Outside Detroit – September 12, 2015

On Saturday we moved farther south towards Detroit to St Clair, Michigan positioned to visit the Ford Rouge Plant, Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.  Unfortunately, our truck issue was not properly resolved and Friday night on the way to return the rental car, the warning light came on again.  Nothing could be done over the weekend so we decided to move and deal with it again Monday morning.

After church on Sunday we drove around an area our friends Sue and Jim used to live in and took in some of the local sites.  First stop was  Yates Cider Mill with no idea what we would see until we turned the corner and saw all the other thousands of people who thought Sunday afternoon was a good time to come.

There was face painting, pony rides, a petting zoo and the primary attraction was 30 minute-long lines to buy apple cider and fresh hot donuts and turnovers.  Except for the extra things, this place was very similar to Barber’s in North Carolina.  While waiting on line you could smell the fresh baked donuts and cider and of course, we gave in and stood in line.

After that, we drove by Erma’s Frozen Custard which looked good but didn’t sound good to our “older” tummies so soon after donuts and cider, so we headed to Nino Salvaggio’s International Market.

 We were not inside this incredible grocery store for 3 minutes before we agreed if we had one in Ocala, we would be in trouble.  The produce area had every fruit and vegetable you could name and many I never heard of.  Row after row of fabulous food options that you would never see in most other stores and they all looked good.  The deli area had an olive bar with maybe 30 varieties of olives, salads, and fresh meat options.  There was a coffee area with coffee beans of every flavor you could want and a grinder to allow you to grind your own with multiple settings depending on how you made your coffee.  We found some of the Traverse City Cherry coffee we were served on our Elk viewing dinner and hope we can make it taste as good.

Monday morning Jim left early to be at the dealership when they opened to see about the truck.  This had to be a priority because without the truck, we would never get back to Ocala.  By 10:30 he was back with the truck in tip top condition and we were on our way to the Ford Rouge Plant Tour. Since it was lunch time we stopped for a sandwich at the Michigan Cafe which was located on the grounds of  The Henry Ford Museum.  This Veggie sandwich was something.

Veggie Sandwich on Focaccia Bread w/Sausage and Chicken Soup

This plant is on the national historical registry and is where Henry Ford first used vertical integration in manufacturing and is still in operation as the plant that produces the F-150 trucks for Ford today.

Bus to Rouge Factory Tour

View of Rouge Plant complex

As I understand it, vertical integration is where every part of the production from receiving the limestone, coal, iron ore, etc to make the metals and parts to assembling is all contained at one site.  Henry Ford was able to improve the production time for a Ford automobile from one every 12 hours to one every 93 minutes using this method.  Today this plant produces 1,200 vehicles every day or one every minute.  Before the Depression this plant had over 100,000 employees involved in every aspect of the production of the cars.  Today this plant employs 6,000 workers.  It is named the Rouge Plant because it sits on the Rouge River with a deep water dock to receive all the necessary raw materials from the freighters.  What a genius mind Henry Ford had to put all this together.  Today, the plant is still modernizing and innovating with ecological advances like their “living roof”.  Instead of conventional roofing materials, they have used a living vegetation to roof one of their huge buildings which lasts twice as long as conventional roofing material, keeps the building 10 degrees cooler, saving on electricity costs and allows the rain water to reenter the atmosphere and not be wasted.

View of Roof Top of Rouge Plant – Garden Roof

Legacy Gallery at Rouge Plant

1929 Model A

1932 Ford V8

1949 Ford

1955 Thunderbird

1965 Mustang

Connected to the plant tour is the Henry Ford Museum and I would say a “must see” for anyone who finds himself in this area.  We spent hours in the plant and museum and highly recommend it.