Bill & Dawn's Travel Tales

An absorbing day visiting the Henry Ford Museum Of American Innovation. We started with a docent led tour of the main exhibits and then spent our time looking more deeply at the exhibits and the limited time exhibit “Star Trek – Exploring New Worlds“. 

The museum includes Presidential Limos, including the car in which JFK died, the car Ronald Reagan was bundled into when he was shot (the bundling broke his ribs and probably saved his life as neither he nor the Secret Service realised that he had been shot) and the Brougham carriage favoured by Teddy Roosevelt…

… the chair in which Abraham Lincoln sat in the Ford’s Theatre watching the play “My American Friend” on the night he was assassinated…

… the actual bus in which Rosa Park refused to give up her seat which was the catalyst that led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the rise to prominence of a young 26 year old Martin Luther King Jr …

… cars and trains from across the years …

… The Golden Rod which held the land speed record between 1965 and 1991…

Many of the above and other exhibits covered or related to things we have learned in our previous road trips, helping to cement our understanding of this country and its pride in its achievements. Did you know that when the automobile was in development in the early twentieth century, they were experimenting with gas, electric, steam and gasoline powered variants? What goes around, comes around?

There is a Ford Model T that is built each day by visitors to the Museum and dismantled every morning by Museum staff to be rebuilt that day.

And, apologies kids, but 4 weeks into this trip, we enjoyed our first sundae from the Cold Stone Creamery tonight! Mmmm…

As today was expected to be warm and dry our second visit on our all access pass was to Ford’s Greenfield Village. The Village is an 80 acre open air celebration of inventors and innovators whose aim is to serve as a living reminder that anything is possible.

Henry Ford was a bit of a collector who created the Village in 1929 to display his collection of buildings that includes the Wright Bros home and their bicycle shop where they developed the Wright Flyer, Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park Complex, the oldest surviving windmill in the US and Sarah Jordan’s Boarding House which was one of the first buildings to have the, then, new electric lighting.

An interesting story, Edison was not the first to invent the incandescent electric light. Around 20 others had done so before him. So why is he credited with the invention of the light bulb? After experimenting with around a 1000 different filaments he was the first to invent a filament that burned for more than 3 seconds – his first workable carbon coated cotton filament lasted 13.5 hours as he realised that a filament would last much longer in a vacuum.  

Edison visited his old lab from Menlo Park when he was 80 years old, 48 years after his invention of the light bulb.  They gave him a seat to sit on while they re-enacted the lighting of the first lightbulb. Afterwards Henry Ford was asked what he wanted to do with the seat. He told them to nail it to the floor so it would always be in the place where Edison had sat on it. It remains there today – even when the floor in the lab had to be replaced in 1984 they cut out a square around the chair and left it in place while they replaced the rest of the floor.

We also enjoyed rides in an original Ford Model T car and a Model A bus. Mind you original is probably a relative term like Only Fools And Horses Trigger’s original broom which only had 17 new heads and 14 new handles in its time! It’s the thought that counts.

The next few days are based around activities involving Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company. Its not surprising really as Dearborn and Detroit are synonymous with the motor industry and, of course, Motown music.

Today we started with a visit to Ford’s Rouge Assembly plant in Dearborn. The plant produces the F series trucks – the top selling trucks in the US. Our tour started with an introductory video which gave us the background to Henry Ford establishing his initial production plant here, how it weathered the storms of WWII and recession to what we saw today. it was intriguing to learn that Ford was the ‘inventor’ of the assembly line as we know it today, where the employees stay more or less in the same place, and it’s the product which moves from process to process. When they first produced the Ford model T the rate of production was one every 90 minutes, and they were all the same spec. Today, the plant produces models to order, each one meeting the specification of a particular customer (colour, moonroof, bonnet styles, engine sizes, etc) and they produce 1200 a day, roughly one a minute, which are despatched to the dealer within 12 hours. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures of the production line.

This plant is an end to end process, taking in raw materials and manufacturing the aluminium and other parts on site. We were able to walk around a viewing platform looking at assembly today – understandably we weren’t able to view the early parts of the process – smelting of the aluminium, pressing of the parts and painting. We found it quite absorbing. 

The latter part of the afternoon was spent taking a tour around downtown Detroit, although we didn’t spot anything we felt worth stopping for. We also took a look at a couple of other interesting roadside sights Bill had identified when planning this trip – the Motown Historical Museum (Berry Gordy Jr’s former home and Motown Records original HQ which was unfortunately closed today), Michigan Central Station, which closed and was abandoned to the elements  in 1988.  It was recently acquired by Ford, who have just started a four year $350m redevelopment of it as the centrepiece of a planned innovation campus. And nearby there is a Geodesic Dome house. It had been built by a family in 2000, and they had apparently been happy to show people around it. but they sold it in 2012, and it was sold again last year. It looks unloved now, though. 

We also found ourselves at the border with Canada but the Sat Nav pulled us back at the last minute.

So a busy and interesting day. 

