Detroit, Atlanta, Tennessee, Atlanta, Detroit, Denver.

Phew! I'm tired just typing that title. The US Social Forum has been fantastic, exhausting, exhilarating. I'm so glad I came. I rode with and met some fantastic people, and got to see friends in Detroit from many areas and timeframes of my life. That being said, I'm definitely happy to get back to Atlanta for a couple weeks.

Then go to Tennessee for an event. Then fly back to Detroit. Then ride my bike to Denver. I have such an amazingly great life.

Detroit is a city facing immense challenges, not the least of which is an urban core that has been in decay for four decades or so.


I stayed with J's sister and her boyfriend in a near suburb, which provided for plenty of bicycling and exposure to the city that I missed the last time I was here, in fall 2008.

Detroit is a city with an immense amount of heart; as cliche as it might sound, an immense amount of soul. Nearly every Detroiter I talked to had a sense of hope, of optimism, of struggle. I have no real desire to live here, but there is a tangible sense of energy, of passion.

Okay, I know my readers have been starving, pun intended, for food porn. Cooking in someone else's kitchen when they aren't around can be a little like camping when you haven't packed your bags well, and can't find anything. I made a tofu scramble this morning to use up some produce that would otherwise go bad:

ONIONS!

Peppers!

Tofu!

Cook it!

Add some spinach!

Eat it!

More to follow. Really. Maybe.