Scrum - 15 November 2008 12:46 PM

I’d need a meeting place in Motown and a place to crash (hotel, the Y, Gregg’s place ;-D).  Driving in from Syracuse.  Would consider meeting the others in Toronto for the trip down if that’s easier.  We still don’t need passports, I understand.  Soon though.

We’ll need passports next year, I think. So Canada is finally going to make passports that last ten years - renewing every five seems like a cash grab.

That Holiday Inn Express in Birmingham was fine (I know someone on here said they had water in the room or something there, but how often can that happen, right?). In October I stayed at the Y in New York - West 63rd across the street from Central Park, it was a great location and a hundred bucks a night for a room with bunk beds. I hadn’t slept in bunk beds since jail and that was only ever for one night at a time. I wonder where the Y is in Detroit? That could be interesting.

How can we get the Google Map of EL locations in Detroit up and running?

We stayed at the Y in NY (different Y my guess) a few buddies for a week the summer after graduating college.  Yeah, same bunk beds in a closet of a room.  Not that pricey back in ‘86 though. 

There’s a bit of a wait list for passports I undestand.  The company fast-tracked a co-worker’s papers through so he could teach a class up in Montreal last spring.  I may have to stick with the US roads to D-town this time.

It’s really up to you guys to get a tour going.  That means who wants to go and when.  Organizing around Elmore’s Detroit date (Sometime in May) makes the most sense.  Otherwise, with the tour, it would probably be a month (June) before Elmore and I would be aligned to do it.  Naturally, if you all came to Detroit, you would like to see Elmore in person. 

Check my early posts about what you would like to see and start planning.  Pick a tour leader (John) and start laying it out.  I will support you, but only if I see serious interest heading into the new year.

Gregg Sutter - 17 November 2008 02:15 PM

It’s really up to you guys to get a tour going.  That means who wants to go and when.  Organizing around Elmore’s Detroit date (Sometime in May) makes the most sense.  Otherwise, with the tour, it would probably be a month (June) before Elmore and I would be aligned to do it.  Naturally, if you all came to Detroit, you would like to see Elmore in person. 

Check my early posts about what you would like to see and start planning.  Pick a tour leader (John) and start laying it out.  I will support you, but only if I see serious interest heading into the new year.

Okay, I’ll organize it as best I can. Anybody who wants to meet up in Toronto or Detroit email me. I can do either May or June. A bookstore appearance in May would be good, but if we get to meet Elmore in June as well, that would be fine.

For Up in Honey’s Room the bookstore event was on a Monday evening. If that’s the case again and Gregg is willing, we could be in Detroit Saturday or Sunday and make the tour two days as Gregg suggested - Sunday and Monday maybe, then the bookstore.

This is the kind of thing I used to pass on and later regret. It’ll be a lot of fun.

Gregg, with the publication date for Road Dogs being May 12th, do you have any idea when the bookstore event will be in Detroit?

We talked about this a while ago and I’ve set one up on Google Maps.

It’s set for open collaboration so everyone should be able to add to it. What would you like to see in Detroit?

John:

I merged your new thread with the Tour thread.  I already have some Google Maps going.  Detroit is a big place and I divided it up according to regions:

Downtown Detroit

http://maps.google.com/maps/mm?ie=UTF8&hl;=en≪=37.0625,-95.677068&spn;=48.019527,94.042969&z;=4

Eastpointe to Algonac

http://maps.google.com/maps/mm?ie=UTF8&hl;=en≪=37.0625,-95.677068&spn;=48.019527,94.042969&z;=4

Hamtramck/Highland Park/Eight Mile Corridor

http://maps.google.com/maps/mm?ie=UTF8&hl;=en≪=37.0625,-95.677068&spn;=48.019527,94.042969&z;=4

Woodward Ave. North

http://maps.google.com/maps/mm?ie=UTF8&hl;=en≪=37.0625,-95.677068&spn;=48.019527,94.042969&z;=4

