Don't Need Nothin' But a Good Time....

We pulled into the nice tree lined streets of the Royal Oak neighborhood of Detroit, MI in the evening. It was warm and muggy and American flags hung limply in the yards of 1940's homes with white picket fences. Our hosts for the weekend, Roanoke original Jason Trompeter and his new wife, Pam. We instantly hugged and hit it off with Pam and hit the road to meet a Craigslist ticket scalper. Heeellllllooo Detroit!

We pulled into a chain restaurant and out comes a guy in a turquoise dress shirt and tie with 4 tickets to the Detroit Tigers game in hand. Jason pulls his murdered out Volvo up to the curb and upon inspecting the tickets, proceeds to go apeshit on this guy. "Sir, you said that the tickets were in row 4 and these are clearly in row 24 which is an obstructed view seat. Sir, why would you be dishonest with me? Sir, why weren't you truthful in your Craigslist ad, why would you lie to us? Sir, we drove all this way and you weren't truthful in your ad sir."

Jason claims this was his first Craigslist interaction, but I won't believe it. He rode that guy hard, not hard enough to get the tickets at a discount, but still, I was proud. He said that we could still easily order tickets online to the game, and myself, not really being a sports fan, could give a shit. I had no idea what an obstructed view even meant and though a game day would enhance my Detroit experience, it certainly wouldn't ruin it if I had missed out.

The next day we met Jason and his co-workers for happy hour when they all got off work. Enjoying half off drinks and appetizers, we chatted with about 10 mechanical engineers- topics ranging from HVAC air-conditioning systems to where to go in town for the best hummus. After several hours we decided to head home to meet up with Pam who was getting off work. As we exited we said good bye and I could see that Kai had an strange look on his face. As we walked, he told us about how one of Jason's co-workers had just told him that she was an "Empath". An "Empath" is a person who possesses the "gift" of feeling what others around them are feeling, whether they want to or not. She can not only sense others' feelings, but actually experiences them as her own. She began by complimenting Kai on his beautiful wife, and then said, "But you like boys, right?" Kai was taken aback and jarred a little, however this was not the first time he was asked, or told rather, that he was gay. Once several years ago at a gay/lesbian bar back home that I liked to go dancing at, a gay man told Kai he liked guys, but just didn't know it yet. It must be his fabulous hair, his unique appreciation for vintage things, and his calm demeanor that cause the false gaydar blip...

The next day we toured some old neighborhoods of Detroit, there were multimillion dollar homes, mansions rather, that were now for sale or deserted. Imagine entire neighborhoods just desolate, buildings covered with graffiti and garbage and that's Detroit proper. These former elite neighborhoods were the homes to the Chrysler executives back in the day as they were just a short drive to the factories. Now the surrounding areas of these former glory neighborhoods are crumbling and run down. It was sad, depressing, and overwhelming to see a city so crippled. 

We headed down town to the ball game that afternoon. The stadium was in the hood as most of Detroit seemed to be, so we parked in a private parking garage so as to avoid coming back to the car to find our windows bashed out as this often occurs.  The parking garage was actually a converted old theater, complete with beautiful ornate ceiling decor, a stage and even some remaining red velvet curtain. The car safely parked in the most beautiful garage ever, we walked to the CoAmerica stadium to see the Detroit Tigers, Magnum PI's team.

It was unbelievably hot that day and I felt sweat actually dripping down the center of my back after only a few minutes. We decided to hydrate with 8 dollar beers and ball park hotdogs. We found our seats eventually and made friends with a large, Michigan accented, cackling, bachelorette party. There was an elderly couple just ahead of us that I thought might die of heat stroke or old age at any given moment. The woman was wearing a long sleeve polyester shirt and I had already seen 3 people wheeled out of the First Aid station to waiting ambulances, I was nervous for her AND myself in this heat. 

Detroit's Oldest Fan

Trying to beat the heat by getting naked

A ways into the game, the bachelorettes began squawking about an impending storm. Sure enough, the sky had massive clouds moving in on us and the wind was starting to pick up. The Tigers were down by 4 runs so we decided to bail. We ran to beat the wind storm and rain as we watched the water in several fountains blowing sideways. 

 The Arts, Beats and Eats festival was in Jason and Pam's neighborhood that whole Labor Day weekend. With several live acts, food from local vendors and and art showcase it was a bargain at just $3.00 for admission. That night after the game I had every intention of dragging our whole party to the festival as Bret Michaels, former lead singer of Poison, and star of his own train-wreck reality show, was playing at 10:15pm. Tree branches were in the middle of the street when we arrived home and the sky was bright with lightning. I looked on the festival's website and saw several Twitter updates that the concert had been put on hold. At this point we were tired from all the heat, beer, and pretzels so I melted into the couch, vowing to check the updates frequently but expecting the worst. Kai took the dog out for a walk and when he returned he opened the door and said to me, "Come outside right now." Oh my, that sounded serious. Was he about to come out of the closet? When I walked onto the front porch I heard the glorious sound of "Every rose has its thorn... just like every cowboy sings a sad, sad song." Oh shit, I thought, someone get me a lighter and a crappy straw cowboy hat!!! We continued to rock out to our private porch concert dancing along to "Don't need nothin' but a good time, how can I resist..... nothing but a good time, and it don't get better than this." It was awesomely bad and it made my weekend and Detroit visit complete.

The following day we headed down to the festival for slow cooked pork sandwiches, over priced art, and live music galore. The people watching was great and the food not too shabby. That night Vince Gill would take the main stage and the following day Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and George Clinton and P-Funk!!!! I wished we could stay but we had likely worn out our welcome, KK had to be kept separate from adorable puppy Skylar so as to not teach her bad habits, Jason and Pam had to return to work, and Cedar Point Amusement Park was open for just one more day before shutting down to winter hours!

I wonder if any Empaths ever asked Bret Michaels if he was gay....?