The Gerald R Ford Presidential Museum didn’t open until noon today, so we took a bit of a drive around Downtown Grand Rapids and some of the suburbs. They reflect what we’ve seen in many larger towns, downtown is modernised and pleasant, whereas outside there are areas which were constructed in the earlier parts of the 20th century which have become more run down and left empty in some instances. Stopped for a walk in Fish Ladder Park, to find it takes about 5 minutes to walk around! It’s really mostly for the fishermen. 

Spent an absorbing couple of hours in the Presidential Museum and its grounds. Thought provoking to remind ourselves of the situation in which Ford came to the Presidency (he replaced Spiro Agnew when he resigned as Vice President in ‘73 after being charged with tax evasion, and then Nixon when he resigned due to the Watergate scandal). But also how he handled things in the aftermath of Watergate and what he did towards resolution of the Cold War – in some instances ‘going with what he felt was the right thing to do’, which wasn’t always what his advisors felt.

He also pardoned Nixon as he felt the country needed to come together and move on without the distraction of an investigation and trial of a former President. The electorate were unhappy with his decision and it is believed that his decision cost him the next election.  Ironically, historians and even Teddy Kennedy, a Democrat, who was highly critical of the decision ultimately saw the sense of it and honoured him for his courage.

Then a 150 mile interstate drive to Dearborn, a district within the city of Detroit, where we will be staying for 4 nights.

We bade a fond farewell to Milwaukee and headed off for Grand Rapids. Today, we travelled through 3 states; Illinois, Indiana and finally Michigan. We’d scheduled two stops today, the first after only 35 miles – a Ghiradelli Chocolate store! As Andrew and Vicky will attest, it’s really good chocolate, which we first discovered in San Francisco many years back. We treated ourselves to some chocolates to bring home, but were disappointed that we couldn’t indulge in one of their gorgeous sundaes as it was only an outlet store. 

Our second stop was the childhood home of Michael Jackson and his family. It’s just a regular home still beautifully kept in a run down residential suburb of Gary, Indiana. Unfortunately it’s not possible to see inside.

What shocked us most about Gary was the dereliction and abandonment we saw throughout the town as we continued to drive through. Apparently, Gary was founded in 1906 by US Steel; but suffered corruption and economic disparities from the beginning. Racial segregation and the subsequent protests together with competition from overseas steel producers resulted in layoffs and increased crime rates. To cut a long story short, the precipitous economic drop led to the devastation of the city. It was really so sad to see. 

Interestingly enough, tonight we watched the tv programme Undercover Boss.  This particular episode went undercover with the Mayor of Gary Indiana! 

Our final 150 miles drive was uneventful but did include a change of time zone once again; this time we lost an hour as the clocks went forward. We finally reached Grand Rapids at 6:30 this evening. 

The day did not get off to a good start.  We decided to walk from the hotel to City Hall to meet up with our bus tour.  As we were walking from the hotel we had to run the gauntlet of aggressive locals hissing and spitting at us ….

Okay they were protecting their chicks, so I guess we had to forgive them.

Having located the City Hall, we were met by our tour owner and guide, Mike who runs small group tours of up to 14 people. As the tourist season started on Memorial Day ( i.e 4 days ago) our group today was only 6 so it was a fairly personal tour.  Mike’s tours are more laid back than most in that you get out of the bus regularly to take advantage of photo ops that cannot be easily seen from the bus as well as cheese tastings and a craft brewery tour and beer tasting – more of this later.

As with many US cities, there are some lovely Regency and Victorian homes; beautiful public spaces and parks and a respect for their history. The tour also covered a number of the local neighbourhoods and the obligatory stop for selfies with what Dawn and I consider to be the worst ‘Fonz’ statue ever created – really looks nothing like Henry Winkler. Happy Days was set in Milwaukee as was its spin off Laverne and Shirley.  

We also stopped at a former lighthouse on Lake Michigan. Mike gave a good and knowledgable commentary, answers to everyone’s questions and was very friendly throughout. (Not so the gull who ‘pooped’ on us when we were viewing the Fonz statue!) 

Our final stop was at the Lakefront Brewery, one of 37 craft breweries in Milwaukee.  Their biggest seller, surprisingly, is a gluten free beer. It makes up over 20% of the company’s sales.

Lunched at the local Market, enjoying the sunshine, the people watching and the ‘road names’ on the chalk board of the bar on the opposite side of the road.    We then decided to take a stroll through the Historic 3rd Ward where many of the old warehouses, like many other buildings in downtown, have been carefully restored and ‘repurposed’. 

It’s been good to see how the city is repurposing old buildings and bringing derelict industrial areas back into use. Have to say that we’ve gotten to like this place in the short time we’ve been here. 

This afternoon was spent visiting the Harley Davidson Museum. Although not motorcycle aficionados we enjoyed the story of how the iconic firm began – four mates with an aspiration to build themselves a motorised bicycle in a 10x15ft shed in Milwaukee. A chronology of its ups and downs, a look at the role of Harvey Davidson motorcycles in films over the years and even a look at this year’s models. The majority of the motorcycles are unrestored as the company managed to collect examples that are in almost mint condition. Amongst the models on display is the FatBoy used by Arnold in Terminator 2 and the special model they made for the 1940s Steve Rogers in the 2008 Captain America movie.

