Day 100 Detroit Michigan
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
108
205
Trip End
Nov 22, 2008
Detroit,
Michigan,
United States
Friday, August 15, 2008
Can you believe it we are now at the halfway mark of our journey, time has given us a lot of different experiences in the 100 days leading to now, from adjusting immediately to jumping back a day, to travelling in the Castle and changing from a three step dance to a four step dance for a period, then back to re-enact the three step procedure and team work again, to teaching us to rely on Mandy and not to rely on Mandy, follow the signs, DONT follow the signs, follow the map directions, don't follow the map directions. One could believe we would still be in LA going around in circles, but instead we have managed to put approximately 14,500 miles (24,215 kms) behind us, covering 15 States of the USA and 2 States and 1 territory of Canada.
We are still working together as a team and have had some wonderful experiences with wildlife, theme parks, observed vistas only before seen in books of on television, as well as visited some Famous Wild West towns, of the movies and real life, including being observers of the Sturgis bike rally of 500,000 motor bikes. This is really stuff of dreams or television programs surely? But no we are living and enjoying the experience, and intend to complete the "sentence" of 200 days of travel in the USA/Canadian regions, We certainly are not sorry, but we know "someone has to do it!"
So today we head into experience the Ford Museum, yes we know there are some GMH (Holden buffs out there) but hey we will check this out.
No problem finding the place with Mandy's helpful guidance, and we are early enough to obtain a park easy.
Earnie taking his turn as the train driver
(mind you it is a $5 parking fee)In we go and find there are 4 options to have a look around, 1/ Imax theatre, 2/ A factory tour, 3/ Greenfield village tour, 4/ Ford Museum. Oh boy Decisions on the trot.
We decided to take a "combo" of the 3 & 4 selections. We were not sure how long or what we were letting ourselves in for but the intrepid travellers are up for most things!
We head into the Greenfield village.
This is a 32 acre site that Henry Ford had the vision to establish in 1929, to retain a sense of America through time.
The collection of Authentic buildings dating back to the early settlement of America including Edison's Factory and laboratory, with genuine restoration,n even as far as the soil, the factory and workshop had been built on. The walk through and observations of Edisons light bulbs and the development of electrical currents and machinery, was certainly well worth the cost to get in. As Karon pointed out, this was the beginning of where Earnie learnt his trade and acquired his skill, from the humble beginnings of a man with ideas and ability to gather around him a team of people to bring the visions and ideas to life. Some of the houses that surrounded the original workshop have also been transferred to this site and are lit with the light and wires they were done in originally.
The laboratory upstairs of the workshop was re-assembled in time for Edison to re-enact the 50 year anniversary of the switching on of the electric public system to surrounding houses etc, as soon as it was done and when Edison stood up from the chair it was done in, Ford had the chair nailed to floor and there it has stayed since, such was Fords attention to detail and preservation of genuine artefacts.
Edison
Henry Ford was truly a remarkable person to have created and manifested this vision to preserve so much of American history in a complete village setting.
Paved roads with horse drawn carriages intermingling with Model T fords and trucks, people dressed in period costumes wander the streets giving information. People in period costumes in era 1700 houses complete with the stoves and all things relating to the period, all genuine. A plantation house with genuine slave quarters, Factories with the machinery, a rail line with a steam engine running, a water mill with the stones included for grinding flour etc, a glass blowing factory (working, A pottery factory.
He had transferred his own home he grew up in and had people search the country to find all the articles including glassware and crockery, beds and furniture, to ensure it was exactly as he recalled it being.
This is truly a remarkable place and a definite thumbs up from the travellers, to learn and experience this wonderful place, set out in a way to learn about early American settlement and development.
We lunched in a time warp type of Cafe and we had to take a picture of "Earnie's lunch choice!
It will be posted asap, but a brief description for now will have to suffice; Earnie's order again should be simple, "A hot beef sandwich"
Well what came out was a round loaf of bread with the top taken out, filled firstly with hot sliced beef, on top of that a scoop of gravy, then 2 scoops of mashed potatoes on top of that, then another scoop of gravy! I guess the question is "Did he eat it all?"
To his credit he gave it a great shot and managed most of the potato and meat, but the bread bowl beat him.
Greenfield village
Life still isn't simply for us to order food here! JWe finished our tour and then headed to the museum, our first vision was of one hell of a huge steam locomotive. This was a monster and dwarfed anything we had previously seen. It was surrounded and hooked up to other rail carriages as well side by side an old wood burner steam engine.
This museum is not just of motor cars and not just Ford motor cars. It is of cars from many manufactures in a capture of time crucible of beginning of the very first steam driven device (a water pump designed in England to pump water from a coal mine, to one of Fords own huge steam driven turbine (he had installed ten to run his factory to produce the Ford Model T) and then to the advent of flying by the Wright bros.
This 12 acre uncover museum is again a truly remarkable education and a capture in time of so much that has been developed in America not for just Americans but for the development of the whole planet, it is difficult for us to describe the amount of cars, bicycles, any means of transport to the flying machines as well as sections dedicated to the change in the eras of kitchens and appliances.
This is not something we had heard about before we left to take our journey to the USA, but certainly one we are pleased to have stumbled across, and a highly recommended place to visit, maybe allow an extra day or half day to enable oneself to absorb the whole, and not tire out as we tend to do at the end of the day.
We packed up and headed back towards the KOA we had stayed in last night and also to AT&T (we were still having problems with the phone and the internet.
Hey I ordered a hot beef sandwich!
We had spotted an AT&T shop down the road from the KOA)Well we do find ourselves in some funny games or dramas being the Aussie travellers. We pull up at the AT& T shop and While the kettle is being boiled, Rick heads into the shop.
What a lot of fun! Firstly the guy attempts to pull up the details, but required a social security number. Umm that doesn't work, but he sorts his way through this and then looks at the phone, plays around and then says it is working. Rick asks in the best mode of Pauline Hanson the question "Please Explain? What you did!"
"Oh the phone had to reset itself" Rick is really none the wiser, but happy the phone is back working!
The next thing is to sort out is the internet supply or air-card, oh boy interesting, it was not possible to obtain the details at this store we had to go to the regional office, only 15 mins away we were informed, we obtained the address and then finished the coffee break, using the newly awakened phone rang and rebooked into the KOA and headed to the regional office.
Well from here the fun begins again, how can we live with so much excitement and fun points during the trip?
The guy (Karl) played around and brought up the screen pertaining to the air card information!
Gee no wonder it was not working we have an outstanding account of $2,600 run up "apparently" when we were on international roving!
Oh gee we have a problem Houston! Or should I say AT&T have a problem! noticing on the screen a lot of "reports" suggesting" they had contacted the client and explained the situation as well as had sent Text messages, it was explained to Karl "This didn't happen, I can assure you"
A customer overheard me "suggest" that AT&T have a problem, and stated he was caught by travelling a boat trip up the St Lawrence river, he had been assured by AT&T staff that he would be connecting to ATT&T while on the trip, but in fact he connected through a Canadian supplier and came home to a $1600 account.
As explained we had no idea and had explained when we bought the net work card and provider, we had explained where we were travelling and through Canada was mentioned.
Well Karl spoke to "customer Service" and he informed me they would contact me as the woman was working out a case for me to present and they would call me within a week.
At this stage it is good luck to them to present a case to whoever they are presenting the case too, but it also depends on whether we accept the final result! A work in progress!
We proceeded back to our RV park and re-set ourselves for the night..
One of Many
