On my third day in Michigan, we went to the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. As expected in the city that is home to the big three car manufacturers and the museum that is named after one of them, there were a lot of cars! The museum also had exhibits on steam trains, the history of aviation and technology through the ages. Also at the same site was Greenfield Village, a historical village with some old buildings from the Ford factory and family house to Thomas Edison's laboratory where he worked on his inventions.

That evening we went for Buddy's pizza, the home of Detroit's #1 square pizza, where Kristin ordered us a Detroiter to share, which is basically pepperoni. It's halfway between deep dish and thin crust and is kinda crispy like a bread base rather than doughy.

Day 4 was my last full day in the states. We spent the morning at the zoo, and luckily it was much cooler than it was at the start of the week, so the animals were mostly out and about. Sadly we didn't get to see the otters or beavers and the red pandas were closed but the bigger animals like rhinos, tigers, polar bears, giraffes and gorillas were all there. I also got up much closer to a couple of grizzlies, a wolf, some prairie dogs and a bald eagle to really round of the US animal spotting. The bison were nowhere to be seen but I think I hit my quota on those in Yellowstone.

Now let's talk about high school football! As I fly home on Saturday, Kristin wasn't able to take me to see her beloved Michigan State Spartans college team play, but Friday night is high school football night, so that was the next best thing. Kristin's high school team Utica were playing away this week, but they share a field with their rivals Eisenhower, so (somewhat begrudgingly) she took me to watch them instead. After a burger at the Shamrock pub in downtown Utica, we got to the game early, just in time to see the marching band making their way into the stadium. They marched in and around the field, to stop in front of the home fans in the stand, ready for their pre-game show consisting of Imagine Dragons, Journey and Taylor Swift!

A couple of things to note on the way into the stand. They have head shot photos of the dance squad, cheerleading squad and football team on the fences on the way in, like they're celebrities. Secondly, and my personal highlight, the lady selling the entry tickets asked if I was a student! We sat just next to the student section and I'm pretty sure I look a lot older than those kids, but I'm not complaining! The amount of people there was incredible; there were around 3000, including a full stand of fans from the away team, Chippewa. And this is a small town; apparently in Texas they get tens of thousands and whole cities shut down for the games.

In cheesy high school fashion, the team ran out onto the fields through an inflatable tunnel and a guard of honour from the band and cheerleaders, to run through a banner. Once the game had started, I followed along a bit thanks to Kristin's lessons earlier in the week and her helpful commentary, but to be honest, I was a bit distracted by the cheerleaders. Just like in the high school movies, they were lined up along the front of the bleachers, 'firing up' the crowd. I won't give them any praise as they are Kristin's sworn enemies from her cheering days, but I found the whole thing fascinating; it really was just like you see in the movies. At half time, Eisenhower were losing 17-14. We stayed to watch the band and dance team perform during the break and then we left. Probably for the best as the final score was 45-24 to Chippewa.

After the game we went to Kristin's parents' house for a bonfire and played a couple of games of corn toss with her dad and aunt. That's the game I mentioned that I'd seen everywhere back in Denver, where you have to throw bean bags through a hole in a board. You get three points for getting it in the hole and one for landing on the board. I didn't do too badly and managed to get a couple in the hole, but I don't think I'll be taking it up professionally any time soon.

Huge thanks to Kristin for letting me stay this week and for driving me all around Detroit. There's no public transport here and everybody drives everywhere (makes sense really, given that the main industry in the Motor City is car manufacturing) so I wouldn't have been able to do half of what we did if I'd been here on my own. It was great to get a real local perspective on Detroit and Michigan too. Thank you!