Day 30 - Detroit to San Francisco

It was our last day in the US today so we decided to cruise into Detroit for a look around.

Our route took us down the main drag into the inner city and past some urban decay and under-utilised industrial areas.  It wasn't the best part of town to be fair but we did take in some colourful artwork here.

And some sad faces...

A local approached us, saying..  "You're not from around here are you?"  We got the hint and moved on.
 

Past a former beautiful building that is now an empty shell.  It's an abandoned railway station that must have once been a thriving epicentre for the city and much of the Midwest but now it sits with most of its windows broken, wondering its fate.

More modern buildings adorn the central city, with reflections of the stunning older architecture.

They even have steaming vents in the road. Just like the movies.  I guess there's an underground rail system here.

The old buildings mix it in with the new quite happily here.

This is one of the larger brick buildings I've seen.

 This is the General Motors building, right on the Detroit River that separates the US from Canada.  We wandered in for a look-see.  This building was opened in 2000 and features a 50,000 square foot showroom with visual and audio displays and interactive elements.  The display has the latest models of cars for sale from Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac - all positioned around a circular pool and water features.

 

There's a red corvette.  According to the spec sheet, you can pick a basic 2012 model up for USD50,500 but this one's $71,190.  It has a 6.2 litre 430hp V8 to help push it along.

This little beauty is a Chev Camaro, 2 LT Coupe 2012 RS edition.  They come in all flavours, including grunty V8s but this one's a six-speed auto 3.6 litre V6.  The price tag, without extras is a mere $28,350 but with extras, it's $34,125.  The extras, by the way, include the 'rally yellow' paint at $325, the black stripe package ($470) and body-coloured antenna.  

I had a seat in this one and it's rather nice but the all-round vision isn't the best.  Still, rather nice.

And for those wanting something a little classy, here's the latest model Caddy, a 2012 CTS-V Cadillac Coupe.  6.2 litre supercharged V8 sporting 556 hp.  0-60mph in 3.9 seconds and it's yours for $64,090 for the basic version and $68,190 with a few more bells and whistles. It would be handy if you lived near to a petrol station though, as this puppy guzzles a gallon of fuel every 12 miles around the city.

Outside, there was a special parking spot for this eco-friendly Volt.  Plug it in and away you go.

One last look at the Detroit sky-line before we high-tailed it to the airport.

And what an airport it was.  The airport terminal was so long, you couldn't see one end from the other and they used this nifty monorail system to get around.

Security was pretty full on at Detroit (as it was at San Francisco), what with a full body electronic scan; sans belt and boots.  Once through security it was on the trusty Delta Airlines flight, four and a half hours to San Francisco.  Over the Rockies...

And strange-looking circular things...

To the city that swags of Kiwis now call home.  

Speaking of home, that's where we are now, after a 12.5 hour flight from San Francisco.

Awesome trip all 'round.  Great company and some many fantastic sights and experiences. 

So long for now...

Day 29 - back to Detroit

What a great day on reflection.

Given that our motel was pretty well on the shores of Lake Erie, we decided to head out and do a bit of exploring.  First thing you notice - whenever you're anywhere near the Great Lakes is that the wind that comes off these immense waterways is bloomin' cold.

The second thing you notice is they are rather huge.  In fact they look much like oceans.

Third; they are heavily industrialised and I hate to think how much waste is pumped into them from unseen pipes and channels.

But they can't be that bad, as the birds (actually, given that these photos were taken in New York state, that should be 'boids') seem to really quite like them

Don't get me wrong, there are some really beautiful places along the lake shore and we stopped at some of these to stretch our legs and take in the views.

This is the old 1875 light house at Dunkirk, New York state.  

And here's the light house at Barcelona Harbor, Westfield, NY - it was built way back in 1829.

This is the view of the road from the lighthouse.

 

 Shortly after stopping of at Westfield, we crossed over the state line into Pennsylvania and drove into Erie City - a lovely town that we just had to have a closer look at.  The streets were so 'delightful' we took to our cameras to try and capture some of the street-side beauty.  Two locals thought this was a bit odd and stopped us to ask what we thought we were doing...

 

Here's our trusty stead, Lyric II (it's a long story) awaiting our arrival.  It's looking surprisingly clean here - closer inspection would prove otherwise, however.

 

 And Nige at the con.

From Pennsylvania, we passed into Ohio and stopped off at Cleveland for a while.  Here's our approach.

We were keen to see the U.S.S. Cod, a WWII submarine that saw a significant amount of action during the war.  But before we found it, we had a quick look at the Cleveland Browns American Football Stadium - it's quite large (seating for 73,000) and you can see part of it below.

This  618 foot long steam ship, the William G. Mather, was parked alongside the stadium.  It was built in 1925 and used to carry iron ore, coal, grain and other stuff across Lake Erie.  She reminded me of the Edmund Fitzgerald - immortalised by Gordon Lightfoot's song.

And right alongside the William G. Mather  was the National Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.  Well, I just had to have a look at that.  Time was a little pressing so Nige decided to have a look for the U.S.S. Cod instead.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was a real surprise. You know what it's like when you are about to give something the miss but when you do it, it turns out way better then you expected?  Well, that's how I found this place.  The Hall of Fame is essentially a very large collection of original guitars, clothes, manuscripts and others paraphernalia owned and used by almost every famous rock super star over the past 60 years.  Unfortunately you can only take photos of one small part of the collection, so my shots are a little limited from here.  They have a few cars on display.  Elvis Presley's for one.  Here's the famous ZZ Top Eliminator.

