Before the Freeway
Back in the Jurassic Age before the I75 SUV Speedway existed, when we wanted to visit our relatives in lower Michigan, we began our trip by taking US 2 to St. Ignace. We’d cross the Mackinac Bridge (or take the ferry until I was three) and then hook up with US 27. We would continue on 27 or split off to 10 and 23 or whatever, depending on which destination we were headed to: Detroit, Royal Oak, Ann Arbor, or Lansing.
Two lane highways consituted the bulk of the driving for any of these trips. As we neared Megalopolis, we encountered actual freeways with two lanes going *each* direction and entrance and exit ramps. Our eyes grew wide as we digested this new way of driving amidst so many millions of cars. Fortunately, Grandroobly was an expert driver (and airplane pilot) and he handled all of this newfangled stuff with aplomb.
A trip to Detroit was long when most of the roads were two lanes. Imagine getting stuck in the middle of a slow-moving National Guard convoy with no passing lane.
Anyway, the Underground Forest was one of the few tourist traps our parents would take us to pretty much every single time we drove down to Megalopolis. I can’t remember what it cost, maybe a quarter or fifty cents. The building was built into the side of a hill and we paid our money and walked back into the dark, probably kind of dank area where the display cases were. Dioramas of taxidermied northwoods aminals in their natural habitats!
The I75 SUV Speedway eventually made its way all the way up to Sault Ste. Siberia. It ends at the International Bridge and if you want to go anywhere after that, you have to take Highway 17 north or east. I *think* that the Underground Forest eventually migrated over to the I75 SUV Speedway and became the Call of the Wild. I have never been there. I bet it costs more than a quarter or fifty cents now. I should go there to see if it even begins to remind me of the old Underground Forest.