Our campsite at Fireside RV park.
The Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg museum in Auburn, IN, the Auburn Automobile Company's art deco showroom.
Here we're pictured in a 1916 Dodge.
1935 Auburn 851 Speedster.
We left Auburn on Jul 26 and drove 143 miles to the Detroit-Greenfield RV park in Ypsilanti. We stayed a week and visited The Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, Pres. Ford Library at University of Michigan and the Ypsilanti Auto Heritage Museum. Ypsilanti is central to 21 automotive museums and historic sites, including the Ford Museum.
Here are some pictures at The Ford Museum.
We saw these two IMAX films, first was about finding the Titanic, second, Batman. With all the loud shooting noise in Batman, I can see how victims in Colorado were confused. In addition, we saw the Titanic exhibit. Surprising, the exhibit was really interesting, especially the personal effects of various passengers and their story. When you enter the exhibit, you get a card with the name of a passenger and some information about them. At the end of the exhibit, you find out if they survived. Mine was a man and he didn't.
Ford tri-motor airplane.
Ford's famous 999 racer.
Interactive displays let you view cars in the collection, interviews with famous car people such as Bill Ford, Jay Leno, Lynn St James, etc.
Above is a Newcomen engine, designed in 1710, from about 1760, the oldest surviving steam engine in the world. It was used to pump water out of a deep mine in England.
Ford tried his mass production techniques to produce this plane meant for the masses, but he did not succeed.
Ford's quadracycle.
Two famous cars from 1949, new Ford and VW.
Lots of steam powered farm implements.
Lincoln Zypher of 1936.
Nash rambler.
This amazing machine from 1925 makes glass bulbs for light bulbs, 600/hr. Put glass blowers out of business.
DeSoto from 50s.
And, here are some pictures from Greenfield Village. Greenfield Village is Henry Ford's attempt to recreate the era in which he grew up. In includes his boyhood home, Thomas Edison's laboratories at Menlo Park, farms, and various period houses.
Fountain at entrance to Greenfield Village.
We watched an old fashioned ball game for 9 innings using the rules of 1867. This was really interesting to watch. Lots of action. No ball or strike calls, whole field is playable. If a fielder catches a ball on first hop outside in bounds area, batter is out. Batter can take as many pitches as needed to hit a ball. Pitcher pitches underhand to batter's preferred strike zone so that he can hit the ball. Fielders use no gloves.
Train goes around the 81 acre park, actual steam using coal.
We enjoyed Model A rides through the park.
Look at that smoke from the steam engine!
Henry Ford's boyhood home. We were there on Jul 30, his 149th birthday.
We got a big surprise with the price of gas here in Dearborn area. Monday evening as we came back from Greenfield Village, regular gas was $3.49; the very next morning it jumped 40 cents to $3.89. That's unbelievable!
On Tues, July 24 we drove to Ann Arbor to visit the Jerry Ford presidential library. Of interest there was the large wall displays of his time line from his days at UM to president to his death. Noteworthy was the fact that when he graduated from UM he was offered center position at both the Detroit Lions and the GB Packers. He declined, going to Yale instead. He is the only president who has his library and museum in two different places, the museum being in Grand Rapids, which we didn't visit. Afterwards, we drove to Ypsilanti to visit the Automotive Heritage Museum, shown in the pictures below. The building is an old Hudson, Kaiser-Frasier dealership.
Above is a model 1949 Tucker used in the movie "Tucker" starring Jeff Bridges. Three fiberglass replicas were made for the movie, but only one could be "driven" in the sense that it had an engine but could not go on the road legally. This is the car that Bridges drove out of the factory in the movie. The other two were just props in the factory. The Tuckers being driven at the end of the movie around the court house were privately owned ones from the Tucker club.
The '49 Henry J, a compact economy car made by Henry J. Kaiser that didn't sell well.
To demonstrate the fuel efficiency of this Hudson, the salesman had a measured glass container hung on the door window. As the customer took his test drive, he could see how much fuel was used.
On Thursday, Aug 2 we left Detroit-Greenfield RV park in Ypsilanti for the Hearthside Grove luxury motorcoach resort in Petoskey, MI, about 40 miles south of the Mackinac Bridge, a drive of 277 miles.
Below are some pictures at the motorcoach resort.
This is our site.
Below are pictures of other sites. Sites cost $149k and up. Some have buildings and very elegant landscaping.
We went to a Polish festival in Boyne Falls about 25 miles from our resort.
How long can you listen to polkas? Two beers long for me!
This is an old steam driven tractor which is powering a thresher that's attached via a long black belt.
On Monday Aug 6 we visited Castle Farms in Charlevoix, about 20 miles from Petoskey. This is a French Renaissance castle that are actually farm buildings built in 1918 by Albert Loeb, owner of Sears, to operate as a model farm. Years later, the farm was sold and is now restored to function as a venue for various events such as weddings, etc. It is open to tours of its beautiful gardens, banquet halls and of interest to me, garden railroad consisting of over 50 G-scale trains and 2,000 feet of track. It also has an indoor O-scale railroad.
