tennessee. Then we passed through the small mountain state of Kentucky, where the air is probably the cleanest air in the country. After that we cut across the endless corn fields that make up the state of Indiana. Next we moseyed along north into the surprisingly desolate fielded state of Illinois and endured some of the craziest driving in the north when we hurried through Chicago, IL. After Illinois we were awestruck at the most gorgeous yet simple beauty that you can only see in Wisconsin. And finally we were in Iron Mountain, Michigan… after what ended up being near 24 hour drive.

One piece of advice that I can never stress upon anybody going that far up north, dress very warm because it is well below 0 degrees up there! When we finally arrived we met up with my ex-husband’s family to stay with them in their amazing 5 bedroom oak cabin. We had an excellent dinner with them (elk strips, potatoes, and Jane’s specially spiced broccoli!) and went to bed early so Dan could be able to go hunting bright and early with his family. We also had plans for us all to sightsee around Iron Mountain once the guys were done hunting for the morning, only to have to put off the tour of the town until later due to the fact my ex-husband killed his very first moose!!!

Iron Mountain, MI was a very small town. The population was set at around 900 in the county. We all had lunch at a location that once served as Al Capone’s alcohol brewery during the Prohibition era, which still had all of the bullet holes in the wall from when the Federal Agents had shot up the building in effort to kill Capone on at least one occasion. Furthermore, there is no official sources that will accredit the upper peninsula of Michigan as the prime spot for any of the alcohol brewing during Prohibition… the closest that they do come to naming Iron Mountain as such a place is by saying that Capone was making and brewing alcohol from Canada and transporting it through the great lakes into the US. The people in the area were devoted Christians mostly that believed that they lived in probably the nicest part of the country, despite our claims that they have not seen nice until they come down south and stay there for awhile. The scenery was almost entirely wooded mountain terrain that was nested around 70 miles from Canada.

After a few days of hunting, some more of the best food I have ever eaten, more nice people to meet, and a lot more to learn we had to come back home. Another day from the time we left Iron Mountain, MI we were back home. Despite the fun we had up north and an amazing experience, from that point on I looked at where I lived and felt more at home then I ever recall feeling before I went on that trip.