Detroit City ➔ Detour City ➔ the Lou

Children of the Corn

We left the Detroit area relatively early. Good thing, because when we hit Ohio things got crazy. In addition to being constantly asked to narc on the cops, we kept being sent on spurious detours. I don’t know why both of our phones were giving out bogus navigation instructions. If it was just Anne’s phone, I would attribute these problems to her soon to be replaced iPhone. But my phone was also susceptible. The first detour was the one captured in the above corn field GIF. Because Google detected a construction backup, we were sent hither and yon through the cornfields to avoid this delay. As we barreled past cornfields down a one lane road, we occasionally caught glimpses of traffic still on the highway, still moving quite nicely, thank you very much. We were eventually routed back to the highway, only to encounter a real construction delay. Frustrated by the bedevilment of this malicious AI 🤖, we detoured ourselves this time and manually navigated around the worst of the delay.

Later in Indianapolis, this evil AI attempted to rout us off of the highway and onto downtown city streets, at lunch hour. We ignored the AI’s persistent and erroneous recommendations and made it through town just fine by following the same route we have driven many times before. There was a lot of construction going on, so it was with some trepidation that we charted our own course. This same situation happened again on our way into Saint Louis. For some reason the AI wanted us to take city streets through downtown during rush hour. I could plainly see that there were no traffic delays and we pressed on home. What a horror story!

Deep Fried Oreo Cookies

We finally left the cabin today. On our way south, we passed a couple of circus truck that were also headed south. Around Flint a bunch more were rendezvoused at a rest stop. I got a picture of this fried Oreo food truck. This dessert intrigued me and I looked it up and got a screen shot of one above. Fast forward to Ann Arbor. On our final approach Anne discovered that a restaurant in town serves this dessert, the Black Pearl. After dinner at Grizzly Peak, we walked over there and got an order to share with Harry. He seemed to enjoy it and Anne after repeatedly telling me not to get one for her. She ate it anyway and liked, but is still too prideful to admit it.

Tahquamenon Upper Falls Boardwalk

Yesterday, I escaped the cabin and fled to Tahquamenon. Not this time to look at the falls, but to see the new boardwalk that had been installed at the upper falls. This ADA compliant walkway now makes the upper falls wheelchair accessible. Measuring 1100′ in length and 22′ in height, it snakes its way down the hillside from the overlook above, down to the viewing platform adjacent to the falls. This boardwalk replaces the old staircase that has been removed. I find it amazing that all of this construction work was completed last winter. Especially since nearby Seney has yet to finish their new visitor’s center and it has been four years and counting.

Descending its ramp, I kept wondering if anyone has used it for skateboarding yet? Some of its corners are tight, but any skater worth their salt should be able to shred the course. I found a ranger asked him about this subject. Initially he said that they do not allow skateboards but eventually admitted that there are no regulation prohibiting anyone from doing this, unless their board is motorized, which would greatly help with the return trip.