Continued from part 5

Wanting to ride BMX somewhere between Kalamazoo & Detroit, Jackson's skatepark looked good enough and I also hadn't really spent much time in Jackson before.

Pulling up to the skatepark, I couldn't believe my eyes as I found one of those old school parks with a fence and operating hours. Apparently it used to be even worse as the skatepark was only open in the summer, but the fact that nowadays it's also open in the spring and fall didn't help me here in wintertime.

Deciding that the ramps didn't look worth climbing an 8ft fence and risking a trespassing ticket, I moved along.

Kitty corner from the skatepark stood the old Jackson Prison, meaning this detour wasn't a total bust.

I suddenly remembered Nailhed posting about this place many moons ago, but it had been a long time since I read his post or even thought about it.

These days a portion of the old prison has been converted into apartments, with another nearby building housing an art collective.

A pathway led from the street into an old doorway of the prison wall, with signage, benches, rock walls and well-manicured bushes all about. I would think more people would be scared of living in an old prison, but the reviews seem like a lot of people don't get a call back about vacancy after multiple inquiries. Others are quite excited to snatch up a spot.

I also stopped for coffee in Jackson and the baristas were pleasant. The only problem was that I thought my plans were exciting because I was going to meet a friend, but they didn't match my enthusiasm since I guess people here have been able to visit their friends for a while.

Unfortunately my coffee came so quick that I didn't have time to use their WiFi. Back at the car, I was able to get WiFi from a nearby office to book an appointment for yet another free COVID test. This one was over in Ypsilanti.

The Ypsilanti Covid test was probably the most normal of the three as it was just a bunch of medical tents at the end of a parking lot in a dying plaza. I drove in, filled out a form on a clipboard, they got me to spit in a tube, they gave me a number, and I was on my way. I still hadn't heard back from the Cleveland or Kokomo laboratories, so at least this was another lottery ticket.

Treating myself to Taco Bell afterwards, the drive-thru was taking a while and this gave me a chance to check my email - where I found that Kokomo had got back to me seven hours earlier than promised. Nervously tapping to open the email, I slowly zoomed in with anticipation and there it was on the simplistic test result document: NEGATIVE! I could now head back to Canada and wasn't stuck looking for the cheapest motel for the next 10 days.⁰

Oh buddy, it was now time to partay.

0 - I eventually found a Reddit thread where someone had the same problem as me, but they had
screencapped the pre- and post-Omicron requirements for getting back to Canada. I was right in
that they changed it overnight so that you needed a negative test to come back. There was no exception for
those already in America and you were on your own to find lodging for 14 days if you tested positive.

As Nailhed had to work today and tomorrow, I didn't want to risk us driving around with our small window of time, looking for somewhere to hang out and just ending up at some bar after striking out.

I had a few buildings/places already scouted out from the internet and today on the ground, it was the first one on my list that worked out perfectly. Not too much happening around the neighbourhood, I stepped inside and it was open, energy was relaxed. All good.

There was that awkwardness we all felt seeing friends after so long, after times where we were conditioned to social distance and cover our faces, where we then finally met up under normalizing circumstances and it felt like the old times.

With that feeling, we rolled up on this old warehouse in short order, moving up to the gaping window hole on the top floor, then cracked our 40s on one of those perfect, relatively warm January Detroit winter days. I remember this moment like it was yesterday as it was one of my favourite moments of 2022. Finally some normalcy, finally getting back to this good stuff after a long 23 months.

I'd be hesitant to put a picture of booze into a Top 10 Pictures of 2022 post, but I don't know if I could resist this one. I guess we'll have to see when I finish editing my 2022 pictures in September of 2026.

After a while we moved to another window and you could see why I never really noticed this building before, since the building across the street has always looked a bit abandoned. It's looked like this as long as I can remember, but I only see it for sale now in the 2023 StreetView.

