This morning at breakfast we met a couple who came from Virginia. They've only had a Model A for 2 years so this type of event is new to them.
Steve and I enjoyed talking to them because they live in the area we traveled in 3 years ago. Steve always carries a copy of the first book I made of our trips in the A so he eagerly got the book to show them. The pictures in this book were from our drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway in VA and other sights on the trip. They seemed to be interested, so I hope they were and weren't just being polite. As I've mentioned before, people are really more amazed that we travel in this car and live to tell about it!
It was a relaxed day to do what we wanted to until we decided to take a self-guided scenic driving tour. The tour was 43 miles and was supposed to be 2 hours. The tour took us around or near 23 lakes in Oakland County.
The first area was in a neighborhood called Kirkland. The houses reminded me of Wayzata's lake mansions, except some maybe bigger. Every house was hotel sized and gorgeous. Kirkland was a large area with winding narrow roads and woods throughout. You would think with such beautiful homes the roads would be nicely paved. They were not. Every road was patched with numerous potholes. Maybe the homeowners didn't have any money left over for their roads! Yikes!
As we drove through the neighborhood we came to a closed road by the side of the lake. Police cars and emergency vehicles had blocked the road and we were told to turn around. We heard later someone drowned in the lake.
As we left Kirkwood we passed the most magnificent building I've ever seen. It too, was hotel sized and I was told it was a church.
If we would have known what was ahead for us on this guided tour we would have turned around after Kirkwood. The rest of the drive was in heavy stop and go traffic and of course a detour for road repairs! And if that wasn't bad enough we had to make a few U turns with all of our cars in tow! It was a stressful 2 more hours before we made it back to the hotel. All of us had had enough of the stop and go tour. Traffic is horrible around here!
I was mad at myself for not reading the book that we were given of things to do, or we would have toured Meadow Brook Hall Museum and we all would have been less stressed today. Meadow Brook Hall is the home of the Dodge Brother's. It's the 4th largest historic home in the nation built in 1929 by Mathilda Dodge Wilson and her second husband John Wilson, the lumber broker. Mathilda was the widow of John Dodge. We have plans for tomorrow, so I guess that means another trip here is in the making.
Tonight the attendee's of the Roundup went to the Welcome Banquet at the Polish Cultural Center. I'm not sure the meal was 100% Polish but we were served polish sausage that was good.
The speaker at the banquet was Bob Krepke, Ford's Corporate Historian. He talked a little about being Ford's historian, but he mostly spoke about the last Model A that came off the line in 1931. It was the 20th million Model A made. The rest of the story was how after touring America it came back to Detroit and Henry stored it away. The car was lost, then found and The Ford company restored it like new. For 10 years the car toured American again and then was given back to the owner after he refused to sell it. It was a fascinating story.
Tomorrow we're going to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI.
Comments