Now that you have been welcomed to Detroit…  Saturday night, we went to the Big Boy restaurant just a block from our hotel, and walked both ways.  On the way, we saw this sign, and I just had to laugh.  You may know that hotels and restaurants everywhere are having trouble hiring enough workers to resume their previous levels of service, and here’s a great indication of that.

At the Big Boy, we had a good dinner, with this on the table.

On the way home from dinner, I again had to laugh!  This is the lighted sign outside the restaurant.  I think they lost an “I” , and it landed elsewhere on the sign.  Someone should also learn to spell the plural of “server”, don’t you think?

On Sunday, we hopped in our rented Jeep and headed down to Hillsdale for the Center for Constructive Alternatives seminar on Critical American Elections.  For most of the way, we drove down US Highway 12, which is 2-lane and quite picturesque, especially for us Pacific Northwesterners who are used to evergreen trees.  The highway is lined with deciduous trees and fields of (already-harvested) corn.  Here’s a link to some video I shot from the front seat of the moving car.

When we reached Jonesville, where we were staying, it was past our lunch time, so we stopped at the McDonalds in town.  We ate in the car, and I noticed that surrounding the parking lot was quite a nice green-space and marshland.

It was time to head to the Hillsdale Campus, for registration and to attend the afternoon’s first event.  As we were walking in from the parking lot, I spotted a car that could only be owned by a Hillsdale supporter.  Anywhere else, the bumper-stickers could earn the driver a “keyed” paint job.  At Hillsdale, it’s perfectly normal.  I smiled.

Most of the CCA lectures were held in the auditorium  of the Searle Center.

This old lady was impressed with the sweet young things manning the reception desk.  Nicely-dressed and unfailingly nice, like everyone at Hillsdale.

Can you tell what is right with these two scenes from the dining-room and its terrace?

Not a face-mask in sight!  In fact, of the over 600 attendees and about 30 servers, I only saw at most half a dozen people wearing masks.  A sign of the Liberty that lives at Hillsdale College.

While we were there, we took more than one walk around the beautiful Hillsdale campus.  One of the activities was the dedication of a new “Liberty Tree”.  Here it is.  Pretty little!  My husband called it the “Charlie Brown” tree.

On our walk, I noticed a Hillsdale student who had found an unusual place to do her studying.  Maybe the library or her dorm room were too noisy.

What would we do without the wonders of modern wireless technology?

On our way to campus, and every day on our drives to campus from our bed-and-breakfast lodging, we noticed many downed trees and tree-limbs.  I asked, and was told that in the recent past they had had an episode of tornado-force winds, which blew down numerous trees.  I just had to capture this one, as it looked line a giant hand had simple broken off the tree, and gently placed it a few feed from the stump of the trunk.

That must have taken a very high wind!

During that entire conference, I only saw one very disappointing thing at Hillsdale, which normally has a very high level of scholarship.  I just couldn’t resist taking a picture of this sign in the college bookstore.

In all, we were pleased with our experience at the conference.  We stayed at the same lodging as a couple we know from Ricochet, so we always had someone to talk to, especially at the wonderful breakfasts we got every day.  All the lectures were superlative, and the speakers were very approachable.  We hope to attend future CCAs at the college.

The worst parts of the trip were the flights to and from Detroit.  The ridiculous “mask mandates” for public transportation were being enforced on the airplanes, but I did my best to resist, by keeping my mask as loose as possible, and beneath instead of over my nose.  The flight attendants this time were much more adamant about “correct” mask-wearing, and I admit my emotions almost got out of hand.  Everyone is more stressed-out than usual, but I tried to do what one of the speakers at the conference suggested, and act like a free person.  Free people do not cover their faces in public, no matter if a dictator demented president orders it.

Here’s to Liberty, and Hillsdale College!