My original scheme for getting to Detroit would have involved arriving at 0030h, then catching a taxi to a hotel, and meeting up with the Detroit folks in the morning.
While the words ‘stupid and insane’ didn’t get used, there was a vibe, so we met up in Klamazoo instead.
I should point out that, until recently, I didn’t know it was a real place. I’d heard the name, but it sounds like one of those names they make up for children’s books or to sound funny & interesting, like Timbuktu or Boise or Ottumwa or Te Hihi.
Turns out that I wasn’t the only one in NZ who thought this, thanks to the wonder of Facebook.
Also thanks to Facebook, Bell’s was recommended by Mikey Mason, doubling the things I knew about the place in one easy step.
This isn’t the Kalamazoo Station; It’s Niles, Michigan, but it has a similar feel to it.
At the actual station I was too busy trying to lug Big Red around to take pictures.
The friends from Detroit had lined up a B&B, which turned out to be rather nice and quite historic. With a very friendly dog with an infinite supply of dog-slobber.
Dinner that night was at the Olde Peninsula Brewpub & Restaurant.
There’s a theme here, by the way, with brewpubs, because you don’t seem to be able to throw a rock in Kalamazoo without hitting one.
Lunch the next day, after we wandered around and saw the various historic houses of Kalamazoo, was at a different brewpub, chosen on the basis of “which of the three we can see from here should we go to?”, and was Gonzo’s Biggdogg Brewing Company.
This thing was sitting in a park, by a wee river/canal which they’re having a good go at gentrifying.
No idea what it is, other than “One Of Those”.
There was also this classic, and probably original, piece of Americana.
And then there was Bell’s.
Somewhere along the way we stopped into the Kalamazoo public library, which had the whole community centre thing happening, with a secondhand bookstore & legal references & the like.
There was also a copy of a book I’d not known existed, by an artist whose work I’ve seen around; Simon Stålenhag.
Tales From The Loop is the book, and it’s … a cross between an art book and an SF story. Maybe a bit like the old Terran Trade Authority books?
Along with driving & walking around Kalamazoo, we also took a trip to South Haven, via a side-of-the-road rib joint.
The odd thing about South Haven, for me, is that it looks like the sort of marina & breakwater & so on that I’m used to, but it’s subtly wrong because there’s no allowance for tides. Lake Michigan is sufficiently large that it resembles a calm blue ocean, or at least it did that day.
On the way out of town, there was a stop for Sweetwater’s Donuts, which we’d been told were the best donuts in town.
They were pretty damn good, and well worth getting wet for.