M-15 Photoset

This is what happens when you have nothing to do on a Sunday morning. Feeling adventurous, I wanted to take a road trip. Having no one but myself to go with on said trip, I decided to make it more of an experiment than a trip. Two years ago I was planning a road trip that involved M-15 (a minor Michigan highway). I noticed on the directions that the street name for M-15 goes through several changes through it's course. I decided that I should drive the entire stretch of the road, and get a picture of a road sign every time the road changed (sounds exciting, no?).

Well, it wasn't exactly a nice day--what with the rain--and I had nothing better to do, so I decided to finally make due with my old plans. I've created a map of the full route I drove and information on some of the places I passed through. Don't you wish your trips could be this exciting?

01 - I arrived at the Intersection of Dixie Highway (M-24) and Main Street (M-15). This picture was taken as I was turning onto M-15. You can see Mr. B's Roadhouse in the background as well as the $2.95 gas prices (thanks a lot Bush, your invasion really helped us out).

02 - My first stop was only several yards down the road. Greg's is a takeout store that has a long history in Clarkston, especially with the high school kids of my generation. We used to go there during lunch and get breadsticks and cheese dip. I arrived just as the store opened and said hello to the girl working there (the same girl from 1999 whom I went to high school with). I spoke with her and she told me it was her last year and she was moving to Ohio. I ordered my breadsticks (which I highly recommend ) and continued my trip.

03 - This is a shot of downtown Clarkston, the city I grew up in (although, back then it was only a village).

04 - This is the Clarkston Mansion, one of the oldest buildings in the village. Late 1800's I think.

05 - This is the road sign of Northview Dr. and Main St., the road I grew up on.

06 - A quick stop at my parent's house. I lived here from age 6 to 21. Lots of memories (nobody was home though).

07 - The first road name change to Ortonville Rd. It continues this way from the end of Clarkston all through the city of Ortonville.

08 - The beginning of State Rd. The name State is the longest name stretch on M-15. It flip flops between State Rd. outside of towns and State St. inside of towns.

09 - This barn is often featured on the local PBS television stations.

10 - Entering Davison.

11 - State Rd. is now State St. This photo was taken from the parking lot of a funeral home. What fun!

12 - Back to State Rd.

13 - Entering Otisville, a quaint little village.

14 - State St. while in Otisville. I like the wooden bordering around the signs.

15 - Back to State Rd.

16 - COWS!

17 - This is the village of Millington.

18 - And since we're in a village State St.

19 - Back to State Rd.

20 - Entering Vassar. Nice sign by the way.

21 - This is a bit odd. M-15 is called Goodrich near Vassar, but not near Goodrich, and Vassar near Bulmfield, but not near Vassar.

22 - From Goodrich Ave. to Goodrich St. after only a few yards.

23 - This is downtown Vassar. The hills and the bricks give is very lovely appearance. I think I liked it more than any other town I went through.

24 - Vassar also had specialized road signs. Orange with a large V on them. Also, we're on Huron Ave. now.

25 - A stop to get gas. This was the cheapest price I saw on the trip. Screw you Exxon. Notice how they misspelled "stuf".

26 - After Vassar we're now on Saginaw.

27 - Entering Blumfield Corners. I'm curious if they really meant blumfield, or if they didn't know how to spell bloomfield.

28 - Now that we've left the town, M-15 changed to Vassar Rd.

29 - This is a good looking farm house with barns and what not all around it.

30 - Entering Bay City.

31 - M-15 is now Tuscola Rd., although we're no longer in Tuscola County.

32 - M-15 is now at it's last name, Trumbull St. Also, notice the cute little buildings on Bay City's road signs.

33 - This is a bright colored lavender house. I pulled into their driveway to get the next shot.

34 - The official end of M-15. The road continues as Truman Ave. and quite a ways more into Bay City. I stopped at the Bay City mall and played DDR at the arcade just like back when Kimberly lived up here. Good memories.

After leaving the mall I headed back into Flint to play DDR where everybody knows my name.

The trip would normally take about an hour and twenty minutes, but with all my stopping and backtracking I increased that quite a bit. I started at 11:57 AM and finally finished at 2:23 PM. The stretch of M-15 is 70 miles long, but I put considerably more miles on my car. Although, since I forgot to set my tripmeter I couldn't tell you for sure. I crossed five counties, a whole slew of townships and cities, and a crap load of yellow dots.

It was a pretty interesting way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.