A Day At The Museum

Yesterday all of us visited the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. Dearborn is  western suburb of Detroit and we came from the Northeast all the way across the city. I was glad we had a GPS to guide us. There were many turns and the traffic was very busy and fast. The museum is part of a complex called Greenfield Village. The museum has an Imax theater as well as exhibits and the village has Thomas Edison's Menlo Park lab and the Wright Brothers bicycle shop among other feaures. It also must have a steam powered train as we kept hearing the loud whistle all the time we were outside. You can also get a bus ride to a tour of the Rouge Truck Plant where you can see the whole auto manufacturing process in action, depending on production schedules.

Right off, let me say that this is a first-rate, Smithsonian class museum. The exhibits are extremely well done. Some of the topics are exhaustively covered and others are shorter but all are done well. We elected to visit just the museum and let the village go for another day. The museum itself will wear you out. We were there fours hours and we were all just beat by the time we left. We hurried through a lot of it but you keep telling yourself that you need to see it all. Really, to fully appreciate what is shown you need to do it over several visits so you can read all the signs and get the full picture. Of course, most of us just try to cram it all in.

The museum is heavy in transportation themes but also has exhibits of jewelry and clocks and a good one on the timeline of the development of the country from  the Declaration of Independence up through the Civil Rights struggle. For example, they have the bus that Rosa Parks boarded.

When you come in the main museum entrance you find yourself staring up at this DC-3.

They must have had quite a time getting that one in here and mounted. They have an interesting set of exhibits of aircraft and their place in history without trying to cover the whole range. For that you should visit the Air Force Air Museum in Dayton, Ohio.

They had a good Wright Flyer.

And they had a good exhibit of the barnstormer era.

Like any good museum they had a variety of interactive activities and displays. With the barnstormers you could stand on a biplane wing and watch a projection of what the wing walker would see. Good if you have a strong stomach. And then they also had a station with materials and instructions for folding a paper airplane and then a range to test it out on. There were also some dioramas such as this one depicting the Ford Trimotor Transport.

One end of the museum is given over to a display of rail transportation from the early carriages to the largest steam locomotive ever produced, the Allegheny Locomotive. This engine is just staggering in its size, even bigger than the "Big Boy" locomotives. They could haul a line of 160 cars loaded with coal or reach speeds of 60 mph.

They had two independent sets of six drive wheels that could each swivel to go around the curves making it an articulated locomotive. You can climb up into the cab and dream of highballing down the line.

Perhaps a quarter of the display space of the museum is devoted to automobiles, from the earliest to the latest. One interesting display is that of the various presidential limousines.

As you would expect, the display of automotive technology is definitive, containing all brands and technologies. It was also quite varied and had some early RV related exhibits as well.

I was pleased to find this display of the GMC unit that Charles Kurault used while producing his "On The Road" series.

One of the aspects of the museum that I particularly enjoyed was that while the various display contained the details of the item, they also gave the historical context of the item so you could see its' importance and why it might be displayed.

To extend the atmosphere of the transportation section, they had displays of classic advertising, including a McDonald's sign. Just to the rear was Lamy's Diner where we stopped to eat lunch.

They also had another lunch related icon.

One section was entitled Made In America and had displays of everything from automobiles to light bulbs to Eames chairs.

As a woodworker, I was interested to see the inclusion of this bandsaw and early planer.

The display extended to furniture and even cast iron stoves.

Another section of the Made In America display dealt with power, most specifically the development of the power generation that made manufacturing possible. It started with the invention of the steam engine to pump water out of coal mines in England and then progressed to the perfection of steam engines which allowed them to be efficient sources of the energy needed to run factories. I've never seen such a display of stationery engines, even at the Smithsonian. And they are huge. And there's lots of them. Some are so large that the building was designed around them. The largest is the last of the monsters that powered the Highland plant that made the model T's. It was so big that I couldn't get a meaningful picture of it. But here are some of the smaller ones.

There were other sections, too. One on agriculture with various tractors and other machines.

This is really an outstanding museum and a definite must-see if you can make it to this part of the country. It's going to take two days to see it, especially if you attend the Imax theater. There's quite a lot of parking and even a lot for RVs and other large vehicles. They have special displays throughout the year. One on the Titanic was just wrapping up this week. It cost $10 extra and was just more than we wanted to do. I'm really glad we had the opportunity to include this in our trip.

Frank...Who?

We arrived at our son's house on Friday evening after traveling some down the West coast of Michigan. We ran in and out of rain the whole day. We stopped at Friske Orchards for some jam and an apple pie to go with the sharp cheddar Wisconsin cheese I had bought just before crossing into the UP. We traveled down to Traverse City to look at the shops there but when we got there I found that I had misjudged the town. It is both a college town and heavily tourist oriented. All of the parking is meter controlled and there was absolutely no place to park a large vehicle. So we made a pass through the shopping district and hightailed out of town and across the state to our present location.

