{"id":1826,"date":"2014-05-18T07:26:58","date_gmt":"2014-05-18T14:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=1826"},"modified":"2014-05-18T07:26:58","modified_gmt":"2014-05-18T14:26:58","slug":"finding-michigan-on-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/golf\/offcourse\/1826\/finding-michigan-on-the-road","title":{"rendered":"Finding Michigan On The Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

A young blond woman made her way into the coach class cabin behind me aboard a Delta flight from Detroit to Salt Lake City. She was clutching the new book \u201cSimply Rich \u2013 Life and Lessons from the Co-founder of Amway,\u201d written by 88-year-old Richard DeVos \u2013 the billionaire whose international business acumen and charitable leadership has had an immeasurable positive impact on Grand Rapids.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHave you read much of that book yet?\u201d I asked. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

She opened the book a bit to show me she was about 100 pages in, and asked back, \u201cAre you familiar with who the author is?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I told her that I\u2019d interviewed Richard and his son\u2019s Dick and Doug on my radio and television show and had talked about the book on the air that very morning. \u201cThey\u2019re all smooth cats,\u201d I said, \u201cfun people.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRichard is my grandfather,\u201d she revealed, trying not to smile. Her father Dick would have been proud of her poise. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"BillySometimes leaving Michigan means taking some of it with you \u2013 or \u2013 encountering it on the road, since our diaspora takes the form of just more than homegrown autobiographies. For instance, upon arrival in Utah, I discovered, in Park City\u2019s Pinebrook Village the existence of the new \u201cBilly Blanco\u2019s Motor City Mexican Burger and Taco Garage,\u201d and homage to Detroit created by restaurateur Bill White, who left Michigan 20 years ago. Populist Michigan rock star Kid Rock, depicted in a huge mural on the wall, would love the fact that a \u201cshot and a shell\u201d (whiskey and a beer) is only $7. He\u2019d grin, too, if he was the Dodge Charger, Shelby GT, and Harley Davidson bike right in the restaurant. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We know people swoon at the sound of the \u201cPure Michigan\u201d campaign, but Detroit? Suddenly fashionable? Is the bankrupt city really known as the \u201cParis of the Midwest,\u201d outside Michigan? \u00a0I have heard the adage: \u201cYou\u2019re always a bum in your hometown,\u201d but what if the \u201cbum\u201d in question is your hometown? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Like White, former University of Michigan football player Jeff \u201cSmoke\u201d Smokevitch has opened a themed restaurant in a ski town – Brown Dog Pizza in Telluride, Colorado \u2013 serving \u201cDetroit-style pizza.\u201d I\u2019ve heard of Chicago-style and New York-style pizza, so I asked Patrick Doyle, CEO of Michigan-based Domino\u2019s Pizza, when he visited Lansing, what Detroit-style pizza was? \u201cI think they\u2019re talking about a square deep-dish,\u201d he said. \u201cBut since we got it all started I like to think we really are \u2018Detroit pizza.\u2019\u201d Indeed Domino\u2019s and Little Caesars, both industry pizza giants, opened their first single stores in about 1960 \u2013 both in the Detroit area. In a further irony, both Tom Monaghan, Domino\u2019s founder, and Mike Ilitch, who founded Little Caesar\u2019s, each took turns owning Major League Baseball\u2019s Detroit Tigers, a team that historically has been a fine ambassador for Detroit. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Michael Patrick Shiels may be contacted at InviteYourself@aol.com<\/span><\/a> or via TravelTattler.com\u00a0 His talk show can be heard weekday mornings in Lansing on 92.1 FM and Fox 47 TV. <\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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