Day 5 - Cleveland to Detroit

This is the first day I stray from my original itinerary. Originally I was going to go to Pittsburgh on Tuesday to see the Pirates play baseball, then the next day I was going to Toledo to watch a Mudhens game, but I have decided to cut both of these out. Instead I will drive directly to Detroit and watch the Tigers play a game there. I have a couple of reasons for doing this, but mainly I wanted to cut my trip short by a couple of days. I also decided it would be too difficult to do a day game in Detroit and then leave town – I was worried about my bike and all the stuff packed to it being stolen.


I departed Cleveland about 10am and headed West out of downtown on highway 6, which goes along the southern shore of Lake Erie. I was going to take Hwy 2, but at the game last night a couple of guys I met told me to take 6 as it goes along the lake most of the way to Toledo, and was very scenic. I took their advice and headed down the road.

Before leaving Cleveland proper I stopped at a Starbucks for breakfast and a coffee. I had planned on having coffee most mornings, but this was the first one I had been able to do. Once done with that I continued out of town. A few miles out of downtown, hwy 6 passes by some beach parks along the south shore, and you have some great views of downtown Cleveland from here. It was a beautiful day, and Cleveland looked great from the high bluffs above the lake. I continued on towards Sandusky and Toledo, and about 1pm or so I went through Sandusky.

I got a bit lost in downtown Sandusky as the signs for hwy 6 were sparse and the path wasn’t well marked, but I did end up downtown and had a nice view of the harbor there and the quaint downtown. Once I found my way again I headed west where hwy 6 combines with hwy 2, and then west to Toledo. Along this route from Cleveland to Toledo you go through several smaller towns, many with a lakeshore theme to their main industries. There are also several very large estates along the south shore of the lake. It sort of reminded me of the drive through Chicago and the houses along the lake on the north side of the city.

Once into metro Toledo I stopped for a late lunch. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and was hungry, so I stopped at a Wendy’s. Back on the road I headed north on 280 which turns into Hwy 75, which goes North to Detroit. There were several signs along the way warning of construction on Hwy 75 in downtown Detroit, so I stopped at the first rest area I could find and they had tourist information. Luckily they had a map that showed the detour around the construction, and I grabbed that along with a map of Michigan.

The detour was a pain as it took you way around the west side of Detroit. To get to downtown you went north up Hwy 275, and then East on Hwy 94 past the airport, and then into downtown. There were good signs and the turns were well marked, so I was able to drive directly to my hotel without incident.

I stayed in the cheapest hotel I could find in downtown Detroit, which was the Leland hotel. I was able to get a room with parking for just over $80 a night, which was a great deal. I was likely one of the only overnight guests however, as the hotel looked to provide more permanent accommodations to their guests. I never felt unsafe however, and I did get a great night’s sleep. Apparently the hotel is a famous Haunted site with ghosts of people murdered there haunting the halls, but I never found any ghosts there. It made me wonder how many murders there had been.

I arrived at the hotel about 5:30pm and the game started at 7, so I changed and headed out to the park right away. The ballpark was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel, but I just followed the crowds and I eventually found the ballpark. The one unbelievable thing about the ballpark and the surrounding area are the ticket scalpers. I have never witnessed such voracious scalpers, and you really get hounded the entire time walking to the park. They ask if you need a ticket and you say no, then they hound you about selling extra’s. 10 feet down the street it all happens again – unbelievable. That was really the only time I didn’t feel safe there.

The scalpers need to stay across the street from the ballpark as they can’t sell tickets on Tiger’s property. That didn’t stop them however and while I was walking to the ticket booth I got catcalled from across the street by several of them begging me to buy their tickets. Normally I will talk to a scalper and see what they have, but not in Detroit – ever. I ended up with a great seat about 25 rows behind home plate, and it was about $40.


The seats were great and I ended up sitting with some family members of the visiting team, the Blue Jays. I sat right next to one of the player’s uncles, and behind me was another proud relative. It was great as they both traveled quite a bit to watch their family member play ball, so the guy sitting next to me had been to almost every ballpark. I had been to a few he hadn’t and vice versa, so we had a great time talking baseball and watching the game. He was a bit disappointed that he didn’t get to see his nephew play, but that is how it goes.

The Tigers play at Comerica park, and as you can see from the few photo’s here the park is a beautiful one. They have a couple of unique features I have never seen inside a ballpark. One was a food court type of place where there were several choices for food – kinda cool. They also had a full size carousel at the food court, so if the kids are unruly and tired of the game, you can take them there. I think there is even a Ferris wheel there, but I didn’t see it. One very cool thing is that you can walk all the way around the park, so you can see every vantage point. I always like parks that have that feature so you can see everything. Food was average and I had a hot dog that was good, and an Italian sausage with peppers and onions that was great as well. I tried a coney, but it was nothing compared to the Skyline one in Cincinnati.

The outside of the park is decorated everywhere with tiger statues and heads, etc. On the way out I realized some of them even lit up - very cool. Toronto won the game 6-4, so the crowd was a bit down after the game. I decided not to wander around downtown as I didn’t want to get knifed, and I walked directly with the crowd back to my hotel. Again, I never felt unsafe downtown Detroit, but I wasn’t taking any chances. Overall the downtown looks very dumpy and I must have walked or driven past a half dozen boarded-up buildings in various states of repair, including one that was very tall and being converted to condo’s or something like that. Why anyone would buy a condo in that craphole of a downtown I don’t know, but they were building it. I was really surprised at how dumpy the downtown looked – even the skyscrapers were old and dumpy looking. Cleveland and Cincinnati looked much more modern, and I never felt like I was in the armpit of the world like I did in Detroit.

Back at the hotel I did some research as I had decided to cut my trip short by another day or so, and I was not going upstate in Michigan to the U.P. I decided to drive to Muskegon and take the Lake Express Ferry to Milwaukee, and then head home from there. The ferry would depart the next day at 4pm, and it was about 200 miles to Muskegon, so I needed to plan my day’s travels. I also needed to get an oil change as I had about 1300 miles on the current oil and it was definitely time for that. I did some research and found where the nearest Honda dealer was – north side of town, and planned for that the next morning. All told I had a good day. Total miles today was 189.1 - shortest day of the trip thus far.

More tomorrow.