Day 6 - Monday - Get Back To It

We're not going to go apartment-by-apartment again. You get it at this point. 🙂

But, Monday's first spot was Pilgrim Village. After I toured the place, we got to talking nuts & bolts. I brought up my non-working situation, and they didn't bat an eye. "We'll just need your last 3 bank statements to show the money has been consistently there."

Whew. After 36 hours, I unclenched my pooper.

I ran into the "must have an active income" problem several more times, but more than not, everyone else was fine with it. And, I eventually realized that all the places that required me to have an active job were all managed by the same company. OK... got it.

Monday was better than Saturday . I found a place that was nice, but a little more than I wanted to spend. Also, their soonest available unit is August 24th... so I'd have another week and half of homelessness. That was Fairlane Wood... and, as you might guess, it does happen to be pretty close to Fairlane Meadow.

I found a few more, but all of these were further out. 20-30 minute commutes.

By the end of Monday, I had a few options. Some were a little too expensive, many had a further commute than I wanted, and all required me compromise more than I had expected to when I was planning shit out in Seattle. No matter how things unfold, I'm realizing that things here are different here and I'm going to have to roll with it.

Day 5 - Sunday - Sit and Stew

So, as I alluded to earlier... as I was going around Saturday, I found that some of the leasing offices were closed on Saturdays. But, crazier still, I found that all of the leasing offices were closed on Sunday. All of them! What the fuck? I'm in Michigan, not Tennessee.... I was not prepared for places closed on Sundays. At all.

Well anyway, I spent Saturday night at another rest area. Again. This too is getting old. However, on Sunday morning, I have nothing to do. I have a list of more apts to check out, so no need to find more. What to do?

It would be a long day. Not just because I had nothing to do or nowhere to go, but because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find any apartment at this point. I never imagined cash in the bank wouldn't be enough. Was I going to face this everywhere I went? How much more sideways is this shit going to go?

I sat at the rest area in a lawn chair and read a book. Two hours later, it's 11 am.

This is going to be a long fucking day.

It was. I went to a coffee shop. I blogged like mad. And then, at 7pm.... mother fucking everything started closing. At seven! Because, it's fucking Sunday? WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS PLACE?!?!

--sigh--

OK, so... we covered my first 3 days in Michigan so far. Let's catch you up on days 4-7. Wow, I just realized it's been seven fucking days already. OK, so... onto Saturday...

Day 4 - Saturday - Time To Apartment Up

I had a list of places to look at, and after taking Friday easy, I planned on spending the weekend hitting up a bunch of leasing offices. I was pushing out further than I had previously. In addition to driving around in general, I also made it a point on Friday to hit up some of the towns around Dearborn.

Actually, let's take a second to talk about this. I don't know if "towns" or "cities" or what is the right word, but that's what it is out here... it's a single continues urban area, but it's made up of a bunch of (I think) independent cities. Dearborn, Dearborn-Heights, Livonia, Westland, Taylor, and on and on and on.

So yeah, on Friday I pushed out to Westland and Livonia; towns that are 20-30 minutes west of Dearborn. By the time you get out there, it starts to be a little more upscale, if you will. I used "upscale" in my other post too, and I'm not sure if it's exactly the word I want to use, but I'm not sure what to use instead. Upper middle class? Either way... let's get back to it...

So, Saturday morning after my shower (woo!) and free hotel breakfast (waffles!) I headed out to find home. I started with what felt like the nicest place:

Reserve At Westland (take 1)

I show up, walk into the leasing office. It's empty save one leasing agent. I tell her I'm interested in looking at their 1 bedrooms.

"Do you have an appointment?", she asks.

"Umm... no?", I reply, surprised at the need for an appointment. Moments later I'm heading back to my car. 😐

The Cove At Westland

"Do you have an appointment?"

Fuck. So is this just a fucking thing out here? Is this a Michigan thing, or some weird post-COVID holdover? An appointment? I want to look at a fucking apartment, I'm not asking for dental care.

But guess what? This time around she's cool. I showed up at the same time as another family, who also did not have an appointment. After a checking her calendar, and the slightest of eyerolls, she decides to take as both to go see their model together.

The Cove was #2 on my list.... based purely on driving by and apartments.com... so it's not a strong #2, but initially it was my second choice.

