Day One:

I’m going to a museum today. It opens at 9:30. I figured that would give me plenty of time to have breakfast and watch the local news for a bit. But then I somehow slept until 10:15. TEN FIFTEEN! I haven’t slept that late since some time in the 1970’s! So, I semi-hurriedly slapped on some clothes, took a quick look at accuweather.com to confirm that today’s the best day for the outdoor museum (it is), and headed out. It’s about a half-hour drive from my hotel to the museum (the hotel is centrally located amongst the next four days’ activities). This fool further figured I’d find fast food along the way, and grab a quick lunch. Somehow, I didn’t see any. So, I had lunch at the museum. I just got an order of mac-n-cheese – and it was thick, rich, cheesy goodness! Which then sat very heavily on my stomach. Nevertheless, I made my way to the ticket desk to get my membership card (I had determined via their website that this would actually save me money compared to a two-day admission and two days’ parking. And I knew this museum complex deserved a full two days.

What is this museum complex I have yet to name? The overall campus is called simply, The Henry Ford. It consists of several parts. The part I’m visiting today is Greenfield Village. I would loosely compare it to the outdoor portion of the Stuhr Museum for the Nebraskans out there, and to South Park City for the Coloradoans. Basically, Henry Ford had various historic buildings re-located here to form an entire village. What makes it unique is that nearly all of the buildings have some association with Henry Ford himself, Thomas Edison, or the Wright Brothers. That and they have Model T rides. Yup, they have several working Ford Model T cars that you can take a ride in (for an extra twelve bucks). This was something I had to experience, and so I did. I can’t say it was anything special or unusual. I rode in the front passenger seat of a convertible with the top down. There was very little legroom – especially for the driver. But there was also not a big dashboard or glove compartment, so it wasn’t too bad. I also got the impression that it would’ve been seriously cramped with the top up. But the car seemed perfectly normal and reliable – no special handling seemed to be needed, and the ride was smooth (of course, all the pavement in Greenfield Village is perfectly smooth).

Greenfield Village also has a 100+ year old carousel. And it’s not your average carousel: it’s a menagerie. It has not just horses, but loads of animals. These included a cat, a frog, two roosters, a goat, an ostrich, a giraffe (not to scale), two zebras, a dog, and a few others. Sorry, no pictures.

They also have a steam train that you can ride around the perimeter of the village, and horse-drawn bus and carriage rides. I didn’t manage to squeeze in a bus or carriage ride, but I did ride the train. I’ve ridden several of these tourist railroads, and this is the only one I’ve seen that has working rail signals! And each set of signals seems to be from a different era or maybe different railroads. The same goes for the crossing signals.

Overall, I have to say this is a great place for anyone to visit! But, if you have Parkinson’s, consider bringing or renting a wheelchair. This is a BIG place, and I did a LOT of walking. Luckily, the weather was perfect: high temperature of 81, low humidity, nice breeze.

Day Two:

Today I hit The Henry Ford’s indoor museum, which is formally known as the Museum of American Innovation. This time I woke up at a more reasonable hour: a little after 7:00. The breakfast here at this TownPlace Suites was pretty good, as breakfast buffets go, and I even had time for a bit of a nap after breffy, before I left for the museum. This museum, like its outdoor neighbor, is excellent and huge. Again, I’d recommend a wheelchair for many of my readers; my hips were starting to ache by the end of the day.

I started with the agricultural equipment exhibit. What can I say? I grew up across the street from a farm, and it’s been a while since I’ve seen farm implements. I had an urge. There are quite a few interesting items on display here. Most interesting to me were the 1941 John Deere tractor, identical to the one my Great Uncle Vern used to let me ride on when I was a kidlet, and a 1975 New Holland combine, of which I used to see so many out harvesting the crops.

Next, I headed over to the railroad section of the museum. There’s not a whole lot of railroad stuff here (which is probably good, because I have two full days of railroad museums yet to come on this trip), but what’s here is fascinating stuff! What I liked most was their replicant of the third passenger train in U.S. History. I’ve seen old lithographs of this train, but I’ve never seen a full-size mock-up of it, until now. Basically, they took the wheels off of a few stagecoaches, and attached the stagecoaches to train cars. Again, no pictures. But there was one thing I absolutely had to get a picture of…

I spotted the back end of a trolley from some distance away. I immediately thought to myself, wouldn’t it be weird, after seeing that old Fort Collins trolley in Nebraska last year, if I found another one in Michigan today? Sure enough, I walked around the corner and saw this:

Honestly, I’m starting to think the only reason Fort Collins, Colorado ever built a trolley system was so they could donate the trolley cars to museums everywhere BUT Colorado.

Finally, I headed for the mass of automobile exhibits. Seeing as how this is The Henry Ford, I was halfway expecting these exhibits to be heavily dominated by Ford cars. Thankfully, they are not. The variety of cars on display here is quite amazing. They’ve got a Deusenberg right next to a Bugatti, what may be the oldest surviving Blue Bird school bus, a Tucker, and a couple Packards. They’ve even got some brands (from the very early days of automobiles) that you may never have heard of, including Cord, Duryea, Rapid, Stevens, White, and several others. But there was one car that really grabbed my attention…even more than the Fort Collins trolley did. I almost took pictures of this car, but then I realized I essentially already have a picture of it…and most of you have already seen it. Here ’tis:

The car on display was a 1973 Chrysler Newport. My second car was a 1977 Chrysler Newport. The two were nearly identical; they were even the same color! But what I really found funny was that they were citing the Newport as being representative of a class of cars that have become “dinosaurs” and were “the last of a dying breed”. I would’ve called it “the last of the land yachts”, but their description was accurate, too.

The museum closed at 5:00. By that time, I had seen only about 40 – 60 percent of the exhibits. So, if you’re ever stuck in the Detroit area for more than a day or two, get yourself a membership at The Henry Ford and enjoy.

Tomorrow: I visit another museum, but I’m thinking this will be the most unique / unusual one I’ve seen in quite some time.