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North through western Michigan

An October 2025 route through western Michigan, with a gray afternoon at the beach, evening light over the water and a marina after dark.

David Schweickart · October 10 to 15, 2025

On October 11, 2025, I bought daily admission at Ludington State Park. The receipt was issued at 10:46 that morning, and I photographed it within the same minute. Two days later, another photograph recorded a fuel stop in Wellston. Those small records anchor a route north through western Michigan.

The broader location history places me in the Muskegon area before the Ludington stop. By the evening of October 12, the record returns to the Ludington area, then follows the next day's travel inland. At Wellston, the photographed Whitetail Party Store receipt and the location record agree on the afternoon stop. From there, the route continues into the northern part of the Lower Peninsula.

The return on October 14 runs south through Michigan and into Ohio. Seen together, the records describe several days moving around the state rather than a single destination. Ludington and Wellston are the stops I can name with direct, dated evidence alongside the route.

Slat fences and a sign on a sandy beach beneath dramatic gray clouds.
The beach during the October 2025 Michigan trip. October 11, 2025.

Three views between the stops

The photographs add a different view of those days. On October 11, the beach sits beneath a broad bank of gray clouds. Slat fences cross the sand, with open water behind them.

Low sunset over water beyond a dark sandy beach and walkway.
Evening light over the water. October 12, 2025.

Evening over the water

By October 12, the light in the photographs has changed: a narrow band of sunset runs along the horizon, above a dark beach and a paved walkway.

Boats moored beside an illuminated marina walkway at night.
A marina after dark during the Michigan trip. October 13, 2025.

The marina after dark

The October 13 photograph looks along a marina walkway. Lights pick out the docks and moored boats against the dark water. These are scenes from the trip; the photographs do not establish a boat outing or fill in every stop along the route.

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The longer route, October 10–15

The wider location record fills out the road on either side of the beach photographs. On October 10, I was moving west through Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio before entering Michigan late in the evening. By the following morning, the route had reached the western side of the state.

  • October 11: the Ludington stop, independently anchored by the state-park admission receipt.
  • October 12: the route returns to the Ludington area.
  • October 13: the Wellston fuel stop, then travel into the northern Lower Peninsula and the Harbor Springs area.
  • October 14: south through Michigan and into Ohio.
  • October 15: the drive continues through West Virginia and back to Virginia.

The beach, sunset and marina photographs sit within that longer journey. It was a trip across several parts of Michigan, with two days of the return on the road, rather than a single shoreline stop.

The same trip in changing light

Daylight, sunset and the marina lights give these photographs a sequence that the receipts alone cannot provide. The beach picture leaves room for the sky and the weather over open water. The sunset narrows attention to the horizon. By the marina, individual lights pick out the walkway and boats while much of the setting has disappeared into darkness.

Those differences make the pictures worth retaining together even though they do not document every mile. The dated admissions and fuel records locate specific stops; the photographs preserve how parts of the trip looked between them. Keeping those roles separate leaves a more useful account of the journey, with a route where the evidence supports one and a set of scenes that does not need to fill every gap.