Dan and Mikes Adventure

Dan and I will be traveling to Greenfield Village in Dearborn Michigan starting on Monday August 3. We are taking our 1926 TuDor Model T. We will be posting our progress and pictures here as we proceed. Our plans are to travel from New Berlin to Manitowoc, then take the Badger Ferry across Lake Michigan to Ludington Michigan on the first day. Stay tuned and follow our progress.

August 3rd --- Day One.Dan and I got up this morning about 5:00 and were presented with the mornings weather of rain, rats! We had the car ready to go, our stuff filled the back seat and the new cargo tray was filled and tied down, but not protected. So we pulled out the trap and wrapped the tools and spare parts on the cargo tray. Well after a final check of the car and our stuff, we left New Berlin at about 0600. We traveled north on Moorland Ave, then on Pilgrim road through Brookfield and Menominee Falls. We came across a couple of detours for road construction. We ran into five 'T' tours between New Berlin and Manitowoc. At the end of Pilgrim Road we toke County F then north on County M (Wasaukee Road), then to Pioneer road County C north to Port Washington. This first part of the trip we attracted long lines of cars behind us. After Port Washington, the roads were for the most part empty. We stopped in downtown Port for breakfast at Harry's restaurant at about 0800. Toke a few pictures of us and the car on the street and in the harbor parking lot.

Downtown Port Washington

Harry's Resturant in Port Washington

Marina at Port Washington

Me and the Car

Just before 0900 we left Port Washington and traveled north on county LL toward Sheboygan. We crossed the interstate on County V and then picked up County OK into Sheboygan. We stopped at the Wildwood cemetery to visit my Dad's grave. At about 1000 we started out on county LS toward Manitowoc. County LS runs along the Lake Michigan shore line and gives some very nice views of the lake. The weather was a little foggy, but you could see fairly well. We stopped just past Cleveland, where the road is just a few yards away from the water.

Dan and Grandfather

Lake Michigan, just north of Cleveland

We got to the car ferry parking lot at around 1100. We were supposed to be at the parking lot at noon, but it was better to be early. We parked next to a guy with a 1966 GTO convertible and a number of Harley and other kinds of motorcycles. Talked to the GTO guy, he was from Michigan. We met a couple from Dearborn and they were driving two Moto Guzi motorcycles. They helped us with where to drive in Dearborn. They told us to avoid Ford Avenue, apparently it is a mini freeway. They started to load the Badger (Ferry) at about 1230. Cars, trucks, motorcycles, a farm tractor, RV's, bicycles and our Model T. I had to back the car about 1/4 mile to the ship then a few hundred yards into the ship through a narrow path. The car is generally squirrelly in reserve, but I went slow and didn't hit one car over the edge. The cars are packed with only a few inches between them. The guy behind me was admiring my new cargo tray and its proximity to the front of his brand new (only 1000 Miles on it) Camaro. The cars are not tied down and only depend on the parking brakes to hold them. I told the parking people that the Model T only has two wheel parking brakes, so they chocked my wheels. The Badger left the harbor a little late and once we got past the brake water, the lake was rolling a little. You could feel the ship going up a swell then down, some times the ship would roll left to right, giving a screw ball feel. The ship is 410 feet long, carries 620 passengers and 180 cars. The ship was built in 1953 and began ferry service for rail cars for the CO railroad. They stopped carried rail cars in the 1980's.

Car Ferry Unloading

Car Ferry unloading

Badger backing up to dock

Manitowoc break water

Fueling the Ship, Coal.

