Michigan

So!! we have made it to the state number 29 in our count, Michigan!!

Some residents call it “the Mitten State” which resembles a hand wearing a mitten. That is if you look at the Lower Peninsula; the Upper Peninsula is something different, well known by its spectacular geography.

Having left Wisconsin behind, we took HWY 41 towards our first destination in the state, St Ignace which is actually the port from which a boat will take us to one of the most recommended places I’ve ever heard from everyone: Mackinac Island!!

Little by little Scotty is having a view (finally) of waters!! this time Lake Michigan but soon the list will grow to Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and of course, the Atlantic Ocean once we are in Maine

Claudia couldn’t resist having a few pictures taken by the Lake Michigan. She looks so cute ☺

After a good 6 hour drive, it was time to get the Blackstone Griddle in action for a well deserved lunch / dinner

Alright, so time to get ready to visit Mackinac Island! It is the most well-known car-free island in the U.S., where cars are prohibited and transportation is limited to horse-drawn carriages, bicycles, and walking. The ban, enacted in 1896 due to the noise and exhaust from early automobiles scaring horses, was codified into state law in 1901 and remains in effect today, with exceptions only for emergency vehicles like ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks

Claudia is pointing at the island from the port in St Ignace

And this is what you see as soon as you arrive at the island, horses and bicycles everywhere you go

You’d think with so many horses how the streets are kept clean and odor-free ( well…. sort of). The streets are cleaned up 5 or 6 times a day!!

One of the best ways to get to know the island is of course, a tour offered by carriages and horses and well explained by guides which in our case a Romanian national that didn’t dissapoint! Well done OT ( OT was his name, such a funny guy)!!

A few more pictures from our visit

This is the very famous Grand Hotel, built in the late 19th century. The facility advertises itself as having the world’s largest porch. Grand Hotel is known for a number of notable visitors, including five U.S. presidents, inventor Thomas Edison, and author Mark Twain.

We were told by a couple of friends that share the same passion for motorhomes ( Steve and Sue) that we should try the local speciality known as Pastry ( a savory meat pie) which didn’t dissapoint!!

Mackinac Bridge, a 5 mile long bridge including the approaches in both sides

It was time to visit one of my favorite cities mainly for one reason: cars!!!

The area of Detroit was at the time the hub for companies like Ford, General Motors, American Motors, etc… We had to visit the Ford Museum and the manufacturing center… something I have not done before. We have visited the plants of Boeing and Airbus but never a car manufacturing plant!. And I’m glad Ford allows you to see a section of the plant where the famous Ford F-150 pick up truck is built ( F-150 being historically the best-selling truck in the US).

I genuinely thought that this museum was all about cars but no!! it is a showcase of american history over the years starting with furniture, a bit of airplanes, computers and of course some cars

This is for instance a sectional view of the famous Ford T; Henry Ford took 6 years of hard work to come up with the first car but then, he thought it was going to be impossible to provide every american family with a car if he continued fabricating them one at a time ( it took 12 hours to make just one). He then decided to visit a few production plants of different products not related to cars; for instance he went to Ohio and he saw how the production of beef cuts and pork sections were cut off and packed for transportation and consumption; he also went to see how cottom was handled in large quantities. It was then when he gathered a group of people and came up with a production scheme to produce cars in large quantities. By 1914 a car was produced in just 23 minutes.

This represents the car manufacturing at the Highland Park plant.

Henry Ford would pay $5 a day to work at the plant, a good salary back in the day!!

He actually owned a DC-3 that he bought from a commercial airline. He also ventured and heard the petition from the public: if you can make a car for every american, why not build an airplane!!

He tried and this is the result: a not very attractive plane and very dangerous to fly!!. He did not succeed.

However, Ford was successful in designing and creating the Ford Trimotor airplane, a well built, durable and reliable airplane that flew even well into the 60s.

We actually “flew” in the Ford Trimotor airplane for a short while

Claudia always wanted to be a flight attendant… well, I told her to fulfill her dream and shine while she does it on a DC-4 airplane!! ☺

A few more models

And a few presidential cars, all originals!!

And, as for president Theodore Roosevelt, he’d prefer to ride on the presidential horse carriage rather than the early combustion engine driven cars

Time to see the early models of motorhomes!!

You may notice that the Airstream trailer has sort of maintained the same design for years!!

We also had the chance to be transported back in time to the 50s when the very famous dinner cars were the normal venue to eat whilst on the road

And a bit of steam engine machines….. or heavy trains!!

After seeing the museum, it was the turn to visit the plant ( Ford Rouge plant). You are welcome by the organizers who show a great video and animation of the history of the plant including the cars that were built back in the day ( Ford Mustang, Thunderbird and others) and now just used to produce the Ford F-150 from the beginning to the end. No photographies are allowed though. As it is expected, engines and transmissions and other parts are brought in from other plants across the country but the majority of parts and assembling as such is done (still) by humans contrary to what happens with other vehicles that are now produced in mass via robots for most (not all) of the tasks. Tesla, Hyunday, Renault, Fiat, Volkswagen are a few of them that use thousands of robots to do many of the more dangerous, intricate operations.

Henry Ford promoting apprenticeship to youngsters

True story: this is the very first Ford Mustang ( unit number 1, 1962) now on display at the museum

See the picture below…. it depicts the transformation of a car design over the years. For us who love classic cars, it’s evident that the golden age of a car was until not very popular designs came up in mid 80s!!

We left the museum and headed back to the campground just to find a pleasant surprise…. halloween customes contest!!

The kids were having so much fun!!

The next morning we found out that our neighbor had a Mastin Napolitano; huge!!!

Time to plant tree number 31; a nice Lilac; it was planted in St Ignace

So far the weather has been incredibly favorable to us; sunny and warm days….. we all know rain and cool days will come soon…

State number 29 definitely didn’t disappoint!

Thanks for reading !! See you next week !