So, when we walked into the model, and it was gross as hell I started to worry. The apartment must be over 100 years old... and you can see about 98 layers of paint on the walls. It was comically bad. But beyond that, things were dirty. Again, this is the model. Then I opened the coat closet... and down the center... ugh... some gross brown drip along the shelving. I just closed the door, and waited for the other family to finish.

The Cove was ass. But... while we were on the walk over, I grabbed my phone, and made an appointment at that first place. 🙂

Reserve At Westland (take 2)

I left the Cove and went back to the Reserve (which is like 200 feet away).

The girl sees me, smiles, then recognized me as the dude who was just there 30 minutes ago and smiles a little more strained. I tell her that this time I do have an appointment, and give a disarmingly charming smile in return.

Anyway... we toured the place, and it was nice. I like it a lot actually. But their next available 1-bedom is late-September/early-October.

"But your website shows you have available units?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry but sometimes the website doesn't get updated right away", she explains.

Fuck me.

Heather Ridge Apartments

Closed on weekends

Hampton Court Westland

Closed on weekends

You know, when you move to a new place you have to be ready for things to be different even without knowing what those things may be. Apartment-hunting in Michigan is quickly turning into one of those things.

I'm not going to list every place that was closed, but there were a few more along the way. Leasing offices closed Sundays. Leasing offices closed the entire weekend. I was not ready for this at all. How do working people find apartments out here? Every place I've ever lived in an apartment, the weekend was the time to look around. Not here...

Fairlane Meadow Apartments and Townhomes

So far The Cove (that gross one) is sincerely the best thing I've seen so far. Fairlane Meadow is the last place to look at on Saturday. I'm not super hopeful at this point.

I get there. It's nice. Really nice. And it's a 2-story apartment (living on bottom, sleeping on top) so it's kind of like a rowhouse... which means no neighbors above or below you.

They have garage spaces (for extra $)... an ammenity I really want which is shockingly hard to find.

The campus is beautiful. The price (with garage) is right on budget.

But wait, there's more! Remember in the other post I mentioned that Dearbon is a bit "rough" and things get nicer and nicer as you go West? Well, I had been looking out in those towns, as I already told you, that pushed me out 20-30 minutes (with no traffic). Fairlane Meadows? Boom, right in fucking Dearborn! I found this tiny pocket of apartments close to the school but kind of secluded in their own little world, and Fairlane Meadow was one of them.

The commute to campus is less than 5 minutes.

It's been a pain in the ass, but who cares. I found a great place and the perfect location, and well in my price range. 🙂 🙂 🙂 Life is good.

I tell Camille, the leasing agent, that I love it, and I'm all in. Let's do it.

As we're talking about lease requirements, she brings up the income requirements. I explain to her that I'm here for grad school, that I'm not working, and that I don't plan to work any time soon. I've done this in the past (several times now) and in all cases I showed my bank statements to verify that I have the funds to pay my way.

"We need a verified income source.", Camille explains.

"What if I have more money in the bank right now than you require me to earn all year?"

"We need a verified income source. The verification company we use doesn't have any other options."

"What if I just pay for the entire year's rent up-front?"

"We can't take a full year's rent. And we would still have to have you verified through the service, which requires an active, recurring income source."

3... 2... 1... explosion in the pit of my stomach.

Are you fucking me? I have more cash in the bank right now than the income they require, and they still won't rent me an apartment. Camille mentions something about "Michigan fair housing" rules. Wait... is this a Michigan thing? Am I going to face this in the entire fucking state?

This shit now... it's fucking hilarious. For the first time in my entire life I'm able to say, "whatever it costs, I can afford it", and they respond with, "I'm sorry but your money is no good here."

It's 5 pm. That's it for Saturday.

Am I legit going to be fucking homeless?

What. The. Fuck. Suddenly, CUNY is looking like the better option by far.

Haha, how's that for a title? I mean, it definitely sets the mood right away, no? Well, you know, I don't want this blog to become one bitch session after another... but at the same time, I also don't want to sugarcoat anything or hold back.

So here we go...

MI - Day 1 - FFS

When we last left our hero he had just arrived at the UoM-DB campus (ie. in Dearborn, Michigan), taken a quick selfie, and began his search...

Sitting in my comfy apartment in downtown Seattle, I had spent some time looking at apartments in Dearborn and surrounding areas. I wasn't sure how far to go before it became too much of a commute, but I pushed out a little bit.

