The Henry Ford, Dearborn, MI

Today we visited The Henry Ford Museum.  There is quite a collection of stuff from cars, trains, the original Holiday Inn sign, an exhibit by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, furniture, the Dymaxion House, and much more.  Here are photos of a few things we saw.

Presidential Limousines

This is the limousine President Kennedy was riding in when he was assassinated.  Following his assassination, the Secret Service reinforced and secured the limousine with a steel roof and other modifications.

Railroad

Railway snow plow

Henry Ford's Private railcar

Driving America

Heroes of the sky; adventures in early flight

With liberty and justice for all
The Lincoln Chair - President Lincoln was assassinated in this chair at Ford's Theater in 1865.

On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery Alabama, Rosa Parks sat in a middle seat on this bus and refused to move to the back of the bus.

Made in America

Later that evening we went looking for Henry Ford's estate and other houses he lived in around the area.  The estate was gated closed, although tours are offered until 6pm weekdays.  we drove up and down the Boston-Edison Historic District in search of the house that was built for Henry Ford and his wife Clara, in the same year that the Model T went into production at the nearby Piquette Avenue Ford Plant.  Unfortunately, we were unable to locate it.  Here is a file photo of the house.

After house hunting we stopped in at Sajaoun Cafe for authentic middle eastern cuisine then headed out to find where Motown Records got its start.

Finally we drove south towards Woodhaven, MI for the night.  When we arrived in Woodhaven we enjoyed a fireworks show.  They must have had some left over from the previous week.

Marathon Across the North Midwest

We left North Dakota and 5 minutes later crossed into Minnesota.  From there we drove towards Duluth, MN.  After arriving in Duluth we decided to continue eastward to Ironwood, WI.  We stopped for the night in the Ottawa National Forest at Burned Dam Campground.  The mosquitos were so bad we did not even bother to get out of the van to snap a few pictures of our camp.

The next morning we escaped the mosquitos and continued southeastward to Detroit.  We drove past Lake Superior and crossed Lake Michigan into Mackinaw City.




We stopped for the night in Davisburg, Michigan about 46 miles from Detroit.  The next morning we headed for Dearborn, MI to visit the Henry Ford Museum.  We covered nearly 1000 miles in less than than three days!

North Dakota

As we were driving across Canada I realized that we would be passing right over the Dakotas.  Although we would be a couple hundred miles north, there would likely not be another time that I would happen to be so close to my aunt and uncle who live near Fargo.  George and I decided we would forgo our idea of driving across Canada via the Trans Canada highway and dip back south into the US to stop and visit my family.

Once through customs we drove to Fargo for the night.


We desperately needed to clean up our van a bit before showing up at my aunt and uncles house.

The next morning we stopped in Breckenridge, MN to do a few quick loads of laundry and then headed to a car wash in Wahpeton, ND to get our very filthy and buggy van all cleaned up.  Here it is all cleaned up.

That evening we arrived at my aunt and uncles house. 

The next day we went to Fargo with my aunt.  We decided to stop in at Costco and pick up a veggie pizza.  The night before, George and I had been raving about Costco's pizza, which is only about $10 for a huge approximately 18" pie.  We took the pie home and my aunt and uncle got to try it.  They loved it.  My uncle threw it on the grill for a few minutes to heat it up and it was like it just came out of the oven at Costco.  As usual we devoured the food before we remembered to take a picture!

We had a wonderful visit with them, and I learned a little bit more about my family history.  On Wednesday morning, as we were preparing to get back on the road, the Turkey family my uncle had mentioned stopped by.

Thank you so much to my aunt and uncle for all of their wonderful hospitality.  They loaded us up with tons of delicious snacks and goodies for the road. 

Banff National Park, Alberta Canada

Happy Independence Day!

We left Calgary this morning and drove towards Banff.  The scenery in this part of Canada was lovely.  Here is a slideshow of our drive through Calgary and northward towards Banff.


We arrived at the Banff NationalPark Entrance Pay station and paid our fee to enter the park. 

Banff is a beautiful little town just inside Banff National Park.  We stopped at the visitors center in Banff and collected some information about the park then walked around the city a bit.

We continued north from Banff deeper into the park.  

We spotted a Black Bear and Elk along our route. 

Our first stop was along Rt. 1A where we hiked a short 1km to McNair Pond.

From McNair Pond we drove to Louise Lake.  Louise Lake is a beautiful turquoise color.  The color is caused from rock sediment that is dissolved in the melting glacial waters that feed the lake.  We also saw the Fairmont Chateau at Lake Louise, where George’s grandparents stayed when they were here.

We left Lake Lousie and continued north.  The scenery is beautiful at Banff.

We pulled into Waterfowl campground along the shores of the Waterfowl Lake.  Waterfowl Lake is another turquoise lake, a telltale sign that it too is fed by melting glaciers.

The next morning we left Waterfowl Campground and headed south towards Calgary.  As we drove down Rt. 1 we saw beautiful scenery of glaciers, glacial lakes and the Canadian Rockies.  

Prior to exiting the park we drove the LakeMinnewanka scenic loop past Lake Minnewanka and Two Jack Lake where we spotted some mountain goats taking a walk down the middle of the road.

We drove back through Calgary and passed by the world’s largest Teepee.  We stopped about 60 miles from the North Dakota Border to rest for the night before continuing south into the US.