the Road Life goes on by continuing to Cleveland

I have continued eastward on my own this evening after a restful and also busy few days in Ann Arbor.
Will be staying with a close friend from home for two days and then getting up early Tuesday morning to take a train to visit relatives in northwest Connecticut, and then continuing back to Hampshire on Wednesday.

Ann Arbor was winterily sunny today when we took an early morning trip down to a farmstand that seemed like an exact combination of Atkins Farm in Amherst and Goodale Orchards from home; we picked a shopping bag's worth of apples in their orchard and also treated ourselves to an impressive variety of fresh cider donuts. The apples tasted deliciously fresh back at the house and may have been made into a pie later in the day!

Unfortunately, getting out of Ann Arbor turned out to be the most difficult travel connection of my entire trip thus far. I was all set to take the 4:10pm bus heading east to Detroit and then make a connection there for a different bus heading east to Cleveland. 4:10 passed and one bus came by bound for Chicago (westbound) which appeared to be normal. Time started to pass in the sketchy bus station and I didn't really notice, until suddenly it was 5pm. Then the bus clerk just happened to find out that our intended bus had broken down in Kalamazoo and was running three and a half hours late, which would have meant that I'd arrive in Cleveland at 12:30am. This was not acceptable to me and the other customers, and the clerk begrudingly agreed to call a local cab company who specializes in covering Greyhound's ass to drive us as a group to Detroit, for an extra $15 per person. It was the only option so we all said "sure". A few minutes later, the guy pulled up in a sketchy older minivan and loaded us in. He said in a grizzly tone, "I hope you all don't mind going fast on the highway, cause that's the only way we're going to make it in time."
And so I found myself buckled in to this van heading east on I-94 at speeds between 80 and 90 MPH towards Detroit. Luckily, I don't get carsick often, and the speed limit in Michigan hovers around 70 on most of the highways. However, the constantly blaring radar detector and sense of racing against time did get to me as I sat there with my cellphone cupped in my hand, focused intently on getting to Detroit in time for the bus.
Amazingly, the official bus waited and we did get there in time, buzzing out of town on I-75 southbound in the most appealing time of day (light-wise) to see the depressed urban modernity of the Detroit skyline fade with the sunset. The bus crossed the state line and the landscape shifted into the mystery of the dark Ohio Turnpike, before the familiarity of being among friends once again in a new place, one step closer to eventually going home to MA.