My Mom glared at me as I announced I was heading to the States.

Even at my advanced age, there's times where I go on quick secret trips where my parents assume I'm just at Donnie's the whole time, since it's easier than enduring them going on about dangers, or pointlessness, or how I come up with such hare-brained trip ideas. So instead I sneak out like a teenager in the night.

I couldn't do that this time though, as I'd be gone a whole week and surely there would be questions.

"Well, I'm not telling your father, that's your responsibility."

This was the second-to-last hurdle.

So after pacing and procrastinating for close on a couple of hours, I finally bit the bullet by walking into the living room and laying out my plans. Telling me to hold on and turning down the TV, he wasn't pleased to say the least. I was prepared though, with answers to the predictable questions, "what happens if you get Covid, where are you going to quarantine?" "Donnie said I could quarantine at his place if you guys have a problem with me distancing in the basement here." "Who's going to drive you to the airport to pick up this rental car?" "I'm hanging out with Donnie and he'll drop me off the next morning."

This went on for a few minutes before a quiet shake of the head and my old man letting me know he truly wasn't impressed.

That's all good though as I wasn't visiting home and staying on the Canadian side.

With this over, I was now beyond excited.

I don't typically remember my rental cars, but this was a special time and I can remember like yesterday walking up to my white Hyundai Venue. I was elated to be free and driving my wheels that I almost skipped reporting the scratch on the driver's side, but that wouldn't have been prudent of course.

Making it through that excruciating five minute delay, I finally pulled out onto County Road 42 and made a bee line for the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. I'd never seen the tunnel so quiet on a Friday afternoon. It was just me pulling through the toll booths and cruising uncomfortably through the tunnel as I had one last chance to rehearse my answers and wrack my brain for anything else the American border guards could ask.

I couldn't believe how easily it went. No extra questions about the sheet of paper from a strange province proving my vaccine, no batting of the eyes at my itinerary, no questions about whether a trip like this was worth it in the time of a pandemic. Just a few simple questions, verifying my vaccination, and then well wishes to have a good trip.

Making a Michigan Left on Jefferson Ave and then picking my way through the streets up to Michigan Ave, I had made it. I was back in America, back in Detroit, driving a car I possessed and free to go wherever I wanted. It had been 23 long months since that last pre-Covid bonfire with Nailhed. God it had been a long 23 months.

It might not seem like I did much this day, but I had to work in the morning and then I had to do a favour for a friend over here in Detroit.

Along the way, I took the time to drive in and check out the progress on the new Gordie Howe Bridge. Whereas you can't get too close in Windsor without some light trespassing, I liked how here in America I could almost drive right up to one of the pillars.

Speaking of the Gordie Howe Bridge, I liked this sign indicating Post Street would be closed permanently on February 2, 2021 and briefly pictured how much of a memento it would be to have in my basement.

And that's without even realizing the magnitude of the Post & W Jefferson street corner!

Looking back at Google StreetView, this is the former location of Kovac's Bar, a legendary Delray bar that both Donnie & I kick ourselves for not visiting during the 2000s or early 2010s. I additionally kick myself for missing out on the auction that allowed you to walkthrough and pick up some items in 2017.

Across the street from Kovac's was the Delray Medical Clinic, a landmark that was so important to me that I made an update dedicated to it and it used to be the banner photo on the main page of this website (until I lost the banner file switching web hosting recently).

I had to start heading south. And southbound on I-75, somewhere just past Toledo as the sunny skies illuminated the gorgeous Ohio countryside, a sappy radio country song came on and I started to well up. It was just so beautiful to finally be back.

Tonight there was hockey to watch in Cincinnati, so I drove clean through Ohio and over to the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, where an under renovation Comfort Suites provided the best hotel rate in the area. Unfortunately, Cincinnati had recently closed down my beloved, budget, aging Millennium Hotel.

Across the street from the Comfort Suites stood one of the largest liquor stores I've ever seen. I liked this fact so much that I mentioned it in my review of the hotel and hilariously it seemed like the hotel wanted to play down their proximity to a giant liquor store, haha. I decided against the strange 12-pack of 355mL Colt 45 bottles and instead grabbed a case of Old Styles.

