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Canada. Detroit, Michigan. Customs.

Canada. Detroit, Michigan. Customs.

“I love working, and I love this business. I love what I do, and I don’t think I’m the guy who can do, like, a movie a year and that’s it. I don’t know what I’d do! Ive already put stuff independently on the internet cause I’m bored! I just want to keep going!”
-Terry Crews
Terry Crews

Montreal was great. I visited a place called Habitat 67 which is a freaky looking apartment building. Check it out.

Habitat 67
Habitat 67 in Montreal, Canada.

Toronto was amazing but I will have another blog for that soon.

Niagara Falls was stellar so I made a short video about my experience (turn DOWN the volume — this is a little loud).

 
Detroit was okay. At the Canada-Michigan border, there was a cool ride in the tunnel to come back into the US.

 
At the border, US Customs and Immigration searched my car vigorously and while trying to record the experience for my blog, they adamantly told me it was illegal and to delete the video, which I did. Another Customs officer with a nice looking rifle came over and said, “Did you check the cloud?” I told him it wasn’t being backed up anywhere because there was no service or WiFi and he said, check it anyway.

I must say, there weren’t assholes to me at all. I understand that they were doing their job. But I wasn’t in the mood to spend that much time at the Customs office. When I drove in to Canada from Vermont, they let me right in and I wasn’t even Canadian.

Welcome to America!

An hour or so later, after clearing customs and answering basic questions about who I was and where I had been, I was off to Detroit. The city was actually bustling and busy but I didn’t stay long. What I do remember though was that the Michigan roads were bumpy. Ouch! Can someone fix all that with the gentrification money the city is bringing in. Thanks.

South Carolina. The ‘You’ll probably get pulled over’ state.

South Carolina. The ‘You’ll probably get pulled over’ state.

“The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity.”
-Viola Davis

South Carolina #selfie
Fanta selfie at the South Carolina Welcome Center.

South Cakalak.

I didn’t spend much time in South Carolina. Didn’t need to. Quite frankly, it’s the drive-through state. Other than cheap gas and working freeways, there’s not much there for a brother like me.

In the late 90’s, I worked for IBM in North Carolina and had my share of being stopped while driving through The Palmetto State. It was probably my fault. I was young. I was a green, yet anxious driver. And I’m pretty sure I was speeding.

South Carolina State Trooper
South Carolina State Trooper

But the attitudes and the way the state troopers pulled you over were different. They were more intense. Calculating. Those experiences made me hyper-aware whenever driving through South Carolina and perhaps that was the lesson I needed at such a young age.

Another golden nugget I remember about South Carolina was the sound of the drawls. We’re talking crazy, unintelligible accents comparable to Jamaicans, Scots and Irish folks. One of my buddies, Ren, who worked with me at IBM, was a South Carolinian. Sometimes, it was like talking to a hardcore, patois-spewing, native Jamaican. You couldn’t understand diddly squat. And there was no app to help you with that.

One time… in band camp… sorry I couldn’t help myself.

But seriously, one time I found myself in a Wendy’s drive-thru in South Carolina and couldn’t understand one word from the female attendant. I think my order ended up being something completely different but I didn’t dare go through that drive-thru again or ask for clarification. I ended up eating what I was given. And then went on my merry way.

I guess it was nice not to be stopped by any law enforcement this time around but that’s probably because I was driving the speed limit. Minus 1 mph.