solotripper wrote on Apr 16^th, 2020 at 1:42am:

There is nothing in the Governor's ban that PROHIBITS out of state people from traveling to MI to their vacation homes. That is what has so many people upset.   You can argue the merits of banning travel to areas that have limited healthcare but what's the difference between me going north or some guy from Ohio?   The people in N. Michigan that support the ban on going to your vacation home are some of the ones that don't want out of state people coming either.   I get my news from a lot of sources including official state ones in times like this.

We have a humble cottage on a small private lake in southwestern Michigan--not "up north" as so many in our state do, but mainly west and some south from us here.  It is about 75 miles away and we can drive there without stopping or interacting with any other person.  It is about as remote as our first home, which is in a rural area.  The nearest neighbor rarely comes there, and the other neighbor and his wife are still in Arizona. We don't see anyone but each other. This is a safer option than our first home, I suspect, and if we were to get sick we would head home again, since the hospital situation would be better.  I was at the lake last Friday and Saturday and will probably be there again in a few days.

Like Neal, I am irritated at the unfairness of this edict.  According to our governor, we are prohibited from going to our second home on the lake.  Our little lake is inhabited by approximately 2/3 "weekend people" and the rest permanent year-round residents.  Of that 2/3, at least half are people who come from the Chicago area, mainly South Chicago, (a current "hot spot") to be at their cottages, to a county in Michigan that has very, very few Covid19 cases.

They are not prohibited from coming to their lake homes, but we are.  It is a small thing to be upset about, but it also means that I am not that serious about following the governor's edict.  I may, or I may not.   ;)

Michigan is hard hit and I realize that.  But some sense needs to be used with the guidelines.  Liquor stores and marijuana distributors are still open, but we cannot buy paint if we want to do a home project, or plants for the garden.  Everyone has their own idea of what is "essential", I guess. 

I hate to see this thread turn political. . .but I also was realizing as I read Jimbo's long post that I could have written that.  Not as effectively and well, but nevertheless almost the same story. 

This is a mess our country is in right now.  I see the possibility of our planned mid-June vacation in northern Minnesota getting less and less likely every day.  Heartbreaking.   :(