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jamesqOur drive to Detroit was mostly uneventful. Mostly. This changed as we approached the city and discovered that God Almighty was trying to wash it away. Wendy discovered that we were driving into five simultaneous weather warnings:
We reached out B&B in Detroit, and when I say Detroit, I mean Grosse Ile, which is a distant suburb of Detroit, and also appears to be where all the rich people live. Certain the mansions/estates/country clubs all attested to that. Our B&B fit right in with the neighbourhood and looked gorgeous. It was also a mere 2 Km from Canada - though that would require swimming across the Detroit river.
BTW, that front window on the second floor was my bedroom. The inside was pretty good too. Just the place for a romantic weekend. Alas, we were there only for one night, and I didn't spend as much time there as the others.
By this time, I had already made arrangements to meet my friend Kelly for the first time. However, she lives in Flint, which is some distance from Detroit. I wasn't going to make her come all the way down to Grosse Ile too, so I needed to get to downtown Detroit and the Grand Trunk Pub; a place I chose because of it's beer menu, good reviews, and central location). Of course, I wasn't going to get Ryan to drive me there, since that would be a) above and beyond the call of duty, and b) a dick move. My next plan was to take transit. Google helpfully gave me transit directions from our B&B to the pub: walk 14 Km, catch one bus and stay on it for an hour a half. I could borrow the van, but that would mean no drinking, and the weather was still shite.
Lyft saved the day - I discovered that Grosse Ile is the farthest part out in Detroit's Lyft service area. It was going to be expensive though. What the hell, I was on vacation, and how often to you get to meet people you've known for ten years for the first time? Hell, it took my first driver about 25 minutes just to find me, and 40 to get me to Grand Trunk. It was still raining when I got into his SUV, and I managed to soak myself, even wearing my rain coat, in the minute I was outside. Along the way we discovered extensive flash floods had made many intersections impassible. Impassible to others maybe, but not my driver in his Canyonero! He knew how to handle a vehicle and managed to get us through some deep parts that had stranded lesser vehicles and drivers. Along the way I found out that his daughter was marrying a Canadian, so they'd been crossing the border often. He described her new beau with the sort of relief of a father who'd seen a lot of losers in his daughter's life, and now she'd picked someone decent. It was kind of amusing. One monster tip later, and I was at the pub. Oh, and the rain had stopped in the last half hour; not just that, it had blown itself out so completely that now it was bright blue skies!
(above, the Wayne County Building in downtown Detroit - I asked my Lyft driver if it was city hall and he set straight)
I've been Facebook friends with Kelly for about ten years. Met her through Gareth, whom she met on a forum for an old zombie apocalypse RPG. I was looking forward to this, but was also anxious. What if it turned out that she was a jerk - or worse - that I was?!? Thankfully, we got along great. I also got to meet her husband Shane, another cool person. Beers were consumed, beverages from exotic far off lands were traded, and I got a ton of library swag and snack foods I'd never heard of. Oh, and I had Coney hot dogs explained to me, which was another mystery explained.
Alas, we were all distant from our beds, and the evening had to draw to a close. I summoned another Lyft and we all said our goodbyes outside the pub.
While waiting, I did notice three of those beer-tour-peddle-buses. The most I've ever seen in Calgary was two at once. Evidence of a vibrant hipster culture in Detroit I imagine.
No idea when I'm going to be out your way again, Kelly, but I look forward to seeing you and Shane again. If you ever get a chance to visit Western Canada, drop on by.
The return trip also resulted in a monster tip. All those flooded intersections were now actively closed roads, and the driver had to double back twice just to get back onto the island. I hope it was worth their while.
The next day, we checked out and ventured on our next Detroit adventure, The Henry Ford Museum. We were originally going to go to the Motown Museum, but Kelly alerted me to the presence of a Star Trek exhibit at HFM. This was a pretty easy convince for my geeky friends.
Now I was expecting the Henry Ford Museum to be largely a propaganda effort for the car industry. There was a little of that, and certainly a heavy focus of the museum was transportation, but it was fairly even handed.
It had planes!
Trains!
Automobiles!
... and even a few spaceships!
So there we were at the Star Trek exhibit.
A few highlights. First, there were lots of original props. Looking closely at the cards I discovered that many of them were from the Paul Allen Family. Apparently Allen was a giant nerd. My friend Lisa mentioned that a large number of pop culture artifacts at Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture were also from Paul Allen.
The exhibit had a big hands-on bent to it. For example, you could recreate the KHAAAAAAAAN!!! scene:
... Or go through a Jefferies tube. You could also stand in a Borg chamber, use the Transport booth, or have your picture taken in the Captain's chair.
I think the museum was worth it even without the Trek angle. With it, it was a must-see. As the last major event in the USA, it was a good one. Always nice to end on a high point.
