I went to Cobo Hall yesterday for the MACUL conference. Big technology group in education. I got up real early and drove to Detroit in a little rental car, a Ford Focus? Took me 30 miles to figure out how to turn off the rear window wiper.
Got to the Lodge expressway and found the place but got lost in a parking quest. The Cobo garage is closed for construction? I remember when that place was built and they are still building? Parked in the Joe Louis Garage which is about (seemingly) seven miles from Cobo. I have this recurring nightmare about being lost in a parking garage, I've had it for years so I was actually frightened. There was no one around. NO one, it was so totally bare, it looked like a futuristic movie set, like "The day the world ended" or something.
I walked down corridors and walkways and ramps and towers. They have parking towers? A, B C, D, E and F towers. I was rethinking all my fear and loathing and racist and non-racist thoughts about who I might encounter and what I might do or say or not. I'm not racist or judgemental, am I? I'm only thinking of who might mug me or not. I've got seven dependent children waiting. Not totally rational thinking.
I did get out of the parking structure and wandered up First and Bagley streets. Some nice woman in a corner gas station smiled at me when I told her of the directions I had been given and pointed me in the right direction. I thanked her profusely and she smiled again. (She probably thought, no wonder no one comes down her to Detroit).
I wasn't far from the place at all but there virtually NO signs pointing to it. Must be they think everyone KNOWS where the place is? Or has made the time to print out a Yahoo map before coming? I did have a map from the conference papers but can't read it without my glasses and I hate wearing glasses while walking outside. If I do I can't see where I am walking but I can read. So I sacrificed the reading for the walking.
Found Cobo hall and walked past Richard Cobo's bust, he died in 1957? Joe Louis has an impressive statue in there too, he in is tiny little boxer shorts. Seems like they wear bigger shorts nowadays.
Went to the conference and saw the exhibits and all the many and myriad of new fancy and fun hi-tech gadgets that other school districts are probably using but that we will not see for several years until they are closed out (and much cheaper). Got several free pens and mouse pads and junk.
Started the walk back to the parking garage with visible apprehension. I didn't see a soul on the way back either, I think that is was what was most eerie. It was virtually empty, a huge cavernous place with no signs of life.
Got back on the Lodge and then I-94 and then found a White Castle. Ordered ten to go and made it back home. I was exhausted and my hips and legs were hurting from the walking. I was in bed by 9.
