The first stop along the way to Traverse City was in a campground not far from Ann Arbor, Michigan. And we planned to visit Ann Arbor, which we had explored on our first trip around the country seven years ago. But then we started reading about Detroit, which is just a bit further away from our RV park. Detroit is currently undergoing an urban renewal, and since we had visited Ann Arbor once before, we decided to give Detroit an opportunity to impress us.
The staff at our campground told us about Detroit's RiverWalk, and we drove there the day we arrived. It's a wide walkway for several miles along the Detroit River, with the Canadian skyline visible on the other side. We had thought it might be a bit like the San Antonio River Walk, with shops and restaurants lining the shore, but it wasn't; it was a pedestrian thoroughfare. On that hot and humid Sunday afternoon it was full of folks walking, jogging, skating, and riding along it. Every ethnic group, physical type, and, style of dress was in evidence. I'd estimate that 60% of the participants were black, 20% Muslim families, and the rest conventional white people, with Nancy and me pretty much the only representatives of the Caucasian senior citizen demographic. The scene had a friendly, happy, joyous, energetic vibe.
We learned that the downtown renaissance is largely due to the efforts of Dan Gilbert, owner of Quicken Loans and multiple sports franchises, including the hated (by me) Cleveland Cavaliers, and a big-time real estate investor. He was involved in developing this amazing set of buildings on the RiverWalk.
We had a wonderful dinner at the Joe Muer Seafood Restaurant overlooking the river. After we told our waiter about our motorhome circuit of the country, originating in Santa Cruz, the restaurant's manager came over and said that he is from Pacific Grove and his wife still works at Salinas Hospital, while during the day he's involved in buying foreclosed homes here in Detroit and renovating them for resale.
The Detroit Institute of Arts is one of the country's great art museums. This room had wonderful Renaissance paintings and sculptures.
Fabulous impressionist and post-impressionist art, including Cezanne, Degas, van Gogh, Monet, and my favorite, Renoir.
We had lunch at the museum and were serenaded in a beautiful space by a rhythm section and four outstanding singers.
We drove past the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, where the body of Aretha Franklin, who died of cancer a few days ago, was lying in state for two days so her fans could file by the coffin. Nancy and I didn't go (my fault) but Aretha was said to be resplendent in a red gown and red pumps.
We did visit the Motown Museum, which is in the same building where those historic early recordings were made. Our tour leader was a bubbly black woman who told us that Barry Gordy established Motown Records with an $800 loan from his family back in 1959 and built it into a multimillion-dollar empire that produced classic records by the Four Tops, Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Jackson Five, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, the Supremes, and many others. We the audience, primarily African-American, were into it, laughing, dancing, singing and clapping. Our tour ended in the little room that had served as their recording studio until they moved their record business to Hollywood in 1972.
We hadn't even expected to go to Detroit but it turned out to be one of our favorite stops.
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