Slice of Life: Driving to Detroit

 

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It is my Spring Break.  I decided to go to Detroit and visit my mother.  She had broken her wrist after taking a tumble on some ice.  She has been living under the care of my sister for almost a month.  I wanted to come and spell my sister for a few days and visit with my mom.  She is doing quite well and on the mend.  While she had to have a plate and screws to reassemble the bones in her arm, she was fortunate to have very good bone density due to her active lifestyle which includes playing in a competitive tennis league.  As a further bonus, I got to see my first grand niece, Talene Frances, who was born on Friday, March 11^th. 

The weather was nice when I set out from home.  While there was snow in the morning in Detroit, the weather in Chicagoland was blue skies and predicted to get to 50 degrees.  Actually, I had blue skies all the way to Detroit with temperatures in the high 40s and no evidence of any snow at all.

I set out, grabbed my usual Grande Americano from Starbucks, and was listening to NPR Now.  The traffic through Chicago was bumper to bumper as one might expect but mercifully for only about 20 minutes after which I opened up the accelerator.  As usual, I took the Chicago Skyway which, when I was first making my runs from Detroit in the 1970s, was heavily industrialized with the steel plants around Gary, Indiana.  There is still some vestige of the steel industry there, but what used to look gritty and polluted from the mills and their spewing smokestacks now looks restored and breathtakingly beautiful.  The lagoons of the Grand Calumet near its headwaters by Lake Michigan look pristine and thriving with waterfowl from geese and herons to swans and gulls.  What was once an eyesore to drive through is now beautiful.

Back on I-94 in Indiana heading into Michigan, I got a call from an old Armenian friend Varoujan.  I have known him since my late teens but had not talked for a long while.  As part of a chat group of our contemporaries, our communication was renewed.  We realized we had sympathetic views on politics both American and Armenian.  We texted back and forth before I left the house.  I suggested he call me during the drive to Detroit.  He took me up on it and we talked for an hour and a half.  It was very good to hear what he was up to and learn about his two boys and the men they had grown into.  In turn, I brought him to speed on my family.  I learned he was doing research on Armenian Shamanism and the how it led him to discover the rich parts of our history that most of us do not know.  He is actually writing a book, perhaps in a few volumes, about the fascinating things he has learned.  I do believe it was the longest we have ever chatted one and one.  I look forward to the next. 

Armenian Shamanism?  A google search showed references to learn more.  One was a 2008 book, The Shamanic Themes in Armenian Folktales by Michael Berman, which I might have been tempted to purchase but for Amazon saying it was out of stock with no foreseeable restocking date.  Another was a Wikipedia page on Hetanism which I took only semi-seriously with several grains of salt.

When I entered Michigan, I noticed two things.  First, I was kind of amazed by the number of billboards for cannabis shops.  I know cannabis is practically legalized, but I have never seen this level of advertising.  These cannabis billboards were in stark contrast to Illinois where I see none and Indiana where every other billboard is an advertisement for personal injury attorneys.  The only law firm that I recall was, not surprisingly the Armenian named one, Sarkisian and Sarkisian.

The second thing I noticed in Michigan was a bit more subtle.  I was behind a non-descript sedan and noticed a bumper sticker, “Containment vessels being transported.  Stay 500 feet back.”  My first thought was “Huh?” which, of course, sparked my curiosity.  As the car was going too slow, I decided to pass it.  It all made sense when I noticed the Ghostbusters logo prominently on display on the driver’s door.  This person was a serious Ghostbusters fan.  I thought nothing more of it until maybe a half-hour later when I saw another sedan that was displaying the deathly hallows one side of the trunk lid and lightening script HP on the other.  This car was clearly owned by a serious Harry Potter fan.  I decided to pass it to see what might be on the driver’s door… which was unadorned.  I was wondering if movie themed cars had become a thing in Michigan.  I was on alert to finding more but, alas, there were none.

Just outside of Jackson, I saw my first bald eagle… ever.  I saw a big bird, which I easily surmised to be a bird of prey, cross the expressway in some distance ahead of me.  It soared to the left and merged above the oncoming lanes of the expressway.  I noticed what I thought was a white head and then a white tail.  Could it be a bald eagle?  I noticed the yellow beak and graceful majesty of our national symbol as it soared by me.  It was a truly cool way to see my first bald eagle.  I know there has been a resurgence in population of bald eagles, but this sighting was most special.

Of course, the best part of the trip was at the end when I saw how well my mother was doing and got to meet my great niece Talene!