I identified a handful of reasonable looking apartments and used their monthly rent prices for estimated my cost of attendance for two years here. I also created a short list of good candidate properties. Day 1, I simply wanted to drive around and get a feel for each apartment campus and surrounding neighborhoods.

By the end of the day I had driven by all of the places I wanted to look at.

How do I describe how I was feeling by the end of that first day? I wouldn't say it was panic, it's wasn't quite that bad, but sincere dread? Yeah, I think that's a fair adjective.

I'll just get straight to it, there's a lot of rough neighborhoods out here. And here's the thing, it's not like I chose the cheapest apartments I could find. Quite the opposite, I focused on apartments that looked modern and reasonably upscale.

Now, to be fair, on this day I only drove passed the various apartment complexes, and didn't tour any. But, like I said, they all felt rough. I mean, a few were "If I have to" sort of OK, but nothing was exciting me at all.

I ended the day every so slightly shitting my pants. I had spent the previous night a nearby rest area and decided to head back in that direction and do it again.

On my second day, I would look around more and get a better feel for things. I couldn't believe there weren't nicer places out here. I mean, there has to be some soft ass white-collar folks who are looking for "nicer"... doesn't there?

Maybe not though.

Anyway, back to the rest area... with a cold, tiny rock in my stomach.

MI Day 2 - Target Hopping

I spent my second day in Michigan, August 8th, driving further out. Clearly I still had (have) a way to go to get my bearings, but if I could at least cover some distance today and check out some places beyond the previous day's scouting mission.

As I planned and plotted from Seattle, I focused on 3 neighborhoods: Dearborn, Dearborn Heights and Inkster. Beyond that I worried it would be a too far a commute. Having landed here and driven around, I did realize a few things pretty quickly: 1) these towns/cities/whatever are actually really, really close to each other and 2) the roads and traffic here are insanely better than Seattle.

I was feeling comfortable pushing further out from campus, and was desperate enough to find something nice. I wasn't sure where to go, so I figured... I could probably look for nearby Targets, and go to each one. If a neighborhood is too poor for a Target, it's an automatic out, so that's a good start. On top of that, you can walk around the inside of a Target and get a reasonable first-impression of the neighborhood you're in.

So that's what I did. I drove around to different Targets. I was starting to feel better midway through the day. I found some places that looked like they'd be pretty OK. I collected apartment names and neighborhood names as I drove around that day.

In the evening I found a Starbucks and began researching and planning Day 3. I probably should've pushed a little further that night. Gotten to an actual go-to list of apartments for the next day. But truthfully, I was really feeling the week's push.

It was dark out already. I looked up nearby hotels. I started reading a couple of reviews, but then decided to just go to the rest area and sleep in my car for the whatever night in a row. 😐 I was just too tired, still a little frustrated, and maybe even had some intuition about the day to come.

MI Day 3 - Less Go, More Sno(re)

I slept really, really well that night. Like I said, I think the previous week's push out of Seattle and across the country caught up with me. Not only did I sleep well, but I slept late too. I have a sleep mask that I normally use on plane trips, but is now my sleeping-in-your-car champion. As the Sun rose and lit the day, I snored away.

I got up late, and I don't know, I just didn't get going. I hung out at the rest area for a bit, even grabbing a book and reading a bit on one of the park benches. Eventually I got going, but I dunno, I didn't go look at apartments. I drove around for a while. Further out than yesterday. It's pretty clear that the further you get from Detroit, the nicer things get.

And Dearborn is directly adjacent to Detroit.

I drove to Dave & Busters and played dumb games and won some tickets.

After D&B's, I went to IKEA to eat meatballs & chocolate cake and get on my laptop to plan out the next day. Between the last couple of days I had figured out a few places that may work out after all.

That night I grabbed a hotel room, so I could shower up and not smell like 5 days of road-ass when I went looking at apartments. Tomorrow was Saturday, and I fully planned to get myself leased. I was feeling as good as I've felt since getting here... not great... not yet... but I was definitely feeling some hope.

I would be pushing out into places like Livonia and Westland, where things felt a little more upscale. It was a longer commute than I wanted when I had envisioned walking/biking to school, but I'm also realizing that walking/biking to school just wasn't ever going to be an option. UofM-DB is a commuter school... I would be commuting.

With several hours left before bedtime, I figured I'd celebrate a little early. I headed out to the theater and watched the new Deadpool movie.

