I envy you until about mid October. ;)
It's not that I dislike winter but I prefer my temps above 0.
And I must say, you have a plethora of landscapes to shoot! Michigan has some pretty spots but it's mostly flat and uninspiring.
The image isn't as bad as you suggested.
The section of the image you cropped is overexposed, so it looks a little hazy.
But after adjusting the exposure, it shows plenty of detail considering that you are looking at <2% of the image.
After...