Detroit: Motor City splendor

On a recent trip to visit relatives near Detroit, we decided to take a couple of days and see some of the local sites. Number 1 on our list was the Henry Ford Museum, with “museum” being a plural. The complex consists of the main transportation museum, the Ford Greenfield Village, and the production plant. We only had one day, so we were only able to visit the transportation museum. Fortunately, the group tickets come without an expiration date so we’ll get to use the other half on our next trip.

Approximately 330 miles away, the museum complex outside Detroit offers a unique look at both the past and the present. As one would surmise, the transportation museum contains numerous automobiles, from the earliest version of “horseless carriages” to modern examples of the industry. It is also host to one-of-a-kind vehicles, some pre-production, and some prototypes, (ones that never made it), and others that eventually made it into production after experiencing numerous modifications in the process.

There is also the largest automobile ever produced: the 1931 Bugatti Type 41 Royale. In 1987, one sold for over $10 million dollars! Only 6 exist in the world and were originally designed for royalty but none were delivered as such due to the beginning of the Great Depression. The 2019 Bugatti comes off the production floor at a price of $10,500,000 so after storage for 60 years, should be worth $1B dollars, right?

An interesting display was a group of Presidential limousines used by various presidents from Roosevelt, to Eisenhower, to Kennedy. You’ll notice how security measures were added over the years. From open-air convertibles to fully enclosed armored vehicles, you could easily see where additional protection levels were added.

There are cars you may remember but never saw in real life, too. One is the first hardtop convertible (forget about having a trunk). Another is the Bricklin – the safest car ever built at the time with 40 MPH bumpers and Gull-wing doors, very impressive but you could get trapped inside if your battery failed. And of course, a plethora of Mustangs and T-Birds, the hottest cars of their era and the Mustang still lives on. If you get tired of looking at cars, there are trains including the largest locomotive ever built, the Allegheny series, weighing over 600 tons. It’s HUGE and could pull coal cars in a train over a mile long! And then, planes. From the earliest Wright Brothers and the Spirit of St. Louis up to modern, well 60s modern, passenger airliners. You can walk inside several just in case you forgot what flying was like in the “good old days”!

With everything there is to see, you’re bound to get tired and hungry. There is an old-time diner in the center of the museum so you can rest, eat, and get recharged for the rest of the self-guided tour. It seems like a lot, and it is. We spent the whole day just in the one museum. They offer a number of “add-ons” if you want more to do, such as a plant tour of an operating production facility. Reservations are generally required so do look at the website before making your schedule.

I mentioned the Greenfield Village. While only open part of the year, (check for schedule), you’ll need to plan on an extra day if you want to visit both and see everything. Spread over 80 acres, its exhibits include early production facilities, milling machines, model A transportation, farming implements, A Wright Brothers aircraft factory, Edison’s light manufacturing, weaving looms (they were the first automated computing system) and much more. It’s also self-guided, so you can take it at your own pace. A steam train circles the village providing point-to-point transportation as does a Model A bus. You can also “rent” a Model A for a driving tour. Several restaurants are open on the grounds and they are all air-conditioned; this is great should you make a summer visit.

As with most large cities, Detroit has a number of other options to stretch your weekend. There are tours and maps for “Old Detroit” with locations of old mansions that don’t exist anymore. Love those “trail maps” that state that in 1855 the XYZ mansion stood here and was one of the grandest in the city but now is just an empty block.” Exactly what I want to see! But, there are old, still existing mansions in the area but some areas are not the best to drive in due to some serious decline with the decaying environment.

Belle Isle is an island in the Detroit River between Lake Huron and Lake Erie and contains a number of entertainment areas. We visited the aquarium and the conservatory and saw a number of new plants and animals. If you stand on the eastern shore, you can see Canada. The short distance between the island and Canada proved to be a major advantage for bootlegging shipments during prohibition.

Want to see real, present-day mansions? Head to Grosse Pointe. Maps are available to direct you to several of the mansions, especially historic mansions like the Edsel and Eleanor Ford house. Grosse Pointe is the wealthiest town in Michigan and you’ll see where the majority of the dollars were spent.

A few other pointers regarding Detroit:

— Detroit has the largest Farmers Market in the US (summer only).

— It also boasts a thriving Greek Town and numerous other ethnic restaurants are scattered around the city.

— And it has an Autonomous (self-driving) shuttle service for the downtown area – but don’t worry, for safety, a backup driver is in the car.

So, if you want a few days to get away or an extended weekend not far from home, Detroit is a viable option.

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