A Day at THE FORD

Or as we still call it Greenfield Village and The Henry Ford Museum. It was going to be in the mid 80’s and cloudy so a perfect day to spend walking around. They redid the entire Village two years ago and they did a fantastic job, it’s ten time better then before and the way it’s set up the people entering can now go in three different directions so there is very little crowding at he various areas.



They had the old steam engine out today which is nice but when it takes off you don’t want to be around because of all the black soot and smoke it puts out.







They now have a fleet of about 50 Model T’s that are always driving around the streets along with the horse drawn buss and of course the couples out for a little bicycle ride.











Walking around to the different buildings and homes they have characters there to explain the history of the site, here we’re listening to the Wright Bros on their front porch right when they returned from Kitty Hawk telling us about their successful flights.





Other parts of the village have many types of business, Grist Mill, Wool Spinning Shop, Glass Blowing, Lumbering, Iron Works, Pottery, Rail Road Round House, the Firestone Farm (of tire fame), a plantation with Slave Quarters and a ton of others things to see and do.


For your safety members of the US Army patrol the entire park.









After Lunch we followed the marching band to the back of the park were the Game of Nine (baseball) was getting ready to be played, to day it was the Village La Ti Da’s against the Wyandotte Stars, notice how they spell it on their uniforms (Y& . ). During the second end they all came to a stop to salute the train and passengers as it made its way across right field.




After the game we headed towards Independence Hall, which is the entrance to the Ford Museum, they have a special Chocolate exhibit which everybody wanted to see, but they only gave you one little sample so it wasn’t really worth it.

Homer, No not Simpson... Michigan

We spent the week of the 4th house and pet sitting at the kids place in Wixom, this gave Cathy a chance to do a little gardening and I spent a few days running the motor home around for tires, brakes and front end alignment. Which means we spent a lot of money.

When the kids got home we gave Nick and Rach two days to recover before we threw them in the motor home and took off on a road trip to Homer, Michigan, look it up. We stayed at a great resort that had everything a kid could want and everything was free, Nick hit the putt-putt course probably 50 times, while Rach spent every minute she could in the pool making new friends.

We did a few side trips from the park, one to the state museum in Lansing, Nick wanted to go to Indiana so we did a little trip across the border to Pokegon State Park for a picnic. We also went to the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek and a late night trip to the Cascades Fountain in Jackson.
Some picture follow of the fun they had.

This how we spent 90% of our time while we at the park. Putt-putt then a few hours swimming, then some time in the hot tub then a few minutes in the dry sauna then back to pool, some nights till after 9pm.












The kids wrapped up in some animal skins. A future Auto Show model and NicElvis at the Motown exhibit.










At Binder Park Zoo, you can buy crackers from the ranger to feed the Giraffe, you go anywhere near the fence and they're there with their tongue hanging out.






Nick feeding a pygmy goat and Rach at the turtle rodeo.
















View from the bottom of the cascade, I put the insert in so you can see Nick & Rach at the very top. The cascades as it starts to get dark. They open at 8pm, start music around 9:15 and then at 10pm they do a computerized show where the lights and music are in sync, this goes until 11pm.


Just playing around a little, this is the first time that I have tried posting a video, this is the Cascade Fountains at Jackson, Michigan. The video was hand held and the bugs were starting to get me.

Catching Up

It’s been since Columbia S. Carolina since I’ve done anything with the blog some I’ll do a little catching up here. We really haven’t been very busy doing too much, just a lot of sitting around and resting up.

When we left Columbia we drove up to Waynesville. N.C. parked right on a nice little mountain stream and goofed off for two weeks, we did a few mountain drives to some little towns and some friends from Green Bay stopped in for a few days so we did a lot of catching up with them.
Then it was on to Knoxville, we always stop in Knoxville because of McKay’s book store, this is the best used book store in the country, we get there at 10 in the morning and leave for lunch about 1:30, and we went there twice in 5 days. Some more fiends from Shelby Ohio stopped in here for two days on their way home, so we did a bunch of running around with them.

Our next move was to Lexington, Ky , we stopped here so Cathy could get some genealogy research done over in Frankfort, and there’s a great Mexican Restaurant in Georgetown. The Viet Nam War Monument in Frankfort is the most unique one in the country. It’s a giant sundial with the names of the Kentucky soldiers KIA engraved in the concert surrounding it; it’s designed so that the shadow of the dial points to the soldiers name on the anniversary of his death and only on the anniversary of his death. The MIA’s names are located right at the base in front where the shadow will never fall. A Viet Nam Vet who became an architect with the GI Bill designed it. It is well worth the drive over to see this.


We also drove down to The Civil War Site Camp Nelson. They are just starting to restore this site and are doing a great job and have tons of things planned for the next few years. This Fort had a life span of three years start to finish, it was 4000 acres, had over 300 buildings and running water through out the camp, when it was closed everything was dismantled and moved except for one bldg that was there when the camp started, the former property owners house. An interesting history to Google.








A week off non-stop rain in Springfield, Ohio so Cathy could do some more research in Columbus and right now were sitting in Wapakoneta, the weather finally started to dry and warm up, just in time for all the amature campers to come out for the holiday week-end. When we got here the park was empty but Friday night they started pulling in by the droves so that now there are kids and dogs and campfires everywhere you look. It’s funny but when you start traveling full time you really start to dislike the holidays, it’s like a bunch of strangers show up in your backyard and start using your grill and pool and spa and everything else and then Monday they all leave without even saying thanks.

Almost forgot, I heard on one of the travel forums that the Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne Indiana was closing there doors May 31st, this museum was started about 100 years ago by the Lincoln Mutual Life Insurance Company, it appears that the new owners decided to pull there support so the museum will be history. We decided that we better get over there so we did a day trip and toured the museum, glad we did. Since the Botanical gardens were just down the street a block or two we also went there but just did the indoor stuff since it was really cold and windy







Next stop SE Michigan and a summer of Grandkids.