Detroit goes on forever and ever, with streets named after how far they are from downtown: 8 Mile Road, 16 Mile Road, 21 Mile Road, 840 Mile Road, and so on. Grand River Avenue goes northwest from the Time Square of downtown Detroit through 60 miles of Mile Roads, and then across the rest of the state. It was originally an Indian trail, then a plank road, then a feeder road for the Grand Trunk Western Railroad. Now parts of it are Highways 16 and 43.
Here are the beefcake sights along the way:
Mile 1: Cass Technical High School. In spite of its name, it's a 4-year college prep school which requires strong academic scores for admission and draws Ivy League recruiters. 82% of the students are black.
Mile 4: Wayne State University. 27,000 students, mostly from Detroit and its suburbs. Notable alumni include Casey Kasem and Jeffrey Tambor.
The City of Detroit ends at Mile 5. Everything else is suburb.
Mile 13: Rosedale Park. A suburb that seems to be going downhill: Knudsen's Bakery closes after 95 years; Rosedale Theater closes. But it is also apparently the home of bodybuilder Joe Romine.
Mile 20: Adlai E. Stevenson High School, Livonia. You're probably wondering why a town in Michigan is named after a region in the Eastern Baltic Sea, now parts of Estonia and Latvia. It was actually named after towns in New England.
Mile 20: Detroit Catholic Central High School in Novi is neither central, nor a high school, nor in Detroit,but it is Catholic. It's a college-prep all-male boarding school. It was originally in central Detroit, but moved to Novi in 2005. The school symbol, the shamrock, is not related to their Irish heritage, but represents the Trinity.
The suburbs end about Mile 30. Everything farther is small towns with farms in between.
Mile 40: Island Lake Recreation Area. A state-run park with swimming, paddleboats, camping, and "wildlife viewing." It gets 1,000,000 visitors per year. They also have running events and triathlons.
More after the break
Mile 60: Fowlerville, a village of 3,000 people, home to Landon Blixt, a student at Fowlerville Junior High, who has been studying gymnastics since preschool. He has competed in the Men's Junior Olympics National Championships 3 years in a row, and in 2018 placed first in Floor Exercise and second in All Around (a combination of the six events).
The Mile Roads end at Mile 60, but Grand River Avenue goes on and on.
Mile 74: Groovy Donuts, Williamston. Great name, and the owner isn't bad, either.
Mile 88: Michigan State University, East Lansing. 38,000 students. The original terracotta statue of Sparty, the team mascot, was unveiled in 1945. In 2005 it was replaced by a bronze version. It is a frequent target of vandals.
Mile 90: Lansing Catholic High School. I couldn't find any other beefcake sights in Lansing, not even at the State Capitol.
Mile 95: Green Pawz Pet Supply Store. I just thought the guy picking out cat food was cute.
Mile 103: Grand Ledge. There's no ledge in town, but there's a swim team.
Mile 197: Muskegon, a resort town on the shore of Lake Michigan, the birthplace of Iggy Pop, where Grand River Avenue finally comes to an end at the now-abandoned Grand Trunk Western Railroad depot. For lunch at the end of the trip, you have a choice of Fatty Lumpkins Sandwich Shack, the Tipsy Toad Tavern, the Boar's Belly, or the Burger King.
I'm definitely going for Fatty Lumpkins.