It was a cold night down here in Cincinnati as I left the hotel into -9°C/16°F air.

I still loved reaching the Taylor Southgate Bridge and walking from Kentucky back over into Ohio. Living where I do, sequestered on an island, it seems so monumental to reach and have free time in places like Cincinnati, so I was smiling from ear to ear thinking about where I found myself. Being stuck in Canada for all those months also obviously played a role.

Approaching the Ohio end of the bridge, the arena was so close to the roadway that it must cast shadows in the late afternoon light. I was on the opposite side of the road though and with jersey barriers and quick-moving traffic, I thought better of running across.

Taking a staircase up beside a parking garage, a skybridge brought me across to the Riverfront Coliseum, aka US Bank Arena; now known as the Heritage Bank Center. Growing up with Joe Louis Arena as my basis for what NHL hockey meant, I liked navigating urban concrete and stairs as I approached a looming coliseum.

Riverfront Coliseum was built in 1974 as a compliment to Riverfront Stadium, then home to the Cincinnati Reds and Cincinnati Bengals. The elevated plaza connecting the two arenas was pretty neat.

Part of the reason Riverfront Stadium was built was to provide a modern home for the new Cincinnati Stingers of the World Hockey Association (WHA). As the owners hoped for an eventual merger of the WHA and the NHL, this would have brought professional, NHL-level hockey to Cincinnati. This wasn't meant to be though, as the NHL only accepted the four healthiest clubs in the WHA: Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg & Hartford. Riverfront Coliseum was an NHL quality rink for the time, but so-so attendance is usually given as the reason for Cincinnati's exclusion. The Stingers received $1.5 million from the four clubs as a parachute payment, before going on to play only 33 games in the Central Hockey League prior to folding.

Cincinnati would get an expansion IHL franchise in 1992, playing out of the historic Cincinnati Gardens. Once their lease ended at the Gardens in 1997, Cyclones owner Doug Kirchhofer purchased Riverfront Coliseum and renovated it as a home for the Cyclones. The Cyclones joined the ECHL in 2001 and have only sat out the 2005 season ever since.

In addition, the University of Cincinnati Bearcats men's basketball team called the Riverfront Coliseum home from 1976 to 1987 (before moving to the Cincinnati Gardens for two years, then the Shoemaker Center). It's also the big local arena for travelling acts like Celine Dion, Shane Gillis and Moneybagg Yo. Creed is playing there in August.

The Riverfront Coliseum reminded me of other coliseums from the 1970s - like Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton (1974) and Nassau Coliseum on Long Island (1972) - but this was mostly from walking the exterior.

As I had multiple birds in my ear telling me to be careful and not bring Covid home to my parents or grandmother, I didn't dawdle in the concourse and instead quickly made it up to the nosebleeds - sending a selfie surrounded by empty seats to those concerned. The crowd was almost entirely maskless too, with only about 10% of people wearing masks and no one else having a N95.

The arena DJ should have played Future's Mask Off.

With no pregame dawdling and no intermission wandering, I felt like I saw Riverfront Coliseum, but I didn't really seeeeee it, y'know.

Every year a new article comes out about how Cincinnati needs to replace their arena - and not just an editorial, but also calls by business owners and politicians. It's the old thing where it's "dated" and that Jelly Roll and NCAA basketball March Madness rounds skip Cincinnati due to the Riverfront Coliseum. As the local football stadium has maybe the worst lease for taxpayers in all of the NFL, I thought maybe locals wouldn't have appetite for another taxpayer boondoggle, but that doesn't seem to be the case from the articles and comments I've read.

I'm happy I made it here to say I've seen the Riverfront Coliseum, but getting back for another event is still somewhere on the to-do list.