We weren't all that concerned with that other building though. This old planing mill was working out just fine as night fell around the five o'clock hour.

This building is set on one of those expansive properties next to a rail line, where it's easy enough to envision a greater footprint and more buildings.

Sure enough, a lumber yard, planing mill, steam drying house, blacksmith shop & sawmill were all here by 1884 as part of the W.A.C. Miller Lumber Company, established 1874. The sawmill was in the western portion of the property where today's building stands, but this sawmill was demolished sometime between 1897 and 1916.

(By 1919, the blacksmith shop, steam drying house, and original planing mill were also all demolished.)

The current building was built in 1916 as a planing mill, as well as a window sash and door factory. It remained in this use until the early 1950s, then becoming a private garage with tool repair and storage. It was then converted into a factory in the 1960s, while the two other buildings on the property (an office building and a lumber warehouse) were demolished.

By 1977 this building was converted to a warehouse and then a medical labratory in 1978. The medical laboratory closed in 2008 and Streetview shows it unoccupied since that time.

Next up, we headed over to a West Lafayette overpass as this would soon become another Greenway trail through the city. I've been down here before with other people to check out graffiti and so has Nailhed, so this was a sort of goodbye before it turned into something quite different with a paved path, lights and call boxes.

This work has been completed in the modern day and you can see the difference here. I've only walked the part over by Bagley, marvelling at how close you can get to the train tunnel entrance.

Next up was a one story commercial structure down in Delray on Dearborn Street. Today there's not much but some walls remaining, but there's some great graffiti and it works as a spot to get out of the car.

This would have worked for our 4pm meetup, but I'm glad the planing mill was open.

This was the home of the Detroit Oil Co., but as it's also listed as a commercial building, so I'd guess it's where they sold their machining/cylinder oils.

These ruins are still there on satellite images of 8557 Dearborn but Google also returns City of Detroit emergency demolition documents, so who knows if they're still standing today.

Stopping at a liquor store along the way, how can you pass up 2-for-$1 fresh boiled liquor store eggs??

I do this thing sometimes while drinking or travelling, where I get hyper focused on going to a specific attraction or doing a specific activity. This can work out when the group is a bit lost as to what to do, but tonight it was just funny with Nailhed's confusion as to why I was so adamant that we go to the dive bar Casey's.

During those long 23 months in Canada, I'd been having dreams of dive bars in Rust Belt cities and that's what I'll blame this on. I appreciate Nailhed humouring me regardless.

Unfortunately, as mentioned, Nail had to go to work the next day so it was time to wrap this night up. Still though, we'd been out and about for six or seven hours at this point, so it was a great return to Detroit.

Back at the crib and after finding a bed to sleep in, Nail had apparently been using said bed as a glorified sawmill table, leaving so much sawdust behind that my allergies were going bonkers. I had to go beat the bed sheet on a tree outside, haha.

I had to get going home the next morning, so I was up before the sun.

Still though, I had to make time for a chili cheese omelette with a side of grits.

Having my bike with me, I weighed the idea of riding the new, incredible street spot that connects the two Mexicantowns. In the end, I did get out of my car and ride it enough to say I've rode it, but it was brick outside and I didn't get a full session in.

Getting some White Castle coffee as I lingered and resisted ending my time in the States, I eventually crossed and it was again surprisingly easy. The border guard was a bit standoffish, but once he realized I had proof of a negative test and didn't have my head up my ass, he warmed up a bit.

Following discovery of the new Taco Bell in St. Clair Beach, I finally made it home to greetings of "oh would you look at this, it's Christopher Columbus!¹ Welcome back!" as my Dad had now relaxed his stance since I'd safely returned from the States.

Checking my email, I discovered that my Cleveland test had come back...inconclusive! And then a few days later, my Ypsilanti test came back...positive!

Thank goodness for Kokomo.

And thanks for reading as always.

1 - he obviously meant just the explorer part, not Columbus' atrocities.