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Motor City Meetup – August, 2025
Detroit GM Renaissance Center – from Pixabay.com
For a couple of years, a few Ricochet members and I have been tossing around the idea of someday having a Ricochet meetup in and around Detroit. Well, it’s time to make a plan and put it into action. Detroit-area native E. Kent Golding and I are co-hosting a meetup the weekend of August 15-17, 2025. Here is the first draft of our itinerary.
Friday, 08/15: Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. Don’t want to spend all day at a museum? From the museum, you can take the Ford Rouge Factory Tour. We will probably go to Slow’s Bar-B-Q for supper.
Saturday, 08/16: Woodward Dream Cruise! This is a day-long parade of classic cars that winds through 8 or 9 towns. People who don’t care to spend a whole day at the car cruise may want to take the Fisher Building tour, which is known for its grand architecture. Although it could be different in August, at this time it looks like they have tours on Saturdays at 11am, 1pm, and 3pm. Supper at Buddy’s Pizza, where they invented “Detroit-style” pizza.
Sunday, 08/17: Detroit Institute of Arts, which is regarded as a world-class art museum. For people who don’t want to do that all day, a couple of us are talking about going go-cart racing in the afternoon. Oasis Mediterranean Cuisine in Livonia for supper.
There are a lot of other things to see, such as @arahant’s suggestion that people visit Cranbrook House and Gardens. Perhaps there will be a Detroit Tigers game that weekend. Maybe we’ll end up adding a fourth day, if there is enough interest. I’m sure more suggestions will come in the comments, so the final itinerary may very well differ from the above.
Published in Ricochet Meetups
Count me in. If there is advance work to be done, I am happy to help.
I suppose I have to come out of my cave for this one?
Indeed, you must.
Going to plan on the museum and dinner on Friday (and make my first meetup).
I figured Detroit was a post-apocalyptic wasteland. I am interested
It will look something like this.
Hey, would @ekentgolding steer you wrong? He knows the good parts from the bad parts of town.
Is this something like, “You’d have to be a fool to attempt it! Count me in.”
I don’t know if I’ll make it, but there is also casino gambling, which provides a lot a places to stay. Strangely, there is very little touristy stuff across the river in Windsor, ONT.
The Burton Historical Collection in the Detroit Public Library is right across the street (Woodward Avenue). I have done visits to Detroit where I visit both places. However, working through dusty archival documents is not the most social part of the day.
On a sunny day, even Detroit can look attractive as you look toward downtown as you cross the street here.
But it looks as though you’ve been spying on my e-mails regarding my travel plans in order to pick the weekend when I’d least likely be able to join you. August is the month when we’re most likely to go to Ireland for a couple of weeks (and maybe even visit places in northern France through Poland in the weeks following). Whether we pick early August or late August to go to Ireland, it looks like you planned well.
Yes, but go down the river a ways and you can visit Fort Malden, an important scene in the War of 1812.
Shoot, I would have enjoyed meeting you.
That was what I was thinking.
I’d say if we don’t do a Milwaukee meetup it’s a possibility but if we’re not doing that then we probably won’t be able to get to this anyway.
Not only that, you need to play your Theremin.
I plan to have a home brewed German wheat beer and an ESB available at my home.
If you want to stay more downtown, Greektown is supposed to have good Mediterranean eats.
Used to be some good restaurants there. Haven’t checked in a few decades, though.
It’s not my only noisemaker.
Most of Detroit is much safer than it’s reputation. Greektown is much more dangerous than it’s reputation.,
But I am a Theremin fan and want to hear it.
That is not a phrase that one hears often.
Had to look it up. All I could think of was…
If there are any NASCAR fans, you may want to pay a visit to the Roush Automotive Collection. There are a lot of other cars there, but the retired race cars would be especially interesting to NASCAR fans.
The dream cruise is a good time
When I lived in MI, I would go to it every year (I could walk to it)
Detroit, despite its notorious reputation for decline, still retains its high-class civic institutions intact. My (future) wife and I stayed in Detroit about 20 years ago when I was employed to paint a portrait of a Federal Judge. The main city was like a ghost town of urban office buildings populated mostly by homeless people and a scant crowd of government workers, and every single business had steel bars for protection. It was surreal.
However, the best Opera House with the best sound we ever attended was in Detroit. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is still top-notch. The Art Museum was considered in the top four in the United States during and through the late 20th Century. The Getty Museum may have bumped them into 5th place by now.
Back in June, we traveled there to buy an old-master painting that I had inside information on, at a prestigious auction house at the Renaissance Center. It didn’t look anywhere near as desolate as it did 20 years ago.
I noticed that place when I parked my car in-between the two buildings when visiting the Detroit Institute of Arts back in June.
Did you know that a Theremin was used in “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys? And in one of my all-time favorites “Whole-Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin?
Stop giving away our secrets. People might want to live here if they know all of the improvements.
Count me in! Excellent idea.
Another interesting destination is the Yankee Air Force Museum .
Also, there’s Willow Run airfield between Detroit and Ann Arbor. This airport is where Edsel Ford built the first modern aircraft assembly plant that ultimately built one B29 per hour during WWII. A fascinating story. Edsel’s Ford House on the shore of Lake St Claire is another fun destination. But I agree that the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn is a car-lover’s treat. Plan to spend at least half a day!