Indiana Dunes State Park

Indiana Dunes Sunset (Chicago in background)

We’re camped at Indiana Dunes State Park, a great campground. Mary is struggling with her RA today and it poured rain in mid-afternoon, forcing us to have a fairly quiet day. There is a beautiful beach on Lake Michigan here and from the beach you can see the industrial section of Gary, Indiana. In the morning I took a hike along the dunes with a ranger. He explained the natural lifecycle of the dunes. What I found most interesting is how the dunes as they age and move, eventually cover the trees with sand and then about a thousand years later, those trees start to reappear as the dune moves. The end of this hike was at Beach House Blowout. A blowout or parabolic dune is carved out of a dune if the vegetation dies and the wind starts sweeping the dune in a circular fashion instead of straight across (which forms parallel dunes). Here the sand was well exposed, rather than being solidly covered with grasses and later trees. From the top, I could see two other major dunes each just shy of 200 feet above the lake level – covered with trees. The sand here comes from the northern part of Lake Michigan and is deposited in a layer now 200 feet deep into the water. A relatively quiet day – tomorrow we start heading west. We plan to stop at Starved Rock State Park in Illinois for a short hike and Amana Colonies for a German meal.

If you'd like to see more pictures, go to youtube for the 5 minute narrated video.

Air Zoo

Air Zoo

The Air Zoo is different – a mixture of many classic planes, children rides, some air simulators, and the space program outside of Kalamazoo, Michigan. With the exception of an SR-71, most of the planes we’ve seen in other museums, though they do have a good collection of World War II planes and trainers. They had the story of Guadalcanal and another on the WASPs. I hadn’t realized that the women aviators only had a 3 year history during the war. The simulators tossed the participants around quite a bit, so we didn’t try them. The space sections was fairly meager, yet we spent about 3 hours here because of their temporary exhibit, Popnology. This exhibit shows how the vision of men (Jules Vern and other science fiction writers as well as inventors) and popular culture (movies, books, TV and Art) have influenced modern technology.  For example, the wrist radio of Dick Tracy or communicator of Star Trek have become the cell phones of today. There was also a great section on fictional and real robots, and how the movie industry has used technology to create the special effects we see today. Then there was a section on 3D printing and its use in making prosthetics.  This temporary exhibit made the museum. 

Curtiss P-40N painted for Libyan desert

Greenfield Village

Cotswold Cottage

We haven’t been to Greenfield Village for quite a few years, yet many of the scenes were familiar. Henry Ford created this park and the nearby Ford Museum in 1929. It opened on the 50^th anniversary of the invention of the light bulb. In the village is a recreation of Edison’s Menlo Park labs. Ford, President Hoover, and Edison were here for the opening of the park by re-enacting the discovery on a radio broadcast to the nation. In most of the buildings were period actors who explained the history or meaning behind the building. Also here is the boarding house that was the first to use electric lights and the bicycle shop where the Wright Brothers worked. Then there are just a variety of homes that were moved here: the Susquehanna plantation house, slave’s quarters, New England homes from the 1700s, and a stone Cotswold Cottage. A highlight was the Noah Webster House, known for the Webster dictionary, Webster actually wrote quite a few spellers and reading books. At the time, most children learned to read from the bible. He was trying to create an American school curriculum and formalize the American Language, removing many of the spelling variants and extra letters of English (colour vs. color, rustick vs. rustic). Just down the road was the McGuffey home and school. We finished the village by visiting the craftworks area: glass blowers, weavers, printers and machine shops.

Noah Webster Dictionary

In the afternoon, we visited part of the Henry Ford Museum.  The presidential vehicles from Roosevelt through Reagan were here, including the Ford Lincoln where Kennedy was assassinated. Nearby was one of the first passenger trains – where the passenger cars look like stage coach wagons. The most interesting part of the museum was the “Heros of the Sky” section with many replicas of planes that set the records – the Wright flyer, the Spirit of St. Louis, the Fokker that Byrd used to fly to the North Pole and planes that set speed records. There was a Sikorsky Helicopter from the late 1930s, which could fly up, down, side to side, and backwards, but it took them an extra year to learn how to fly forward.

Kennedy Limousine

They also have a section on Liberty and Justice for all, which starts with the original ideas that formed the United States, but then goes through Lincoln’s freedom of the slaves through the civil rights movements. Included in the exhibits is the chair from the Ford theater

that Lincoln used and the Rosa Parks bus. There is a lot more to see: cars, railroads, Made in America and furnishings, but we were tired. We concluded our visit seeing the 1952, Oscar Mayer Weiner Mobile.

1831 DeWitt Rail Cars

Detroit

Ford Piquette Plant

We spent yesterday driving through the pouring rain to the Detroit area to visit our friend, Andy. Our campsite while here was a huge private campground at Hass Lake. The campground has four separate lakes, and lots of activities for people to do. We had asked Andy what he recommended to see while we were in Detroit besides Deerfield Village which we plan to do tomorrow. He took us to Ford’s Piquette Avenue plant, the first plant (1904) build by Ford and the birthplace of the Model T. Here they built most of the early Ford models from A through T, before assembly lines were set up. Most of the various early models of Ford are displayed here. What made this an exciting visit, however, was our guide, Tom, a former Ford engineer who explained the history of the building and the cars to us. On the third floor is “experiment room” where the Model T was invented. Upon the metal frame is a car mostly made of wood, chicken wire, and cloth. 