The town of Charlevoix is situated between Lake Michigan and Lake Charlevoix; it is one of the most beautiful towns I've seen. In fact, all the towns we've seen so far are simply beautiful, well kept, and apparently fairly prosperous. We went to a local vineyard and the owner was bragging about his great business; there is no evidence of any economic slowdown in this part of the country. Below is a picture of the Charlevoix marina on Lake Charlevoix and the canal that links this town and marina to Lake Michigan.
Below is a house designed by Eric Young the local Frank Loyd Wright in Charlevoix.
Traverse Bay looking out to Lake Michigan.
Bay Harbor resort on a windy day in August. Note the rocky beach!
On Sat and Sun Aug 11 and 12 we saw the 64th Annual Top O' Michigan Marathon Nationals which took place in the local area lakes and rivers. They raced a total of 85 miles in two days.
Above in 4-M is Amanda Hagerl who won her first career Class B stock runabout national title
On the Burt Lake shore are the pits, crew and spectators, including Lill.
Entering the Indian River heading towards Mullet Lake and the Cheboygan River after which they return back to Burt Lake via the Indian River again.
The finish line, Indian River; they even raced in the no wake zone.
On Sunday we watched from the shores of Crooked Lake.
Turning around the marker in Crooked Lake. Afterwards, we went to Boyne City to see the Antique Auto Show. Boyne City is on the northern shore of Lake Charlevoix, advertised as the runner up to the Best Lake in the USA, which is Lake Tahoe.
A 1948 Dodge convertable which was made by taking the roof of their two door sedans. My Dad had a '48 two door sedan.
These four Packards dating from the late 20s and early 30s belonged to one man. Afterwards, we had a nice late lunch at the Sante, a lake-side restaurant.
On Tuesday, Aug 14 we took a trip over the Mackinac Bridge, a 5 mile suspension bridge spanning the Straits of
Mackinac to connect the non-contiguous Upper and Lower peninsulas of Michigan. We returned to our RV site via Cross City, Leg Inn, and the Tunnel in the Trees scenic road along Lake Michigan.
Below, left, we are standing on Upper Peninsular with bridge behind us, going South. Below right we are in Mackinaw City with bridge going North.
Leg Inn in Cross City, MI. Great atmosphere, great selection of beers, Polish food.
There, we had a nice lunch here in the garden overlooking Lake Michigan.
We left Hearthside RV Park Thursday Aug 16 for Munising, MI for a two day stay to see Picture Rocks. We left Hearthside in the rain which wasn't very pleasant to decamp and hook up the Honda, but when we got to the Mackinac Bridge, the rain subsided and we had a nice trip over it.
We got to the Wandering Wheels Campground around two, with rain on and off. We went into Munising to check on the cruises to Picture Rocks, which is on Lake Superior and can only be seen from a boat. There we learned that cruises were on despite the weather and that Friday the weather was to be worse, with high winds. So, we took a 4pm cruise from Munising to the Picture Rocks and back.
Munising, MI marina looking out to Lake Superior.
Our tour boat, 'Grand Portal"
Miner's Castle in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore along Lake Superior.
The water was rough as we left Munising Bay for Pictured Rocks and Lake Superior. With six foot waves, we got no further than the first few miles of the Rocks when we had to turn around.
When we got back, we booked a 10am tour for Friday. However, on Friday while the sun shone, the winds were gusting to 30 mph and all tours for the day were cancelled. We then drove through Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, stopping of to view what we could. We drove from Munising to Grand Marais along H58 through the National Lakeshore.
Coast Guard station which closed in 1960, Munising Bay, Grand Island in background.
At right, rough seas in Lake Superior by Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
Below is Grand Sable Dunes, several miles west of Grand Marais, MI, the eastern end of the National Lakeshore.
On Aug 18 we left Munising, MI and headed for Forrest City, IA. That Saturday, after driving 520 miles, we camped at the KOA in Albert Lea, MI, just north of the IA line. We didn't want to go this far, but the KOA in Rochester, MI was all booked, so we had to drive 100 miles further on I80. Getting to I80 that day was absolutely frustrating. Heading south through Green Bay, we planned to take US 21 west from Oshkosh, about 120 miles to where we would pick up I80 west. However there was a detour in Oshkosh and we couldn't get directly on to 21. Instead, the detour took us all through the neighborhood streets of the city to an alternative route that eventually went into 21, about 75 miles. After driving on 21 west for about 60 miles, we encountered another detour that was just about as long. While in distance we only traveled about 40 out of our way, in time we lost about one hour. Even more frustrating was the fact that the KOA where we planned to stop was completely full, which we've found to be rare. The KOA in Albert Lea was situated among the corn fields as you can see from the picture below.
The corn in the adjacent fields was completely wiped out from the drought. Note how dirty the vehicles have become.
We arrived at the Winnebago Factory in Forrest City, IA on Aug 19 to have some work done on our motorhome: specifically, exterior painting in spots that showed some blistering from sun damage, and repairs to fix two awnings and a leaking lower compartment. In addition we had the roof seals redone and the front passenger windshield replaced, which thankfully was fully covered by insurance.
We left for home on Aug 23d, after all the work was completed by 1pm Thursday and arrived there on the evening of Aug 26 after having driven 3,375 miles, consuming $1,548 worth of diesel fuel.
