"Last night I dreamed of Detroit City." We were in Detroit last year to visit Rita's sister - they are both from Detroit, both born and grew up there. Rita's sister is an opera singer at St. Marks. We flew out on Delta on a non-stop flight from San Antonio. For me, it was like going to Mecca, since I'm an auto buff and love cars. We spent six hours touring the Henry Ford Museum and the nearby Greenfield Village. I also checked out several used car lots around town just to compare prices with what's available down here. But, you have to watch out for the rust on used cars up there.
[image: Inline image 1] Heading for downtown in Chris' Acura Ti - GM building To me it was fascinating to see the old Fisher body plant and the old Chrysler factory. There are still some parts of Ford's River Rouge plant there to see. Detroit is surrounded by the Great Lakes and there's a river running right through town. It was fun driving on the Davidson Expressway, the first freeway is the U.S. It was also a gas (no pun intended) seeing Edsel Ford's mansion and what was left of the Dodge Mansion. And, don't forget Tiger Stadium, the Detroit Pistons and the Detroit Lions! Detroit is the only spot in the U.S.A. where you get to Canada by driving south. Seagrams of Canada is just a few miles away across the Detroit River. We say a huge, famous mural by Diego Rivera and Rodin's "Thinker" in front of the Detroit Institute of Art. Go figure. Which is not to say there's some very deserted and derelict places there now. There's actually what they call a "doughnut" ring in Detroit - downtown is still pretty nice, and the suburbs out past Ten Mile Road are nice too - it's the double doughnut ring that has all the earmarks of dereliction. It's really strange to see those old houses standing empty and abandoned, while right around the corner in the Indian Village community, there are well-kept mansions and nice stores. [image: Inline image 2] Abandoned office building in Detroit Millionaires still live at Grosse Pointe out by the Yaght Club and they've opened a Whole Foods Market downtown. Greek Town has a big Casino and hotel complex now and there are three other large casinos in town too. There's a great museum downtown and of course there's Wayne State U. downtown. We drove by the old Motown recording studio. There is the new Ren-Cen downtown where GM has it's headquarters. The Fox Theater is fully restored. [image: Inline image 3] Body by Fisher - old Fisher body headquarters The problem with Detroit, other than the auto industry going overseas - is the local government, or lack of it. The ex-Mayor is in jail now for bribery and stuff. Detroit didn't get diverse, business wise, like some other cities, and now they're paying the price. We are going back there next year to take part in the Woodward Avenue "Dream Cruise" classic car parade that they have there every year. Sweet! On Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 12:40 PM, TurquoiseB <turquoi...@yahoo.com> wrote: > > > Spooky photos of Detroit's present, and possibly much of the world's > future. > > > http://www.weather.com/travel/modern-ruins-abandoned-detroit-photos-20130715 > > > >