Detroit East Side

http://maps.google.com/maps/mm?ie=UTF8&hl;=en≪=37.0625,-95.677068&spn;=48.019527,94.042969&z;=4

Detroit - West Side

http://maps.google.com/maps/mm?ie=UTF8&hl;=en≪=37.0625,-95.677068&spn;=48.019527,94.042969&z;=4

Former NBA bad boy Derrick Coleman got a nice writeup in Sports Illustrated’s Point After column last week.  Doing good deeds in his hometown Detroit neighborhood somewhere there along Woodward Avenue.  Owns several stores in a strip mall apparently, giving kids a leg up in the old riot-torn ghetto.

Here’s his Wikipedia bio.

Edit:  It’s not Woodward Avenue, it’s Linwood Street.  And it’s not last week’s Sports Illustrated, it’s this week’s.

You need Vaughn Road, where the Ripley’s house was at the end of Out of Sight.  Going north on Lahser it’s the first right past Lone Pine (although Maurice and crew came from the north off of Long Lake.)  About a mile from the Bloomfield Hills PD.

First off I am a new member and this is going to be my first post.
My wife is a huge elmore leoanrd fan and has been trying to find a book signing for a while now and either she was looking in the wrong place or when she has found one it has been to late. So now I am looking for her and thought maybe I could have some better luck and I would love to bring her somewhere so she can get a book signed and to meet him. When I came across this I thought i would join to find out more info and to surprise my wife since we live in windsor it is a shrot drive over so you can defintaly count Lisa and I in for this.
Thanks a million if I can get my wife to meet her favorit author in the world.
Jay
Happy Holidays.

I’m interested in doing the Detroit part of the tour.  Sounds very cool.

My wife is a huge elmore leonard fan and has been trying to find a book signing for a while now

You don’t have to go on the tour to see Elmore.  He will undoubtedly be signing in Birmingham, Michigan at Border’s Books.  I will send everybody an e-mail when the tour is finalized.

Gregg Sutter - 09 December 2008 04:20 AM

My wife is a huge elmore leonard fan and has been trying to find a book signing for a while now

You don’t have to go on the tour to see Elmore.  He will undoubtedly be signing in Birmingham, Michigan at Border’s Books.  I will send everybody an e-mail when the tour is finalized.

Gregg that would be wonderful if you can get that info and i can bring my wife there to meet him and sign a book i would be a golden god and then i would pass the credit your way.
Thanks again
Jay
Happy Holidays

Straw - 04 August 2008 04:53 PM

In addition to visiting actual locations (Beaubien, Frank Murphy), it may be fun to retrace some driving routes. For example, the route that was taken when Clement Mansell followed Judge Alvin Guy from Hazel Park Track to the location where he shot him, and then shot the woman Guy was with in the middle of fairway at Palmer Park golf course. Would also be great to check out some of the towns where Stick and Frank Ryan did their thing in Troy, Clawson, Royal Oak.

Many of these places are now on the map (see the Locations thread). However, the exact location of Alvin Guy’s death, has gone to the ‘pending’ list: a list of locations, that, from references in the book, has proved hard to locate. Once the map is reasonably complete, they will be investigated further.

Jade - 15 December 2008 02:42 AM

Many of these places are now on the map (see the Locations thread). However, the exact location of Alvin Guy’s death, has gone to the ‘pending’ list: a list of locations, that, from references in the book, has proved hard to locate. Once the map is reasonably complete, they will be investigated further.

I put in the Alvin Guy location.  He was heading south on John R from 8 Mile, the police got a call from a woman a block over at 20413 Coventry, which turns out to be a real address.  If you want to share the “pending list” I can help.  I have found and fixed a few errors that I have come across.  I probably know Detroit better than a lot of the folks here.  The only American LaFrance dealer in Michigan these days is in Holland, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn there used to be one on John R.