Every. Word. Of. Every. Sign.

Signs.  I love reading signs.  Especially signs that have anything to do with history.  I
have been mocked for years by family and friends for my obsession with reading every word of every sign in museums and historical sites that we visit.  Where my wife sees a big wide-open field of grass, trees, and shrubs, I see an historic Civil War battlefield with lots of historical signs and markers to help me visualize the action that took place on that field.  Nirvana for history geeks like me, another excuse to catch a few Z’s due to boredom for my wife.

Wines.  My wife loves wine.  Her passion for wine was stoked three years ago by friends of ours who invited us on a Wine Tour in the Leelanau Peninsula of Michigan, near Traverse City.  I, on the other hand, am NOT a wine drinker, but I went along for the ride.  Where I see a big wide-open field of vines and shrubs and trees, my wife sees grapes and cherries and peaches and apples and the potential they have to be ingredients in delicious tasting Michigan wines.  Nirvana for wine lovers like my wife, another excuse to long for the sweet taste of a cold beer for me.

Wines and Signs.  The obvious and natural result of combining our respective passions into a singular quest.  The quest – to visit every winery and read every Historical Marker in the state of Michigan!!  The purpose of this blog is to share our experiences while on this quest.  Over 1700 official State of Michigan Historical Markers and over 200 wineries.  Will we succeed?  I hope you will join us on this ride and see if we do.  Please feel free to offer your thoughts, and we would be very happy to answer any questions you may have or provide more details if needed.

The Birth of Michigan Wines and Signs

I love quests, and my family and I have enjoyed many quests over the years.  Many years ago, we did an Amusement Parks and Civil War Battlefield quest, mixing fun (for the kids and wife) with learning about American history (for me and my daughter).  Other than traveling during the hottest months on record (we were at Hershey Park the day the thermometer hit 109 degrees F), our trip was quite enjoyable.  There was a sense of adventure that made the vacation more palpable than any vacation we had taken before.

Some of our quests were stupid simple – sample an alcoholic beverage at every Land in Epcot Center,  (adults only!!!) – while others were quite lengthy and challenging in nature – our quest to visit every lighthouse in the state of Michigan.  Regardless of the quest, they all served as a huge bonding experience for our family as we all rallied around the adventure of finding the next lighthouse or reading the next battlefield sign.

With the kids now grown and gone, we have not had a quest of any relevance lately – other than my quest to lose weight, which currently stands at 41 pounds since March 3, but I digress.  I started tinkering with the thought of seeing historical markers in the state of Michigan.  In the past when I had thought about this, there were no reliable sources that could tell me how many markers existed and where I could find them.  But that was years ago and I hoped that that had changed.  Much to my excitement, I found at least 3 sites now that have fairly good lists, with one site capturing every official State of Michigan historical marker.  I even found an iPhone app that has some of the markers identified (but as I have since found out, well short of the +1700 markers that exist in the state).  Armed with that information, I now just needed to wait for an opportunity to spring our next quest on my wife.

It only took a couple days.  My wife started hinting about visiting a couple wineries in the area, and as usual, I was not overly excited about spending a Sunday driving around doing that.  So, I figured I would throw out a counteroffer – I’ll agree to go visit some wineries, if she would agree to visit some historical markers along the way.  I explained my vision of our new quest, and she surprisingly did not tell me to go perform a hurtful act on myself (trying to keep the blog PG rated).  

With the quest now defined and agreed to, my wife suggested that we should record our exploits.  I only intended to tick wineries and markers off a list, and maybe record some info on a PowerPoint slide to share with my wife and the kids.  But she was thinking BLOG.  Why not share our exploits with others?  Well… I’m not very social media savvy – I have never owned a Facebook account, or Twitter, or Instagram, or Exchange-O-Gram – so this proposal seemed quite daunting.  But just like that first winery trip, I am going to go along for the ride and see where it takes us.