Driveway-surfing our hometown
So what do you do when you’re driveway-surfing in the town you grew up in? It’s not all that different from living in the house, but there’s still a bit of a paradigm shift at work. Lots of things don’t mean the same that they used to. You notice things like the local KOA, and the RV dealers, and all of the other Class A and C rigs living in suburban driveways. You know where the local RV dump stations are, and which ones are free. You know which parking lots you can and can’t get into and out of.
Looking at home with fresh eyes, we started to treat it like we hadn’t grown up here, like we were new to the place. That meant exploring all of the nooks and crannies all over again, and when we did that, just like going through the dark corners of Grandma’s house, we found all sorts of stuff we’d never seen before, or hadn’t paid any attention to since we were children. Highly recommended if you’re ever in the area: the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Motown Historical Museum and the Henry Ford. Wanna eat? Try the Woodward Avenue Brewery in Ferndale, the Raven up in Port Huron (about an hour out of Detroit) and the Sushi Café in Briarwood Mall, in Ann Arbor, and you absolutely must have a Coney dog while you’re in the area, because they don’t make them right anywhere else. Coney Islans restaurants are on pretty much every corner, and they’re all equivalent. Don’t get a coney dog from A&W, they’re nasty. If you want to do it like the locals do, go to Senate. Slow’s BBQ in Detroit is pretty good, too (um, not for Coney dogs, however).
I’m not going into detail on all of those things unless you really want me to, but I will elaborate on one of ‘em: one of the biggest attractions in the Metro Detroit area is the Henry Ford. Formerly known as Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum, this massive collection of hands-on American history is a must-see. Founded in 1929, the collection is Henry Ford’s personal tribute to American life, and seeks to preserve all aspects of our history by capturing the minutiae of life as well as the big historical events. The collection is kind of infamous; some people are weirded out by the fact that psychotic ol’ Henry ran around the country buying up the buildings that had once been the homes and workshops of influential people, disassembling them and shipping them back to Dearborn, Michigan, to be a part of an assembled “village” chronicling American history. I can see where that might creep some people out. Then again, Henry Ford was a creepy guy, and certainly didn’t give a fig what those people thought, and now the museum and Greenfield Village are absolute must-stops when you’re in the area.
It’ll take a while. All told it’s about two hundred sixty acres of stuff to see; best bet is to visit the Museum one day and the Village on another. With a large collection of nineteenth and early twentieth-century minutiae on display, the Henry Ford definitely captured the attention of our steamgothy little hearts. Afterall, it’s hard not to think cool steampunk thoughts when you’re walking around a massive display of giant steam engines! Archaic machines, from agricultural equipment to turn-of-the-century stoves to highwheeler bicycles and of course the Allegheny, a 70-ton behemoth of a steam locomotive, had Lexie and I chirping and bouncing all day.
There’s also actual history here, of course: the quad-engined Goldenrod land speed record car, the bus Rosa Parks was riding on a certain fateful day in 1955, an original Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, the first Ford Escort and first American-build Honda Accord, Henry Ford’s famous race car the “999” (which I believe still runs), a working 1917 carousel and the animated Gog and Magog in the Village’s bell tower, a cast-iron clockwork show that takes place every quarter-hour. Dead presidents abound: they’ve got the limousine Kennedy was riding in when he was shot and the chair Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot (one of the Museum’s more macabre and infamous artifacts, I can’t remember if it’s currently on display or not. I saw it so many times as a kid that I don’t look for it any more). There’s a glassblowing facility on the premises, a Southern plantation complete with slave cabins, a working 1850s farm, a railroad roundhouse and a working turn of the century machine shop as well (the really cool stuff is the scrap metal pile laying outside, which includes old locomotive bits). The Village is more active in the spring and summer, but the Museum is cool all year round, and I’m starting to sound like an advertisement so I’ll stop.
Actually, no, there’s one more thing: we toured the cool, post-mounted, all-aluminum Dymaxion House (the Home of the Future! Circa 1945, anyway) and our guide, Carl, was absolutely wonderful. Most of the Henry Ford’s staff are knowledgeable and friendly, and the interpreters posted at particular exhibits really get into their roles. Carl took on the role of a period salesman and did his best to sell us a Dymaxion House while extolling its features and virtues, and if it had been 1947, Lexie and I probably would’ve bought one.
Have a look at the rest of the photos here.
Ironic that both Ms. Parks and the bus she rode in on would both wind up in the Detroit Metro area…