Mid Lake Michigan

Badgers Wake

Ludington in the distance

The trip across Lake Michigan toke 4 hours. As we approached Ludington we crossed paths with an Ore Carrier. As we entered the Ludington Harbor you could see the small light house and the break waters. Farther into the harbor the sister ship to the Badger, the Spartan could be seen. The Spartan and a third sister ship once was used as ferries. The third ship was gutted to be a barge. The Spartan is docked at Ludington and is used a parts ship for the Badger. As the ship was docking, the ship hit the dock hard and popped an expansion joint, which delayed getting off. We then drove to the Days Inn Hotel for our room. Drove back to Ludington for supper, we ate at the Old Hamlin Resturant. We drove about 104 miles and used 7.5 gallons of gas or about 13.9 miles per gallon. I could tell that the car was loaded and responded that way. After all we had two large bodies inside, plus our luggage, and all the tools and spare parts on the cargo tray.

Ludington in the distance

Ludington Harbor

Ludington break water

Light House

Spartan and dock

Crossing paths with an Ore Carrier

August 4th --- Day Two.Well, we slept until 0800. A little tired. We had breakfast at the hotel, which was rather sparse. Cereal, waffles (seems waffles are popular in Michigan) coffee cake, juice and coffee. Enough to satisfy us. We checked over the car. Had to add a quart of oil to the engine, it either burned it or it leaked out. We also oiled all the lube spots, springs, steering and king pins. Filled the radiator. After checking our route we ran into a 'T' tour (detour) in less than a few miles. I wanted to take some back roads or even dirt roads. The maps we have show improved roads as solid lines and dirt roads as dashed. Apparently Michigan thinks that a improved road is a dirt road that has been dragged recently. So we traveled on about 50 miles of alternating dirt and poorly paved roads. Sometimes the dirt (actually sand) was better than the paved roads. Problem is we had to travel slow. First because the roads had a lot of washboards in them, second and probably more important was the they have hills, real hills in north west lower Michigan.

Sand Road

Flat spot in middle of nowhere

More sand

More nowhere

Sand

You had to start at the bottom of the hill as fast as you could and maybe you'd make the top. For ever up hill there was a down hill, where you had to slow down because the sand is either rutted, wash boarded or just plain washed out. So we were going 15 to 20 MPH. We left on first street, our first sand/dirt road. We got to Scottville and this is where the first 'T' tour was, we wanted to take Scottville road south, but some bridge was being repaired. Scottville was the last town of any kind we would see for about 75 miles. We turned south on Custer Road, then turned east on Hawley Road. This is where we entered Manistee National Forest. Absolutely no one lives here, hardly no one drives here, didn't see any animals, only hills, sand, trees, swamps, and beautiful vistas. Just what I wanted to see, just too bad that the car was jumping around like a flea on a scratching dog. Anyway we see some nice stuff. When we first set out our tentativbbbe route, we wanted to travel on woods trail. On the map it is a nice solid line full of turns, etc. When we got to the trail, it looked nice, but nice for a four wheel drive truck. The trail was narrow, little more than two ruts and we decided to bypass it. To our surprise all roads that had trail in the name were roads better suited for ATV's. So we continued on south on Campbell Road to Washington and then a long drive down Dickinson. Although Dickinson is a straight road it was in and out of the forest. Here we cam across some really depressed areas. Abandoned homes, places were people had most of their possessions on their front lawn (weed patch). You'd see signs stating "Will work for Cash". The hills and the sand roads were still in front of us. Our brains were being shaken out. Dickinson Road ran out and we side stepped to Comstock, here was a paved road that we had to travel slower on than the sand roads. We then side stepped to Green Ave, much better. Green Ave, actually had markers on it. Once Green met Highway 20 we had enough of the back country. We headed east on Highway 20 at the unheard of speed of 35 MPH. Highway 20 brought us into the first town of any size since Scottsville, White Cloud. We stopped here for lunch. Found a small greasy spoon restaurant called 'Sally's'. My stomach was still rolling and all I had was Ice Cream. Dan had a hot sandwich. Yesterday in Wisconsin the weather was cool, 65 degrees and cloudy. Today, it's in the 80's and sunny. Good thing the restaurant had air conditioning. I think I enjoyed that more than the ice cream. At the table we reconsidered our route, since we were way off track from what we had earlier planned. We thought to continue south on 37, pick up 46, side step to 57 and then south on 66 to Ionia, our target for today. We had it all planned out and as we walked out to the car another older gentlemen was looking at the car. Seems the car attracted attention all over. This guy started to tell us about his Model T, he bought some 70 years ago when he was 16. He bought it for $12.50 and didn't know anything about cars at the time. He know all about the pedals, driving backwards up big hills, using the reverse pedal to help to brake. The guy was a pleasure to talk to. Then we explained what we were doing and that we just came from Ludington and were bound for Ionia. He asked about our route and he said that's the long way and then explained a better route, that should be 10 to 15 miles shorter. Well we looked over the map and decided to try it. We once again ran into a 'T' tour, but a little side stepping and we were on our way again. Dan was driving now. We had some nice open road with no traffic to practice. He's pretty good, except starting off, a little more practice and then there will no problem. We came across an Amish community. We saw a man in a buggy, another selling tomatoes and lots of bundled grain stacks. We arrived in Ionia about 3:30, got our room had supper and tomorrow we are off to Ann Arbor. We traveled 146 miles today and our mileage was a little better, 14.6 MPG.

