Detroit Part 2

(Finally! It's a bit dated now, oh well) I am writing from the middle of Lake Michigan, sitting on the deck of the steam ship SS Badger. The ship is carrying my bike and I from Luddington, MI to Manitowac, WI. I left Detroit yesterday afternoon after a great weekend spent with Bernie as guests of Simone and Max. On Thursday, the day after I arrived in Detroit, I borrowed Max's truck and headed into the city towards the Automotive Hall of Fame and my first taste of Detroit roads and scenery. The roads were truly awful. Even driving on the freeway in Max's sturdy old Ford truck it felt as if the wheels would break off the axles at any moment. The Hall of Fame was disappointing at first, until I began reading the plaques for all the inductees. Anyone who had even the slightest hand in shaping the automobile industry was represented. The afternoon was spent absorbing industry history, until my growling stomach dragged me away to a very late lunch. I took a scenic route back to the house, trading freeways for the often bombed-out looking surface streets. The evening was spent changing the oil on the bike and failing at the first of two attempts to replace a broken mirror on Max's truck. Bernie arrived at 11 the next morning. On the way back from the airport I filled her in on what I had leaned about Detroit so far. The phrase “f**ked up” has never been used more appropriately. Despite that succinctly apt description I had already decided that the gearhead and abandon building aficionado in me liked Detroit, once I overlooked the fact that the roads are worse than any I have encountered in the five boroughs of New York City and that convenience stores are confusingly called “Party Stores.” We stopped by the house for a quick visit with Simone and Max then headed downtown to check into our hotel. We had tickets to a Tigers, White Sox game at seven, so we killed some time walking along the river and taking the glass elevator to the top of GM's Renaissance Center for 360 degree views of Detroit and Windsor, Canada. The Tigers won and, as a bonus, after the game we were treated to an eyeball searing fireworks show. After getting up late and lounging around over a delicious brunch we headed out to Dearborn to visit Henry Ford's home and Greenfield Village, his monument to American Industry and small town life. I enjoyed seeing the Wright brothers actual workshop and house as well as Thomas Edison's laboratory. Bernie enjoyed making a candlestick on a lathe at the old fashioned metal shop. On the way to meet Simone and Max for dinner we stopped at the auto parts store and I picked up another mirror for my second attempt at fixing max's truck. This time it worked. After dinner Bernie and I headed to Grosse Pointe to check out a bar that Simone had suggested. The bar is one of a handful of places in the country where the game of feather bowling is played and is recognized by the State of Michigan as a historic landmark for that reason. Feather bowling is similar to bocce, except that wide wooden wheels are used instead of balls, the court has a concave shape and the target is a feather that is somehow fixed to the ground in the middle of each end. With the help of our bocce experience we were soon rolling like pros. The next morning we woke up early enough to get the hotel breakfast and drove the truck north of Detroit to an old mansion called Meadow Brook Hall which was built by the widow of one of the Dodge brothers. The house was 88,000 square feet but we had a good tour guide so it seemed smaller than that. After Meadow Brook we visited the estate of Edsel Ford, Henry's son. Edsel was known for bringing new design ideas to the Ford Motor Company so it seemed fitting that his estate was the most beautiful of the houses we had seen. We left Edsel's with very little time to eat dinner and get Bernie to the airport. Even so, we decided to stop at a legendary jazz venue that is also famous for it's soul food. We ate fried chicken and listened to some amazing jazz and because we told the waitress we were in a hurry, we were out of there within a half hour. I got Bernie to the airport in plenty of time for her flight and left Detroit from Simone and Max's the next day. Thanks for everything, guys! I cruised across Michigan on the interstate and spent last night at a state park on the beach. The camp site was filled with kids who kept me awake but I got them back when I fired up the bike at 6am to catch the ferry.

More to come! Don't forget to double click the pictures on the top right corner of this page to see the big versions!