Christmas was here and the end of 2019 was fast approaching.

Waking at 3am, I now lived closer to Star Taxi's airport shuttle and that meant a short, 0.6 km (0.37mi) bike pull through the omnipresent overnight flurries.

With Christmas on a Wednesday, it didn't make sense to stick around just to work a single Monday before the holidays.

Therefore I was home earlier than usual and over in Detroit the same night.

I really liked how we happened upon a liquor store that looked to be an old bank - except that Google StreetView only shows it previously being a pharmacy.

This would be a walkup bank window though, wouldn't it?

Posting up on Schoolcraft afterwards, I asked Donnie if I could ask him something and he was almost annoyed with the question, "yeah, what, of course, you can ask me whatever."

It was good to be home.

Instead of hitting up an abandoned building, we decided to instead tick off another bar from the dive bar to-do list by heading over to Michigan Ave and the Cas Bar.

There was a fun mix of people, the inside was your classic midwest wood grain dive, plus no one vibed us. I would definitely head back to the Cas, especially if I was looking for some cheap retail goods, haha.

There's a theory that any bar with an octagon window will be a great dive bar, and I'm pretty sure that applies even if the octagon sides aren't all of equal length.

The previous night I'd headed out so quickly that my bike was still at my parents.

This is usually the end of any biking times because for how much I don't care about new shoes, or chainstay lengths, or slippery tires; I've never been able to ride Donnie's bike. There's just something about it that totally hinders bunnyhopping and I have no idea how he gets it over even a cinderblock, let alone a wheelchair ramp rail.

Today though, with fine temps in the upper 30's, I was determined and eventually sort of made it work over at Atkinson.

The next day we headed back over to Detroit, this time trying to warm up through frigid nighttime temps beside a bonfire, before then checking off Tommy T's Pub over in Southwest Detroit.

This was another spot where I enjoyed myself and the dive bar checklist worked well. The interior wasn't all that spectacular, but there were a lot of people and it was good fun having a few beers while live Spanish music played.

Also, while waiting outside a liquor store on Chene, some guy gave Donnie his best sales pitch regarding a gold chain, by holding up a lighter to the chain and declaring, "look! it's real gold!" as the chain weaved in and out of the flame.

After Donnie bought the chain for $20 as a laugh, it was me who then ended up with a Jesus piece, haha.

December 23rd would bring a drive down to Amherstburg, where Donnie humoured me by riding their skatepark since he knew I'd love the two metal benches in a row. He even suffered through distracting a chatty kid who was talking all kinds of nonsense, or maybe I just rode away and kept riding while Donnie was stuck, haha.

Another awesome thing happened here; something for the first time. There was a middle aged woman with her kid and seeing me grinding the benches, she asked if I wanted her to move off the ledge. Now I know most BRN readers might think this isn't such a giant leap, but I've grinded and grinded ledges 10 feet away from people sitting on ledges and no one else has had the mental capacity to realize to move in my many years of riding skateparks.

Big ups to that woman, it made my day.

Christmas would come and go, and on Boxing Day I again crossed the border to hang out with Nailhed.

(Looking back on this time a few months later - as the border was closed and we had to stay in our provinces - it was amazing to think of the ease and frequency with which I crossed over during these holidays. The tunnel bus still ran, there was no attention paid to changing entry requirements...man, oh man.)

Anyway, Nail had a tip on the Associated Spring Co., a classic, five-story Detroit factory over in that zone of industry by Poletown and the Packard.

Not being prepared to come over today, I was only equipped with my crappy cell phone when it came to both taking pictures and a flashlight.

"You've switched over and became a cell phone guy? No more real camera?" he confusingly inquired. I let him know that I simply forgot it back in BR.

The inside of Associated Spring was littered with the contents of various going-out-of-business motel auctions around Metro Detroit. This made for some different stuff to pick through versus the usual abandoned buildings, but it was also a lot of the same hotel chair and side table, repeated over and over.

Ever wonder where those motel paintings end up?

I was kicking myself here because this really was a fantastic find and all I had was my shitty cell phone.

I'd hoped to go back one day, but then we went back a few months later at dusk, so that didn't satisfy my itch to take some better pictures either.

Thankfully Nailhed has better pictures and a good writeup over on his site.

Nail and I would hit up another building, before Donnie then came over to meet us.

Here's a point where I really should up my note taking game, because whatever we did after that is lost to time, haha. The next pic I have is on Vernor Ave three hours later of some old sign.

What I do remember is grabbing a flyer from the DFD Training Building for the Wyoming Fish Station and sticking it on Donnie's fridge, lol. People always get a kick out of my love for the long play, but I died laughing when he finally noticed it 26 days later.

On Friday we'd have our xmas get-together at Garbo's, then Saturday I biked in Leamington, while Monday the 30th would bring one last Detroit day in the 2010s.

Thinking about food first like Donnie & I do, I somehow remembered that we'd always meant to check out Red Hots Coney Island, a landmark Highland Park restaurant open since 1921. It's a good thing too as it closed just over a year later, right after its 100th anniversary.

The two of us loved Red Hots, where it was this quiet tucked-away place that wasn't too busy and the main chef was this boisterous character like you'd see in a movie. I would have surely returned, but I was also happy we at least managed to check it out one time.

Since we were already in Highland Park, it wasn't a long drive to get to that hub of abandoned buildings centered around Highland Street.