Hay Stack

More Hay Stacks

Amish selling vegetables

August 5th --- Day Three.Well, we got up about 0800 and had breakfast at the hotel, waffles again. The hotel guy was a young guy that was a shutter bug. He has some nice pictures in the lobby. He was interested in the car and toke some pictures of it. He had some supper wowwie camera and Dan and he had some conversation about picture taking and cameras. We wanted some post cards to send home, so we stopped at Wal Mart, Meijer's, Wal Greens, Dollar General. No one sells post cards any more. The only place we could get post cards was at the Post Office. Nice thing about that is we go to drive around downtown Ionia. Very nice downtown area. It has all the old buildings, a brick Main street and flowers everywhere.

Main Street Ionia

Ionia Church

Downtown Ionia

Main Street Ionia

City Hall Ionia

Main Street Ionia

Downtown Ionia

Post Office Ionia

Ionia Railroad Depot

David Highway

After writing and sending some cards, we traveled south on Hwy 66 then east on David's Highway. This is a long stretch of straight older highway. We drove thru Westphalia, across the Grand River, through Sleepy Hollow State Park to Highway 52. Here we saw a LOT of corn (we stopped to look at it, the ears were small but smelled good), while we where stopped a UPS truck stopped to ask if we were having trouble, he also liked the car. At one point we came up to a hay wagon and found that it was carrying a bunch of little kids, maybe 4 to 5 years old on a hay ride. They all had to look at the car and waved. This was the first vehicle that we had to pass. Came across an old one room school (you could still see the name and 1894 date on the front). We drove into Sleepy Hollow State Park. The David highway turned into Price Road and then into Garrison Road, dirt roads again. We got about 2 miles and Garrison Road turned into a two rut road, so we headed north back to the improved surface. We then turned south on Highway 52. We were doing 30 MPH on the David Highway with no trouble. On Highway 52 we tried to hold 35 MPH, but still had 10 to 12 cars behind us.

Downtown Perry Michigan

One Room School

Sleepy Hollow State Park

A very nice home cooking place. We considered stopping at the McD's near the interstate, but this was a much better choice. The weather was nice, 70 degrees, high puffy clouds and a nice breeze. At the table we looked over the map and decided that highway 52 was not the way to go, so we drove down Morrice Road to Webberville. Small town life and 25 MPH driving with no traffic is the life. From Webberville, we toke Elm Road to Searls to Brogan, this got us to Stockbridge. Here we had to take Highway 52, because the Waterloo State Recreation Area (a bunch of swamps) got in the way of all the small roads. Fortunately, it was only a few miles to Chelsea. Dan was driving most of this way and is getting quite good at it. We gassed up here, it toke 9.1 gallons. Here I started to drive, we toke the Chelsea Dexter road with parallels the railroad. At Dexter we picked up Joy Road. Here we almost broadsided a woman, who was not looking, talking on her cell phone and probably other things. Blew the horn and turned wide and missed. Joy Road is just about 2 miles north of Ann Arbor, but here again for about 6 miles we had dirt roads again. Turned south at Gleaner, to Warren, Nixon to Plymouth Road and the Hotel. We traveled 125 Miles, mileage is now about 15 MPG. We had excellent weather and really enjoyed this day.

