May 2018 Detroit Trip

Finished out end of month, got up the next day and headed for Detroit for Audi training. 

The boys came along for the ride.

Hello Blucifer

gorgeous day for a trip!

   

landed in the Motor City

Khila and I were arguing about how long it's been since we've been doing this together, so I went back into the blog to find out. 

We MET at training in 2013

Our first trip together, 2014, was Motown and our first Silver Arrow photo

Then they changed the requirement to going to Audi HQ every other year.

Second trip 2016 Detroit Architecture & Baker's Lounge

So 2018, here we are, on trip #3! Roadside Oddities! You can visit RoadsideAmerica.com and find these just about everywhere you travel.

So armed with a map of roadside attractions we could hit on the way from the airport up to Auburn Hills, as usual, the Google Map app was crazy and we managed to go places we never intended. But it was all fun.

first up, a better view of the Uniroyal Tire, which was originally the ferris wheel at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair and is now the World's Largest Tire

Next, a similarly sized gas tank painted as a giant basketball

This one, Google told us we'd arrived and there was nary a giant basketball in sight. After a half mile, I said, "I'm turning around." I pulled left into a drive at which point Khila laughed and pointed across the street...

Stop 3 was Transmission Man, right near the bridge into Canada. All of these oddities are in, well, odd places. If you're hitting the highlights of Detroit meant for tourists, you aren't in the industrial sections of town.

#4 was Monumental Kitty in North Corktown

#5 Russell Industrial Center and the largest mural in the city

#6 the giant Kielbasa sign at the Kowalski HQ in Hamtramck, once home to a huge Polish community, which is now the most diverse place in the region. They will turn 100 in two more years. 

The neon sign has been in place since the 40's.

And this explains why the Kowalski's get a nod in the Veggie Tales Polish Christmas Song.

a mural on on the end of their building

also in Hamtramck, #7 and our last stop on the tour, a giant Ice Cream cone

Buddy's Pizza, in place since 1946, was just down the street, so we stopped for dinner before heading for the Hills.

 

This is the second time we've stayed at Sonesta Suites and we love it. Two bedrooms, a living area, and kitchen, for $139 a night? Yes please. And I LOVE the decor.

Day 2, training begins

well, after breakfast

Audi HQ is literally right down the street.

the R8 in the lobby this time

Khila and I in the giant mod chairs after class Wednesday

Kim and I showing off our Vanna White skills

  

Kim was once my claims specialist, but has moved into the training role, and I feel like we may have been separated at birth. 

recreating the Silver Arrow photos from 2014

Day 3

by this time I've warmed the group of 10 up enough that when we're riding up in the elevator, I get most everyone to play along and look up. What I didn't calculate for was the tiles creating half of our faces into Picasso likenesses.

all day it rained. But Kim was wonderful enough to find an R8 I could actually sit in, in my color, no less, before we had to hit the road, and wonder of wonders, it stopped raining for us.

Khila cracking up...

yeah, I need one of these.

a few last shots...

I took this because you need a sign in Michigan to clarify NOT to go on red.

Why?

Because you literally go on red half the time. Blinking red, solid red, just depends. 

Blinking red apparently means you can go, as long as no one else is coming. 

Seriously, we watched dozens of instances of this. 

The number of crazy u-turns and streets splitting off and turning around is mind boggling, too. 

On our way back to the airport:

Chasing the sun setting as we fly west. We had to go up and over Minnesota to get around the weather and this is somewhere near Minneapolis.

But this is home.

And no, aliens are not invading Denver. The cabin lights caused some awful glare.

one final photo as I'm falling asleep. I'd woken up at 5 a.m. Wednesday (which was 3 a.m. in Denver) and didn't fall into bed until after 11, so it was a long day.

But it was a great trip.