Our Michigan Tour Begins

Wednesday, September 3
Yesterday we met our friends Gary and Judy Mosholder at a rest stop on the Ohio Turnpike and we continued together to the first campground of our trip in Monroe, Michigan.  After supper we spent some time discussing the plans for the coming three plus weeks of travels and then called it a night.

This morning we were up and off for a full day starting with a drive around Grosse Isle so they could see one of the beautiful residential areas "downriver" as well as the Detroit River and Canada's shore just a short distance away.  It also gave them a chance to see a freighter heading down toward Lake Erie.  Michigan sees lots of freighter traffic moving through its Great Lakes going as far as Chicago or Minnesota.

From there we continued north to Dearborn to The Henry Ford, a huge museum complex built by Henry Ford back in 1929.

Next door is Greenfield Village which is an outdoor museum that they will tour near the end of our trip.  It simply is impossible to do both in the same day and do either of them justice.  Our plan had been to also do the Rouge Tour to watch Ford trucks being built but we discovered they were in the midst of change over for the new models so are presently closed.

But that was just as well as we pretty much closed up the museum when we left after a full day of seeing all it had to offer.

The inside of the museum is quite beautiful as you walk the long hallways to the huge inner complex.

At that entrance the first thing you see is the "cornerstone" that really isn't a cornerstone but rather a huge cement block on which Henry Ford walked leaving footprints and planted the shovel and his good friend Thomas Edison signed his name.  This was done on the 50th anniversary of the invention of the light bulb by Edison (the lab is on display in Greenfield Village next door)

We started our tour looking at Presidential limos including the one John F Kennedy was riding in when he was assasinated back in 1963.

 Included in that display area was the coach that Teddy Roosevelt used when he was president.  He didn't like cars.

We had the opportunity to climb up into the cab of a train engine and sit in the "driver" seat and wonder how he could possibly even see the track ahead as it was such a long distance to the front of the engine and such a tiny window to view through.

Among other trains on display was this one that looked like a series of old stage coaches hooked together.

After checking out some of the other trains including a huge model train layout, we moved over to the huge variety of cars, trucks and RVs that were on display.  It was especially fun for us RVers to see some of the old models that they had including this early VW bus with its "snappy awning."

And one of the motorhomes that Charles Karult used on his tours around the country

There was a large display of race cars from some of the very earliest including the one that Henry Ford drove with the hope of winning enough money to make his third and finally successful start up car company. 

Of course cars grew in popularity and created another whole area of "needs" including motels to stay in while traveling and places to eat out while out and about.

As the sign says, this diner was actually open for lunch right out there on the museum floor.  It was early so we passed it up for yet more touring that included samples of cars from the beginning to the present and a short movie in the "drive in theater".

Then we moved into an entire area about planes that included this recreated Wright brothers plane

a whole segment on barnstorming that included a flyer hanging up side down on the wing of his plane and an opportunity to stand in on a ramp in front of a screen and experience the feel of flying upside down, rolling, diving, etc.  Even though you knew it wasn't really happening the stomach did flipflops!

Other displays recognized famous flyers such as Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh as well as the first trip to the North Pole

After lunch in the museum's cafe, we then spent time covering our American history beginning with the first settling of our country, the creation of the Declaration of Independence and continuing on through the Civil War, women's rights and segregation.  Among the displays were George Washington's trunk bed that he used during the Revolutionary War and the theater chair that Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot at the Ford Theater in Washington DC.

And this is the bus that Rosa Parks was riding in when she was arrested

In an area that featured many of the items invented and built over the years in the United States, there was an old Model T that is constantly taken apart and then various visitors are invited to help put it together.  By the time we arrived only 3 wheels were needed. Gary put one on and Ken did the other.

This round home, the only one of its kind, was originally built in Kansas and has now been moved and recreated at the museum.  It was an attempt to make an efficient, modern, inexpensive, and yet flexible home that simply didn't catch on.

This was the living room

  And here is the kitchen.  Can't find the refrigerator?  That is because it is drawers under the counter.

The well known wiener mobile is also on display

As were several huge doll houses

 We had a short wait till the IMAX film, DDay was due to start so we wandered outside to check out two old cars in the lot and of course the statue of Henry Ford himself who was responsible for creating this whole complex.

Then following the film, we enjoyed dinner at the bd Mongolian Grill a few blocks away before heading back to the campground for the night.