road trip: summer flashback

part 2: demise

Of all the stops on the trip, Detroit is my favorite.

I’ve followed Motor City’s lurid demise for a decade, obsessed with this once-vibrant community: assembly lines, soul music, architecture. Now it is a city abandoned. Broken streetlights, toxic water, imploded houses, uprooted people.

I get it.

My traveling companion’s been taking pictures throughout the trip with her Canon SharpShooter, a bon voyage gift from her husband.

What I got from my husband: a warning.

“If you’re driving across country, take a gun,” he said. “Or wait until I die.”

I hate guns. But we have a pair of scissors.

Summer, 2016: Snapshots from Motor City

These road trip flashbacks are outtakes from a longer story: Your Roots are Showing. Stay tuned for the last snapshot in the trilogy next month!