Last Day in Michigan – September 15, 2015

On our last day in Michigan, we spent the day visiting the Greenfield Village created in 1929 by Henry Ford as an educational facility emphasizing history and innovation.  Over the years the Village has grown to include buildings and exhibits acquired from all over the mid-west, a perfect adjunct to the Henry Ford Museum, while continuing to house a Charter School open to all children by lottery drawing.

Some of the highlights included visiting a real railroad roundhouse with one of the trains from Henry Ford’s railroad that he used to ship the cars;

Railroad Roundhouse

 Edison’s Menlo Park Complex where most of the work for the incandescent light bulb was done, and seeing the workshop and factory where the first automobiles were produced.

As always, for me, the highlight was lunch in the Eagle Tavern which was built in Clinton, Michigan as a stagecoach stop in the 1850’s.

Eagle Tavern at Greenfield Village

We were served pickled vegetables, a black-eyed pea salad, and assorted rolls and mini-muffins as soon as we sat down.  We ordered iced mint tea with our entrees of braised rabbit and vegetables and corn meal dusted trout with root vegetables.  We decided to skip dessert so that we could have it later on in the afternoon.

Check out the pictures Jim took while we were in the village.

View inside Greenfield Village

Working farm at Greenfield Village

Edison’s Menlo Park Lab

Sarah Jordan Boarding House where Edison’s employees stayed – 1st house with electricity

Electric wires going into boarding house

Limestsone house circa 1600

Main Street showing Orville Wright Cycle Shop

Replica (1/4 scale) of the original Ford Motor Company factory

Henry Ford’s childhood home

FINAL IMPRESSIONS OF MICHIGAN

Our final day in Michigan, we had the best weather of the eight weeks we spent in this beautiful state.  It was not too hot, or too cold, or too windy and actually perfect temperature with clear sunny skies.  I hope for the people of Michigan, the weather we experienced on the rest of the trip was unusual and their summers normally are better.

The people of Michigan are very NICE people and many of them are strong, self-sufficient individuals and come from hearty stock whether they came from the rugged individualists who struck out to settle the west coast or the innovators like Henry Ford, the leaders of Frankenmuth, or the miners of the UP.

Although we never did encounter those huge mosquitoes we were warned about, we did have some bug issues.  At the Soo locks we ran into something called May Flies that are the Michigan similar to our Love Bugs; they have no purpose but get really annoying.  But these flies seem to be different than their Florida cousins in the fact that they are more abundant and they bite!

If you have never seen the coastlines of Michigan, make it an item on your bucket list because, although diverse and different, whether on Lake Michigan, Lake Superior or Lake Huron, they are gorgeous!