Greenfield Village (7/8/2015)

Today brought a trip to Henry Ford's Greenfield Village, "Walking through the impressive Greenfield Village is like stepping into a living museum. Three centuries of history are played out before your eyes in an 80-acre (32.3-hectare) model village. There are authentic historic structures and people strolling on the footpath wearing period costume. See Model T cars and horses pull wagons along the street. Started by famed automobile manufacturer Henry Ford, Greenfield Village has over 26 million artifacts and 83 historic buildings that are organized into seven districts."

The village is broken up into sections:  Josephine Ford Plaza, Working Farms, Liberty Craftworks, Henry Ford's Model T, Railroad Junction, Main Street, Edison at Work, Porches & Parlors, and Walnut Grove. At Collins' suggestion, we all boarded the train to get an overview of the park and figure out how to tackle our exploration.  We were the first train riders of the day, so Collins borrowed a rag to wipe the suet off our seats, but we were "sprinkled" with suet throughout the train ride.

It is common to encounter bicycle and unicycle riders, Model T's, horse drawn carriages and Model Ts on the roads as we walked.

We started down Main Street, going in and out of almost every building.  I'll post a few pictures from this area.

Heinz House (of Heinz 57 Varieties)

Joe stylin' at Cohen Millinery

Then we ventured into Edison at Work.

We continued on into Porches & Parlors, where we found our cohorts having lunch.  (of course, we joined them)

We caught one of the shows, "How I Got Over,"" inspiring stories, songs and slavery narratives," which was very entertaining. 

Also in this section was the Farris Windmill, the oldest windmill in the U.S.  This one was transplanted from Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

We caught one family enjoying the lunch they had just cooked on the wood cookstove.  They were having lamb as their meat, soup, salad, several different vegetables, and they had a cake in the oven for later.

We walked through this Cottswold Cottage, an English cottage and garden.

There were homes of several famous people here:  Robert Frost, Noah Webster, Thomas Edison.  We checked out Noah Webster's place.

The two buildings that were slave quarters were made of brick, which was unusual.  They were part of the Hermitage Plantation, near Savannah, Georgia, because brick-making was an important industry on the Hermitage Plantation and they could get the materials at no cost.

Our next stop was outside a school, where Laura Ingalls (from Little House on the Prairie) was telling her story.

Then we went through the Railroad Junction, where we viewed a railroad turntable demonstration and the roundhouse.

Then we worked our way over to the Liberty Craftworks where several different shops had artists or workers plying their trade, all very interesting demonstrations.

Glass Blowing

Weaving Shop

Pottery Shop

Huge kiln outside pottery shop

Print Shop

Tin Shop

This was a pretty amazing place.  The exhibits were authentic in most cases, not replicas, that had been taken apart on site and put back together here in Greenfield Village.  All the buildings (houses and shops) had guides inside to tell you all about the place and answer any questions.  It was done almost to a Disney perfection.  Quite a collection to Mr. Ford had gathered.  I heard one tour person say there were two buildings he thought they still needed.  One was a barber shop but I can't remember the second one.  We didn't see every single building, but we saw most of them. 

It was a lot of walking, and a very chilly day.  I was glad to have my sweater.  We finished up about 3:30-4:00 and headed back to the campground, all worn out.  But we have to rest up, because tomorrow we have more adventures to take on.

Ford Museum (7/7/2015)

Today's adventure was the Ford Museum in Detroit.  This is a huge museum which "provides unique educational experiences based on authentic objects, stories and lives from America's traditions of ingenuity, resourcefulness and innovation."  I thought this would be about Mr. Ford and his life and the products he was responsible for, but I was wrong.  It is an all-inclusive museum, covering such things as American furniture dating from 1670, a dymaxion house, planes, trains, agriculture, generations, weapons, industry, presidential cars, of course cars of all sorts, and on and on.  Of course we have 160 pictures, so I sorted through some I found interesting.
Farm Equipment:

Items from the 50s:

Drive-In Movie Speakers

Furniture/Rooms:

Arm Chair

Generations:

.

 

There were rooms of supporting pictures for each generation.  I could certainly relate to my Baby Boomer generation.

Weapons:

Made in America, covering manufacturing and power, exploring the legacy of innovators from the 18th to the 20th century.

Presidential Cars:

Reagan

Kennedy

Franklin Roosevelt

Eisenhower's Bubble Car

Trains:

Snowplow Train Car

Vehicles, vehicles, vehicles:

Goldenrod Speed Racing Car

Trevor Bain's Car he won the NASCAR 2011 Daytona 500 in

Clocks:

A really interesting section was called "with Liberty and Justice for all" and included exhibits of Abraham Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address, the Declaration of Independence, Martin Luther King, and the bus that Rosa Parks was on when she refused to give up her seat to a white person.

 And last but not least (actually this was at the very beginning, the Weinermobile!

This is an amazing museum.  We probably spent 4-5 hours here, including a 45-minute stop for lunch.  There were a few movies and videos around, and docents throughout to explain anything you wondered about. 

We left about 3:30 I think.  It had rained off and on most of the day, and was raining when we left but quit shortly thereafter.  Dave and Mazie were with us, and we happened to find a Tim Horton's just as we were discussing how good that sounded, so Joe circled the block and we all had a donut (Dave had a muffin).  Joe and I also had coffee, and Mazie ordered a hot chocolate -- that museum was freezing.

We got back to camp about 4:30, and I immediately gathered up my laundry and got that done.  Then I fixed dinner (a real meal), and Joe worked on outside chores, fixing the air horn, and working on the electric cord to the car but he had to go back to the parts store for that.  Everyone was tired, so we had an early night.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day, so we have plans to tour the Greenfield Village, also part of the Ford Campus.