Road Trippin’ USA

September - November 2023

A 90-day adventure by Levin & Birte Read more

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Road Trippin’ USA
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- Aug 31, 2023, 3:00pm
- ☁️ 17 °C
- Altitude: 13 m
- Germany Lower Saxony Oldenburg (Oldenburg)Bloherfelde 53.13808, 8.15665853°8’17” N 8°9’24” E
Goodbye Oldenburg
August 31, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
Almost done with the preparations.
The biggest milestone of all is finally ticked off the list. Birte finished the preprint of her thesis. On Thursday we drove to Hamburg and handed it to her professor. He was more than happy to get another 297 pages to read 🙃Read more
Traveler Herzlichen Glückwunsch Birdy!!! Das sind ja tolle News 🤩
9/2/23ReplyTranslate
Traveler Danke 😊
9/2/23ReplyTranslate
Traveler Way to go!
9/4/23Reply
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Road Trippin’ USA
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- Sep 2, 2023, 5:00am
- ☁️ 11 °C
- Altitude: 10 m
- Germany Bremen Neuenland Bremen Airport 53.060754, 8.78364653°3’39” N 8°47’1” E
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Day 1
Bremen
September 2, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
Everything is packed, the apartment is handed over to our subtenants, credit cards are tested, passports are valid. We're good to go.
Traveler Habt ihr schon einen Plan? Wünsche euch ein gutes ankommen in 🇺🇸
9/2/23ReplyTranslate
Traveler Ein grober Plan steht, aber der ändert sich sicher noch 😅 viel Bouldern auf jeden Fall! Und Danke!
9/2/23ReplyTranslate
Traveler 🤣🤣🤣
9/2/23Reply
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- Sep 2, 2023, 8:00am
- ☁️ 15 °C
- Altitude: 124 m
- Germany Hesse Frankfurt Frankfurt Main Flughafen Frankfurt Airport 50.047931, 8.56285250°2’53” N 8°33’46” E
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Day 1
Frankfurt
September 2, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
The main part of our flight was Frankfurt to Detroit.
Unfortunately, we couldn't see very much during the entire flight, because the clouds covered pretty much all of West Europe, the Atlantic Ocean, Greenland, and East Canada...so here's a picture of food and people throwing cushions instead.Read more
Traveler 😊
9/3/23Reply
Traveler ✋
9/4/23Reply
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- Sep 2, 2023, 4:00pm
- ☁️ 28 °C
- Altitude: 273 m
- United States Michigan Washtenaw County Ann Arbor 42.282866, -83.76533842°16’58” N 83°45’55” W
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Day 1
Ann Arbor
September 2, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
We arrived safe and sound with a small delay of 30 minutes. As usual, it took some time to get through customs, but the interview went smoother than anticipated.
Tom and Nancy were already waiting for us and just 45 minutes later, we were back at Birte's foster home of her Fulbright Exchange.
Since we were quite tired, we only went on a short walk around the neighborhood and had a welcome beer with Tom and Nancy.
The next morning, I drank my coffee next to the hummingbird feeder and got some shots of this insanely fast bird. The video is in 8x slow motion and you still can't see much of its wings 🤯Read more
Traveler Amen brother (or sister)
9/4/23Reply
Traveler Extravagant!
9/4/23Reply
Traveler Whew!! 🤙
9/4/23Reply
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- Sep 3, 2023, 2:00pm
- ☀️ 29 °C
- Altitude: 183 m
- United States Michigan Wayne County Grosse Pointe Shores Chapaton Drain 42.466504, -82.88159842°27’59” N 82°52’54” W
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Day 2
A day at Lake St. Claire
September 3, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
After a morning bike ride with Tom and Nancy along the Huron River and breakfast at Panera, we drove to St. Claire Shores Park in Detroit.
We prepared the sail boat and enjoyed a fantastic sailing day with strong winds (15-20 mph) and high temperatures of around 30 °C. We sailed with up to 7.5 knots across the border to Canada, watched a freighter from the Marshall Islands up close and made our way back along the shore of Grosse Pointe, a rather wealthy neighborhood of Detroit with some huge residences and lots of yachts.
Back at the marina, we jumped into the pool to cool down, headed back to Ann Arbor and finished the day with some craft beers at Homes Brew Pub (I had the Blueberry Sour 😋) and Impossible Burgers with sweet corn at home.Read more
Traveler Pretty much a perfect day! We’re so happy that you guys made it back to A2!! Wish we could share in your adventures more directly! 😎🏴‍☠️🚴‍♂️🌞
9/4/23Reply
Traveler It would be awesome if the three of you were here as well! 😏
9/4/23Reply
Traveler 🦈
9/4/23Reply
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Road Trippin’ USA
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- Sep 4, 2023, 12:00pm
- ☀️ 29 °C
- Altitude: 271 m
- United States Michigan Washtenaw County Ann Arbor Michigan Becomes a State Historical Marker 42.280592, -83.74895842°16’50” N 83°44’56” W
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Day 3
Lazy Labor Day
September 4, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
After an eventful Sunday, we took the Monday easy. It was Laborday, so many shops and museums were closed. We used the day to organize some stuff and went downtown to get ourselves icecream.
