Tiger Town

My dear friend, Maureen, grew up in Michigan. She has been there recently and suggested that we avoid Detroit at all costs. It is a decaying example of urban blight and can be pretty scary if you drive into the wrong neighborhoods. Maureen also worked at The Henry Ford, only before it became The. This is a museum of all type of stuff and a village with all types of stuff and a tour of an auto manufacturing plant. I really wanted to see this, even though Karen reminded me that it contained the three things I hate the most - heat, crowds and a lot of walking. So, of course, we were going to do just two things in Michigan: visit The Henry Ford and Detroit.

We stayed at a Motel 6 outside Dearborn. This was Peter's first experience at these institutes of traveling torture. We stayed two nights. The first night I was in a smoking room and it exacerbated a sore throat I've had for weeks. We asked for non-smoking, but this seems to be out of the ken of many night desk people. The great thing was that there was a fireworks show several miles away that we could see from our rooms. I don't like being close to fireworks, but I love being miles away. It went on for a very long time.

The next day we went to The Henry Ford. It was an amazing day, weather wise. I was taking a cup of coffee to the car when I felt a few drops. If I'd been in California, it would have been a few drops for a while. But I remembered we weren't in CA anymore and that in this part of the world, a few drops becomes a drenching in seconds. Yes, I moved fast. And I was right. It poured for about 5 minutes. Wierd.

Because of the chance of more showers, we did not go to the village. We wanted to go on the tour of the auto plant, but it was closed. The ticket seller mentioned that it was the change in the model year and sort of muttered something about a slowdown. Duh, of course. Auto makers in the US are in really hard times. It was a shame not to have seen the real deal. But we went to the museum instead.

They had a lot of interesting exhibits, including this car on the left that had been exploded to show its simplicity. The first thing we saw were examples of different styles of furniture. Karen said she never thought she'd go to a museum called Ford and see furniture. But never fear, they also had a lot of cars. They even had a car test dummy that I became friendly with. Karen said it looked like I was being protective, but really, I was just playing with his knee.

We went to Detroit the next day to visit with Scott, Becky and their boys. They are working on every street in Michigan. This meant that the major arteries into Detroit were closed. We were detoured through several areas that I would consider to be less than desireable. But we lived. We were heading toward a place called Greektown. All I knew was that it was or was close to a casino. I did have some hope that we would be eating Greek food, but you never know with casinos. We did have Greek food AND we got to meet these two cute little boys. On the left is Wesley, who was showing me that when he stamps his feet, his shows light up. His brother, Austin, was also delightful. We walked across the street after dinner and found hundreds of Detroit Tiger fans. We found out that the new stadium is just a few blocks away from Greektown. What I saw was not an old decaying city. They are trying very hard to revitalize the city, against huge odds. I wish them well. The part we found was a lot of fun.

The Ramblers +1