Saturday was cold and rainy and Sunday was cold and windy. But Monday we were determined to get out and see stuff again. We got up in the morning to greet frost on the ground but the day turned sunny and pretty decent after a while. We had been tipped off about a little town North of here and decided to check it out. After some time wandering the back roads we finally found Frankenmuth, MI.

Frankenmuth is a small country town settled by German immigrants in the mid 1800's. It was pretty much like any other small town until the mid 1900's when a trip back to the old country inspired some of the town's occupants to redecorate their buildings in the "Bavarian" style. This really changed the look and feel of the town as more buildings were redone and shops featuring the theme took off. Of course, tourist dollars are at the bottom of the makeover. But, they've done quite a job over the years. There's even a Bavarian McDonald's.

We parked at the visitor's center and wheeled around town from there. In front of the visitor's center was a creative example of what to do with hay bales.

We have been to other Bavarian style towns like Sugarcreek in Ohio and Helen in Georgia and I think that Frankenmuth has done the best job. It seems to have the right blend of shops and restaurants and is pretty easy to get around in. Many of the shops have the same China sourced stuff we've seen all across the country but there are others that are pretty unique. I saw an authentic pair of men's lederhosen (leather pants) for sale ($280). One restaurant features their "famous chicken dinner". Somehow when I think of German food, chicken doesn't spring to mind.

The lead picture today is of the Bavarian Inn, owned by the family that started the make over. It has three floors of dining capacity and features a glockenspiel tower.

A town like this had to embrace Octoberfest in the fall and they have the brewery influence to do it. We found the Lager Mill first.

It is a brewing museum and a beer store combined. They have one of the largest collection of European and domestic micro-brews I've come across. The highlight of the visit was discovering that they had the Founder's Breakfast Stout I had been searching for. This is a dark creamy beer with heavy coffee influence and is the best stout I've had so far.

At the other end of town is the Frankenmuth Brewery. They have a store where you can purchase beer and shirts and also a brewpub for dining. We ate lunch with tanks of beer looming over us.

I was primed for a traditional lunch and I was not disappointed. While Diane had the fish and chips I had to have Brats and kraut and beer.

Like many brewpubs they have some of the old plumbing on display. I don't know what this valving setup does but it sure looked neat.

After lunch we walked the upper part of town stopping at a cheese store, a woolen store and some others that were very nice, if pricey at times. Of course, I couldn't come away without some good beer so a full case of Frankenmuth Octoberfest now rides in the coach.

Now we'll coast for a couple of days and then take another look around.

Catching Our Breath

Yesterday we left Appleton, WI and crossed over into Michigan to drive the scenic route along the North shore of Lake Michigan which took us through the Upper Peninsula. At one point we stopped at a rest area for a break and I took Curley down to the shore for a look. There were threatening clouds all day but almost no rain. The wind was whipping the waves and it was pretty chilly looking out over the water. I was struck by the fact that just a few days ago, we were in country where every drop of water is precious and here I was staring out at one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the world. I couldn't see the far shore.

We crossed the Macinaw Bridge over into MI proper. There's a toll for crossing the bridge. For motorhomes it was $5 per axle, so it cost us $10. They were repainting the bridge so it was mostly down to one lane all the way across. There was also a high wind advisory for trucks and RVs so we went 20mph all the way. Here's what it looks like from our campground.

We're camped at Roberts Landing Campground just North of Cheboygan, MI. It is very nice and while there are a few other rigs set up here, I think we're the only ones home today. I got up early and watched the sun come up over the lake.

It's been very quiet here and I've been taking my time getting going this morning. Just now it's raining lightly and I'm having an extra cup of coffee before we hit the road. Today we'll go down the West coast a ways through Petosky and down to Traverse City. I had wanted to visit the Founders Brewery in Grand Rapids but it looks as though they don't have brewery tours. That being the case, I'm going to try to find some of their beer in Traverse City. Then we'll probably make a beeline for our son's place further South after that. With a little luck we'll find a seafood place to have fish fry for supper. Here's what our setup looks like today:

Rush and More

Well, there it is! We saw Mount Rushmore. And if you haven't yet, you should. We left Sturgis, fueled up in Rapid City and drove into the Black Hills to see the Presidents. It really is very impressive and very well done. The visitors center has a very informative movie and interesting exhibits. The gift shop even had one of the living rock drillers there that you could meet and talk too. I'm glad we went.

