Mini Road Trip - Ford Rouge Factory Tour

The Ford Rouge Factory today is where the F-150 trucks are assembled. It is an amazing place but before I tell you about our tour, I'd like to tell you a bit about the concept that Henry Ford began with. We all know about his assembly line and how it changed manufacturing but his idea for the Rouge Factory was that raw materials would come in and the plant would be able to make cars starting with those raw materials. Steel was made, parts of cars shaped and formed, and then assembled. Everything that was needed was made from scratch. Amazing.

Today I believe many of the parts now come from other factories Ford has built and those parts are all compiled and supplied to the assembly line by quite a computerized choreography. The tour begins with two movies and a warning that no pictures are allowed in the factory area. One movie centers on the life of Henry Ford and the second is quite a production involving robots and a truck that rises from the floor amid theatrical smoke. Throughout the program, the truck that is all white turns different colors and appears to be a real truck through the magic of expertly placed projected video.

From the movie level you take an elevator to the viewing level which is probably about mid-level in the huge assembly building. You peer down at the assembly line while parts of trucks and some full bodies pass overhead moving to their place in the next part of the assembly line.

We watched with amazement at rear windows being installed by robot. Moved to a place where headers were being snapped into place we marveled at the organization. Each truck cab that came down the assembly line was a different color and differ size and some had a sun roof. From a mobile set of slotted cabinets the assembler would reach the next slot in line and pull out the correct header for the truck cab.

At another spot on the line a team of two men installed the gate to the back of the truck bed. As they worked, the platform they stood on moved with the assembly line. When it reached a certain point the platform moved back to work on the next truck moving down the line. The two had only a minute or two to set in the gate and hook up the cables that held it in place.

The engines were installed in another part of the factory that wasn't within view of the observation area that was a large walkway making a square around the assembly area available for viewing.

The orchestration of the whole operation was unfathomable. I wondered what Henry Ford would have thought of his assembly line today.

One last stop on the tour was the observation deck. From there you could look out on the rooftops of the factory building that have been planted with a special mix of succulent plants to contribute to a better environment. Then the guide stationed there pointed out a green line in the employee parking lot. Everyone with a car that was not a Ford had to park to the left of the line. Certainly would make me think twice about what kind of car I drove to work.

Mini Road Trip - Henry Ford Museum

The shift in our plans worked well for this trip as evidenced by the gray and much colder weather we awoke to. Our previous day at Greenfield Village had been quite sunny and warm. This day definitely looked like autumn was arriving--maybe even early winter. So off we went to The Henry Ford Museum where we would be nice and warm and out of any foul weather that might happen.

We were there as the doors opened at 9:30 AM and entered with a large group of high school kids. I thought at first it was an outing for them but actually there is a school that is within the museum--the Henry Ford Academy. My legs were a little sore as we started out. We had logged over 4 miles walking around the village the day before.

The museum has changed a lot from what we remembered. All for the good of course. There is a lot more emphasis on educational information and not just on industry and cars. Sections of the museum included the Civil War (with the chair Lincoln sat in the night he was shot) and the Civil Rights struggle with the actual bus Rosa Parks sat in when she refused to move to the back.

There is a lot of memorabilia from different eras and you are invited to figure out which era you belong in. With our age, we kind of passed through a lot of them. One of the displays that brought big smiles though was the Oscar Meyer Wiener car. Of course, like It's A Small World, it took a while to get the Oscar Meyer song out of my head.

The most intriguing exhibit was the Dymaxion House designed by Buckminster Fuller back in the 1920s. It wasn't actually built though until around 1945. It was the answer to the need for mass produced, affordable, easily transportable and environmentally efficient housing. The structure, made of lightweight steel, aluminum and plastic, is supported by a central column and is built around it in a circle. Supposedly it maximizes space. Lots of perks inside included an enclosed closet full of shelves that rotated to display your clothes. It was said to withstand a tornado that passed close by where it stood in Wichita, Kansas. There's a good post about it at Yesterland. com. 

