LIVONIA, MI - Rob Cortis' life changed the day he decided to put wheels on a 30-foot bridge that once spanned a creek on his property and affix the name "Trump" to it in big block letters.

Since that day in early 2016, the former Livonia business owner has crisscrossed the country towing his self-titled "Unity Bridge" to all sorts of political events and other public gatherings. He hasn't quit traveling now that President Donald Trump is in office.

Sometimes his bridge is met with anger by people opposed to Trump's policies. Sometimes he says his bridge gets him invited to lunch at places such as Mar-a-Lago, Trump's mansion in Florida.

Cortis, 55, takes the good and the bad in stride. He hopes the bridge and its America-first theme helps to bridge the gap between the left and the right.

Although he's unemployed, lives with his mother and relies on donations to stay on the road, he's become one of Michigan's most recognized motorists and grassroots activists.

Lost bracelet and links to Trump

Cortis' connection to President Trump predates the election by nearly 14 years. While at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in the early 2000s, Cortis recalls losing a sentimental gold bracelet in the casino. After consulting a security guard, Cortis was told that his bracelet was in the hands of an unlikely patron - Donald Trump.

Cortis said Trump found the bracelet while walking through the casino and informed security that if anyone came forward seeking it, to put him in touch with the owner.

The bracelet was returned to Cortis by Trump later that evening, where they exchanged pleasantries over food and drinks at Trump's expense, Cortis said. Cortis believes Trump's handling of his bracelet spoke to his character and integrity and is symbolic of what President Trump is trying to share with America.

"He found gold and returned it. So I felt that that was the type of person that Donald Trump is.

"He's a billionaire, and now he's fighting to share his wealth, to share the American dream... so that other Americans can have the same opportunity to find their own gold," Cortis said.

Although he hasn't personally met with Trump in the wake of the 2016 election, he has met with many members of the administration and cabinet, based on the photo album on his phone.

The bridge he's towed near and far has caught the eye of President Trump as well, who posted a video of it in January driving down a street in New York.

"(The bridge) was Facebooked by President Trump on January 18 at about ten in the morning. It's approached about 3 million views, so it's pretty big deal there," Cortis said.

Posted by Donald J. Trump on Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Cortis' said his travels also landed him in the Mar-a-Lago residence of Trump's sister, Elizabeth, where she cooked and entertained for Cortis and his traveling associates during a recent visit to the resort.

"She made a delicious shrimp salad," he lauded. "It was nice."

How the Unity Bridge began

In February 2016, as the presidential election heated up, Pope Francis urged Trump to build bridges rather than walls.

The Pope's plea inspired Cortis to repurpose an estimated 5-ton steel bridge that once crossed a creek on his former property. He put an axle and wheels on the bridge and decorated it with messages calling for order and unification, as well as a miniature Statue of Liberty and a mounted Harley Davidson motorcycle to symbolize American manufacturing.

He included Trump's name on the float and the Unity Bridge was born. Cortis said the bridge symbolizes the need to bridge the gap between the diverging parties and represents what Cortis believes is missing from American culture.

The messages appearing on the bridge are sourced from more than 40,000 miles of travel and interacting with people across the country from varied racial and ethnic backgrounds, Cortis said.

Cortis said when he parks the bridge at a hotel or other location, people are curious about it and it gives him a way to deliver his message.

"I wake up in the morning at a hotel, people have breakfast, they're talking about the bridge," he says. "You talk to them about the messages. You talk to them about what can we do so that we can work together to inspire them to work together."

His journey has had its share of hiccups. While making a trip from Louisville to New York City, Cortis' 2004 Suburban with more than 436,000 miles on the odometer started smoking and leaking oil all over the road near Barboursville, West Virginia.

Dwayne Heck, the owner of Pinpoint Auto in Barboursville, said he and his mechanics spent nearly a day fixing the vehicle to get back on the road, even covering the repair expenses for Cortis.

"To me, I think it's a good thing he's trying to accomplish," Heck said of the bridge. "We'll try and help anybody we can. That's what we're based on. And if we all do not help each other, then none of us is going to make it."

He has since kept up with Cortis on the road, serving as an on-call mechanic for any mechanical problems the Unity Bridge may encounter as well as following him on social media.

Cortis has been the beneficiary of financial backing in Michigan as well.

A group of Brighton-area business owners bought Cortis a 2004 GMC Yukon XL to keep him on the road. Despite their goodwill, business owners said they are cautious about speaking in support of Cortis, fearing the potential repercussions from customers. Two of them declined to comment on the record and one did not respond to requests for comment.

