Dearborn,Mchigan

August 16th - Greenfield Village - Henry Ford Museum

We arrived here yesterday and we have been on the move constantly.  What a magnificent place of learning.  The Village consists of more than 90 acres and includes seven historic districts with buildings of historic significance.  Vintage transportation, skilled artisans and costumed p resenteres can be seen daily.  Including Ford's birthplace, Wright's Cycle-shop, Noah Webster's House.  Edison's workshop, working farms and plantations.  We enjoyed every minutes we spent there.

The town square was open to the visiting kids to play ball, try their skills at walking on stilts, kicking cans, rolling barrel stays and other activities that were popular kids games.

I enjoyed seeing the fields of sheep, watching their wool being carded, dyed, being spun and woven into yarn.  

We spent eight hours there and do think we covered all of the shops.

Yesterday we went to the museum and we did not see all of that, as we only had three hours to make our way through the assortment of American innovative genius of Henry Ford.  Some of his treasures are the presidential limousines, the chair in which Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and a folding camp bed used by George Washington.

Of course, many automobiles that we older folks remember, the Corvair, Edsel, the very first car made my Mr. Ford along with General Motor cars that are great ones to remember.  Certainly not just things that were associated with Henry Ford.  Certainly a weekend of learning.

 Frankenmuth, MI

First car by Henry Ford

 Abe Lincoln's Chair

Oscar Mayer Car!!

Fordson Tractor 1918

President Reagan's Car 

Tomorrow we head for Canada and the route to return to Pennsylvania.

Birch Run, Michigan

August 13th - Monday - Birch Run, Michigan

We left Dayton, Ohio this morning after having our air conditioner serviced.  Then we watched the temperature outside drop considerably as we progressed along route 75 north into Michigan on route 127.  We are north of Flint, MI tonight and will stay here two nights.  Tomorrow we are going to drive into Frankenmuth, where we will find the Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland.  If my kids remember, I purchased Christmas ornaments from there one year.  I remember getting Travis a turtle, but don’t remember what I got the other grandchildren.  We will leave the RV here and drive on into Rose City and see Lou’s cousin Jack and Madeline Rice.

We had a wonderful time in Dayton, saw a lot of familiar sites and many sites that were not familiar.  Shopped in Elder Beerman , Krista, you could get lost it this one, it was two stories,  which was a favorite of my daughter’s and mine, bought candy at Esther Price’s, ate at Frisch’s which is where I met my deceased husband and visited the race track, where we went on our first date, and enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the Golden Lamb in Lebanon.  Created many first time memories - Celebrated Lou’s 86th birthday at Bone Fish Grill at The Dayton Mall, which was a great experience.

Yes, Susie, the Dayton Mall is still there and it is huge, so enlarged compared to what it was before, you and I could shop for days and not see it all.  Scott, we ate dinner at The Middletown Mall at The Cracker Barrel.

We did drive through Xenia, and from what I could remember from seeing it after the tornado, it looks like some of the city was not rebuilt, and it is separated one from the other by being called Old Town and Xenia and a vacant area in the middle.

We did go back to Bethany and I had the opportunity to talk to a lovely lady in marketing and she explained the entire concept and gave me some infor to bring home with me, I can not tell you how impressed I am with the complex.  I had to call Scott and share with him and want to mail the information to him also, he has good memories of the woods and orchard along with the girls.

Still no Wi-Fi, so will post when able.

 Wright-Patt Air Force Museum

 Golden Lamb in Lebanon, Ohio

 Frisch's Big Boy

Cincinnati Zoo

Arrived at Wright-Patt Air Force Base - Dayton, Ohio

August 10th - Friday 72 degrees

We arrived at Wright-Patt Air Force Base on Monday, August 6th around 4:00 pm.  One look at the Fam-Camp was all I needed to know how disappointed I was at this Fam-Camp.  We have camped at many Fam-Camp on the Eastern Coast and this has to be the worst kept camp of any.  It has great potential for being a great camp.  It has all paved sited, with pull-through sites with full hook-ups and 50 amp, picnic tables at each site.  The grass has not been cut in weeks, dead shrubs at many sites, weeds every where you look.  Just general neglect.  Lack of funds, lack of help?

