I find the differences between various U.S. regions interesting. Before I moved to Detroit in July 2015 for Challenge Detroit (go Challenge!) I hadn’t lived in the Midwest since I was a baby. No one really told me, or prepared me for just how different the Midwest is from the East coast. In today’s edition of my Challenge Detroit blog, I will rattle off some of the first differences that immediately come to my head. Here goes…

• Have you ever heard of a fast food restaurant called Rally’s? Me neither. Apparently that’s Checkers in the Midwest. They also have Checkers. They have both and they are the same. That’s like if McDonald’s had a twin restaurant with a different name that served the exact same menu. I think it’s cool.
• The Midwest is flat. Like the land itself is flat, and the roads are wide. I’m more used to hills and slightly narrower roads, but maybe it’s just me.
• Everything is a lot less expensive in the Midwest.
• I’ve noticed in grocery stores…at least in Detroit, people call shopping carts “buggies”. I don’t remember hearing that before.
• People seem to dress a bit more casually in the Midwest.
• Beer is a bigger deal in the Midwest it seems.

Those were just a few. If I think of some more I’ll come back…