Bouncing Through Michigan

We are entering our third and final week of having our wings clipped by mechanical issues. After a spring of fighting lousy weather, we finally reached Michigan, and we had the promise of good weather. But since leaving Essexville, we have had to deal with mechanical issues relating to the maintenance of both Nakai and Koko. Nakai's 60,000-mile check-up revealed a bad differential. A slow service department and delays in getting parts have taken us into our third week of waiting for the repair. We have a rental car, but the additional cost has limited some of our activities. The annual Warranty Inspection for Koko is also due, and there will be limited opportunities to have it done before the deadline.

 

This is part of everyday life whether you live in an RV, apartment, or house. Unfortunately, they make daily life a bit more challenging on the road. First Challenge: Find a reliable service provider. Second Challenge: Arrange to be in the area long enough to complete the work. Third Challenge: Ensure the job is done correctly because there will not likely be a return trip to the service provider for a do-over. These challenges require an ample supply of bounce. Bounce is the result of resilience, which comes from the power of hope to overcome our fears!

 

We began our week on Saturday at The Henry Ford Museum of Innovation. This vast collection sits in the middle of Dearborn, home to Ford headquarters, research and development centers, and several manufacturing facilities. Henry Ford was a collector. It appears that he seldom bought one of anything. Ford owned several presidential limousines, including the one Kennedy rode through the streets of Dallas in 1963. He purchased at least eight violins, many vintage tractors, and other farm equipment. Antique steam engines were on display alongside historical artifacts like the Montgomery City Bus, where Rosa Parks sat down and refused to move. Many displays were authentic artifacts, but the bulk were recreations based on historical records. We spent four hours walking through the. A highlight was lunch in a 1930s diner that served vintage recipes at a table with a jukebox attached to the wall. It was a fascinating walk-through of American history dedicated to innovation and ingenuity.

 

Kennedy's Limo from Dallas

The Trunk Jackie Climbed over

Truman's Limo

Reminds me of my 1st Car, a 1953 Mainline

A 40s Diner

An Exploded Model T

The 50s Wienermobile

The KKK on Display

Montgomery City Bus

Rosa Park's Seat

Lincoln's Chair from the Ford Theater

G. Washington's Tent

Replica of the Wright Flyer

Ford's Kitchen Tested Gasoline Engine

The Edsel

On Sunday, we returned to Dearborn to walk through Greenfield Village, another of Henry Ford's Americana collections. (I never knew that he collected whole buildings.) Greenfield Village started out as a place for Ford to gather buildings that were special to him. Some are from his childhood, while others belonged to people whose work he greatly admired, including Thomas Edison, Luther Burbank, and Wilbur and Orville Wright. Again, while there are quite a few genuine artifacts, many are reproductions based on historical records. This Village is spread out and requires a lot of walking. They offer tours in Model Ts and horse-drawn wagons, but I opted to walk. Many buildings had people in period costumes demonstrating the crafts or telling the story of the artifacts on display. This place has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. (I probably read about it in My Weekly Reader in the 60s.) And, unlike other bucket list items, this one did not disappoint too much. I would have liked to have seen more authentic articles, but the actors made up for much of that. We spent four hours walking the streets of Greenfield Village, and I felt like I had walked through US History, the Anglo part, at least.

19^th Century Crafts and Industrial Area

One of many Tractors

A Flour Mill

The Village Dock

The Mill

The Weaver

Demonstrating the Loom

The Pottery Shop

An Old Kiln

Demonstrating the Printing Press

The Foundry

The Glass Shop

The Glassblower at Work

The Finished Product, a Glass

The Turnstile at the Roundhouse

Thomas Edison's Steam engine

The Engineer's Seat

The Engineer's View

Underneath a Steam Engine

Edison’s Menlo Park Laboratories

Replica of NYC Power Station

The DC Generator from the First Power Station

A Coal Fired Boiler from NYC

The Oil Fired Boiler

Ford's Tribute to Edison

Edison's Machine Shop

The Telephone Table

The Rock Lab

Work bench

Demonstrating Edison's Favorite Invention

Reconstruction of Edison's Laboratory

The Vacuum Chamber Where Edison Tested the Incandescent Bulb

Edison's PR Office

The Village

One of the Village Tour Cars

A Fancy Candy Shop

Another Machine Shop

Luther Burbank's Garden Shed

Housing for the Enslaved

Robert Frost's Home from Ann Arbor

Noah Webster's Home

A Covered bridge

A Tunnel through Time

Wilbur Wright's Home

The Wright's Bicycle Shop from Dayton

Orville Wright's Desk

Wright's Work Bench

The Workshop

A Flyer Wing

Ford's Boyhood Home

The Ford Sitting Parlor

Saying Goodbye to Greenfield Village

 

Sunset on Lake Ford

After all the walking over the weekend, we welcomed the rain on Monday and Tuesday to recuperate and deal with the issues of Nakai’s repairs. We continued to enjoy our beautiful site on Lake Ford. The geese and ducks stopped by for a brief visit. The squirrels continued to check out the campsites for morsels of food left by campers. The weather allowed time to sit outside when the rain held off. I did some reading and laid out options for future travel. But, for the most part, we just lived our lives while waiting for (and worrying about) Nakai and the impact of the delay on the next few weeks of travel. I re-booked our stay in Monroe and Cleveland and extended the car rental. The uncertainty of when the part would come in and when the shop would get around to doing the work lingered in the background. Without hope, bounce was elusive.

On Wednesday, we made our short drive to Monroe. This stop had been initially planned as a brief stay to tour the Jeep Plant in Toledo after returning from Elkhart to tour the RV Plant. But, after seeing how excellent the site in Ypsilanti was and the uncertainty over Nakai's repairs,  I canceled the Elkhart zigzag. When the work on Nakai was delayed a second time, I could not extend our stay in Ypsilanti, so I decided to make an early move to Monroe, which was only 38 miles away. Fortunately, the park in Monroe could handle our early arrival, and we made the drive down a windy I-75. (BTW, Fiat no longer offers tours of their Jeep plants, so that Bucket List item went down in flames.)

We spent a couple of days catching up on chores and settling in at the Monroe Resort. This allowed us to watch the Olympics while we waited for the Mobile RV Tech to show up for Koko's annual Warranty Inspection. The Tech did not find any significant issues and passed Koko. He also took care of a couple little maintenance items that were beyond my ability. It is always good to get this inspection out of the way. Having an extended warranty goes a long way to offering us peace of mind while on the road.

 

The last week has been all about living life. The Museum and Greenfield Village were nice, but the greater part of the week was just livin'. Whether we are in Houston, TX, or Monroe, MI, I need resilience. Unfortunately, resilience is not only a skill to be learned but also, for me, an acquired taste. Therefore, I must keep learning it over and over again.

 

Fortunately, life on the road offers us plenty of opportunities to develop our capacity for bouncing through the potholes of life and over the rough railroad crossings along the way. I re-learn that we can cope! We can find a way! We may have to get creative, but there is no need to panic. We just keep driving! We may have to hunker down and wait out the storm. But even riding it out, we discover that the clouds will pass, and the sunshine will return. After 20+ years in Houston and several hurricanes and tropical storms, I never was able to learn much about resilience. But the road has finally broken through my resistance to resilience and taught me to bounce. Will I need to do this lesson again? Probably. But for now, I am enjoying the bounce!

 

Let a little bounce into your daily living, whether on the road or on your back porch! The bounce comes when our spirit is filled with hope, and that hope comes from gratitude. Be grateful. Have hope. Enjoy the ride!

 

Travel well, my friends.

 

Bob

Till Next WeeK