The two-lane northern Michigan highway was frosted like a cake. There was nothing for me to follow but thin, black car tracks and the occasional fellow driver, whom I tried to stay away from. No street lights. Just darkness flooded with swirling flurries. I flipped on the fog lights. Sleek, dark pavement peeked through the snow. The sides of the road spilled off into powdery ditches leading to a thick wall of evergreens.

I was driving Up North, as we Michiganders call it, to my family’s cottage for our annual New Year’s ski trip. Continue Reading