The pedestrian/cycling lane on the new bridge has been open about two weeks. The Derringers took their first shot at it today. The weather report was favorable, the schedule was clear, and so we did it.
It’s a beautiful bridge, still clean and sparkling under the blue sky. The suspension cables give you some great details in the pictures. And there are many made-for-Instagram angles.
But ultimately, it’s the sky and the water and the other people on the bridge.
That’s Alan.
It’s a long climb up, and I regretted not checking my gears first, because I’m stuck on the big ring on the front. I mean, I made it, but I was glad for the downhill. On the other side, we blew through customs in a trice. “You have any weapons?” the Canadian border agent asked. “We’re bicyclists, not bikers,” I said. And that was that. Then it was two more miles into downtown Windsor for some Chinese food, and the whole thing in reverse coming back home. My sense was the Canadian climb was steeper, the American climb longer but shallower. So pick your poison. It’s a workout either way.
But overall, I think this bit of infrastructure is brilliant. There was solid bike travel both ways, and plenty of pedestrians, too. I’m not saying it’ll have a major impact on cross-border tourism, but any way you can get people crossing the border is a good thing. Now for an entrepreneur to park a food truck on either side, and you’ve got the start of an economy. In another couple of years, who knows what can happen. All because you made it easy for people who don’t travel in cars.
Just one bit of bloggage today, called to my attention by my Ohio people. An ad for Vivek Ramaswamy, running for governor there. It’s almost like the whole state hasn’t been in the grip of the GOP for years now. I hate this timeline.
But let’s have a good weekend anyway. Summer is fleeting. Let’s enjoy it, even if it rains.
David C said on August 21, 2026 at 6:05 am
Cable stayed bridges look so much more elegant than old fashioned suspension bridges. Maybe it’s just the novelty, but I really like them.
How’s Moroun’s bridge doing?
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Jeff Gill said on August 21, 2026 at 7:23 am
Well, if Donnie Judd thinks I should vote for Vivek, then…
The electricity thing is indeed rich. House Bill 6 led to two suicides & four federal racketeering charges including a legislator and the head of the Ohio GOP. That might have something to do with it, Donnie. Remind me what it is you’re disgusted by?
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Deborah said on August 21, 2026 at 10:25 am
I would definitely walk across that bridge, heck I’d even take a road trip to Detroit just to do it.
I seems like the Natalie Harp news cycle is still happening. Have you read those letters? It’s really sad to see a young woman so caught up in some mental illness, possibly related to her father’s suicide and her bone cancer. I hope she gets help.
Trump is such a shit, taking advantage of someone so vulnerable. I can’t imagine him having the patience to read the letters, except the parts about him being so wonderful. And how hilarious that he and Melania show up holding hands in an obvious photo op ploy.
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David C said on August 21, 2026 at 11:04 am
Trump is unraveling by the day. He’s back to sending mash notes to Kim Jong-il for Christ’s sake. Every time he talks he says he doesn’t care about anything that’s a concern to normal people. Being the least popular pResident since polling began seems to be going to his head.
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Jeff Gill said on August 21, 2026 at 1:58 pm
So the Freedom 250 250 isn’t an America 250 event, but it turns out it’s not even a Freedom 250 “Freedom 250,” but something else altogether.
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/21/nx-s1-5939443/dc-indycar-race-overview-watch-politics
David Folkenflik became notable in Trump’s first term with his legal pads trying to sort out claims of charitable donations versus actual receipts (“you’ll be shocked by what we found”). But the graft & corruption of this round is going to overwhelm anyone trying to parse all the points and how they got shared out and distributed by this criminal gang.
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susan said on August 21, 2026 at 2:23 pm
The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government by Barbara McQuade.
She knows about mob corruption, having been a US Attorney in Michigan…. And the Trump admin is just that.
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Sherri said on August 21, 2026 at 4:10 pm
That was David Fahrenthold, then with the WaPo, now with the NYTimes, not Folkenflik the NPR media reporter.
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Jeff Gill said on August 22, 2026 at 7:35 am
Thank you, Sherri! I got my David F#$%^&*(@#^%’s confused.
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alex said on August 22, 2026 at 1:06 pm
Here’s what put the kibosh on a vacation we’d be taking right now at the Indiana Dunes: https://wapo.st/3SLV7z2
At least we got a refund.
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Deborah said on August 22, 2026 at 7:35 pm
There was another bear sighting in town here yesterday. They have been tranquilizing them and transporting them back into the wild. I don’t remember this many sightings since we’ve been here, it seems like every other day they happen now.
The fire, last I read was up to 15,000 acres but it’s nearly 40% contained now and some folks who lived in small villages near the fire have been allowed to go back to their homes. They have many thousands of firefighters working, I hope they get great big THANK YOUs.
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Jeff Gill said on August 23, 2026 at 7:52 am
Huzzah for wildland firefighters!
This meeting between Kushner & Jeffries is interesting: an assumption of loss on a grand scale. But I am weary of paragraphs like this to get me to useful information which I can’t entirely trust: “The rare engagement was held in a private space in New York City, offered up by a mutual friend of the two men, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting and a third who was briefed on it. They and others were granted anonymity to discuss a meeting about which they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Through aides, neither man would comment on the session, which was described by one person with knowledge of it as a broad conversation on a range of topics.”
Schroedinger’s meeting?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/23/us/politics/jeffries-kushner-private-meeting.html?unlocked_article_code=1.7lA.q7Ma.SLpBehRFz8TF&smid=url-share
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Peter said on August 23, 2026 at 8:04 am
I didn’t scroll down the entire first photo, and I thought the bridge cables were so thin and slender; then when I saw the whole photo with the bikes and pedestrians the size and scale of the cables was impressive.
I’m definitely going to walk across that bridge the next time we visit Canada – if they’ll let us in. Not that I blame them.
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alex said on August 24, 2026 at 11:01 am
If anyone needs a day brightener, The WaPo lost the case brought by columnist Karen Attiah who was wrongfully terminated after she posted on social media that she wasn’t joining the performative mourning party for Charlie Kirk. She’s being reinstated with back pay.
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Deborah said on August 24, 2026 at 10:53 pm
My husband’s brother and his wife are vacationing in Greenland now after having been in Iceland. They said there are red ball caps for sale there that say MAGA and under that Make America Go Away. Yes!!!
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