Many of the displays incorporated large LCD screens alongside, showing old music clips so you could see the musicians wearing the clothes and playing the instruments on display in front of you.

There was a great mix of gear here, from Bo Diddley's guitar to John Lennon's piano; parts of Otis Reading's aircraft wreckage to Michael Jackson's famous glove. 

Here's a prototype Fender Telecaster, handmade by Leo Fender himself.  Hmm - gotta love those solid wood Tele's.

Here's one for you, James C.  Alex Van Halen's drum kit, from 1980. 

What else was there?  Let's see - a whole section on Elvis paraphernalia, another one for Jimi Hendrix, including a heap of his guitars and clothes.  Heaps of stuff from the Beatles, Rolling Stones,  the Doors, the Who, U2, David Bowie and earlier rock and roll heroes.

Whew...

After all that, I met up with Nige at the Submarine.  Here he is, after spending some time below deck.
    

The kind folks at the gate let me in for nothing, "because I was from New Zealand".  Here's the torpedo tube at the bow of the ship.

And the mess.

Up top again.  This sub could manage 24 mph on the surface, using its diesel engines but when it went under, it would shut the diesels off and flick over to battery power.  Under water it could manage a maximum speed of 9 mph for 60 minutes, before the batteries ran dry.

This is what Cleveland looks like from the port area.

Back in the car and a final two-hour run to Detroit, where we had a super meal of gumbo, jambalaya and southern-brewed wheat beer.  

And here we are.

Amazing to think our trip has come to an end - after 11,000km and 29 days on the road.  Packing now and wondering how we are going to fit all of our stuff into the bags we came here with.  That will be a challenge.

We'll put a summary blog together a little later but for now, it's pack up time.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

PF

Day 28 - to Dunkirk NY

We woke up in London, Canada with the intention of getting ourselves over to Niagara Falls, which is exactly what we did.  

Our Motel 6 was on Wellington Road, London.  Odd place, London.  They must have run out of Canadian place names, as almost everything is named after UK London.  This place even has a Thames River but we couldn't find a Big Ben.

Back on the road again and because we're in Canada, we can talk in kilometres for a change.  It was a big day today - we clicked through 10,000km on the odometer and we've still got a fair distance to go before we hand the keys of the mighty Chev back to our friends at Hertz.  

Talking about the road and driving generally, folks on this side of the border seem to be quite happy exceeding the speed limit by a good 20 km/hr, despite frequent warnings of what will happen to you if you're caught speeding.  Perhaps they invest heavily in in-car radar systems - or maybe they know the local constabulary personally.

On the road, heading to Niagara Falls we saw a sign off the Interstate to a place called Emerald Lake.  The lake wasn't too exciting but we did stop on the side of the road to get these shots of wild flowers and a pretty cool sky.  Actually, the threatening sky you can see in this photo below developed into a thunderstorm half an hour after I took this photo.  

Some more wild flowers.  Purdy, eh?

Here's a large farm shed just down the road...

We rolled into Niagara Falls Village on the Canadian side and I must say, we were a little taken back by the tacky factor of this place.  It was a little reminiscent of Vegas.

But the Falls well and truly made up for the plastic above.  Wow - this place is really something else.  The sheer volume of water we're dealing with here is hard to fathom and difficult to capture on 'film' but here's a shot at it.
 

In summer, 2.5 million litres of water flow over the side every second.  That's, well - quite a lot of water.

We decided to make the most of the place and get a bit closer to the action.  One option was a trip on the boat to near to the base of the waterfall.  Another option was to do this thing called 'Journey Behind the Falls'.  At first I thought this was a 4D simulation ride - but it transpired it's a walk behind the falls.  This sounded pretty excellent, so we gave it a whirl - and Mark - you're right.  This was such a good call.

Once you've paid your green-backs, you take a lift down to the base level of the falls to get a closer handle on what 2.5 million litres of water (per second) actually looks (and feels) like

You can then walk through a narrow tunnels...

...to two observation portals directly behind the falls.  This is really something else and must be what it's like being in the close proximity of a tornado.  The sound is impressive enough but then gusts of wind drag water into the portal to saturate all those within.  The volume of water crashing past is incredible and the low frequency audio is better than any woofer I've heard in a while.

Could have stayed there for ages.  And we did.

People say the Canadian side of the falls is better.  And they're right.  Canada has the impressive Horseshoe Falls.  The American's have this one, which is still impressive in its own right and knocks our own Huka Falls over with a blink of an eyelid.  

The 'reveal' of the Falls is excellent,  and you feel as if you've had a real treat if you sneak a quick view of them from an unsuspecting vantage point.  Like here.

We passed through border control to the American side to see what they had to offer.  The American's have quite a different view on proceedings.

But it's pretty good, non-the-less.

And while they don't have the "Journey to Behind the Falls' walk, they do have some soaking experiences.

NYPD Smokies were in force here.  Just keeping an eye on things...

We crossed back onto Canadian soil half an hour later to check out historic Fort Erie.  Here's the view of America from Canada.

The Fort was closed when we got there but we still managed to have a bit of a look around the show.

Back over the border into the  US - they must be getting suspicious by now, and off to our camp site at Dunkirk, New York state.

Today's final note is in the form of piggy-backing trucks.  This is a sight you see from time to time on the Interstate; a very large truck, with two or even three large Kenworth-type trucks on its back.  Each piggy-backed truck has its front wheels up on the deck of the truck in front and its rear wheels are rolling along the road.  All at 70 mph.
  

More piggy-backers in our motel car park tonight.

Short and sweet tonight.  We're off back to Detroit tomorrow - 300-odd miles down the road.

'Night.