Oh the places we'll go...Part 1.

I'm sure you are all wondering why I was spontaneously road tripping to Detroit last week. Well, it goes a little something like this...

Our "big rig" leaving Culpeper early Friday morning.

Last week, Roque from Yesterday Reclaimed mentioned that he was road-tripping to Detroit to deliver two of his über-popular Blue Collar Benches to GM Headquarters.  Joe (from the GM marketing department) had discovered the benches via the internet and wanted a piece of the action. Naturally, a vintage GMC tailgate bench belongs back at the mothership with the guys at GM.

I'm always up for last minute travel and it sounded like a great excuse to hit up a city I've never seen, so I decided to pull myself from the store and tag along. Plus, I had been working with a store in Seville, OH on becoming a Yesterday Reclaimed retailer (our first out-of-state!), and this presented the perfect opportunity to deliver her furniture order (more on that in Part 2 tomorrow).

Kathy & I at a Toledo, OH Truck Stop.

So, with little thought and even less planning (on my part) we packed up a truck and trailer with all the YR merchandise and headed out Friday morning at 6am. We had to make our delivery by 4:30 that afternoon, so it was a very Smokey & the Bandit type mission. The trip to Detroit was no quick hop; it took us through five states: West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, and our stops had to be quick and few and far between.

Our first stop was at a truck stop in Toledo, Ohio. If I learned anything, it was that Ohio has the best truck stops I've ever seen. This particular one had a Starbucks, Panera and free wi-fi...jackpot. While grabbing a quick lunch at Panera, we even ran into Kathy Thaxter,  a Green Roost customer! It's a small world after all....

After lunch, we realized that we were going to be cutting it close with our timing, so we wasted no time and got back on the road. With one more gas stop and a ton of miles behind us we arrived in Detroit, where we met Joe and his team, who were anxiously our arrival.  Sidenote: what I failed to mention earlier was that along with the two benches, we were also delivering a piece that Roque custom built for GM. I won't be able to reveal the details on that piece until June 1st (even though I'm dying to share!) but it gives you something else to look forward to.

The original Blue Collar Bench at the GM Warehouse in Detroit, Michigan.

I'll have to admit that parting with the GMC Blue Collar Bench was bittersweet, because it was the first bench Roque built. I don't have kids yet, but I equate it to the feeling of sending your first kid off to college (too much?). But I'll tell you one thing, if I was going to send the bench to college, GM Headquarters should be considered in the "ivy league". The picture above is the last shot I got of the bench in it's new home, which coincidentally is my favorite picture of the entire trip.

Sightseeing in Detroit.

After successfully delivering our load, the guys at GM took us to a local craft brew pub for dinner (Black Lotus Brewery...great beer, great burgers). Being GM, they made sure we were riding in style; we were taken to dinner in a yet-to-be-released 2014 GMC Sierra. This truck had every optioned imaginable and was gorgeous. It was pretty sweet knowing we've take a ride in a car that not only isn't even for sale yet, but hasn't even been seen by the press.

Post-dinner, we took our truck and trailer on a quick driving tour of Detroit. We wanted to see the GM towers, and take advantage of being in a city that is full of history. Even graffiti and broken windows couldn't hide some of the amazing architecture this city has to offer.  We learned that right now Detroit is a staggering two-thirds empty (population-wise), but even with that statistic, the people of Detroit have something that many other cities lack and that's pride. There is a sense of pride in this city that is palpable, and that's something to remember. While I'll admit that Detroit was never on my "must see" list of places, I'm certainly glad I've now had the opportunity to see such an iconic city. 

After finishing our driving tour, we packed up and headed to Cleveland, where we had decided to crash for the night. You can imagine how thrilled the hotel valet was when we rolled up and asked him to park our truck and trailer. Not knowing what to do, he pulled the truck up onto the sidewalk and that's where it slept for the night. Good call, Mr. Valet.

The valet's choice of city parking for our huge truck & trailer.

And with that, I'll stop for the day. Stay tuned, I'll be covering all the adventures of Day 2 tomorrow...

(update: you can check out Day 2 here)