In Lower Michigan, your hand can stand in as a road map. Simply hold it up like a mitten, with its thumb on the right, and point with the index finger of your other hand.

From a certain perspective, the thumb is the most distinctive part of the mitten. And yet it makes no sense that Michigan’s Thumb is so often overlooked and under-appreciated as a place to live, work and vacation.

Our line of Thumb-wear and this website aim to help change that perception. MI Thumbprint’s first products feature M-25, the route defined by the 156 miles of shoreline from Marysville and Port Huron to Bay City.

The Thumb is where the morning sun first kisses Michigan and where a full moon rises, fat and red, over Lake Huron.

Where people manage to lead well-rounded and whole-thumb lives without the availability of a latte on every corner.

Where most roads are two lanes and don’t aspire to be freeways.

Where your UPS guy carries your boxes into the garage and your appliance store owner plays in a classic rock band on weekends and neighbors dream of one day making their cottage into a year-round home because it’s the one place on earth where they’re happiest.

Drive north of I-69 on M-25, M-19, M-53 or M-24, and find yourself in a land of pleasant towns, fertile fields, northern forests and blue water.

Plan to stay a while. You’re sure to be Thumb-struck.