I promised to write about Detroit, so here goes....
After work I went to the bus station and bought a ticket to Detroit. I went home for a minute then bailed.I had never really been there and knew no one, and basically stayed on the street. Like most American cities, I found that Detroit was much different during the day than at night.
Steaming poop chimney manholes, broken down buildings, out of business signs, spray paint, and good old fashioned blight. Villians, hoodlums, thugs, hypes, hustlers, dealers, bandits, maniacs, bad ass kids, vandals, and gangstas. To be sussinct, Detroit has flavor, but is ghetto. Although, if I stayed indoors, it probably would have been another story.
I slept in the Hart plaza area of downtown Detroit. The waterfront. I smashed some guys nose with the grip tape side of my skateboard. Daily, I ditched bandits on bicycles. To eat, I went to the "taste fest" and stole peoples food and/or dumpster dove. I met a couple of cool women. I saw lots of hustles and scams and escaped on my skateboard from a lot of trouble.
Then I went to Windsor Canada. It was like five minutes from Detroit. A bus drives through a tube that goes under the Detroit river.
5 Canadien INS people screened me. Their problems: I looked younger than my age, I had 89 cents in my wallet, I stayed nowhere in Detroit, I knew no one in Detroit, I had no reason to go to Windsor, I had no drivers lisence, some girl's phone number written on my left forearm, purple hair and a skateboard. Also why would an American go to Canada on the 4th of July? They even read my notebook outloud. Which I had to laugh. As stated by one of the agent guys "you are not normal'. After I explained that I really was not normal in anyway. I was an "artist", so just let me go. Finally they did.
I got into Canada and explored Windsor. It was clean,and maintained. Exotic massage, Cuban cigar shops, and non corporate entities lined the boulevard. Everyone was nice, and the money looked kinda fake. The looney (two dallar coin) really was kinda dope looking.
Canada was pretty cool so I chilled there for a while on the promenade. Some falun gong people gave me a sandwich and I did their tai chi dealio with them. I got a nice sun tan and relaxed, then went back to Detroit.
American INS was sketchy. When I had to unpack my bag, it went something like this.."this is a camera", "if you push this button, it takes something called a photo", "this is a marker, it is used to mark things". With the attitude problem, INS had to know I was true blue American.
Back in Detroit I skated around, slept in Hart Plaza and ditched on as much trouble as I could. I was there for a few more days. The overview is about the same as stated earlier, only I was sick of it. One cool detail about Detroit is "the universal head nod". Everyone does it to one another, even if they are about to jump you. Kind of a cool feature.
I took the bus to Chicago, the city of hate. I hung out and slept in Grant park for a day, then took the greyhound back to Minneapolis. I thought the trip was fun, but I was mostly left with one thing on my mind. No matter what kind of drama that I have to deal with in MPLS, it won't be shit. If I can handle a trip like that, all else is just butter.
So there you have it.... Maybe someday you can read about it in more detail in one of my "urban camping" books. Or maybe just go try it out for yourself?
After work I went to the bus station and bought a ticket to Detroit. I went home for a minute then bailed.I had never really been there and knew no one, and basically stayed on the street. Like most American cities, I found that Detroit was much different during the day than at night.
Steaming poop chimney manholes, broken down buildings, out of business signs, spray paint, and good old fashioned blight. Villians, hoodlums, thugs, hypes, hustlers, dealers, bandits, maniacs, bad ass kids, vandals, and gangstas. To be sussinct, Detroit has flavor, but is ghetto. Although, if I stayed indoors, it probably would have been another story.
I slept in the Hart plaza area of downtown Detroit. The waterfront. I smashed some guys nose with the grip tape side of my skateboard. Daily, I ditched bandits on bicycles. To eat, I went to the "taste fest" and stole peoples food and/or dumpster dove. I met a couple of cool women. I saw lots of hustles and scams and escaped on my skateboard from a lot of trouble.
Then I went to Windsor Canada. It was like five minutes from Detroit. A bus drives through a tube that goes under the Detroit river.
5 Canadien INS people screened me. Their problems: I looked younger than my age, I had 89 cents in my wallet, I stayed nowhere in Detroit, I knew no one in Detroit, I had no reason to go to Windsor, I had no drivers lisence, some girl's phone number written on my left forearm, purple hair and a skateboard. Also why would an American go to Canada on the 4th of July? They even read my notebook outloud. Which I had to laugh. As stated by one of the agent guys "you are not normal'. After I explained that I really was not normal in anyway. I was an "artist", so just let me go. Finally they did.
I got into Canada and explored Windsor. It was clean,and maintained. Exotic massage, Cuban cigar shops, and non corporate entities lined the boulevard. Everyone was nice, and the money looked kinda fake. The looney (two dallar coin) really was kinda dope looking.
Canada was pretty cool so I chilled there for a while on the promenade. Some falun gong people gave me a sandwich and I did their tai chi dealio with them. I got a nice sun tan and relaxed, then went back to Detroit.
American INS was sketchy. When I had to unpack my bag, it went something like this.."this is a camera", "if you push this button, it takes something called a photo", "this is a marker, it is used to mark things". With the attitude problem, INS had to know I was true blue American.
Back in Detroit I skated around, slept in Hart Plaza and ditched on as much trouble as I could. I was there for a few more days. The overview is about the same as stated earlier, only I was sick of it. One cool detail about Detroit is "the universal head nod". Everyone does it to one another, even if they are about to jump you. Kind of a cool feature.
I took the bus to Chicago, the city of hate. I hung out and slept in Grant park for a day, then took the greyhound back to Minneapolis. I thought the trip was fun, but I was mostly left with one thing on my mind. No matter what kind of drama that I have to deal with in MPLS, it won't be shit. If I can handle a trip like that, all else is just butter.
So there you have it.... Maybe someday you can read about it in more detail in one of my "urban camping" books. Or maybe just go try it out for yourself?
VIEW 9 of 9 COMMENTS
[Edited on Oct 12, 2004 5:21PM]