I've only been to Detroit once and I wasn't too impressed.
Naturally, I think we all had the intention that we would end up in the Motor City and only see a scenario straight from The Wire, which (although it's a good show) none of us want to be a real cast member of.
However, the overall experience was much different than that. Beer helps.
But it's a little bit overwhelming to be in a city where the atmosphere and adrenaline of the people in the downtown core surrounds one sport, albeit only for a couple hours.
Cheli's Chili Bar sits in front of home plate, and a Brandon Inge walk-off home run in the ninth catapulted the Tigers to a 1-0 win over the Kansas City Royals.
Fireworks erupted and we got the hell out of Dodge City.
The trip to Ann Arbor was, to my disappointment cancelled. Instead, one of our two cars broke down while entering Kalamazoo. That left the first car stuck in Michigan for the night, while the rest of us headed off for the Big Smoke of Chicago.
Speaking of that breakdown - DON'T RENT A CAR FROM NATIONAL/ALAMO! Save yourself the trouble, please.
However, the whole experience of Detroit was more than pleasing, and an excellent kickoff to three weeks of debauchery which I cannot share with the kids.
We also had a bet going as to whether we could see 20 states' license plates before Boston - we saw 20 before we hit the Canada/U.S. border, including Lousiana, New Hampshire (whose slogan is "Live Free or Die" (?)), California, and Kansas (the twentieth).
The bar's now been raised to 50 for the entire trip. Hawaii is the lone wildcard that has everyone up in arms, because (I'll spoil it) we would eventually see Alaska the next day.
The beer tastes like water, but the barbecue's great.
Overall, it was a long first day that will certainly leave Detroit as a distant memory. One car breakdown kept those five travellers in a bit of a panic, while the rest of spent until 4 a.m. driving around Chicago looking for a place to stay. We settled on a Super 8 in the downtown core, after grabbing Subway and trolling through the GPS to find other hotels closer to Wrigley Field (if you don't know who plays there, don't bother following this blog, okay?).
That included asking one hotel if they had room, where the first manager (who was plastered) told us he had room but no parking and the second manager (not as drunk) walked in and slapped him across the face.
Needless to say, that's where we're staying tomorrow.
And how cheap is McDonald's in this country?
UP TOMORROW: The Windy City and the Cubs
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