Prior to leaving Seattle, I had considered going to see it. A matinee adult ticket was $25. After tax it was $28. I never made it out to the theater, so it was nice to get the chance to catch it now. The ticket was $10.50. OK... so, let's try and focus on the positives, right?

Tomorrow I'd get an apartment, and the last road block would be cleared. The exodus would be over, the move-in would be (almost) done, and the focus can fully shift to grad school.

The Adventure Continues...

It's getting late as I sit in an Arby's at a local truck stop. It's Sunday, August 11th. I'm tired and I need to find a place to call it a night, so that's as far as this post gets. I could wait to finish it and publish it in one go, but I feel like pushing this out before I konk out for the night.

So you'll have to wait until the next post to hear about Day 4, 5 and any others that will have been crossed off the calendar before my next update. If you want a little spoiler though... I can say this... things continue to go as expected... mother. fucking. up. hill.

For today though, that's enough.

I'm getting my ass kicked. But I've been hit harder.

😐

good night friends.

With my exit from Seattle complete, the road trip had begun.

I had trouble finding sentiment in my last days in Seattle, I was able to find it in spades along the road trip. Especially the first half of the trip, where each leg of the trip seemed to tie space and time together within my mind's eye.

Goodbye Seattle, Goodbye Washington

To be honest, it didn't take long for the magnitude to hit me, which is likely what kicked off the cascade of sentiment over the coming days.

I don't love Seattle. But I also don't hate it. I don't. As I drove out, I felt these last 3 years here. Not my best years. There are tons of events in my life that I wish I had done better, but don't necessarily regret what I did do, because I chose best with what I knew at the time. That's not the case for Seattle.

I had an opportunity to redirect my life up here. All the tools and opportunity were in my hand. But I didn't, because I wasn't healthy enough to. That's that. And as I drove out of Seattle, I knew that the regrets I already have will likely stay with me for years to come.

Keep driving south, past Seattle, Tacoma and the entire urbanized region and you hit the green, beautiful treescape that makes the Pacific Northwest so ridiculously wonderful. In those last miles of Washington State it was 2021 and I was driving North. Seattle. Surely, I'd be able to thing turned around once I get to Seattle!

Hello Portland

Driving into Portland, I had plans to meet an old friend from Intel for one last lunch. Before getting to the lunch spot, I was busy traveling time.

Entering Portland, to see my old Intel friend, and it was 2017 or so. By this point, I should have left Intel for sure, I was done. But, as much as I hated my time at Intel, the flat honest truth is that Intel was never the problem. I was.

In those few miles between Oregon's state border and our lunch spot, I was sad and even a bit ashamed of what an ass I was during the very years I shared with the dude I was about to have lunch with. It kind of sucks that there's an entire "generation" of coworkers who've only seen me at my worst.

Luckily, as I said, lunch was a few short miles in.

Goodbye Portland, Goodbye Oregon, Goodbye PNW

After lunch, I headed East.

Traveling East out of Oregon, I was reverse-tracing the exact steps I had taken in 2009, as I was coming up for what would become my college adventure and all that followed. Sure enough, as I drove east, I was transported 15 years back to the start of the "Life 2.0" adventure.

Driving along Oregon is like driving through a post-card stand. Shot after shot, it's an insanely beautiful state. I could remember my literal elation in those final miles. I was so eager to get to Oregon and start what I was sure would be a better life.

Ha.

I continued the journey, bathed in Oregon's beauty, my own regret, and a reminder of how hopeful I was. I tried to use it as a galvanizing agent... trying to cajole something even closely resembling that level of hope for the current adventure.

Idaho - no time flat

I crossed the Oregon-Idaho border in the evening and drove through and past Boise before settling in for my first night. In the morning I got up and kept going. Shortly after I was out of Idaho

Sorry Idaho, you don't get any prose. 😋

Utah

If driving through Oregon was like driving through my 30's, crossing into Utah sent me into my 20's. During those years there was someone particularly close to me. We lost touch years and years ago getting in touch again isn't any sort of option these days. But I couldn't cross through Utah without being transported to a very specific point in time.

The path through Utah had my driving through Ogden, which is 30 minutes outside of Salt Lake City.

Against better judgement, I decided to take a detour through SLC.

Now... here me out here. Not to sound like a stalker, but I happened to look up my old friend online and found that they have their own business in SLC. I had no plans of trying to see them again, as I think it was would be as awkward for me as it would be for them. But being this close, I thought I would at at least drive by and... if felt like I could do so incognito... sneak out and grab a selfie in front of their place.

