Windsor and Detroit: Back on the Grind

Starting the journey again

The holidays came and the holidays went. After new years day I said goodbye to London Ontario. I got the chance to hang out with another high school buddy while I waited for the bus. Pete Campbell has changed, still a nice guy, but a lot more closed off and withdrawn from the past. He’s at that point in life where he’s re-evaluating stuff. I wish I had had more time, but it was what it was.

I was back to Windsor. With surgery, and my cousin from Germany behind me, I could spend some time with my grandmother from there, and get a touch of Windsor behind me as I do it.

I ended up going back to windsor. This one was a short visit with just my grandmother from Windsor. Most of my time was hanging out with my grandmother, going to the coffee shop to do freelancing, and spend my evenings eating and playing cards with my grandmother.

The winter was going to be the obstacle now. This was January. I was going to have to deal with winter. My plan to escape in the south, wasn’t going to be so easy, as the cold was going to follow me the way down. My bus ended up being delayed two full days as the storm shut down roads.

Finally, when it cleared up, I headed back into Detroit.

Getting into Detroit required me to go through the tunnel. I talked to a cab driver and we were talking about him having to feed his family and the struggles he’s facing in Canada doing it right now. We talked kids and dreams and how things are. It’s a real struggle in Canada right now. Expensive doesn’t even begin to describe it.

I got dropped off at the Detroit bus station. Detroit impressed me the most on the trip. It wasn’t quite the violent place I had known it to be. It was nicer and it’s changing. Now some of the older neighbourhoods with their history still exist, but it looks like at least for now, Detroit is heading in a direction to build the city back up.

I ended up back on the road at the Greyhound terminal, which was also quite new. I had an early morning to Cincinatti, and had to get back on track. Waiting at the stop, I saw the poverty in the city staring me right in the face. I spent the evening watching some of the people who have to live here deal with the cold. One of the gentlemen in the bus had a cardboard shoe on one foot and a plastic one ion the other. His name was cloud. Nice guy, and tougher than me.

Lots of poverty exists in the States too. The design of it is much different than in Canada. The floor is worse…although the gap has closed a significant amount. The bottom truly is the bottom in the United States. Maybe a third world country is worse. Throughout the entire journey in the United States poverty laces the country as much as anywhere I’ve seen. Third world countries might be worse. I have not experienced them, but poverty in the United States is a difficult thing.

Still, I had a lot of it to see and do. I was anxious to get back on the road, and the night on the greyhound excited me. I was on a mission to finish what I started. I was eager to begin, again.

I had one more place in the past to explore. More of a thank you. But I know that wherever I’m going next, in the long run, the past is gone and not coming back. Calgary had little desire to connect, as have all the places in my past. I’ve been blessed with amazing and true friends, and to be honest, it’s more than I deserve.

But, I haven’t found the community where I belong. It will be somewhere new. And I’m still looking for it.

The bus came in the early morning. I had one last place to revisit. I was going to be a fykus again.