Cortis has retrofitted his new tow vehicle to mimic the old, and he hopes to one day permanently park the original vehicle in either the Smithsonian or Henry Ford Museum.

The charity of business owners is only a fraction of his support. He primarily receives donations from as far away as Canada through a GoFundMe page. Between living expenses and mechanical upkeep while on the road, he estimates traveling to display the bridge has cost him around $100,000 so far.

"I mean, it's pretty close to that," he said. "Plus or minus, and it needs to continue on."

What motivates him

The sight of the Michigan Army National Guard patrolling outside of his home in 1967 on Strathmoor Avenue in Detroit is one that will forever linger with Cortis. As a 4-year-old, he naively waved to the passing soldiers as they made their patrol rounds due to the ongoing Detroit riots.

"That's when we had to leave," he said. "We left and that was it."

The Cortis family relocated to the suburb of Livonia to the home where he currently resides with his 85-year-old mother, Marilyn.

Likening his upbringing to that of a white picket fence lifestyle, Cortis says he is fighting to preserve American values, which in his eyes, have been reduced to a memory.

"People need to watch...some of these old school white picket fence movies about what the world, a dream world should be like," he said. "The world won't exactly be like that, but it would be nice to have people that have family values, patriotism towards their country. Respect."

Marilyn Cortis remembers her son as patriotic and driven from a young age, particularly recalling a fourth grade project at Hoover Elementary School where Cortis built a wedding cake entirely on his own.

His knack for cooking and drive were complimentary, and the combination landed Rob Cortis in Schoolcraft College's culinary arts program. After years in the culinary industry, he opened his own catering company where his primary customers were from the automotive industry.

Cortis established himself within the Detroit-area catering industry, but everything he worked for was derailed by the passing of NAFTA, he says. Cortis says that not only did he lose dependable clientele when automotive jobs left, but he began to see a spike in overdoses among customers and friends.

Attributing both the loss of jobs and surge of drug use to NAFTA, Trump's campaign promise to eliminate the trade agreement personally resonates with Cortis.

Cortis hopes that Americans "will see this as a golden opportunity to jump on board the Rob train, who is supporting the Trump train, and get life back in order."

Beyond his catering work, Cortis was owner of a banquet hall known as the Barnstormer that went out of business in 2011 after local officials said the building was not up to code. He says he couldn't get a loan for the work due to the poor economy.

On the road again

Since its inception in 2016, Cortis and his Unity Bridge have traveled through dozens of states, attempting to create dialogue between Americans wary of the president.

For each journey, Cortis spends significant time preparing mechanically and financially, attending numerous political fundraising events across southeast Michigan to get the word out about his campaign.

Though she is still proud of his work with the bridge, his mother's concerns are rooted slightly deeper than her son's, knowing the potential conflicts that may arise when he is on the road.

"I'm just a nervous wreck on this. I mean, I'm scared," she said. "It kind of gets to the point where, when they are two years old, you could take them, put them in the corner for three minutes so they calm down, settle down....I can't do it now."

However, Cortis isn't quite as fearful as his mother, insisting that despite the tense moments, his encounters don't escalate past verbal disagreement.

"I've never felt scared or endangered for my life. I could say that people start screaming at you, and then when you try and talk to them, they call you a racist, a fascist, and they cuss at you.

"They won't let you get a word in. I've run into people like that, but I'm not scared," he said.

When President Trump appeared in March at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Cortis and his bridge were outside the politically charged event. The bridge was parked amid hundreds of protesters, and Cortis often found himself at the center of their anger as he blared patriotic music from speakers and revved the motorcycle's engine.

What's next on his travels

On Tuesday, Sept. 12, Cortis and his bridge were in downtown Detroit for the opening of Little Caesars Arena and a concert by Kid Rock, which drew a small protest march outside the venue. Cortis added the letters spelling Kid Rock to his bridge to show his support for the controversial artist.

Cortis now plans to drive to an event dubbed the "Mother of All Rallies" in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Sept. 16, also called "The Woodstock of American Rallies." The rally was organized to show support for the president and to "defend American culture and values," according to the event's website.

Cortis believes his passion and motivation for uniting people behind President Trump is his driving force for barnstorming through the "fabric of America" in hopes of bringing Americans together.

Lacking a steady income, the cost of keeping the bridge on the road often trumps his will to spread his message.

"I can only do this with the support of the people," Cortis said. "I need your donations in order to keep it on the road, to come visit you."