Adventure Caravans Traversing Michigan Tour 6/24/15

Detroit Tour Day 2

We slept in this morning because it is a carpool/ride share/do your own thing day and we were tired from not sleeping very much during the severe thunderstorm night before last.  Once we got going, we headed back to Detroit and the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.

The Henry Ford Museum is very large.  It covers the history and development of energy and technology in the USA.  There are many original and one of a kind items.  There are also a lot of progression samples, such as these vehicles used by U. S. Presidents.

President Theodore Roosevelt's Carriage

President Ronald Reagan's Car

There are more cars, but, of course, I can't put everything in the blog.  There are some highlights that I found interesting because they jogged my memory about something or I learned something that I hadn't known or realized.  For instance, I remember listening to Charles Kuralt's "On the Road" program on the radio and TV.  Well, they have the last of several motorhomes that he used on display.  Interestingly, neither he nor the crew that traveled with him ever slept in any of the motorhomes.  Each of the vehicles was modified into a broadcast studio and was used to transport the crew around the back roads for his stories.

1975 FMC Motorcoach

Many of you will recognize this vehicle.  It is the 1952 prototype vehicle, built in the original 1937 Oscar Meyer design, that was used for the 1988 fleet of Wienermobiles.

1952 Wienermobile

Also in the automobile section of the museum, is this display of race cars from over time.

And here are samples of some of the first baby car seats and more modern versions

Of course, when you travel by automobile, you need to stop for food.  Here are a couple photos with that theme.

Multiple signs for different fast food

This is a working diner where you can buy snacks in the museum

In the agriculture section of the Museum. there are old and newer pieces of farm equipment.

Old farm equipment

Newer farm equipment

In the railroad section, I hadn't realized that this type of train was made back in the beginning.  It looks like a bunch of stagecoaches hooked up behind an early steam engine.

Engine for the Dewitt Clinton train

Carriages used as railroad cars

Then there was this interesting snow removal engine.

Canadian Pacific Snowplow

Model railroad.  This is about one-third of the display.

There was a aircraft section that contained this original Wright Brothers first airplane.

Wright Brothers' first flight plane

This airplane, below, looked like it had corrugated metal covering the outside of the fuselage and wings.  It also had three propellers, one on each wing and one on the nose.  

This helicopter never made it into production.  This is the only one made.  It did everything except fly forward, however, they figured that out eventually, but it was not a profitable design.

1940 Sikorsky VS-300 Helicopter

Thomas Newcomen built the first successful steam engine in 1710.  The power section of the Henry Ford Museum has the oldest surviving steam engine in the world, the Newcomen Engine built in 1760. This machine was used to pump water out of mines.  The first photo shows the pump mechanism that would be put down in the mine to suck the water to the surface.  The second shows the other end of the machine where the steam forces the gears and levers, etc. to crank the pump up and down to bring the water up from the mine.

Newcomen engine

Newcomen engine

This interesting painted steam engine was cast with arches.  No one knows for sure, but it is thought that perhaps the manufacturer wanted it to fit into the Gothic style that was popular at the time, around 1855.  It was used to produce electricity - 150 horsepower or 112 kilowatts/ hr. at 32 revolutions/minute.

Stationary Steam Engine, 1855

Before we left the museum, we had to check out the House of the Future (as predicted in 1946).  Here is the floor plan.  It is a prefab house made in a circular design and made from the new materials of aluminum, plastic, Plexiglas, and Naugahyde.  It had unique features like rotating closets and many compact, efficient storage solutions.

Circular floor plan of the 2 bedroom house

Outside view

Here are a couple of photos of the inside of the house.

Revolving closet

Kitchen

Living/Dining room

This is only a prototype.  The homes never went into production.

We left the Henry Ford Museum and walked over to Greenfield Village, which is next  to the Museum.  We were expected back at camp at 5:30 PM and were running out of time to see much more, so we decided to take the train that circles the village then see if we had enough time to see anything else.This is the train being pulled by an Edison coal-fired Engine.

Edison Steam Engine.

Shoveling coal into the firebox

Away we go...  See the smoke and steam coming from the smokestack?

This is some of the soot that landed on my backpack and everything and everyone else.

Here are some of the scenes along the way around the track encircling the Greenfield Village.

An old farm

Some of the homes and an old truck

When we got off the train, we walked through some of the village.  Everything has been brought in from the 1800's to early 1900's.  The volunteers walk around in period costume.  There are horses and horse drawn carriages and early autos and trucks traversing the streets.  Here are some of the things we saw.  

Horse-drawn carriage and windmill on the farm

Clock tower

Super cool playground

We had to get back to the campground so we could have the spaghetti dinner that the Adventure Caravans staff had prepared for us.  It was delicious.  After that, we started to prepare to move to Lansing, MI, tomorrow, for the next stop on our tour of Michigan.

