I have lived all of my life in the suburbs. I got from A to B with a quick five minute drive to every every place I needed to be. Because of this, I never had to take an UBER anywhere. It was just really impractical. After living in Detroit for one beautiful month (seriously it has been great), I have taken a whopping total of…………drum roll please………..twelve rides! WILD, I know. So, on that note, I would love to take you on a journey I would like to call: “Experiences of a Newbie (Detroit) UBER Passenger”

 

September 8 # 1: The drive with Classical Man

The drive with Classic Man was pretty un-eventful. He was a sweet, old, silver haired man. In his UBER description he mentioned that he really enjoys listening to classical music, which I thought was endearing. He dropped me and another fellow Downtown for an event called Drinks X Design, which by the way was awesome.

 

September 8 #2: The drive with Sonic

I call this one Sonic because the UBER driver literally drove a car called a sonic and he also drove like a gosh darn crazy man. He picked us up from Checkers, a super neat bar downtown, with hilarious profanity written all over the tables by its customers and awesome Thursday night karaoke. Anyway, Sonic picks us up going 1,000 miles per hour. I asked him if he was from Detroit, and he told me yes. Sonic left for a few years to live a big city in Texas, and he realized that Detroit was his home.

 

September 9 #3 The drive with Bakery Guy

Bakery Guy picked up my friend Cassy and I for a casual night in Corktown. Bakery Guy and I got into a pretty quick chat about what we want to see in Detroit and how we view it. He told me that he just couldn’t give up on the city, and that he knows without a doubt that its turning around. He explained how important it was to bring our attentions to the neighborhoods and not just downtown, which is a pretty large theme in Challenge Detroit. I appreciated his input, it was nice to hear a native Detroiter speak of what they envision for the city, and where he found its faults. He told me that he owned his own Bakery (I know, I know, I bet you were just dying to know how I chose the name). His bakery is called Shawn Jones Bakery, and I have yet to visit it and see what its all about, but if you are interested check it out!

 

September 9 #4 The drive with Book Lady

The Book Lady picked Cassy and I up at Gold Cash Gold in Corktown, which by the way is just super cool and the frozen drink I had was to die for. Book Lady was a little fireball and just went on and on about this awesome book she usually left in her back seat for people to write in. I assumed it was one of those coffee table books Urban Outfitters is classic for.  The book asked questions just to stir up conversation and keep passengers busy. She had no idea that people were writing in this book, until a friend opened it one day and told her she was driving around with a gem. She had comments from celebrities, professional athletes, signatures you didn’t want to lose, and notes from passengers that were hilarious. Sadly, the gem was stolen from her car, but luckily she knew who stole it. After a few drinks we were of course just way too engrossed in this story and unnaturally jazzed up about it and begging for a resolution. We were telling her she NEEDED to knock on that horrible stealers door and just confront them right there and to call the police, and she NEEDS to do it.

 

After just few short rides, I no longer considered myself a newbie driver, if you are wondering where the eight rides are. But with each and every one of these twelve drives, I noticed a large underlying theme. Detroiters don’t give up. Not on themselves, not on a book, not on their family, not on their neighborhoods, and even on their city. This isn’t something you see and feel in every city. I am looking forward to all of my drives in the future and all the wonderful, inspiring and crazy stories that come with it.

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To reference some of the places I talked about in my blog you can click on these links!

Checkers Bar

Shawn Jones Bakery

Drinks X Design

The Book of Questions (Turns out it really is your typical Urban Outfitters coffee table book)