The old Detroit perfume…

Tigers at Comerica Park and crossing over the border!

Detroit is a gray city, with a dubious reputation. The Amtrak Station is a tiny, utilitarian building in a somewhat sketchy-looking part of town. I had thought about trying to take a bus to my hotel, but opted for an Uber. My driver was friendly and knowledgeable about the city, which he assured me was “improving.” He got me safely to my hotel and told me to have a great time at the game.

The Hotel Indigo has been newly refurbished and my room was spacious and comfortable. I unpacked, took a hot shower and a much-needed nap. Then I headed to the ballpark.

Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers, is literally right in the middle of the city. It was only a few blocks from my hotel and an easy walk.

This is a fun, quirky kind of ballpark. They have an amusement park inside the stadium and Tiger-themed statues and merchandise. During the game, the music includes songs featuring tigers, including “The Tiger Rag”, “Eye of the Tiger” and “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen.

(I’m a shooting star, leaping through the sky
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity)

The evening was warm (real baseball weather at last!) and there was a good crowd.

I got myself the requisite beer and found my seat…which turned out to be next to an amiable young man from Toledo named Anthony. We had a great chat about the Tigers and the Mud Hens (Toledo’s minor league team) before I moved down for a better view.

It was a good game…Tigers won 7-3 against the Royals, although the Royals had a good chance of tying it up in the top of the ninth. The Tigers first closer loaded the bases and then walked in a run, so they took him out and replaced him with a different closer, who finally did the job. And they had fireworks after the game!

Detroit has a lot of history; baseball and more. The Tigers are one of the original 16 major league teams and Ty Cobb is their most famous players. There is also history of American westward expansion. I found this plaque about the “Chicago Road” outside my hotel and looked down Michigan Avenue, imagining how many feet and wagons had passed down the way.

The next morning, I had to get myself over the border into Windsor, Ontario. There are several ways to do this, and the easiest seemed to be the “Tunnel Bus” which makes a loop between downtown Detroit and the Windsor International Transit Station. (Which is not, oddly, where I would board my train to Toronto.)

However, the information about how and where to get this bus was…a little confusing and even contradictory on line. No worries, I thought. Surely the staff at the hotel would have the most up-to-date info for me! This turned out to be an erroneous assumption, although two of the desk clerks tried mightily to find out for me from Google. Which was my source as well. They finally admitted that they actually had no idea about the “tunnel bus” because most people just drove.

I decided to go on the best info I had, which was a time table listing stops and approximate times. One stop was a few blocks down from the hotel, so, giving myself plenty of extra time, I headed for the location. And was happy to see the sign…”Tunnel Bus.” Understated, to be sure, but it said the right thing. And sure enough, the tunnel bus arrived! Yay!

The driver was very friendly and told me he’d drop me off where I could get the cross-town bus to the Via Rail Station. Getting through customs was no problem, finding the local bus was easy, and I was soon at the station, with plenty of time to spare.

The Via Rail station was sparse and bare, with very few outlets and not even a vending machine. However, it was clean and dry. I could have stopped at the Tim Horton’s I passed, right across the street, but it was a wet day and I just wanted to get out of the rain. I sat and knit and chatted to the other passengers who were waiting.