Anyway, here are a few teasers from the Museum and the Village:
Inside the museum headed toward the exhibit area:
As you can see, the facility is very elegant and very well-maintained.
This view greets you upon entering the exhibit area:
That is a full-size, real-deal, DC-3 airplane hanging from the ceiling.
Much of the exhibit area had to do with the Industrial Revolution in the US, which stretched roughly from 1820 to 1920 as machines and machined uniformity replace human labor. Here are some machine tools from the late 19th Century that created the "American System" of uniform and interchangeable parts:
An Automatic Screw-Making Machine from about 1895:
Henry Ford, in addition to revolutionizing the automobile, was very interested in reducing the workload of the American farmer, who at the time typically had a team of horses helping him with plowing, tilling, planting, and harvesting his crops. One of Ford's inventions was the small, affordable farm tractor. This is the very first Ford tractor to roll off the assembly line in 1917:
Compare that to one of its predecessors from the late 19th Century, a Traction Engine that would be moved from farm to farm to power what little mechanical equipment the farmers had:
This thing was huge.
One of the quirky exhibits in the Museum was Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion, an aluminum kit-built house that he was proposing to meet the post-WWII demand for housing:
This house was about 1200 square feet with two bedrooms, two baths, a living room and a kitchen...all pie-shaped. As one might guess, it never really got off the ground...
After enjoying the Museum, I headed over to Greenfield Village, which was really neat. Part of the Village consists of actual late 19th and early 20th Century buildings that Ford had disassembled are relocated, and part of it consists of representations of a "typical" American village of that time period. It was really neat and had many areas where people were performing work to represent what would have been done at the time.
Here is a young man hand-blowing a glass vase:
This is a horse-drawn omnibus on Main Street:
And, of course, Model T's were everywhere:
And a real, live steam engine pulling a trainload of visitors around the park:
At any rate, as I said earlier, a boy could get lost here for days.
After taking in all I could at the Ford Museum, I headed up I-75 through Detroit, Flint, Bay City, and on US23 to the big city of Au Gres, MI. Not much in Au Gres but, apparently, Walleye, 'cause they're having several fishing tournaments here this weekend. No wonder I allegedly got the last room in town.
Tomorrow, it's up US23 along the Lake Huron coastline to the Mackinac Bridge and the Upper Peninsula. Should be lots to see, and I'm spending tomorrow nite in Sault St. Marie before crossing over into Canada on Monday Morning. Having a great time!!
Miles today: 259
Total: 1,002