More Beautiful Back Roads

August 6th --- Day Four.Well, after an excellent day, things toke a turn. We got up, had breakfast and left for Greenfield Village. We had decided to take Cherry Hill road to Dearborn. it would get us very close to the Village without any turns. Well, once again it was a dirt road. This one has a LOT of ruts, pot holes and washboards, about 6 miles of them. Then some good pavement for the next 20 miles. At the end we had to go on Outer Drive, where we turned the wrong way and had a few mile detour. We got to the Village and I asked at the customer service place whether or not I could talk to the Village Garage people, the people who maintain all the Model T's, NO. Then when we got to the Model T loading area, I asked one of the attendants, here the guy thought that it should be OK, but didn't know. So we walked around the Village, we enjoyed the black smith shop, the round house and trains, the glass shop, the Wright brothers home and shop, the Edison buildings. We also saw a Gershwin show. Two guys and two girls were sings and acting a number of Gershwin songs. We also sat in a class at the one room school from 1871. We were asked many questions on how to do things and about the country. Can you name 4 state capitols that are named after US Presidents and what state they are in? Most all the presenters are volunters. The Henry Ford (Museum and Village) are not a part of the FOrd Motor Company. So no one is a Ford employee. Toward the end of the day we walked into the Benson Ford Reaserch Center and I asked again if we could talk to the Model T Guys, this time the guy there said that the Model T mechanics would leave at 0500. He asked if we were coming back tomorrow, I said sure, they toke our names and said to go to the guard shack and they would guide us in. Great. So, we decided to go back to the hotel in Ann Arbor. Well, here is where the car trouble started. Our front tires are bald, I saw that the passenger side was wearing earlier, but now both were bald. So we decided to put the spares on, which have tread. The others could now be spares. This toke about 1/2 hour, which was OK because the traffic was bad and we figured that the traffic would improve later. We left and as we got up to 30 MPH the front shimmied. Well... Then about 4 miles from the Village the engine start to miss badly. We stopped at McD's to look at it and have something to eat while the car cooled off. This was the first of many problems. Here I cleaned the timer. It was covered with oil on the outside, apparently some oil came out at the generator. Probably the most significant problem was that a coil failed. Also the engine was not running well on mag, better on battery. So we ran on battery back to the hotel. At the hotel we removed the mag post and cleaned it off, cleaned the plugs, jumpered out the ignition switch to see it the switch was bad. The engine seemed to run OK, next morning will tell.