Back home, we relaxed on the garden deck and finally got a few shots of the Red Cardinal that frequently visits the garden.
When Tom and Nancy came home from a bike ride, they put a couple of gin bottles on the table, which they had bought on the way, so we finished the day with a small gin tasting! 🥤🧊Read more
Traveler Nice!
9/10/23Reply
Traveler Armada?
9/10/23Reply
Traveler Gotta be exact!
9/10/23Reply
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- Sep 5, 2023, 10:00am
- ☀️ 26 °C
- Altitude: 222 m
- United States Michigan Ypsilanti Michigan Central Freighthouse Historical Marker 42.245979, -83.60868342°14’46” N 83°36’31” W
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Day 4
Ypsilanti
September 5, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Ypsilanti is a small town close to Ann Arbor. It is a university town as well and many people who can't afford to live in Ann Arbor move there. It has a historic neighborhood, Depot Town, with colorful old wooden houses and stone buildings.
Unfortunately, the Automotive Heritage Museum was still closed. But we could take a look through the window. There were many really old Cadillacs, Fords and Oldsmobiles in there.
We had coffee and a cinnamon roll at Hyperion Coffee, a meeting point for all the hip students.
Ypsilanti Downtown is a bit more run down, but you can at least get all your unicorn supplies here.Read more
Traveler Hell yeah Birte!!! 🏍️🤘🏾
9/9/23Reply
Traveler The big dick 🤙😉
9/11/23Reply
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- Sep 5, 2023, 6:00pm
- ⛅ 30 °C
- Altitude: 269 m
- United States Michigan Dexter 42.344772, -83.90644142°20’41” N 83°54’23” W
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Day 4
An evening at Jessi & Elliot's
September 5, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
On Tuesday evening we and Adam were invited to Jessi and Elliot's place. They live a little ways outside Ann Arbor in Dexter in a beautiful house with a huge garden (with chickens!), a greenhouse, and a garage that is certainly every climbers dream!
They built the greenhouse just this year and it is truly nice out there, so we spent most of the evening in it and talked about bouldering areas, past vacations, and our upcoming trip.
The garage is insane! That is a place to get strong 🤯💪 ...if we ever grow up and get a place of our own, we need that, too 😬
It was a wonderful evening. Thank you for all the guide books, Jessi and Elliot! And thanks for the ride home (and more guide books), Adam!Read more
Traveler Was such a great visit and we can’t wait to do it again or climb together!
9/10/23Reply
Traveler You’ll near a mortgage just to finance all the climbing equipment
9/14/23Reply
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- Sep 6, 2023, 12:00pm
- ☁️ 23 °C
- Altitude: 271 m
- United States Michigan Lodi Township Orchard Grove Village Mobile Home Park Second Sister Lake 42.283128, -83.80874942°16’59” N 83°48’31” W
Day 5
UofM & Planet Rock
September 6, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
On Wednesday Birte was invited to give a short talk for her former research group at the University of Michigan. It was very nice to reconnect with her old colleagues and professors.
To kill the time until the talk, we went downtown to the university's art museum. They have an impressive collection considering it is "only" a university museum! Currently, several expressionists were on display, even some German ones like Max Beckmann and Otto Dix!
Later in the day we rode the bikes to Planet Rock, the local climbing and bouldering gym and had a nice session with the crew. Lots of athletic climbs and crimps in this gym. We like it 💪Read more
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- Sep 7, 2023, 12:00pm
- ☁️ 22 °C
- Altitude: 179 m
- United States Michigan Wayne County Detroit Old City Hall Historical Marker 42.331557, -83.0466442°19’54” N 83°2’48” W
Day 6
Detroit
September 7, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
In 2021 there was no time to go to Detroit, since our joint time in the US was so limited. This year, however, we made sure that Detroit is on the list. The city is really interesting. Once, 2 million people lived here, now, only 650.000 are left. It was a thriving metropolitan area in the first half of the 20th century, but it steadily declined since then. Currently, around 80.000 houses are empty and those are not only small residential houses, but also huge business and factory buildings. The city is quite photogenic, but at times also a bit spooky...
We first walked around the downtown area and had a look inside the Guardian Building, which is beautifully tiled and decorated, a milestone of american skycraper architecture of the late 20ies.
After two hours of walking, we had a coffee break and took the Qline (Tram) to the northwest of the city. We visited the Museum of Contemporary Art. It featured several African-American artists and had a special exhibition with art by incarcerated people.
A couple of stops further is the Fisher Building, another example of how wealthy the city once was.
We still want to see the Eastern Market on the weekend, so this won't have been our last visit of Detroit!Read more
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