Wandering through the Heroes of the Sky area, we came upon the Ford Tri Motor. It has a special place in my heart. When I was young, we spent many weekends at Put In Bay, Ohio, in the winter and the only way to the island was to fly in the Ford Tri Motor from Port Clinton. I wonder now though what my mother must have felt every time we went taking her children on a plane built between 1925 and 1933. I guess back then the plane was only 25-30 years old and lovingly cared for although it shook so much on take off I wonder how it stayed together. There is some talk that the plane will be making a comeback to the island in the summertime.

Among the cars on exhibit is a progressive representation of presidential limousines including the one JFK rode in Dallas. Somehow they don't seem as large in real life.

We wandered through the progression of all kinds of cars and trucks--not just Fords, and then headed for the train section. Bob remembered a huge engine there the last time and he wasn't disappointed, It still sits there. The steam engine was built in 1941 and used for hauling coal in the Allegheny Mountains. It weighs 600 tons and towers above you as you walk past it. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to see it working.

For lunch we enjoyed sandwiched in the Michigan Cafe. There is a hot dog dining area by the Oscar Meyer Wiener car but we didn't want to walk all the way back to it. There is also a diner where we had some great coffee and a couple of glazed donuts recommended by our waitress. She was right. As good as Krispy Kreme.

 As we enjoyed our donuts and coffee, we discussed the possibility of getting in the tour of the Ford Rouge Factory. If we did it this afternoon, we could leave first thing in the morning and get home a little earlier. Besides, we really couldn't think of anything else we wanted to do and the factory tour was said to take about two hours. It was another plan shift. We were getting good at those. Never say we aren't spontaneous.

Through My Lens - Greenfield Village

Mini Road Trip - More of Greenfield Village

Built in 1871 in Dayton, Ohio, the Wright home eventually became a part of Greenfield Village. I didn't get a picture of the front of the house because it was decorated for the Halloween festivities going on during evenings on the weekends. I was fascinated though in the parlor when I saw the painted walls and the wallpapered ceiling.

Susan Wright never got to see her boys fly. Maybe that was a good thing. As a mother, it could have been very scary. Their father, Milton, supported their bike shop and their experiments with flight. Neither boy went to college but their sister, Katharine, did.

The Sarah Jordan Boarding House built in Menlo Park, NJ, in 1870 was one of the first homes ever to be wired for electricity. Perhaps that's because many of the men who worked at Menlo Park stayed in the home run by the widow, her adopted daughter and a maid. Since Bob is always sensitive to booking a Bed & Breakfast with an ensuite bathroom, I couldn't help but chuckle and point out that this place was definitely not ensuite as indicated by the two out buildings in the back yard.



One of the more unique and unusual homes in the village is the Mattox House. It was built around 1880 in Bryan County, Georgia. The family lined the walls of their home with newspapers to insulate against the cool Georgia nights in the winter. Amos Mattox worked a variety of jobs to provide for his family during the depression--shoemaker, farmer, barber and preacher. His wife, Grace, was known to help feed the needy.

There were several buildings dedicated to educational history. A large log cabin, the McGuffey Schoolhouse and a smaller log cabin, the McGuffey birthplace. Yes, that McGuffey. The one who wrote the readers that have been around for 200 years. Across from the log cabins is a brick building, the Scotch Settlement School where Henry Ford sat next to his friend, Edsel Rudiman. Apparently the boys enjoyed playing pranks and eventually John Chapman was hired as teacher and paid an extra $5 a month to keep the boys in line.

What struck me most about visiting the school was what was said in the recorded information that played upon entering the door. The school was where morality was taught as much as the three Rs. How far would that go today? And is that perhaps where we've fallen short as a society? Enough. Climbing down from soapbox now.