Not for any reason other than... I don't know... just a reminder of that time and place, I guess.

Well, I got there and... long story short... the address listed on their store's website was not their physical address! It's a UPS PO Box! 😂

What a fucking dick, right?

I laughed at myself and all of my non-stalker stalkerness.

Back in the car. On with the trip.

Wyoming - Time Travel Done Right

While my travel so far has been this strange time-travel through my own life, Wyoming took the time-warp to 11.

Wyoming's Western landscape is a starkly barren desert landscape with the Earth itself pushed and folded up for display. The rough exposed terran crust clearly tells the story of the planet's 4 billion years. Driving along the alien-like rockscapes, the layers of sediment exposed reminds you of how old this rock of ours is. And you can imagine Earth's billions of years without feeling immensely tiny yourself.

I kept driving East. Along the way, Wyoming changed from desert's brown palette to the greens of life. Bushes grow less scragily, Trees being filing into their designated spots along the landscape. As I'm driving through Wymoing, I'm driving billions of years through time. We're in the Carboniferous Era now, and the earth is covering up in a new coat of greenery.

From earth's earliest days to adoption of flora, driving along Wyoming, the time warp continues as I hit farmland. Man is here, and they've established agriculture.

Edging closer towards the sunrise, Wyoming's agriculture grows into modern life as I drive through the town of Laramie, with all of it's modern ammenities.

Crossing Wyoming's final stretch finish's this chapter of the time travel, with horizon after horizon filled with air turbines for creating green-energy. I entered Wymoning 3-4 billion years ago, and I drove out in 2024.

Nebraska - Where Time Stands Still

Then came Nebraska.

What to say about Nebraska?

Hmm... how about this: If purgatory was real, then it would likely be driving through Nebraska for all of eternity.

If the trip so far as has been about traveling time, then Nebraska's trick was to show that time could stand completely still, no matter how much you moved.

Nebrask has two landscapes: a flat, boring desert scape with no notable changes, and a flat, boring green landscape with no notable changes,

I'm not sure how long it took me to get through Nebraska. It may have been several hours, it may have been 11 years. I truly do not know.

On Iowa! On Illinois! On Indiana!

After Nebraska... well, I'll be honest. The time-traveling narrative mostly goes to shit. 🙂 By this point, it was day 3 of the trip and quite honestlly, it was mostly a blur.

Up until now, I was very much "on the road"; surrounded mostly by truck drivers and other people on cross-country trips. In this last leg, I was clearly back in civilization. Rest areas had (what looked like) locals and roads became more and more populated as the surrounded neighborhoods did as well.

I spent the night in Iowa, and finished the state on the morning of the 7th. Illinois took 5 hours and Indiana was a brief 1.5 hour stepping stone.

Into Michigan

On August 7th at 8:54 pm, I entered Michigan. 🙂

I made it almost to Dearborn before settling in for the night.

On August 8th at 12:10 pm I arrived at the campus of the University of Michigan - Dearborn. 🙂 🙂 🙂

My trip of 2,597.9 miles, that burned a total of 90.768 gallons, was over. Now, the work begins.

Beyond The Present

The next step is to find myself an apartment. And, since I'm writing this post on August 11th, 3 days after I've arrived in Dearborn... I can tell you that will be it's own story. One that's still being written actually. As a tiny sneak preview, I will say that things are not going very well. Verging on catastrophic.

It's been a tough, tough few days... but that's for the next post.

Currently, I'm still homeless and am a smidge worried. Apparently all the fucking leasing offices are closed on Sundays here in fucking Michigan. So.... although I should be trying to find a solution to this gigantic problem which I'll you about next time... instead I'm sitting in Starbucks writing this post (and the previous one actually). Not only as a way to kill time, but also, I'm, fucking, homeless. If I'm not sitting in my car, I'm sitting in a coffee shop or restaurant as a way to not be in my car.

Anyway... I'm bleeding too much detail into the wrong post.

I'm here. I'm here.

A road trip through space was a road trip through time. I had a lot of free time on that road and, as you can tell, I spent a lot of time contemplating my first four and a half decades on this little rock of ours. I feel my age. I feel my failures. But, if I can get past these last few hurdles, I'm hoping to spend less time on the past and more on the future.

If I can get past these last few hurdles...