Detroit Motor City

As most of Tuesday (9/16) was taken up by driving to Detroit, we decided to get tickets to visit the museum for Wednesday, September 17. We were surprised, and very happy, to find that with a Verizon phone, the audio tour of the museum was free! Apparently, they have a deal set up with Verizon to allow customers to dial #THF (#843, 313-483-4098 for non-Verizon) and then enter individual item numbers to listen to the history of Henry Ford and pieces in his collection. It was great! So for anybody who wants to, we will include the item number with the photos, so you can call and get info about the object and hear what we heard (it's free air time for Verizon customers, everyone else will pay their regular long distance rates). How cool!

The first thing we saw when we walked in was the original Oscar Meyer weinermobile. We then walked through the museum in different sections, starting with agricultural. Since Henry Ford grew up on a farm and working as a mechanic, there were a bunch of really old farm implements. Steam engine tractors, early farm implements, and original farm tools were displayed. When you've got more money than you know what to do with, it is possible to collect everything. This museum shares a portion of Ford's collections. He has kitchen tools, cast iron stoves, furniture, racecars, airplanes, historical items, etc. Part of the museum allows people to travel back in time through pop-culture memorabilia from each decade in the last century.

Planes, trains, and automobiles take up a large portion of the museum. There are examples of what seems like every car ever made. The limo Kennedy rode in when he was assassinated is displayed in a line of former president's cars. There are re-created diners, model Holiday Inn motel room, a drive-in theater, and a mock factory where you can try out your assembly line skills. As if all of this is not enough, there is an entire village outside where Ford assembled some of the more famous homes in America that you can tour. He has homes of everybody from French immigrants to Robert Frost and Noah Webster. There is also a working farm that is the exact layout of the Firestone (rubber company) farm. Ford has also assembled a number of artisans and craftsmen into a village where you can watch them create. There are glassblowers, potters, tinsmiths, and weavers, among others. Many of them give demonstrations early in the day, so we unfortunately did not get to see too many artists in action. However, this also worked to our advantage, as we got to talk personally with one of the glassblowers, who showed us the amazing Vaseline (pronounced vahz-uh-leen) glass, which is made with uranium. Because of the uranium, this glass glows brilliantly when illuminated with UV light. Uncle Phil collects this glass, and we had just seen his collection the day before! The guy was really nice and told us a bunch about how they made some of their pieces, ending up by giving me a small Vaseline marble. The Greenfield Village closes at 5:00, so we quickly learned that we shouldn't have tried to do both in one day, but this definitely ranks up there as one of our favorite places along the trip. We tried to meet up with my dad's cousin who lives near Detroit, but that was unsuccessful, so we were off to Waterville, Ohio, where I was born and to visit family in Mansfield, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Stayed tuned for a walk down memory lane.

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