I had never heard this term until we moved here, but we had our opposite version of it when we lived downstate - "up north". As in whenever you took a vacation anywhere north of where you lived you were going up north. Now I hear people from northern Michigan, whenever they are heading south of here, they are going downstate. The destination doesn't matter, it is all downstate.
Where is the dividing line? We don't say it when we go to Higgins Lake, which is only an hour away and that seems too close to be downstate.
Clare, being located pretty much in the center of the lower peninsula, is the obvious choice, which would explain why we have a Welcome Center there. It makes sense I suppose, as people coming up north from southern Michigan would not pass the Welcome Center situated at the border, and clearly the state wants them to have access to all those brochures. And just in case you live north of Clare, and are heading "up north" to the U.P., there is another Welcome Center just north of the Mackinac Bridge. We are a very welcoming people here in Michigan.
Clare also has a sign, or used to, that they are the gateway to the north, so apparently they are also the start of up north as well as downstate.
So why the trip on a freezing cold day along hilly, twisty roads?
Three reasons: two daughters that live downstate, and one grand-nephew celebrating his first birthday.