Being two leagues below the NHL (NHL, then AHL, then ECHL), the ECHL can be more of a spectacle than a purist's ideal of a hockey game. One of the ways this game was a spectacle was that it had two different promotions - one being teddy bear toss night, where everyone threw teddy bears on the ice after the Cyclones first goal. These bears were being donated so Cincinnati cops have teddy bears when they encounter a child in distress, which made me wonder how many children they encounter in distress to need this many teddy bears. And last year the teddy bear toss game resulted in 10,269 bears on the ice?

They must have been just giving one example.

Anyway, I really liked when the Cop SUV drove on the ice to collect the bears and people were having a good time trying to really bean the car with teddy bears, haha.

The other promotion was "$1 beer, soda and hot dog night", which was funny for two reasons. One, COVID restrictions meant you were only supposed to get one beer, but that was being totally ignored. Two, the beer sales were going to some local charity, so the guys weren't smart serving at all. The first time I got a beer, the guy asked if I wanted "two? three?" and then the last time I got a beer, the guy was like "how many? two? three? four?"

Cincinnati ended up taking the game 5-4 over the visiting Fort Wayne Komets.

Looking at my program, I noticed that the same Stephen Harper I saw play in Niagara Falls was now playing for Fort Wayne. Unfortunately I didn't hear any of the great economy and policy heckles towards Harper that I heard last time I saw him play live.

Boy would the Ohioans have been confused with me yelling about how long it took the Fort Wayne Komets left winger to apologize for residential schools.

Without any desire to go to the nearby ballpark village district (The Banks), my other options would have been heading steeply uphill to Mt Adams or a good distance to Over-The-Rhine. I was already about a half-hour walk from my hotel, so I decided to just hoof it back following the game.

Getting off the ugly main strip in Newport Kentucky, there were some nice homes and streets just behind. Nearing my hotel and past the cold bridge, I didn't feel like calling it just yet, so I stopped at a decent sports bar to check out the basketball game, then also the Vet's Bar that wasn't an actual VFW hall.

Behind my hotel was a small park where I also enjoyed a few minutes of music and looking at the Cincy skyline from across the Ohio River. I probably should have went and grabbed my real camera from my room.

(I didn't have my real camera on me because I didn't want to risk the Heritage Bank Center saying I couldn't come in with my "professional camera" - a Fuji s4240 bridge camera.)

The next day I headed back to the Heritage Bank Center for some exteriors.

Circling around the side of the arena I hadn't seen last night, I was blown away by how close it sits to Great American Ballpark, current home of the Cincinnati Reds.

Of course I've been to Great American Ballpark, but it was on one of those boozy, early 20's guys' trips where we were late for the game and didn't do a loop of the concourse. It was right from the stadium entrance to our right field seats and then right back out the same entrance closest to the car.

I'd love to get back one day.

Great American Ballpark (GABP) was so tightly wedged in between the Riverfront Coliseum and old Riverfront Stadium, that during construction there were times the new and old ballparks were only two feet apart. And this was even true in light of the fact that prior to the last Reds' season at Riverfront Stadium, they tore down portions of the old center field and left field stands as they were in the way of the new GABP construction.

The last Cincinnati Reds game ever is on youtube and you can see the missing portion of Riverfront Stadium and the construction of GABP. I can't find that game anymore, but there's a June 2002 game that shows the situaish.

A week after this visit, I was watching a Bengals game with such inner peace after having just been in Cincinnati.

Now usually when talking to border guards, I'm one to keep my plans as boring and normal as possible (which is good advice fyi), but this time I actually said I needed to "get back to Cincinnati for some rejuvenation."

I'm glad that seemed a reasonable answer as to why I thought I was coming to America.

Satisfied my coverage of the exterior of the Heritage Bank Center, I lazily meandered along the riverfront on this fine winter's morning, while keeping my distance from the Ohio River that raced by just a few steps away.

At one point I thought I found some secret drainage tunnel, but I think the brown river had just been higher in recent days and deposited mud all over a low elevation roadway.

I had about five hours of driving ahead of me today, so it was probably time to get back to the car and also to acknowledge I should have got up earlier for more of the Queen City.

Merging on to the highway, I saw those white walls that everyone rides in Cincinnati, but I had to get going to Columbus and onwards.

Continue to Part 2...