Tuesday, June 10: I woke up at 7:30 even though my alarm was set for 10:30. I went to the suggested college and took lots of pictures and walked around. I came back and took a nap in Laz. I wasn't sure if my host had come back so I used the restroom on the first floor of his building before buzzing up on the intercom. Then we set off on an 8 mile running tour of Cleveland passing Lake Erie [the first time I've ever seen one of the Great Lakes], the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, downtown Cleveland, the Browns stadium, across a long bridge that lead to Progressive Stadium where the Indians played. I was sore, dehydrated, and my blister was hurting so we stopped for H2O in a pizza place and walked through another campus before running back to the lot. I showered and ate an apple and some vegan chocolate and cookies. They were pretty good. I set off for the field with my host's directions in mind and found free parking 3 blocks from the stadium. 
I bought the cheapest tickets available and went in. I stayed near the bottom taking tons of pictures of the field and players and soon it was time for the game to start so I sat in some seats that were open behind the mvp area on the first deck but I couldn't see the jumbotron so I moved to a perfect location with a great view where no one questioned my tickets once and I got pictures with one of the hot dogs and the mascot. It was great. Sabathia threw a complete game shut out and I set out for Detroit at 9:30PM.I arrived in Michigan at 12:30PM or so and met my host. He was awesome. It was so fun to talk to him and since I'm an Office addict, I mentioned some of the wonderful references but he had never seen it! I introduced him to some of my favorite cold openings and he was hooked. We didn't go to bed until 2:30AM because we were watching The Office.
Wednesday, June 11: Again, I woke up at 7:30 with no alarm so I put together Cleveland collages. Soon Joe was down for breakfast and made us oatmeal with raisins and I added glorious brown sugar. It was grand. We sat and watched another episode of The Office and then left for our bike tour of Detroit. We started off down the street and went on the train tracks. I think he thought I was a wussy because I wasn't able to ride very well on the rocks, but I wanted to go into an abandoned factory, so we did. We went and explored the rusty old ruins of what was once America's booming up and coming urban city. It was heart wrenching to recall the hopes of the citizens being pulled out from beneath them as their once growing economy came to a grinding halt with large factories closing, causing lost jobs, poverty, and a great exodus from Detroit. We were in a back room of one of the warehouses when he saw two men and we rushed quietly and quickly back to our bikes and took off down the tracks. We crossed the highway and my chain and shoe popped off when riding off a curb. I put my shoe back on and fixed the chain. We continued on our journey.
We saw some old churches and a deserted school with a hole in the gym building window-two of them. For some reason we thought that we should go inside, so we did. The pool was disgusting, rubbish floating in it, brown grimy water shallow in the deep end. We heard banging so we quickly exited the building only to discover that the noise was coming from a man who was stealing the copper off the roof... so we went back in to climb the ladder. In the room above the pool there was an old gym. Imagine the children who played there. Where were they now?
We left, riding down the street toward the water-the Detroit River. It was beautiful. Housing is so cheap! We rolled toward downtown to eat lunch at Ephs. It was good, I liked the Herb Havarti and I 'sold it' to another girl ha ha. The fountain at the park was great, I liked the ones on top. Rolling down to midtown we stopped at a smoothie place and I taught him how to play chess. We were using my chapstick because the bishop wasn't on the board when we sat down. A man kindly interrupted us and picked up the chess piece that had been hiding behind the leg of the chair that I was sitting in. We had a complete set.On our way home after chess we stopped by the church where he works. It was beautiful. The tiles on the ceiling of the dome were shining. It was amazing. When we got back I took a shower and we set off, he drove us over because our journey had taken so long. We got there just in time to see the start of the game and headed up to seats in the top so that we could see the skyline, later moving to nicer, padded seats to complete the game. It was a great game. I saw another home run and Verlander threw a complete game.
Afterward we set off in search of ice cream. Happy Cream and Ben & Jerry's were closed so we looked into a coffee shop but they didn't have any. We stopped at CVS and got some Michigan Black Cherry ice cream. It was authentic and made in Detroit, creamy and delicious. Another episode of The Office followed and soon it was time for me to leave for Chicago. I drove for an hour and a half before I couldn't handle it. I pulled off the road into a Citgo gas station and slept for two hours.
Thursday, June 12: I woke up at 4:30AM and continued on the way to Chicago arriving at 7:30AM. I was so tired. I pulled into the garage and we talked a bit before I napped. I threw together some collages of Detroit and set off for the game. I walked down to the train station and saw some guys waiting for the bus and asked if I could follow them to the game... they said 'yes' and we went down to the game.
We separated at the stadium because they were in the bleachers and I was in the main section. It was hot but my seats were in the shade so I was fine for the first 2 hours of the game. I cheered for Tim Hudson and he was doing fine until the 9th when the Cubs homered off one of the relievers. It went to the bottom of the 11th two walks were given up, a hit, and then they won because the pitcher hit a player... terrible way to win. I went to walk around the stadium and happened to run into one of the guys whom I had come on the bus with to the game, we waited for his friend and headed back to the original bus station. I have to say, I was thinking Cubs fans were idiots. They kept standing up for every inning the Cubs were up to bat as if that was going to help. I could see that at the end of the game, but they started in the 6th and continued on through the 11th. I just wanted to sit in my seat and watch the game, but with everyone else standing around, you can't see! The woman sitting next to me was really nice and bought me a Maitai, I could feel it and it was pretty funny because I thought my sunscreen wasn't working at one point because my skin was red, but it turns out it was just the alcohol. SPF 55 is great. She was a White Sox fan and explained that Cubs fans just went to games to get drunk, were mostly from north Chicago-if someone moved to Chicago-they generally would become a Cubs fan and the White Sox fans were from south Chicago and actually cared about baseball rather than drinking. I would probably be a White Sox fan.I walked the wrong way down the street toward the loop and took some pictures of the city along the way. Then I walked up the street back to the apartment and a man started interrogating me. I was weirded out and told him I had no idea what he was talking about and that I was just in Chicago to watch baseball and then I was out of here. He looked like he was full of himself anyway with his power suit. I went inside and we watched 'Secondhand Lions' which is actually a good movie and I had some miso soup for dinner. I made Chicago collages of the Cubs game. It's already almost midnight here in central standard time. Time to sleep! Big day of the White Sox ahead tomorrow. South Chicago here I come.
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