Day 65 – Aug 16, 2015 – Detroit MI to Ann Arbor MI – 60 miles
Here we are in a cool college town which seems miles from the Detroit we left this morning. We did not only leave but we left in style. This morning we met “Big” Mike at his home in Cork Town area of Detroit. Even though he went to see Erykah Badu concert and a late night out last night we met at 8 am to do our ride of Detroit.
Big Mike was awesome. He took us to a street art project (forgive me but I need to remember the name or look it up) which was placed in one of the most effected neighborhoods of racial protests and destruction. He told his story of Detroit which underlined a deep prejudice and racisim that effected most of the communities. The 1967 riots began the slow slide when neighborhoods burned and they simply would not stop burning. Mike was a kid of the country that move to Detroit as an 18 yrs old. That was a few years back and he has stayed, or he has come back after wandering the country for a few years. Big Mike came to use like a true trail angel, and he showed us the way, the way of light. There are rays of light in this blithe. He was one of them. He showed us art projects in the most unlikely places. He is the leader of the biggest bike ride through the streets of Detroit – the Slow Ride, which happens every Monday night until Oct 31. It started as a fun ride for some bike activists a few years back and now there are 5000 people that come out every Monday during the summer. Mike is super cool. We made a really good friend that we hope to meet again sometime. Thank you Mike!
Detroit is what it is. We had to leave it behind and move on. Mike left us after a nice Lebanese meal in Dearborn. We were headed to Ann Arbor via – River Rouge, Wayendotte, Romuelos, Ypsalanti and finally Ann Arbor. We didn’t get 1/2 a mile down the road when we had a very strange incident. As we were riding down a very busy 4 lane street a very young child, maybe 6 yrs old, bare foot started running into the street. We stopped traffic, the child kept running. We followed him into a strip mall where he was trying to open all the doors of the establishments. Gregg jumped off his bike to stop him and he ran into a Barber shop. You must realize this is Dearborn, and the child was clearly of Arab descent. The barber looked up in astonishment but realized right away the child was lost. He did not respond to anyone just jumped on the couch and was content. The child was clearly running away from something. He was not right for some reason. As Gregg came out the barber shop a SUV pulled up and a couple who had picked up the father commended for our effects. The father ran into the shop, grabbed the child and ran home with him. No word at all. As if, he was so new to this country, or even did not speak english enough to say anything, or simply was in so much shock that he couldn’t. My conclusion was that this was a newly arrived Iraqi family. The child was suffering from PTSD and ran to find shelter. He clearly did not respond to Gregg’s calling and asking him to stop running. He was traumatized somehow and looking for shelter. Wow, what a weird experience. How sad to imagine what may have cause this young boy to act like that. At least he was safe now.
The rest of he ride brought us through major industrial areas. We went passed a Ford plant in Dearborn that must have stretched 5 – 8 miles. Amazing. Then onto to the other cities passing more plants, refineries, and even a BASF plant in Waynedotte which was huge. We were happy to move through and get back on the country roads.
Our biggest issue today was heat. We have hit a wall and very big wall, the wall of extreme humidity. We did not stop sweating. We drank all of our water quickly but were soaked from head to foot in sweat. It was horrible. I was dreaming of the dry heat, give me back the 90 in dry instead of this 90 with 70% humidity. Gregg was sweating so much that salt was dripping into his eyes. It taught us a lesson, we need to start really early to make it through this.
What should have been a 43 mile days was a 60 mile day. Riding late in the day was not good. The cities are not good for us. But the little towns like Ann Arbor are nice. 160 restaurants! We found a super cool B&B just next to the university. We had great Indian food. We went to a beer place that served artisanal beers. It was super, if we only had more time to explore. Now it is time to recover and head towards Toledo.
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