There were so many good things to see. I could go on and on. The print shop, the tin smith, the weaver (where they had a version of a "computerized" loom using punch cards), the pottery, the train yard. Another favorite spot was the general store with all sorts of interesting items that would be for sale in the late 19th century and early 1900s. The store was often the only place that had a phone and was available to the public. Of course how many other people had phones? So who would you call?

We were pretty tired but when we discovered, by way of Facebook, that one of the kids we had watched grow up at church was working for Ford and just around the corner, we couldn't resist meeting him for dinner. And of course, the younger folks know the best BBQ places.

Wordless Wednesday

Mini Road Trip - Greenfield Village

Of course there is a lot of Henry Ford represented here in the Greenfield Village. His childhood home for one and his early Bagley Avenue workshop where he put together his first gas powered car, the quadricycle. The workshop was actually a coal shed behind the duplex he and his wife, Clara, lived. Ford at the time worked as a powerhouse superintendent at the Edison Illuminating Company a short distance away.

The car was built inside the shed but Ford discovered that it would not fit through the door and had to enlarge the entry in order to take his vehicle outside for a test run. The first building of the company is here at Greenfield Village but only a smaller version of the original. Between 1903 and 1905, Ford assembled his cars at stations from purchased parts. It wasn't until 1913 that he came up with the moving assembly line.

The Mack Avenue plant produced 15 cars a day. The Model A sold for $750. And as it is today, various options were available at an additional cost.

Ford grew up and lived in an era when great innovations were being discovered and produced. He was truly an admirer of Edison and eventually opted to move the Menlo Park building from New Jersey to Michigan. Unfortunately, the building had so badly deteriorated that they had to rely on building plans to reconstruct Edison's workplace. Some of the materials of the original building were used but much of it is newer construction.

The Wright brothers were also among the innovators and inventors that Ford admired. Their cycle shop is one of the more interesting shops in the village. As you move through it, you can see the wind tunnel they built to test their theories of how to get lift for their aircraft. It's all in a glass box and the wind is produced by turning a crank. Once you get it up to speed, the small model wing lifts up from it's resting position.

In the back of the shop is the bare skeleton of the plane they built to fly at Kitty Hawk. The guide in the shop explained that the Wright brothers eventually built in a control for turning the aircraft that involved laying down in a cradle that moved as you moved your hips so that you could bank left or right while still holding the controls to the aircraft's power in your hands.

If you were into motors and huge generators, there was plenty to see. I couldn't help but think of how my father must have been enamored with all that he saw on that visit so many years ago. Dad repaired motors and did electrical wiring.

Of course, looking at some of the motors, I could hear my mother telling the story of how she had to wrap wires around a spindle keeping count of the number of times around on a match book (one match bent down for every 10 times around) and still answer the phone. Once his business got going, she was replaced by several employees and a secretary.

I'm glad. It gave her time to be my mom.

Mini Road Trip - Dearborn, Michigan

What's an Ohio Buckeye doing going to visit Michigan during football season? Why exploring The Henry Ford, of course!

I know. We just finished a long road trip but there were a couple of weeks between our return home from out west and our mini road trip to Dearborn. The leaves were just starting to turn and the weather was predicted to be warm and sunny--at least for a few days. After a short stop to visit my brother and his family at Put In Bay, Ohio, for the Oktoberfest, we drove another couple of hours up to Dearborn.

Entering the Dearborn area is like entering the Seattle area and seeing Microsoft all over the place only here it is Ford. The Henry Ford is the complex of Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum along with several other attractions including the Ford Rouge Factory Tour which was on our list to see.

My first visit to Greenfield Village was when I was about eight years old. Then Bob and I spent our tenth anniversary there and later we took our kids. It has changed tremendously over the years. The museum and village were a passion for Henry Ford who felt the need to preserve history and inspire genius. He began actually with a school in 1929 and from there the project blossomed into a museum and a village full of historical buildings including the Menlo Park complex of Edison's and the Wright Brothers Cycle Shop as well as several types of farms, industrial sites and homes or replicas of homes of famous Americans who contributed to industry and/or farming.