This afternoon we wanted to check out Highland Park High School, a place that I very much wanted to see on account of its square footage and stunning architecture.

Highland Park High was completed in two parts with the senior section being completed in 1915 and the junior section being completed in 1918.

This building was converted to the Highland Park Junior College in 1977, while the high schoolers moved over to a new, jail-like concrete monolith on Woodward Ave.

The attendance at the high school was still good though, even as Chryslers left and Highland Park was becoming a less desirable place to live. It was still better than Detroit in the 1970s though, and this meant Detroiters wanted to transfer as the high school was seen a pathway to Highland Park Junior College admission (which in itself was still highly-regarded because of its numerous after school programs, swimming teams, facilities, etc.) A 2012 MLive article states that "it had always been a magnet for black families looking for suburban-style education without having to move to the suburbs."

Over at the junior college, the pool would close in the early 90s. More and more programs were cut every year as Highland Park and its school district spiralled into debt. The junior college, now known as a community college, would close in 1996.

The Highland Park Career Academy then opened in this building, boosted in 2001 by an investment by Ford Motor Corp, hoping the academy could produce much needed technicians.

It remained open as the Career Academy until 2009, but was still being maintained and secured after that.

The cement high school over on Woodward had become so rundown by the early 2010s, that the Highland Park School District was now looking for a solution to that problem - one of them being possibly moving their entire enrolled school district, two grade schools and the high school - all into this vacant school.

Highland Park's school district would be put under a state-appointed emergency financial manager in 2012, becoming the second district to do so after Muskegon Heights. The job of the financial manager was to do whatever they could to slash and cut, in order to fix their designated school district's financials; while some argue that the emergency financial managers were just a way of attaining politicians' goals of opening charter schools and making schools make money.

Either way, the emergency financial manager toured both the decrepit new Highland Park High and the old Highland Park high, but nothing ever came of it. Especially as the old high school soon after suffered fires and scrapping that hindered moving everyone back here.

Highland Park High on Woodward was closed in 2016 and torn down quickly afterwards. Hundreds of feet behind Woodward Avenue, only the bleachers from the new high school remain - and I've hung out there too, casting off the warnings regarding Highland Park High School's mascot, the Polar Bear.

As for the "old" Highland Park High School, it was purchased for a paltry $49,000 in 2014 by the Brooklyn-based Galapagos Art Space. Galapagos Art Space is a dance, theatre, and party company that was part of the catalyst that gentrified Brooklyn and particularly Dumbo. Except that now they've priced themselves and other artists out of Brooklyn and wanted a new place with costs more inclined to artists.

But then, not much has happened here in the meantime. The old high school is relatively secure and not a total free-for-all, but at the same time, I've seen plenty of "urbex" pictures from HP High. Not to mention that the above auditorium burned and collapsed in May of 2022.

What was once great news and hope that this building would be saved, has turned into hoping Galapagos Art Space gets moving in order to save this gorgeous structure.

Walking around and checking out things, the middle of the school was filled with this atrium out of a 1980s mall. I couldn't help but think about how awesome it would've been to film bike tricks here before everything got so destroyed.

(DetroitUrbex.com says that this space used to be the high school's gymnasium before being lost to a fire in 1977. This plaza is what they then constructed to fill the space.)

Donnie, Steve, UJ and I spent a cold night atop that abandoned high-rise apartment you see. Chad and I explored one of those houses as they used to be daycares. Donnie, Steve, Donnie's ex and I explored the school you see to the right.

If this Galapagos group fails and this school burns to the ground one day, I wonder if any major project would come here. Highland Park is doing somewhat better, but it still lacks a high school and a solid tax base, so I don't know if any company will ever see this land having enough value to tear down the litany of abandoned buildings around.

Much of this area has been like this for 20 years and I'm really curious how the next 20 years will go.

A much better ending would be the Galapagos Art Space simply moving in here and keeping this building around. Being used to ho-hum high schools in Canada, the scope of these Detroit and Highland Park high schools truly is remarkable - and that's without us getting to the labs, library, swimming pool, or the auto shop.

With these short December days, Donnie put the pressure on me to think of another building to hit before night fell, except I was struggling to think of anything worthwhile.

Thankfully we happened to drive by this old motel, and with how both of us think the tiny places that people skip are some of the most worthwhile, well, it was time to stop and check it out.

While I wished I had my better camera earlier, now I wished I had my tripod. The little fountain from when this structure was a classic motel was up front, and there were even some pictures in the old proprietor space behind bulletproof glass.

About all I can find out about this hotel was that it was once Clark's Motel, and while I don't think it was still a motel in 2007, it didn't look that bad. Oh yeah, it also didn't have any reported bedbugs, haha.

This was pretty clearly a spot where a couple of old homes or businesses were merged, and that's not only obvious from the old StreetView, but also from Donnie and I managing to lose each other as we navigated Clark's confusing and haphazard layout.

It was clear that some unhoused people were living here currently or recently, but thankfully we didn't run into them.

Everything turned out perfectly with our stop and with Clark's still standing in the August 2021 StreetView, maybe I'll have a chance to head back with a tripod sometime.

Things were a bit chill as we wrapped up this last night, myself knowing that I had some driving to do tomorrow. In fact, the only pictures I took for the rest of the night were of this seedy bookstore that Donnie enjoys, since it reminds him of something out of Times Square in the seventies.

Anyway, a fine second last day of the 2010s.

More to come from the next day's drive.