After the trip up the hill to see the Presidents, we went up a whole bunch of other hills. They don't call it the Black HILLS for nothin'. I spent a lot of time in second gear. We went generally South and wound up taking the scenic Wildlife Loop Road through Custer State Park. You know, there are over 1500 bison in the park and we didn't see a one. The roundup is this weekend so they must have all been in hiding. But we did see some turkey and deer and antelope.

About half-way through the loop, we were accosted by this group of highway men ...er donkies. They were begging for food from all the cars.

After we left the park we found our way back up to I90 and headed East about 50 miles where we made a stop at Wall Drugs.

Since it was getting late, we ate dinner in their Western Art Cafe and then spent the night in their parking lot. I didn't notice when we parked that the main rail line goes through about 100' from where we stopped. But I noticed in the middle of the night!

The next morning we headed out of town on route 240, which is a loop road that took us through Badlands National Park. It's only about a 30 mile drive but you'd think you left this world from the look of the scenery.

They also had some of the hiding bison but we did manage to come upon this group of wild sheep resting at the side of the road.

Back out onto I90 and down the road. Our next stop was in Mitchell, home to the famous Corn Palace. Each year a theme is chosen and designed to be constructed of nothing but different types and colors of corn. Over 275,000 ears of corn are sawed down the middle and attached to the front of the building to make the murals.

And, as always, there are photo ops.

Mitchell is also one of the locations for Cabela's outfitters, so we just had to stop and see if there was anything we couldn't live without. I guess you know the answer to that.

That wrapped up our sightseeing for a little bit and we went on to a Cracker Barrel in Sioux Falls, SD to boondock for the night. The best night we've ever spent at a CB. This morning we hit the road after once again fueling up and made tracks East to the tune of 475 miles.

Tonight we are at a Walmart parking lot located in Appleton, Wisconsin. A storm has just blown through and tomorrow looks to be anther great day. From here we're headed to the UP, Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We expect to end the day tomorrow just into MI proper after crossing over the Mackinaw Bridge. Then it will take a couple of days of wandering down the West side before turning East to our son's place. That should put us there on Saturday. Right on time.

That's A Big Rock

Today, we traveled to Devil's Tower National Monument. Ever since Close Encounters, I've been one of those people who vowed to one day see it in person and now I've done it. Pictures don't do it justice. It's very imposing in person, partly because by the time you can get out of your car, you're right at the base of it looking nearly straight up. The visitors' center has telescopes mounted so you watch the technical climbers making their way up the face.

The Indian creation story for the existence of the rock tells of some Indian maidens who were chased by a bear and climbed onto a large flat rock. They prayed for help and the gods elevated the rock so that the bear couldn't get them but he scratched the grooves in the sides with his claws. The girls went all the way up into the sky to became the stars in the Pleiades constellation. The visitor center has a painting illustrating the story.

The area is still held as a sacred site by the Indians and they have religious gatherings here during the year. There was a tepee that just fit Diane.

In the field at the base of the tower, there is a prairie dog town with signs posted to please not feed the prairie dogs. I'm not sure how much good it's doing as they are pretty approachable, not to mention fat.

This guy wouldn't quite come all the way out.

Visiting Devil's Tower was a detour that took us over 150 miles off our path but it was well worth the effort.

When I last posted, we had settled down for the night in Loveland, CO after visiting the Denver Zoo. The next day we left town Northbound and drove about 100 miles up the road to Guernsey, WY after stopping just out of Cheyenne for fuel. At Guernsey, we visited the Wagon Ruts and Register Cliff historical sites. This is at the location where the Oregon Trail crossed the North Platte River. The sandstone hills on the riverbank are deeply scored with the marks of the wagons being pushed over them. Some of the gouges are over four feet deep.

A couple of miles from the ruts is the Register Cliff where pioneers scratched their names and sometimes dates in the soft sandstone. Of course, now every yahoo that comes by thinks they have to do the same. But some of the originals have survived thanks to some chain link fence. Here's one with the date of 1859.

After leaving Guernsey, we returned to I25 North and continued on across some of the most barren ground we have seen on this trip. Eventually, we arrived in Lusk, WY and a modest campground to stay there for the night. It had been a long hot day with temps in the 90's and we had come 250 miles and we were beat. But a good night's sleep had us back on the road this morning headed North once more.

After leaving Devil's Tower, we returned Southeast to I90 and into South Dakota. It was still early in the afternoon so we took a little roundabout way that lead us down Spearfish Canyon and then into Lead, a former gold mining town, and then through Deadwood. Deadwood had recently been converted to a gambling destination and now mines gold from the tourists. We wound up in Sturgis, of motorcycle rally fame. Tomorrow we will head down to Rapid City and a fuel stop and then on to Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park where we hope to see some wildlife.