- Severe thunder warning
- Excessive heat warning
- Flood alert
- Air quality warning: Ozone
- Severe weather
We reached out B&B in Detroit, and when I say Detroit, I mean Grosse Ile, which is a distant suburb of Detroit, and also appears to be where all the rich people live. Certain the mansions/estates/country clubs all attested to that. Our B&B fit right in with the neighbourhood and looked gorgeous. It was also a mere 2 Km from Canada - though that would require swimming across the Detroit river.
BTW, that front window on the second floor was my bedroom. The inside was pretty good too. Just the place for a romantic weekend. Alas, we were there only for one night, and I didn't spend as much time there as the others.
By this time, I had already made arrangements to meet my friend Kelly for the first time. However, she lives in Flint, which is some distance from Detroit. I wasn't going to make her come all the way down to Grosse Ile too, so I needed to get to downtown Detroit and the Grand Trunk Pub; a place I chose because of it's beer menu, good reviews, and central location). Of course, I wasn't going to get Ryan to drive me there, since that would be a) above and beyond the call of duty, and b) a dick move. My next plan was to take transit. Google helpfully gave me transit directions from our B&B to the pub: walk 14 Km, catch one bus and stay on it for an hour a half. I could borrow the van, but that would mean no drinking, and the weather was still shite.
Lyft saved the day - I discovered that Grosse Ile is the farthest part out in Detroit's Lyft service area. It was going to be expensive though. What the hell, I was on vacation, and how often to you get to meet people you've known for ten years for the first time? Hell, it took my first driver about 25 minutes just to find me, and 40 to get me to Grand Trunk. It was still raining when I got into his SUV, and I managed to soak myself, even wearing my rain coat, in the minute I was outside. Along the way we discovered extensive flash floods had made many intersections impassible. Impassible to others maybe, but not my driver in his Canyonero! He knew how to handle a vehicle and managed to get us through some deep parts that had stranded lesser vehicles and drivers. Along the way I found out that his daughter was marrying a Canadian, so they'd been crossing the border often. He described her new beau with the sort of relief of a father who'd seen a lot of losers in his daughter's life, and now she'd picked someone decent. It was kind of amusing. One monster tip later, and I was at the pub. Oh, and the rain had stopped in the last half hour; not just that, it had blown itself out so completely that now it was bright blue skies!
(above, the Wayne County Building in downtown Detroit - I asked my Lyft driver if it was city hall and he set straight)
I've been Facebook friends with Kelly for about ten years. Met her through Gareth, whom she met on a forum for an old zombie apocalypse RPG. I was looking forward to this, but was also anxious. What if it turned out that she was a jerk - or worse - that I was?!? Thankfully, we got along great. I also got to meet her husband Shane, another cool person. Beers were consumed, beverages from exotic far off lands were traded, and I got a ton of library swag and snack foods I'd never heard of. Oh, and I had Coney hot dogs explained to me, which was another mystery explained.
Alas, we were all distant from our beds, and the evening had to draw to a close. I summoned another Lyft and we all said our goodbyes outside the pub.
While waiting, I did notice three of those beer-tour-peddle-buses. The most I've ever seen in Calgary was two at once. Evidence of a vibrant hipster culture in Detroit I imagine.
No idea when I'm going to be out your way again, Kelly, but I look forward to seeing you and Shane again. If you ever get a chance to visit Western Canada, drop on by.
The return trip also resulted in a monster tip. All those flooded intersections were now actively closed roads, and the driver had to double back twice just to get back onto the island. I hope it was worth their while.
The next day, we checked out and ventured on our next Detroit adventure, The Henry Ford Museum. We were originally going to go to the Motown Museum, but Kelly alerted me to the presence of a Star Trek exhibit at HFM. This was a pretty easy convince for my geeky friends.
Now I was expecting the Henry Ford Museum to be largely a propaganda effort for the car industry. There was a little of that, and certainly a heavy focus of the museum was transportation, but it was fairly even handed.
It had planes!
Trains!
Automobiles!
... and even a few spaceships!
So there we were at the Star Trek exhibit.
A few highlights. First, there were lots of original props. Looking closely at the cards I discovered that many of them were from the Paul Allen Family. Apparently Allen was a giant nerd. My friend Lisa mentioned that a large number of pop culture artifacts at Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture were also from Paul Allen.
The exhibit had a big hands-on bent to it. For example, you could recreate the KHAAAAAAAAN!!! scene:
... Or go through a Jefferies tube. You could also stand in a Borg chamber, use the Transport booth, or have your picture taken in the Captain's chair.
I think the museum was worth it even without the Trek angle. With it, it was a must-see. As the last major event in the USA, it was a good one. Always nice to end on a high point.