There are almost 100 structures to see, most of which you can enter and see furnishings or machines of the era. Old vintage powered and horse drawn buses can alleviate some of the walking over the 200 acre spread (for an additional cost of course). There are also a dozen or more vintage Fords that are available to ride and even if you choose to walk as we did, they lend to the atmosphere of the historic village.

Around the perimeter is, as we were told, is the oldest regularly scheduled train pulled by a steam engine. Powered by steam, there is a huge coal tower that is filled with the coal used to fire the boilers in the steam engine. The roundhouse held several other engines that are also used for the scenic train ride.

The day was gorgeous and the colors of autumn radiant. Several of the houses had people in interpretive costume who explained some of the history behind the homes. Other places held more guides who provided stories and explanations for things we were seeing. Weaving, pottery making and glass blowing demonstrations are always interesting but we also found that that for $5 you could make a small brass candlestick in one of the buildings.

The highlight of the day was having lunch in the Eagle Tavern. The tavern was brought to Greenfield Village from Clinton, MI, where it was originally built in 1831. In keeping with the time period, the tables are all large and seat eight to ten people. We were told as we were seated that others might be joining us. Back in nineteenth century tavern life, dining was communal. In keeping with the historic aspects, the tavern offers seasonal and locally grown food products. I ordered squash soup and Bob got the corn chowder. Both were delicious and came with muffins, cornbread and rolls and the best blueberry jam I've had in a long time.

I will highlight some of the things we enjoyed the most and piqued our interest in the next couple of posts.

5,326 Miles

Well, we did it! We drove quite a loop through the Midwest. All those miles and at least that many bugs smashed on the front of the car but it was worth it. Our road trip took us west through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and into Montana to stop at Glacier National Park. Then through Montana to Wyoming for Yellowstone (we may have hit just the cornier of Idaho) and southeast through South Dakota and Nebraska before turning east again through Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and home in Ohio.

Thanks to those who suggested a few stops along the way. We enjoyed Wisconsin Dells and the Mall of America. Glacier was beautiful. Yellowstone's wildlife amazing. Grand Tetons spectacular. Mt. Rushmore monumental.

Some surprises along the way included the Mammoth dig at Hot Springs, SD and the Buffalo Bill home/ranch at North Platte, NE. And of course meeting folks along the way is always entertaining. For instance, there was the park ranger in Yellowstone who gave his whole program talk with a toothpick stuck in the corner of his mouth and never once lost it. He was a wealth of information though.

Here are just a few of the things that impressed me about this area of the country as we drove.

• Acres of sunflowers in ND. Wish we'd been there to see them in early bloom.
• So many cattle and horses grazing in fields.
• The Black Hills of South Dakota as the sun set.
• Corn fields, their tasseled tops golden in the sunshine.
• Bales and rolls of hay dotting the harvested fields.
• So much farmland! Praise God for farmers!
• And miles and miles between the next McDonald's cup of coffee.

This was a good lesson in geography but even more so in learning about what a wonderful area of the country this is.

Books For The Road - Winter Of The World by Ken Follett

A couple of years ago we downloaded an audio book for our drive south to Florida. It was the Fall Of Giants by Ken Follett. We thoroughly enjoyed the book and when we didn't finish it with the round trip drive, we found places to go at home where we could listen to it in the car. On our latest trip, we decided to listen to the second in Follett's Century Trilogy, Winter Of The World. The audio book is thirty hours long but it beats wading through a thousand written pages and the reader, John Lee is excellent.

The story picks up where the first book left off and even though it had been a while since we'd listened to the first, we fell right in with the characters again. This book covers the historical period beginning with the rise of Hitler to power, the Spanish Civil War, moves through World War II to the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima and the testing of the atom bomb by the Russians.

