One of my favorite things about October is Robin’s Walktober post where she invites all of us to get out and take a walk and then shares them all with the blogosphere. And here it is the middle of October already and I haven’t posted about my October walk yet.

Sure, I tried last week, drove an hour north only to find the trail I wanted to explore closed. And sure I could have taken you to any number of local parks, but I’ve dragged you out to those parks numerous times over the years.

I wanted to do something different. And since the color around here is only beginning I decided not to wander into the woods, rather I’d go in the opposite direction – literally – and travel about an hour south to the city of Detroit.

Sunday morning I drove down, avoiding the freeway as everything is under construction. That worked fine as I got to see many beautiful churches, all filled with people coming and going. Someday I’d like to do a post about the churches on Woodward Avenue.

The Riverwalk has lots of fun stuff, including a nature themed carousel…

…small waterfalls…

…places to meet your friends and enjoy a drink…

…and plenty of comfy chairs to sit and watch the river traffic go by.

Down at one end is General Motors’ headquarters, a combination of tall glass circular towers. It’s one of Detroit’s skyline landmarks.

They’ve added a glass enclosed ballroom to the back of it with a stunning view of the river and Windsor, Canada sitting on the other side.

The General Motors building sits next to Hart Plaza, a central park that hosts lots of music and art festivals during the summer. There’s several permanent pieces of ‘art’ located at the plaza.

Most of them I’ve never understood. OK. I’ve never understood any of them.

But down by the river there is a piece of sculpture here in the plaza that makes more sense.

It’s a sculpture honoring the Underground Railroad. The people are looking and pointing toward Canada across the river. It was dedicated in October of 2001.

Turning my back on the river I looked at the city. It beckoned me, so I decided to walk a few blocks and see what there was to see.

Turns out there are a lot of shapes and colors just steps away from the Plaza…

…and not all of them were modern.

There’s an elevated train that circles the city. I liked the way it curved against the square shapes of some of the architecture.

Historic buildings were reflected in the glass of those more modern.

Just about everywhere I looked there was something interesting. And I was only a block from the river.

I headed back toward the river, and watched the People Mover above against another iconic building.

Then I was back at General Motors headquarters. The sun was glinting off the glass, flags blowing in the stiff wind.

Don’t you wonder what’s inside all this curving glass? Nothing about a Walktober says it has to be outside, right? Let’s go in!

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Back outside, I headed east again toward my car. Not everything is all shiny and modern. But things are getting better in the city of Detroit, and getting better doesn’t mean forgetting where we came from.

No, there’s still lots of work to be done in the city. New neighborhoods are sitting next to the relics from another age.

But it’s not scary anymore to be down on the riverfront. And that’s promising. I hope you enjoyed our walk and that you’ll come visit Detroit someday. We have more to show you!