Building a Model T

The car had several innovations: the flywheel magneto which meant the car didn’t need a battery, the simple transmission, which was easier to shift, a flexible chassis suitable for the rough roads, a one piece engine block reducing cost and a lighter weight vehicle. The original prototype engine is there along with the dealer model that was used to help sell the car. The Model T was the first truly affordable car at about $600-900 (about $30,000 is 2016 dollars) for the middle class. It had lots of options like headlights, and a rumble seat. The car was designed in secret, most of the workers didn’t know what was going on, because within blocks were 30 other car companies, and those workers might begin working for them. Tom mentioned that there have been over 2000 American Car makers over time.

Model T Engine and Transmission

After our tour, Andy took us around town showing us the high end neighborhoods in Detroit. But, of course, in between these neighborhoods, we also saw the many abandoned factories of the area. Detroit is trying to repurpose these buildings or at least the land to get people back into the city. 

Mackinac Island

Blockhouse in Fort Mackinac

It was only about an hour’s drive down to Lake Michigan, where we camped at the Mackinac City KOA. Shepler’s Ferry to the island provides shuttle service to each of the hotels and campgrounds in the area, removing all the hassles of parking in town. It’s only a 20 minute ferry trip to the island, where they have banned cars since the early 1900’s. Thus there are a lot of bicycles for rent here or you can take a carriage ride around the island. We started by having lunch at Millies on Main, trying out a Yooper Beef Pastie – it was quite good, but then we like meat pies. It was a few block walk to Fort Mackinac, but the last part was uphill to the bluff above the town. This fort was built in 1780 by the British, while the Americans took control in 1796 after the Revolutionary War. It was also the site of the first land battle of 1812,^th century barracks, hospital, officer’s quarters, school, and what I found unique: a bathhouse built in 1885 where the men had to take a bath every week! 

as the British attacked with over 500 men (versus the 60 in the Fort), the Americans quickly surrendered seeing that the case was hopeless. The other interesting factoid is this Fort and the surrounding land became America’s second National Park in 1875, an attempt to preserve the natural setting of the area. The fort then was charged with managing the park until it was decommissioned in 1895 and the federal government gave the park to the State of Michigan as a state park. The history is well explained in the park movie. The entire time we were there costumed interpreters were busy explaining what life was like in this fort throughout the decades, even getting the tourists marching to various commands. The buildings of the Fort are well preserved including the original blockhouse from 1798 up to the 19^th century barracks, hospital, officer’s quarters, school, and what I found unique: a bathhouse built in 1885 where the men had to take a bath every week!

Re-enacting an attack

Pictured Rock National Lake Shore

Painted Rock National Lake Shore

The morning started with a ride along the shore of Lake Superior. The sky was cloudy, so this wasn’t as picturesque as we were hoping. Our goal was to reach Munising by noon for the Pictured Rock Cruise along the lakeshore. Lots of people had the same idea, we filled most of two boats. The cliffs rise 200 feet above the lakeshore and except for a few beaches are largely inaccessible except by boat. These formations are made of sandstone and get their name from the bright colors that form along the rocks. The colors come as the water flow from above and seeps into the sandstone, picking up the colors of various minerals to produce white, yellow, green, and red pictures on the cliff. Being sandstone there are also quite a few carved caves and other features, all given names like Miner’s Castle, or the Flower Vase. The water was quite calm so they even took our ship into the feature called Chapel Cove.

Flower Vase Formation

National Railroad Museum

We headed back to Green Bay to visit the National Railroad Museum, which is near Lambeau Field (an interesting tour is offered which we had taken in June). The highlight of the museum for us was the Dwight D. Eisenhower train. This was the engine and cars that Dwight used in England as his remote command post during World War II. It was painted a combination of greens and grey to camouflage the train in the English Countryside. During this time the windows were covered with steel to protect against air bombs. We felt like we were walking through history, since this was the equivalent of Air Force One at the time, I mobile command post from which the war could be conducted.

Dwight D Eisenhower staff car

The other notable train was a Big Boy steam engine used to pull the trains over the passes in Wyoming and Utah during World War II. This train has one of the largest boilers ever assembled, so big it required an articulated carriage, and one that bent in the middle so the wheels could turn the curves while supporting such a large boiler. There was a movie that explained the uniqueness of these engines.

Big Boy Engine

The third interesting train was the Aerotrain build by General Motors in 1955. This was an attempt to have trains compete with cars and buses by providing the aerodynamic styling of the time (including tail fins for the caboose) with the hope of pulling the passenger trains at over 100 mph. The cars really looked funny – they were essentially bus bodies on train wheels, including luggage compartments that were accessed from the outside. Unfortunately, the ride became uncomfortable at just over 60 mph. Only three trains were built and they primarily served as commuter trains to Chicago after failing as longer distance trains.

