Traveling Home

On June 5th my knitting retreat ended and we traveled home. The first day we drove 12 hours (13 if you count crossing back into the Eastern Time Zone!) and through 5 different states (MN, WI, IL, IN, MI). Here is the link to my pictures.

6/5/16:

We left Minnesota around 7am and headed east, first stopping in Wisconsin for lots of cheese curds at the Ehlenbach Cheese Chalet ($7/bag). Soon we hit Chicago (I thought the traffic wouldn’t be too bad on a Sunday) and the traffic was horrendous! I will drive hours out of my way next time to avoid Chicago at all costs! Don was not a happy camper! Then we stopped at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore for a little while. It was okay but maybe we were still exhausted from the Chicago traffic to really enjoy it. In fact, we were too tired to hike the sandy trails so we drove around and saw the Century of Progress homes built from the 1933 World’s Fair. Eventually we ended up at Detroit around 8pm. It is so nice to be in my home time zone again!! We were unhappy that we spent $14.40 in tolls in IL and IN though! We finally made it to the Hampton Inn Detroit/Southgate and will stay here for three nights using out Hilton honors points (20,000/night which is pretty cheap).

6/6/16:

We got to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan at 9:30. We bought combo tickets for the village and the Henry Ford Museum which came to $75. We spent all day walking around the village and into the historical buildings (most had been moved here from the original location and some were reconstructions). It was well worth the money and we left around 5pm. Then we went back to the hotel room to rest before going to Secret Recipes Family Dining for dinner which was fabulous!

6/7/16:

We arrived at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan at 9:30. The first thing we saw were several Presidents’ limos – Reagan, Kennedy, Eisenhower, FDR. They were Don’s favorite things to see. My favorite thing was the actual chair Lincoln was sitting in when he was assassinated. There were several sections: cars, trains, planes, furniture, clocks, engines and dollhouses. It took all day to go through the whole museum and we left at 4:45pm.

6/8/16:

We left Michigan and headed to Ohio. We got to Jackson Center, OH for the Airstream factory tour. Of course we were a couple of hours early so we went to Bodkins for lunch at The Inn Between and had a wonderful lunch. We had chopped sirloin, mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans for $5.95. There was not much on either side of the interstate to visit (no antique stores, grocery stores, or any kind of store) so we parked on the side of the road and hung out for an hour. Then we took the 2pm tour which lasted for about 2 hours and it was fabulous (and free)! I would highly recommend the tour to anyone in the area. We met a lot of nice people who were getting their airstreams serviced so they took the tour while they waited. They could camp for free overnight if their camper was getting serviced. Otherwise it was $10 per night.

6/8/16 - 6/10/16 - Dayton, Ohio
Please see last week's post about Dayton, Ohio. We had such a great time and I had so much to write about that I didn't want to overwhelm you with all the details in this post. 

Things I Learned:

1.     Avoid Chicago at all costs!

2.     Make sure you have a drink and napkin when eating cheese curds.

3.     Cheese curds are very salty.

4.     Have plenty of cash available for tolls in IL and IN.

5.     Henry Ford was friends with Thomas Edison and Henry Firestone.

6.     Henry Ford collected historical buildings and brought them to Greenfield.

7.     This village was once known as Edison Institute and used to be a school.

8.     Bring water and snacks when going to the Greenfield Village.

9.     The post office was a working post office.

10.  Going to both – The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village were both worth going to. Plan on spending a full day at each.

11.  The workers at the Airstream factory work 9 hour days Mon. – Thursday and then work 6-10am on Fridays.