We decided to stay on at the Museum to enjoy a meal at their Motors Restaurant.  The restaurant makes some of the best BBQ we’ve tasted since we arrived. Best surprise of all was a pint of the excellent Motor Oil Coffee Stout produced exclusively for HD’s Motor Restaurant by the brewery we visited earlier, Lakefront Brewery. And whilst Scots are criticised for their Deep fried Mars Bars, we have to say that the deep fried Oreos we tried tonight were actually quite tasty!

Today we made our way to Wisconsin – Milwaukee to be exact. On the advice of the gentleman we spoke with in the Visitor Information Center on Tuesday, we took the scenic route. Part of this was along a route marked as the Great River Road – we were following the Mississippi River. We could see that in many parts the river was well swollen, covering the trunks of trees by a couple of feet, at least. Drove through some small towns and happened to stop for a bite for lunch in a town called Pepin, which was apparent named after one of the places in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books. We found a local Mom and Pop cafe – the only one in town we could see anyhow. But food was home cooked and pretty good. 

Basically we just enjoyed the scenery today. Tomorrow it’s off to explore Milwaukee and find out what happened to the beer that made the city famous.

Hurrah, no travelling today. Firstly walked down to the Sculpture Garden, which included using a footbridge which traversed 16 lanes of traffic. It was good to see a bunch of school kids being shown the park. 

Explored the Minneapolis Skywalk – well some of it. It is 9 miles of continuous, enclosed second level walkways and bridges connecting 80 blocks in the city; it’s a sort of street level above the street, allowing folks to move around when the weather is inhospitable outside. It has its own collection of shops and food places – amazing how many people seemed to be walking around with their lunches in hand! There are not many shopping areas where the streets are carpeted.  There was a notable lack of litter. 

Found another mural, this one of Bob Dylan, reflecting his transition from “young troubadour” to Nobel laureate. 

Sadly we then decided to visit the Mall of America. It’s the largest (floor space wise) mall in the US, possibly because it contains Nickelodeon Universe, the largest indoor theme park in the US, a Sea Life Aquarium and a Lego Exhibit.  It also contains all the usual suspects you’d expect in an American shopping mall, although we’d swear there were some stores with more than one unit. Sadly there were also a reasonable number of closed units including the former Sears. 

When writing this blog we decided that we would try not to mention the restaurants we eat at.  Well today we have made an exception as we ate at Wahlburgers. You may know the actors Donnie Wahlburg (we know him from Blue Bloods, but he was also a founder member of the boy band New Kids on the Block) and Mark Wahlburg (Planet Of The Apes, The Italian Job, The Departed, amongst others): they and their chef brother Paul own this chain.  Wahlburgers is the subject of a long running TV reality show currently on its 10th and final season – which we are watching as I write. So, you’ve just got to try it! It’s a casual dining place with a bar rather than a McDonalds wannabe.  The food wasn’t bad at all but, in our view, no better than their competition.

A leisurely start today to ensure we didn’t hit whatever rush hour traffic there was. A slight detour from the freeway to stop and see the Rothesay Prairie chicken – well not a real one, they’re pretty hard to find. But fortunately Rothesay is leading the way in restoring some of the Prairie back to what it used to be to allow this bird to thrive. 

After our third lunch in succession at Perkins – their fruit pies are delicious – and we were struggling to find anywhere else – we arrived in Minneapolis earlier than we’d thought we might. But that was a good thing as it gave us the opportunity to visit the Tourist Information Center and explore some of the city in this afternoon’s sunshine. In particular we visited St Anthony Falls, the only falls on the Mississippi River; we found the Mary Tyler Moore statue and some “rock men” outside the Courthouse, and of course a mixture of old and new skyscrapers. 

Today we thought we might have trouble getting around as heavy traffic was expected as it was the Memorial Day holiday.

First port of call today was the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Homes Tour. We both remember the TV series “Little House on the Prairie” (just) and were aware of the series of children’s books of the same name, but not of Laura’s background. Well we are now! It was fascinating to hear of Ingall’s life which gave her the experiences on which she based her books; but also an insight into the semi-nomadic lifestyle of the people in the late 1800s, moving from job to job, following developments such as the building of the railroads, farming hardships, etc. The docent certainly knew her stuff, and reading the supplementary information on the walls was pretty redundant. We got a good feeling for the hardships of Prairie life. It also surprised us that Laura didn’t actually start writing the books until she was into her 60s.

A brief stop for lunch broke the 200 mile journey to Fargo. We’re here basically to ensure we visited North Dakota and Nebraska! Called in at the Visitor Center to see the notorious woodchipper from the 1996 comedy film “Fargo”, by the Cohen Brothers. Also discovered a Celebrity Walk Of Fame with celebrity signatures and hand / footprints preserved in cement. It was started by a local man in the early 80’s, but when he ran out of room it was moved to the Convention & Visitors Center. Some fairly famous names, including Bert & Ernie (from Sesame Street) and a pretty famous singer called Neil Diamond.