Adventure Caravans Traversing Michigan Tour 6/23/15

Detroit Tour Day 1

Well, last night was interesting.  We had severe thunderstorms that kept us awake for the early part of the night.  Then at 2 AM, there was a frantic knock at the door.  "THERE ARE TORNADO WARNINGS.  GET DRESSED AND MEET AT THE CAMP OFFICE," the voice said.  We rushed to get dressed while listening to the weather radio.  I thought I heard them say that the tornado watch had been cancelled for the county that we are in, but I wasn't sure of how to pronounce the county name, Washtenaw, and could have misunderstood the electronic voice of NOAA radio.  So, we continued to get ready, as requested.  We put on our hiking boots and tromped through the ankle deep puddles of water on the way to the office.  As we neared the gathering point, some of the members of our group were already heading back to their campsite.  They asked us, "Didn't you hear the siren?"  No, we had not heard the siren and the weather alert had not gone off to say that there was a tornado warning.  Oh well, it was good practice and you never know about the weird weather that has been going on around the country.  Of course, we didn't get much sleep last night with the thunder and the rain pelting the trailer roof.  Things slowed down around 4:30 or  5:00 AM.  Then we had to get up to get on the bus for today's tour of some of Detroit, with only a couple hours of sleep.

There was enough time since the last rain for the water to dry up somewhat before we had to line up for the bus.  This is what it looks like whenever we take a motor coach tour with Adventure Caravans.

To make sure that everyone gets a chance to have a good seat, every morning we draw a card from the deck of cards that the tail gunner has.  The color and number on the card determines which seat you get for the rest of the day.  Red is on the driver's side and black is on the curb side.  You count seats back from the front until you get to the number on your card.  Here is Earl picking the card for today.

The first stop for today was the Ford Rouge Factory Tour.  

This is a statue depicting Henry Ford and his dedication to educating and providing for his employees.  There was a lot of on the job training in the early days of the company.

They make F-150 pick-up trucks there.  Photography is not permitted on the assembly line, but we could take photos through the windows of an observation deck.  Ford is trying to go green as much as possible.  You can see that the whole assembly line building is covered with ground cover type plants to help provide insulation.  Also, there are six humongous Skylights as well as many smaller skylights on this roof, to provide natural light.  The ivy on the outside walls also helped with insulations.

Looking off in the distance gives you and idea of how huge the factory in Detroit is. 

Many of the individual Ford factories have closed or reduced the production greatly from before, but the industry is starting to come back from the recession of 2008-2009.  Here is a sample of the trucks that have been completed and are waiting to be test driven and/or shipped around the country.  These (in the foreground and background) are all new vehicles and the ones in back are located near the railroad tracks.  We were told that all of the trucks out in the lots and on the assembly line had actually been ordered by a dealer for a customer or for their dealership showroom.

The next stop for the day was for lunch at the American Coney Island.  It has been owned and operated by the same family since 1917.

Their specialty is the "Coney Island Hot Dog" with chili and mustard.  That is what we had, plus a drink and a small Greek salad.  Very yummy!  Here is what the place looked like after our caravan group took over the place along with all of their other regular customers and tourists.

After lunch, we went to the birth place of Motown. It is where all of the Motown records were recorded from 1959 - 1972, when the operation was transferred to California.  Now, the buildings, which were houses that were made into the recording studio, are a museum dedicated to the artists of the Motown style of music.  We took a guided tour of the museum, but no photography was allowed.

 

Next, we had a guided bus tour around Detroit.  There is a monorail people mover that winds around the city.

There are many old buildings.  Here is one.

The dog park was different.  It had a fence around it like other dog parks, but there were some fake dogs, like this one, in the park as well.

Here, you see the fake one from the previous photo as well as the real one by the tree.

Detroit is a sports town as well as a motor town.  This is the Ford Field for minor league ball.  They are in the process of building apartments next to the field.  Those residents will be able to sit in their living room or on their patio and watch the games.

Comerica Park, home to the Detroit Tigers, was another notable attraction.  The theme is definitely tigers.

Our last stop for the day was the General Motors Building.  This is the outside of the building.

This is the main entrance that faces the Detroit River which makes the border between the USA and Canada.  Clouds are reflected in the mirror-like windows.

We walked around inside the building for awhile.  All of the GM vehicles were represented.

We went outside in front of the building to wait for the bus to return to pick us up.  There is a riverside park where they have decorated the sidewalk with a world map in the concrete.  As a sample, here is North America and Hawaii.  The countries are somewhat to scale.  We had to look closely to find Hawaii off to the side and away from the U. S.  The thing that looks like a washer is a light, I think.  Those were all over the map.  You can barely see some on the Mexico and southern California areas, too.

This is the view of Windsor, Ontario, Canada from in front of the General Motors Building.

When we got back to the RV Park, I took a photo of some of the Adventure Caravans participants all lined up.  Everyone has a yellow sticker on their vehicles.

Tomorrow, we will be going back to Detroit for some more sightseeing and touring.  This time we will be driving on our own so that we can spend as much time as we want at the pre-chosen sites.