Aerotrain

After our stop here we headed up to Upper Michigan spending the night at Country Village RV Park outside Ishpeming. 

Peninsula State Park

Our day started with a short walk on the White Cedar Nature Trail. This trail is well designed for children with lots of activities to keep them interested (things to watch for, activities to do). We enjoyed it for explaining about deer and their lives in the forest.

Eagle Bluff Lighthouse

After our walk, we took a tour of the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse, operational in 1868. This is one of three lighthouses in the area, designed to get ships through the nearby Strawberry Channel. The fun part of the tour was learning about the family of the second lighthouse keepers. They had seven sons – who managed to sleep in two double beds and a crib. The sons all had chores to keep them busy. The worst chore was fetching water from the shores of Green Bay and carrying it up the bluff using a yoke on their shoulders. The boys hated the chore so much that they used their one horse to drill a well – it took them over two years.  Being a lighthouse keeper was a federal job with the privilege of staying in the brick lighthouse, compared to the wooden houses of the surrounding community. They hosted many a social occasion for the townsfolk who lived in Fish Creek about 3 miles away.   

Captain Hook's Cave

In the afternoon, I relived my childhood, by taking the Eagle Trail from the Bay Beach Campground. This hike is relatively flat at the start, but then it narrows and has a lot of tree roots and rocks as it follows the shoreline with Eagle Bluff rising above you. This limestone formation, part of the Niagara escarpment is filled with little caves. As kids, we called one of them Captain Hook's Cave and sure enough, when I got there, a pair of kids were playing in the cave. In my youth, a large set of stairs climbed from the lake shore up to the top of the bluff near the fire tower. Those are gone now, and instead you took a roundabout way to climb up to the top. The views from the top of the bluff are fantastic, one to the town of Ephraim the other way to Bay Beach and Welkher’s Point. 

Sunset from Skyline Drive

In the evening, we took the car along Skyline Drive to watch the sunset from the vantage points along the bluffs. 

Wisconsin Maritime Museum

 We started our tour around Lake Michigan in Manitowoc home of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum. The highlight of the Museum is a World War II submarine, the Cobia. While not built here, the Manitowoc Shipyard built 28 submarines of this class during the war. These submarines were taken to Chicago and then via the Chicago canal to the Mississippi river, down to New Orleans, and finally through the Panama Canal to the Pacific Theater. What an amazing journey. The 45 minute tour of the submarine was quite informative and gave you a picture of life on the sub. They ran on batteries under the water for most of the day, surfacing at night to run the generators to recharge the batteries. Average temperature was 90 degrees, and rising to 120 degrees in the engine room. There were bunks everywhere to fit the men, including over the torpedoes. The tiny galley (6x6 feet) cooked the meals for all 80 men, what was considered the best food in the Navy. Resupply of their food was the primary reason that subs had to return to base (in this case Perth, Australia) from their patrols of 2-3 months. The museum had models of ships, some common ships of the Great Lakes and the exhibits on ship building, but the submarine tour was what this museum is about.

Cobia's Galley

We then headed to Whitefish Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan for a short hike along the sand dunes. It’s actually hard to believe these are sand dunes, because they are covered with trees and other plants. The Brachiopod nature trail I had planned to take was closed because of a bridge being out, so we took the Red Trail to Old Baldy, the highest sand dune in the park. It was disappointing, the trees all around spoiled most of the sight lines.

Whitefish Dunes State Park

Peninsula State Park is a large park with over 800 campsites, most of them along the water of Green Bay. If you enjoy hiking, biking, or swimming this is a great place! Our first night we enjoyed the sunset from the beach just a short walk from our campsite. We had an interesting time, getting into our campsite. While it was a large, deep site, it had a tree right in the middle of the site. The road near the site was narrow with trees on both sides. We did manage to get our trailer into the site on the second try and were congratulated by the camp hosts who were next to us. 

Sunset at Penninsula State Park

Boulder Lake and Appleton

Lumberjack Steam Train

If you would like less detail and more pictures, go to youtube and watch the 5 minute narrated video.
First, the story about how we got here. This trip was originally going to be a camping week with my brothers and sister concluding with a 70^th anniversary celebration for my parents. However, my mother died in June. We kept our reservations at Boulder Lake near Townsend Wisconsin and spent four days there. The swimming was so-so: a shallow lake with a mucky bottom after you left the beach area. None of us had fishing equipment, but we did enjoy our stay. One day we took the Lumberjack Steam Train out of Laona. The train delivers you in about 15 minutes to a former lumber camp with an interesting video about the life and work in a lumber camp. I was amazed to learn how much they depended upon icing up the roads to deliver trees from the forest to the train stop. There was also an interesting trip into the forest, where they explained the current logging operations and the trees that are harvested there. They don’t replant the trees themselves, but Mother Nature does her thing to reforest the land.

Pulling Logs (on ice usually)

On Friday, we headed to Appleton, and spent most of Saturday and part of Sunday, painting and cleaning Dad’s house. The back porch area and the soffits really needed a new paint job and everyone felt good after helping out.