Thursday, July 19, 2012

Day 5 - A Trio State Day (Detroit)

We checked out of our hotel today, and said goodbye to Chicago. Driving in big US cities really isn’t difficult. There may be a lot of traffic, but each road has 5 or 6 lanes going one way, and with lots of signs it’s pretty hard to go wrong. If you aren’t sure where to go, just pick a lane and go slow, other cars have plenty of ways to go around you. Update on Pam’s ankle. Seems to be slowly improving, although she made some remark about holding out hope for an attractive first aid attendant to “check her over”.

About an hour outside of Chicago we stopped at South Bend Indiana, the home of Notre Dame University. We spent a couple hours walking around the campus, the football stadium, and then had lunch at Legends, a sport bar by the stadium. A very old, tradition filled campus; it made me feel good about my Catholic roots once again. The one-hour planned stop extended into two, so we had to high tail it to Detroit to make up for lost time.

Got to the ball game with about 20 minutes to spare. Pleasantly surprised by how nice the park is. 12 years old, but looks brand new, with great sight lines and excellent food. I guess it helps the quality of the in house pizza when the owner of the pizza company owns the ball club.  LA Angels scored in the first, but the Tigers won going away, 7-2. The ball park is right downtown about 10 blocks from our hotel, and right next to Ford Field where the Lions play NFL football. Temperature tonite a beautiful 80 degrees, almost perfect. Had great conversation tonight with big hockey fans from the area who told us about watching Gordie Howe play in the old days in Detroit. The same owner of the tigers owns the Red Wings now. Our new friend was telling us about how when the owner bought the Red Wings attendance was so poor he would give away a new car every home game to entice fans to come out. Times sure have changed. 

For all a person reads about how dirty and crime filled Detroit is, we have been pleasantly surprised.  People are friendly, down town is super quiet and very clean. As long as my car is there in the morning I will have to give Detroit two thumbs up.

Next is a short drive to Cleveland. No game tomorrow, but we will be taking a visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so it should be a good day. 

No comments:

Post a Comment