My daughter is staying on campus at the College for Creative Studies in midtown Detroit so I decided to see if she was interested in going to lunch. Too far to walk, especially in the relentless snow so I asked Cobo Security how I might get there and they said that buses run along Woodward Avenue that will take me there. I slogged my way along the river-front to Woodward. Plenty of buses, but which one do I take? No buses routes posted anywhere. Heading north on wet sneakers I came to a nice skating rink in Campus Martius with many skaters and blaring Xmas music. I went across the street to the new Compuware building and checked out the Hard Rock Cafe, and the Borders bookstore. The cashier at Borders told me that I need to take the route 53 bus. Back outside the bus came quickly but I didn't know how to ride it. The other rider had bus cards. I tried to hand the bus driver money and she pointed at a device next to her that eats money, much like a soda or snack machine. Feeling like an idiot, I couldn't figure out where to insert the money and the bus driver had to help me.

I got off the bus in front of the Detroit Institute of Arts where they were setting up for Noel Night and walked to CCS to round up my daughter. She wanted to go to the Cass Cafe so we walked though the wind and snow whipping between buildings, had some tasty vegetarian fare, and then headed back. We put up some Xmas decorations in the dorm and I found the missing breaker box and reset a breaker. She had schoolwork to catch up on so I went to the Detroit Public Library to explore and read some periodicals, then caught the southbound 53 back to Cobo. From there I rode the People Mover for fifty cents to Greektown where I checked out the big new Casino, and then headed back on the PeopleMover to Cobo, and my car.

For the mass transit needs that I had, I found the Detroit system very adequate. It was clean and efficient, and it wasn't at all scary. It would have been nice to has some bus routes posted. It was a good adventure.