MARQUETTE, Michigan – “How can you wear a shirt that says ‘Michigan’?” a friend asked.

“Hey, this isn’t about Michigan,” I said.

“It’s got a moose on it. It’s from it’s the U.P.”

That’s the U.P., as in the Upper Peninsula.

There are obsessed Buckeye fans who bare their teeth and begin quoting Woody Hayes. The former Ohio State football coach refused to even say the word, “Michigan.” He called it “The state up North.”

OK, let’s talk North … way up North.

171 miles: That’s the distance from Cleveland to Ann Arbor, home of the Michigan Wolverines.

280 miles: That’s the distance from Ann Arbor to St. Ignace, the gateway to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula at the North end of the 5-mile Mackinac Bridge.

440 miles: That’s the distance from Ann Arbor to Marquette, where Roberta and I go in the summer for vacation.

53 miles: The Upper Peninsula has one interstate: That is I-75 from the Mackinac Bridge to the Canadian border … 53 miles. Meanwhile, the Upper Peninsula is 380 miles from East to West, and 16,542 square miles.

Now you may have an idea why the Yoopers (citizens of the Upper Peninsula) call those from Detroit and others south of the Mackinac Bridge … get this … Trolls!

Our version of Alaska

The point?

The Upper Peninsula is far more like the Lower-48′s version of Alaska than it is the home of the Wolverines … only you are far more likely to find a real Wolverine up here than at the Big House in Ann Arbor.

There are only 301,400 people in the entire Upper Peninsula. Marquette is the largest town: population 20,629. You drive through large parts of the Upper Peninsula and your cellphone has a startling message: NO SERVICE.

This is not a place for those who need 20 hours of daily screen time to survive.

The Upper Peninsula is as big as Denmark. It’s bigger than Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

It’s half as big as Ohio, yet there are only about 300,000 people. That’s about the size of Stark County.

Snow? They have snow. They love snow.

The locals were upset because they didn’t get their usual 200 inches of snow this winter. It was about 100 inches total, which felt like a heat wave up here.

FYI: Cleveland had 23 inches last winter.

I have a friend who says, “I love nature, but I hate going out in it. I just like to look at it.”

I sent him lots of pictures from the Upper Peninsula this summer. Loves it ... the pictures. He’s not into hiking, bugs and dealing with the crazy weather up here.

The Greatest Lake

Michigan is Wolverine Country? Not up here.

It’s more like God’s Country.

“I tell you, if they keep silent, the rocks will cry out.”

That’s Jesus speaking in Luke 19:40 as he rides on a donkey into Jerusalem.

I think of that verse when walking along the rocky shores of Lake Superior. The deepest Great Lake. The largest Great Lake. All the other Great Lakes would not be enough to fill it. It’s the size of South Carolina. The size of Austria. The size of six New England states.

It’s also where many ships (not just the Edmund Fitzgerald) have gone to die. You can hike along Superior’s shores near a place called Au Sable Point where you’ll find the “Shipwreck Coast.” Pieces of ships from more than 100 years ago are found in the sand.

Superior is cold. Superior is deep. Superior is so blue that on some days, it almost hurts your eyes.

It also stirs your soul.

At least to my eyes, the lake, the trees, the empty roads, the solitary trails and yes, the rocks, cry out that there is a power greater than us.