Follett takes you through the character development as they have to make life choices dealing with politics and survival. I like the way he moves between the settings in Europe and America and the points of view from the different locations.

It is a moving and thought provoking book and we are looking forward to the third in the trilogy, Edge of Eternity, when we make our next road trip.

If you are looking for an audio book to listen to on a long trip it is easily downloaded to your phone through the Overdrive app. You can connect with the public library and check out the title you want. We plugged the phone into the USB port in the car so it charged as well as played the book. Easily paused and picked up again when you make a stop. Truly books for the road. . .trip.

Wordless Wednesday

Road Trip 2015 - Antique Archaeology

As Bob was planning our route for the road trip, I talked him into coming home in a more southerly direction so we could pass through a couple of states we'd never been in. One of those was Iowa. But what would we do in Iowa, Bob asked?

Fortunately we are both fans of the American Pickers program on the History Channel. For those of you who may not watch this is a pair of guys who go all around the country (and sometimes the world) looking for antiques. Their tagline is: "We make a living telling the history of America...one piece at a time. I guess it's for that reason that the two stores are call Antique Archaeology.

With their home base being in Le Claire, Iowa, we made sure to stop and have a look in their store. Bob was hoping for a selfie with Danielle, the gal who does the research to find places where Mike and Frank should pick. It was not to happen though.

Le Claire is a neat little town on the banks of the Mississippi and has a Buffalo Bill connection as well. He was born there. We passed on his museum and went directly to Antique Archaeology.

It was a bit disappointing although we did get to see the van up close and personal, but inside the store most of the items were souvenirs of the show. T-shirts, caps, glasses, mugs, magnets, and books on how to pick by Frank and Mike. There were several old motorcycles on display but not a lot of actual antique items to buy and certainly not in my price range. I would have loved to have picked up just a small antique item to say it came from there--and I'm not a souvenir shopper! Since our visit I found that Frank has a store in Savanna, Illinois, Frank Fritz Finds.

We strolled the main street of Le Claire a bit, stopped for a bit to look at the Mississippi, and then continued on to our overnight stay in Peru, Illinois. We were almost home and that was beginning to sound kind of good.

Road Trip 2015 - Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo

Our drive from North Platte, NE, to Omaha was rainy but not a whole day's worth of driving so we needed to find something to do in Omaha besides have an Omaha steak. Thankful for some LTE connections along the way, I zeroed in on things to do in Omaha and found that one of the best was Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. Now if you've been reading this blog for a while you know I love zoos. But would the weather clear?

One of the biggest attractions in the zoo is a geodesic dome with a desert environment inside. When I checked our reciprocal zoos from our home zoo membership, Omaha was a go. So at half price, even if we got rained out we could at least see the dome.

As luck would have it, we pulled up to the zoo as the rain was reduced to a misty drizzle and that seemed to be fading. We purchased our tickets and looked at the map and were pleased to see that a lot of the exhibits were indoors. Even if it rained, we would still get to see a lot of the zoo and could hop from building to building if necessary under cover of umbrellas.

There was supposed to be a shark feeding in the aquarium building so we headed there first. There was just enough time to get lunch--a pizza and soft drink and head in to the aquarium. Unfortunately just inside the door a sign informed us that the feeding would not take place. Hmmm. Were the sharks on a diet?

Undaunted we explored the aquarium which was absolutely pristine. I have never seen so many tanks and such great maintenance. There were a few exhibits we'd not seen before like the beautiful orange colored jellyfish. Bob always has to pull me away from the jellyfish tanks. I get mesmerized. They are so relaxing to watch. And we were delighted to find a display of puffins.

We wandered around and into other exhibit buildings leaving the dome for last just in case the gray skies decided to open up again. The Madagascar building brought back memories of our World Cruise trip earlier this year and the rain forest jungle in the Lied's Jungle building put our rain forest exhibit at home to shame. It was amazing. You truly felt like you were walking through a jungle and the exhibits were so well done that you would have thought you were seeing the animals in the wild.


