Tentative map

Tentative map
VERY rough sketch of my route

Fun Facts

Fun Facts:
Days on the road: 27.5
Total distance: 10512.5km
Number of states and provinces: 19 + 1
Longest distance in one day: 714km

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Motor City

From: Portage, IN
To: (to be continued...)
Mileage: (to be continued...)

Whenever I got a motel on this trip, I tried to stay with the same hotel group and rack up points to use toward a free stay.  I'd mostly been staying at Super 8's because I found they give a good mix between value and comfort - only a few dollars more than, say, Motel 6, but much nicer with a breakfast included.  Anyway, I called the rewards program to try and use points for a free stay in Detroit.  They told me that they weren't showing any stays associated with my account.  So no points... WTF?  So I told them to do some homework, find my points, and give 'em.   Spoiler alert: when I called back later in the day, they said they'd only found a few, and they the points wouldn't be added in time to use for a free stay.  What a rip.

Anyway, I pounded some asphalt and crossed into Michigan.  Getting close!


I'd been keeping an eye on the trip odometer, and I got pretty excited when I started to reach the big ten-oh.  I pulled off to grab a picture of the 9999.9km reading.  Unfortunately, I began pulling off when it hit 9999.8kms, giving me 200m to stop.  I think I stopped in 200.1m because it rolled off the 9999.9km mark.  Fine, that sucks. But it's no biggie, I'll get a shot of the 10,000km reading.  NOPE!

Disappointing.
The thing resets to 0.0 when it hits 10,000!!! How anti-climactic is that!  At least the speed says 0km/h this time...  Anyway, that's 10,000 km! Nice!

After a while, I needed gas.  I checked the map and decided to stop in Kalamazoo, MI, for no other reason than the name.  Almost as good as mukluks.  In Kalamazoo, I called the hotel rewards people and learned the disappointing news.  I also spoke with an old guy who didn't hesitate to show me his mangled leg from a giant car wreck in his youth.  He had holes and pus and stuff... and this was from 30 years ago.  He'd been in a coma for 11 months, and had complete memory loss for 3.5 years.  Then all of a sudden it all came back to him.  Pretty cool.  The only problem was he was standing way too close when talking to me... if that makes a difference.

My next stop was in Ann Arbor, MI.  No reason for stopping there other than the fact that it is home to a college/university that's pretty good for physics.  I didn't go to it, I just got gas there.

I'd decided to head into Detroit, and see if I could get back across the border without my passport.  If I could, I'd stop in Windsor.  If I couldn't, I'd stop in Detroit and have my folks bring my passport across in the morning.  Either way I'd planned on heading into Detroit for some slight sightseeing.  As I approached, I think the hours of continuous slapping had started to fry my brain.  I saw signs for "Bridge to Canada" and followed them blindly.  Before I knew it, I was paying a toll for the bridge and waiting in line at customs.  Crap.  Oh well.  The Canadian border guard was not at all interested in my journey.  Thirty seconds and a flash of my drivers license and I was through the gates... back in Canada.  How weird is this?!

I went to the waterfront to see Detroit from across the water:

Ambassador Bridge

Detroit, MI as seen from Windsor, ON

Downtown Detroit



I went into Windsor and stopped at the first Tim Hortons I saw.  I hadn't planned on it, but when I saw it I realized how sick of garbage hotel coffee I was.  Plus I was cold.  I downed a medium double double, then went in search of hotels.  I'd forgotten how fricken expensive Canada is.  All the hotels were outrageously priced.  I finally checked into a tiny little privately owned motel after an argument with the owner of the motel next door.

Here's the story (skip if you don't care)
Get this... I went to check the rate.  It was reasonable, but not great.  I asked if I could have a look at the room.  He gave me the key and said I was wasting my time - why would he rent me a bad room?  I told him it was above average for what I'd been paying on the road, and we got into a (friendly) discussion about the difference in prices between Canada and America.  I asked about wifi and he said one side of the building was having problems.  I said "okay, I wouldn't mind checking out the room anyway".  He got frustrated and asked why.  I said I mainly wanted to check the wifi in that room.  He snatched the key out of my hand, threw it down and said he wasn't renting to me.  He started walking out on his way to get a coffee from Tim Hortons.  I laughed pretty hard at him and said a few well placed words.  Another customer came as I was leaving too, and I told him not to stay.  I told him the story and he said thanks for warning him - he ended up checking in next door.  Turns out he was looking to rent on a monthly basis since he was a student and didn't want to sign a lease.  HAH!  You gotsta respek!  Mess with me and I'll cost you thousands, jerk.

While driving around, I passed this street:

Pfft.. that's fake.  I've seen the real one.  It was warmer.
 Anyway, I checked into the motel and started offloading my bike.

(To be continued...)

No comments:

Post a Comment