We planned to go over there in the morning, get our Visa, have lunch and occupy ourselves seeing Detroit down town, river front and Ren Cen while Bhanu attended her meeting. We got our Visa, ate our lunch, sent Bhanu to the meeting assuring her that we would not get lost in the city and went to the river front. The back of the Ren Cen building opens on to the Detroit river with its clear blue water, and it is the city of Windsor in Canada on the opposite bank.
A walk along the river was delightful. We spent some time there and walked to the front of the building. I could see the Detroit ‘People Mover’ train roaring above us but could not locate the station. We decided to take a ride after Bhanu finished her meeting.
We went walking along the road (we had been warned not to venture into the inner roads of Down town) and saw an entrance with the sign “Brick town Station”. It was a small building, actually an entrance leading to the stairs which takes us to the platform and as expected there was not a soul anywhere around. The board said that you get an entry token costing a Dollar each from the vending machine at the entrance and insert it in the slot provided in front of the automatic gate. Once you enter the station you may get in and get off at any of the thirteen stations, any number of times, using any of the trains that run at a frequency of approximately ten mimutes, making round trips. One full round by the people mover takes about thirty minutes. It was easy. We could have a bird’s eye view of the city by the time Bhanu finished her meeting.
I got two tokens from the machine, inserted one in the slot and waited for the gate to open like the doors of the Alladin’s cave. Nothing happened. I said “open sesame.” Nothing. I tried to push it open but it did not budge. I thought of applying extra force or hitting it the Indian way but was afraid that it may activate an alarm or some such thing. I looked around thinking of the next move. I had forgotten that my wife was by my side.
“I told you not to consider yourself smart and try things on your own. You think you know every thing. Lost one dollar didn’t you? Lets go back and wait for Bhanu.”
It was a sensible suggestion and that’s what we did. We took a short round of the nearby streets and were at the entrance of Ren Cen by the time Bhanu emerged. She took us to the “Time square Station” which is in one of the Ren Cen towers. (We got up and down so many elevators and escalators, I could not make out at what level we were. Just like Frankfurt airport). She got the tokens and I warned her that the gates simply swallowed the coins and never opened. She waited in front of the gate till the monitor screen attached to it said “insert token”, inserted the token and pushed the gate open when it read “Enter” and got in. I had not looked at the monitor at all and had put the token in before the door had noticed my presence and had lost my dollar.
The people mover gave a panoramic view of the city and the river. It was beautiful. I wanted to make two more rounds and recover the cost of my lost dollar but was asked not to be a bigger idiot and lose time too.
We came out of the station, bought a cup of hot chocolate, medium size, from “Caribou” the coffee shop ( which was about half a litre) and asked the attendant to divide it into three. She appeared to be in very good moods.
“I will make it into two and give you another half at no extra cost. Enjoy and have a nice evening.”
It would have been a very nice evening but for the traffic jam on our way back. But then what is an American experience with out a traffic jam?
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