If you friend has the time and ability, why not go north and ride on the Canadian Rails? It'd be a beautiful trip and I would imagine would get them near Detroit.

In 1992, I think it was, my daughters and I rode from Springfield, MA to Glenwood Springs, CO. We had to go up through Albany, NY to Chicago, then change trains there. We did not have roomettes as they were too expensive as noted. It was a lark and, after Chicago, there was much more room and much cleaner trains, but I'd be hard pressed to do the same trip now without a roomette. It was l-o-n-g and we repeated to get back to MA!