Bicycle Diary: Stinkin' maps, Detroit, the Dequindre Cut, Dinner

Today was a rough start to what might be a long weekend, which will only dovetail into a roller coaster week. It's going to be bananas. However, a couple of friends at work wanted to bring bikes to work and take a ride around downtown Detroit. Turned out to be one of my favorite rides this summer. Even though it has been nasty hot in the D, we took a great cruise around downtown, to the Detroit Riverwalk, through the Dequindre Cut, to the Detroit Beer Company and back to campus. Good times.

Friday started like this (paraphrased and exaggerated by me): "Eva, look at these two maps. What the heck is going on with these numbers? Our boss would like to know." I look at the PowerPoint tomfoolery and first I'm perplexed, then amused. The maps are sort of silly and have meaningless ranges. They'd be funny if they weren't my problem.

The maps are familiar, but I've only seen them once or twice before. Now I get a good look at them. I poke around online and in our paper files for clues to their origination. I look at the stupid maps again. I've never seen the dang source data for either of them and when I finally find it out, I know we gotta' start from the top. And we have to look our data in a new way.

The ride with my friends around the D that begun during rush hour and ended at dusk was a fun time and a nice break from the work that lies ahead. It was good to see Detroit on a bike again. It was a completely new experience. It always is, really.

Back to the stinkin' maps...