Leg 4, "Ride" 1: Detroit to Windsor

A grueling ride today! Seven whole miles (at least 1 of which was walking).

We crossed over into Canada around 10am (more on this below!), and spent the remainder of the morning at a laundromat a couple miles south of downtown.

For lunch, we went to an awesome/ridiculous Italian social club. A big tacky building with a big tacky fountain/statue out front. They had a pizza bar in their basement which is open to the general public, and the pizza was really good!

After lunch, we went back to downtown and checked out a local history museum before checking into our hotel.

Not a lot going on here in Windsor on a Sunday. So our evening excitement was just getting dinner from a burrito place (mid!), going for a stroll along the waterfront, and swimming in the hotel pool (which had a great view of the Detroit skyline)

So, you wanna hear the story of our border crossing?

As you may know, there is a brand-new bridge just a few miles downriver of downtown Detroit. This bridge includes a nice wide pedestrian/bike path. There are two other crossing points (one bridge, one tunnel), but neither allow pedestrians/bikes.

So, our original plan was a short 15-mile ride today over that new bridge.

The bridge was originally scheduled to be open in late 2025, but delays pushed it to early 2026. But, actually, tomorrow is June, and the bridge is still not open.

Why not? Because of Trump. Maybe because the trust-fund billionaire owner of the nearby privately-owned bridge is Trump's buddy? Maybe because the bridge people have not sufficiently kissed up to him? Maybe because he insists on only hiring incompetent children to run government departments? Maybe because he simply refuses to allow anything good happen to anyone? Who knows? Maybe even he doesn't know.

Aside: We rode through some pretty rural/sketchy areas of Michigan over the last couple of weeks. Areas that absolutely would have been full-on "Trump country" a couple of years ago. I only saw a grand total of three (3) Trump flags over the last two weeks. Whereas, I saw dozens and dozens of trans/pride flags, and "ICE OUT OF MICHIGAN" lawn signs. This makes me hopeful. Perhaps Guillotine Day will be coming soon.

Anyhow, we knew the bridge was a risk, and so we booked cancellable motel rooms along an alternate route. This route heads well north of Detroit, and crosses via a ferry. This was very much not the preferred route, because there would have been lots of on-road riding on atrocious roads through the suburbs outside of Detroit.

There is a bus that pedestrians can take through the tunnel, but it was only a week ago that we learned that this bus has recently installed a bike rack! So, you can now just load your bike on the bus and go through the tunnel! Problem solved, right? So, we cancelled our motels along the alternate route.

But... when we got to Detroit, we learned:

• Detroit is having its annual Grand Prix road race this weekend. This race is held on downtown city streets. And, of course, these streets are completely blocked off.
• The mouth of the tunnel is INSIDE the racetrack loop, and the only road connection to it this weekend is via an interstate highway. So, there is no way to bike to it.
• This means the bus can only pick up right at the tunnel mouth (usually there are other stops in Detroit). Which means you have to get inside the track loop in order to board the bus.
• The interior of the track loop is a secured area. You are allowed to go there, but you have to pass through a security check.
• The Grand Prix website notes that bicycles are not allowed past security checkpoints (and neither are many other things, such as large bags)
• Therefore, we were going to have to get creative!

We spent much of yesterday finding a loophole:

• Enter an office building outside of the track loop
• Take the bikes onto an elevator up to the 3rd floor
• Walk the bikes over a skywalk, over the racetrack, to another office building which is inside the track loop
• Use that building's access doors to the people mover station
• Use the people mover's elevator to get the bikes back down to street level
• Walk bikes directly out the front door, into the "secure area" (but without passing through a security check!)
• Walk bikes to the mouth of the tunnel, and load them onto the bus.
• At all times, walk briskly and with purpose, and make no eye contact with anyone who might be involved with security.

This all worked surprisingly smoothly, and we're in Canada now! A country run by grown-ups.