Just as you finish the rain forest, you are invited to continue down another level to the Kingdoms of the Night. Again an amazing exhibit where you walk through an eerie dark swamp and see the creatures of the night as if you were out in the wild with them.

How could the Dome be any better? It wasn't better but it was every bit as good. The building just seemed to go on and on as you wandered the path. The exhibits are from three different desert areas, Africa, Australia and the United States. Wallabys peeked around rocks to look at us. Meerkats scurried and hurried. An ocelot wondered what all the fuss was about. And there were more snakes than I really wanted to see including the rattle snakes we'd managed to avoid in the Badlands.

It couldn't have been a nicer afternoon despite the clouds and drizzle. If you're ever in or passing through Omaha, take some time to visit. It's well worth it.

Road Trip 2015 - Buffalo Bill Ranch

Limiting our drives to 5-6 hours a day we were always looking for things to fill in with. After all once you get to the hotel who wants to just sit in a room? We arrived a little early in North Platte, Nebraska, so we plugged in the address to the Buffalo Bill ranch I'd found in an online search. We were glad we did.

William F Cody or Buffalo Bill as he was more commonly known built his large Victorian mansion on a piece of the 4,000 acres that he owned in North Platte. It was built in the heyday of his Wild West Show in 1886. His first show was actually performed in the town on July 4, 1882.

The first show, actually called the Old Glory Blowout, is said to be the beginning of the rodeo. It expanded and became a troupe of 1200 eventually that traveled east to give easterners a taste of the wild west. There were hundreds of animals including a herd of buffalo. Indians were a big part of the show as well as some of the more famous included Sitting Bull, Chief Joseph, Geronimo, and Rains in the Face who was reportedly the one who killed Custer at the infamous battle.

My brother and I had cap guns like this!

Included in the performances was roping, trick riding, and shooting and the stars were Annie Oakley, Wild Bill Hickok, Bronco Bill and Will Rogers. The show would end with an enactment of the Indians burning a white village with Buffalo Bill and his troupe of men coming to the rescue.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show even went to Europe and toured and performed in England at the request of Queen Victoria. But William F. Cody wasn't always a performer and showman. His life story includes being a frontiersman being paid to kill buffalo for food for the railway workers, a scout for the Army, and a guide for wealthy Easterner's buffalo hunting trips. He also had a short stint as a Pony Express rider. A video that details a lot of his life is shown in an upper room of the mansion as part of the tour.

If this had been our transportation, I wouldn't have come.

Sixteen acres of the original 4000 were turned into a State Historical Park in 1965 and since then the house and the original barn have been restored and much memorabilia collected. Walking through the house is fascinating and fun. The acreage is beautiful and we had a nice sunny afternoon to explore.

In the barn is a display of several fancy carriages and wagons from the era and lots of posters of the Wild West Show as well as pictures. Not far from the barn is a log cabin that would have preceded the era.

One of the other attractions in the area caught our eye, The Golden Spike Tower. Thinking this was where the golden spike was driven that connected the two railroads, Union Pacific and Central Pacific, we were excited to go visit. It would have paid to do our homework. The spike was driven in a ceremony on May 10, 1869 in Promontory Summit, Utah.

"So there's no gold spike here?" asked Bob.

"No," said the sweet lady at the gift shop. "But we have small replicas you can buy."

Disappointed, we still paid to go up in the huge tower that resembles a spike and view Bailey Yard is said to be the world's largest rail yard. The brochure says it's where east meets west on the Union Pacific line. Each day 10,000 cars are handled on 2,850 acres of land stretching out eight miles.

It was quite a view from the top but unless you were really into railroading, it was just a nice view. I enjoyed looking down and seeing a pumpkin patch and a maze cut in the cornfield next to the tower. Reminded me that we were really getting into the fall season.