We have a nice enough site and with temps in the high nineties when we arrived, we were certainly happy to have 50 amp so we were able to run both air conditioner units.  We quickly got unpacked and set up.  Enjoyed a dinner of Lemon Chicken breasts and homemade potato salad and homemade bread.  After we were cleaned up from dinner we enjoyed the movie of J. Edgar Hoover.

On Tuesday we made a trip to the Commissary to stock up on groceries, fill up the gas tank on the car and to get settled in.  This is one of the luxuries of being retired from the military and we try to take advantage of this.  We found gasoline for $3.64.

After, we had lunch we drove to Bethany Lutheran Village, Lou knew I was very anxious to see my past.  I was amazed and very pleased at my first glimpse of the Village, and more so and we continued on our drive around the property.  The house where I had lived for seven years was gone and in its place was a beautiful lake.  The cottages that I had designed and brought into existence were still there and in beautiful condition and in fact the powers to be had continued to use the same blue prints and built more.  We are going back today and I am going to go inside and talk to someone in admissions and get a little more of the details.  Do wish there was someone left that I had worked with.  Some one to share my love for Bethany with.

On Wednesday, it was 97 degrees and we decided to go to downtown Dayton and we toured the Packard Museum.  There we found more than 50 Packard automobiles dating from 1903-1958 displayed in an Art Deco showroom that included a working service department and a  vintage car pavilion.  The museum was an authentic restored Packard dealership building.  A rather neat experience.

A trip to Dayton, Ohio would not be complete would not be complete without visiting The Wright Cycle Company Complex.  Here we saw  probably the best movie on the Wright Brothers that I have ever seen.  The Complex consists of the Wright Cycle Co. building and the Wright Brother’s Cycle Shop along with their Printing Shop.  It gives the history of all and we found all of this very interesting, even though we had all heard all of this before.  It still amazes me that these two preachers kids were so intelligent that they could so methodically build an airplane!!

I am blown away at how Kettering and Centerville have changed and still stayed the same.  We visited the homes where we lived and the schools that the children attended and I took pictures.  The grade school that Krista attended is still there; however, it is no longer used as a school.

Yesterday, the entire day was spent at Wright-Patt Air Force Base Museum and we still didn’t see all of it, but I can tell you my back had had it.  I remembered much of it from the prior visits there.  My father loved going there when he would visit us.  Much has been added since his visit and many of the planes that used to be outside have been brought inside.

That brings us up to date.  As you must realize, we do not have internet service here, so can only post as we are able.  We are off to Bethany and then down route 48 to the Golden Lamb for dinner.

 A view of Bethany

 Where my house sat previously

 A car at the Packard Museum

A view from the orchard at Bethany

First Day of our Journey to Ohio

August 5th - Sunday

We left Wellsboro at 9:30 this morning under overcast skies on our journey to Dayton, Ohio.  Lou has promised me for three years that we would go back to the area that my deceased husband and I had lived and raised our family.  So it will be a bittersweet journey for me.  I have many wonderful memories of that area.  My last position there was as a Project Coordinator for Bethany Lutheran Village.  My duties there were to help develop the existing 102 acres into a retirement community area for senior  citizens.  When I left we had completed a 13 story high rise independent living area and a cottage complex was underway that I was in charge of along with a skilled nursing area that housed over 500 residents.  I am very anxious to see the finished project.  Sadly, all of the executives that I worked with are now residents in heaven.  I moved back to Pennsylvania in 1981 when Al retired from General Motors.

I have promised to take many pictures, as all of my kids are anxious to see what the area looks like now.  I have all of the days planned out as to what I want to see and what I want to see, hopefully it all works out well.

We drove through hard rain in many places today, hence the wash job to the RV no longer shows, but it sure looked good when we left home this morning.

We made our final stop here at Mogadore, Ohio, which is outside of Akron, Ohio for the evening.  We were able to get a drive through spot, therefore, we did not have to unhook so we will be able to get a good send off in the morning.

We plan to be at Wright-Patt Air Force Base in Fairborne, Ohio tomorrow evening and will stay there for a week.  I will post as often as I have Wi-Fi.

We enjoyed a home cooked dinner this evening.  I had baked a chicken at home so we had that along with fresh red potatoes and green beans from the garden and Janet had given us grape tomatoes from her garden and we had lemon cucumbers from our garden so made a new salad from those and had Susie's blueberry crumb  bars for dessert.  Good dinner after travelling all day.

OUR CAMP SITE FOR THE NIGHT