Last fall I mentioned that I’d purchased a birthday gift for all three of us, the November babies — a two-hour cruise on the J.W. Westcott, the mail boat the services the freighters on the Detroit River. We thought we might be able to schedule it right around Christmas, but the cold weather and ice came in early, and they said we’d be better off waiting until spring.
We set it for Sunday. The day couldn’t have been more perfect — the smash-cut to full summer I’d been predicting for a while. It was clear blue skies, 80 degrees, not a hint of rain and not even that much wind to make the water choppy. The party limit was six, so it was the three Derringers plus friends Dustin, Will and Cam, Kate’s boyfriend.
Upriver or down, we were asked. Down, we decided. None of this see-our-lovely-riverwalk-and-Belle-Isle for us; that’s easy to see. But to go down to look at the dirty ass crack of the industrial Midwest? Yeah, that’s more our speed.
We set out from the Westcott dock in the shadow of the Ambassador Bridge and passed under the nearly complete Gordie Howe Bridge — which our idiot president has threatened not to “allow” to open…
…and got up close and personal with a bulk loader that looks surprisingly good, maybe because it’s only eight years old. Dig that cute little lifeboat. Best wear your seatbelt when it makes its getaway.
Past the zombie=apocalypse hellscape of Zug Island…
…and into the Rouge River aka the other American river to catch fire, back in the day. (Ohioans know the other one — the Cuyahoga, in Cleveland.) It’s much improved, but I wouldn’t go swimming in it for all the tea in China. But it’s where the stuff that makes other stuff gets delivered and taken away and made into more stuff. Aggregate, coke, all that stuff. Even the tugboats look like they’ve seen some shit.
The bridges got out of our way.
Except for on the way back, when we had to stop to let a train go past. Then it was back up the river to the dock and, later, a table for six at a nearby Mexicantown spot. We all agreed it was a fine day out.
This is a trip to take when you’re convinced the city has no more to show you, that you’ve seen it all. You haven’t. I hope it’s a nice day for your cruise, too. And you get to do a mail delivery to a big ship. Although the crew said it’s mostly Amazon boxes these days. And pizzas and Door Dash.
Now I’m dehydrated and sun-dazzled and ready for an early bed. Two more days of summer heat before it moderates again. Eighty-seven tomorrow.
Peter said on May 17, 2026 at 11:07 pm
I’m going to need to add this to my bucket list.
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Deborah said on May 17, 2026 at 11:15 pm
That’s just crazy 87º in Detroit in mid-May?
We’re having lovely weather in Santa Fe, although single digit humidity levels are scary, 7% yesterday. Today they had red flag warnings about fire with very low humidity and high winds, only we didn’t get the high winds, it was more in eastern NM as I understand. We’ve been watering a lot already, it’s going to be a long hot, dry summer I’m afraid.
The condo yard is shaping up after a week of winter clean-up and some planting in pots. We’ve about given up on planting directly in the ground because our dirt is so bad. We only do what we know works, over and over. The parking lot is the worst looking place and it’s the first thing you see when you drive up the lane, drives me crazy.
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Jeff Gill said on May 18, 2026 at 8:50 am
On the south side of Chicago, they used to have a (to me) fascinating Calumet Harbor boat tour, which is no more; I’m told the Chicago Architecture Center river cruise is excellent up and down the Chicago River past Wolf Point. Haven’t done that one but it’s on my overflowing bucket list.
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alex said on May 18, 2026 at 8:51 am
I was hoping we’d get to try out the Gordie Howe bridge on our Canadian trip planned for one month from now, but it looks like the project is still wrapped up in red tape.
I got to see the ass crack of Fort Wayne on a river tour maybe seven or eight years ago when it was a new thing. Pretty much nothing to see but homeless encampments in a flood plain. And it was on someone else’s dime and they served alcohol so not a bad time, really.
They did a huge environmental remediation underneath Hall’s Old Gas House (a longtime bar/restaurant housed in a 19th-century public utilities building) but even so you can still see purple, blue and yellow oil slicks burbling up out of the riverbank below.
Yesterday was a perfect weather day. We got all of our garden planting done, had a family dinner outdoors and then took an evening booze cruise on our little lake. First time in a while that I was actually able to let go of my Trumpian existential angst and just savor the surroundings and the moment.
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Pam H said on May 18, 2026 at 9:16 am
Who took the photos? They’re amazing. What a nice trip, now you will have to schedule a trip going the other direction. I like the bridge. So what’s the beef with the idiot in chief on the GH Bridge? He didn’t get his name on it? It’s not gold? He wasn’t paid his vig for it? Glad the weather cooperated, it’s been so weird this Spring.
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kayak woman said on May 18, 2026 at 9:20 am
Right decision to head south past Zug, et al. I have never done that tour but we used to occasionally go down river in a relative’s boat.
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