Vijay and Shefali's TAtW

So… I know I actually came through Boston this time around, and so did Shefali. But for some reason there are no pictures of this, probably because we were visiting a close friend instead of sightseeing, so for the purposes of a travel blog we weren’t really there. Also, I don’t remember much. So after Boston we probably went somewhere, and then we started our way out west where all great adventures begin – Baltimore, Maryland. We ended up here for one evening and surprised my old roommate (as well as his new roommate, who surprised us at the door). Not much had changed – we got there around 8 PM and Fausto had been sleeping since about 4. As he sang loudly in the shower while getting ready for us all to go out and catch up, it surprised me how much it felt like home to be in my old apartment again after so many changes. Then I realized it had only been about 5 months since I had moved. Out of necessity, we kept it quick and left early the next morning (early for me, anyway). It’s only an eight hour ride to Detroit, so we took a Pitt stop in Steel City (get it???) to get some cuban food and catch our breath for a bit. You may be wondering “Why Detroit?” I can’t answer that with anything especially witty, but Shef and I have a little history here – one year for my birthday she surprised me with tickets to come here (to myself I wondered “Why Detroit?”). There was a big awesome techno festival but that’s not the point right now. Detroit is sprawling and empty. It’s eerie. The streets are bereft of movement, lawns are overgrown, parks are probably best avoided at night. Basketball courts sit neglected and inert, and the stillness is unnerving. Alleys don’t have danger lurking nearby anymore. That’s how desolate it is – even the hoodlums have moved on. At the same time there’s an undercurrent of spirited people still trying to make it theirs, and trying to make Detroit great again. We were only in town for one night – we’re trekking west on a mission. We started out at a distillery in town – the first one in Detroit since prohibition. For a ghost town there are a lot of people drinking snooty ass cocktails (relevant xkcd). I can’t say I blame them, the Kentucky Bourbon Trail wasn’t that long ago and this still stands out as some tasty bourbon. People were friendly as usual, this is the midwest after all, and I suppose the booze helps. We hit a few other spots and one thing quickly became clear – Detroit isn’t dead, it just wakes up late. Seriously late night in Detroit is as vibrant and diverse as any city you love in America. You do need a car to get around, which kind of blows and probably isn’t terribly safe after about 3 am. Still we drank responsibly and you know we don’t go anywhere on an empty stomach. The next day we hit up a brewery (Motor City Brew Works) for the one true local beer (Ghettoblaster) and pizza that rivaled the best we’d had in Naples before getting back on the road. We had been in this exact spot four years ago and it was funny how little (and at the same time how much) had changed.