1914 Baldwin Locomotive

Cohen Dry Goods Store

Edison's steam engine

One of Edison's dynmanos

Edison's Shop

Our Model T at the Henry Ford

Model A Truck

Edison's machine line

Upstairs at Edison's shop

Old Factory

Edison's writting machine

Vacuum machines for light bulbs

Edison's shops

Edison

Ford's childhood home

Ford Home stove

Henry built a wind mill

Ford's childhood home

High Bicycle

Ford's quadcycle

Glass Plant

Playing BaseBall on the Mall

Ford's Pipe Engine

Ford's quadcycle

Wright Brothers shop

Wright brothers shop

Wright's shop

Wright's home

Wright Brothers shop

Wright brothers shop

Wright's shop

1897 Baldwin boiler

1897 Baldin boiler plate

1914 Baldwin Tag

Edison coal boiler

Turn of Century Factory

Boilers, Outside Factory

Edison's Oil Boiler

Edison's Power Plant

Truing a railcar tire

Resting at the Station

Railroad Round House

Steam Tractor

August 7th --- Day Five.On the second day at Ann Arbor we traveled back to the Village to visit the Model T Garage and Fairlane. We toke a different route to avoid the dirt road. Well we found that most of the non highway roads are dirt, rats! Then another coil failed on the way into the Village, so I had used up both of my spares! We got to the Garage and I was getting nervous about another coil failing. We got to the Model T Garage about 2 1/2 hours late, but they let us in and there are two guys working there, Ken Kennedy the specialist and a volunteer, Paul. We talked awhile and they showed us around. I mentioned my coil problem and Ken tested my bad coils and found that they were indeed bad. He was nice enough to loan me two coils. I have to mail them back next week. Boy, did I feel allot better. We left the garage about noon and drove over to Fairlane.

Garage was old railroad building

Village Car

Tow Truck

Car Maintenance

Village Car

Tow Truck

Spare Parts

Next Village Car being Restored

Machines

Paul, Ken Kennedy and Me

Us talking

Next Project, Model A Truck

Tow Truck

VIllage Car

Our Car at the Garage

Us at the Garage

Our Car at the Garage

Village Car

If a road is not dirt, it is closed because of road work. I think Michigan is supporting the Orange road work signs single handed. Fairlane is only about 1/2 mile from the Village, but we had to drive about 5 miles to get to it. We got there just in time for the second tour. We walked through the estate and saw the Power House and Home, very impressive. We then had lunch in the Pool room. The pool was filled in after Ford died and was used as an archive. After the University toke over, a restaurant was placed in the Pool room. We had the Model T Club sandwich, of course. We left Fairlane about 2:30. We had a long ride ahead of us. We needed to get back to Ionia. I figured that it would take until 8:00, and we got there at 8:30, 177 miles later. This was the longest and the most miles we drove. AND, about 20 miles short of Ionia another coil failed. Boy the car runs really bad on three cylinders, and it was starting to rain.

Fairlane Power House

Fairlane cars

QuadCycle

Fordson Tractor

X Engine

Edsul's bowling alley

Fairlane Power Plant

Sun Room

Ford's Bedroom

Dance Hall

August 8th --- Day Six.Well, last night we checked into the Ionia hotel about 0830 and it had just started to rain. We put the trap over the cargo carrier and closed up the car. We were beat. Called a pizza delivery place, had a late supper, listened to the Milwaukee Brewer game and feel asleep. I woke up about 6:00 AM and it was pouring cats and dogs. Turned on the Weather Channel and this big red and yellow blob was covering Michigan and Wisconsin. The forecast was to rain hard for most of the day. So..... we asked if we could get another day at the hotel, no problem, next to call the Muskegon Ferry. They only had the early morning travel and 11:00 PM trip. We could not make the early morning trip, so 11:00 PM it is (plus a $25.00 fee). We had a long day waiting at the hotel. Around 2:00 it stopped raining long enough for us to walk around out side. A little later we walked downtown, a few blocks away. The only stores open were the Antique shop, the gas station and the pizza place. We walked around in the antique shop and found some nice treasures, but were priced too high. I found a box of Model T wrenches, a Model T price book, some keys, and a nice brass bulb horn. We left empty handed. Walked around downtown then picked up a couple of sub sandwiches. Across the street from the gas station was an old hotel building. It looked rather sad and was probably being rented as apartments, but I figure if we were staying in Ionia in the 20's or 30's, that would have been the place to stay. Back to the hotel and had the sandwiches. The TV said we got about 3 inches of rain. We checked the car and it was wet on the inside. Apparently, the roof leaks on the sides. I know that the wood is rotten in spots. Not a big problem, our maps got wet. I imagined if you would have attempted to drive through the rain we would have been soaked. I looked at the engine and the head was flooded. The hood hinge most also leak. I bet that we would have had engine trouble in the rain. We removed the coils and toke in the hotel to keep them dry. While we were looking at the car, the guy next to us started a conversation. He was a retired guy maybe 70. He was here for dog trails. He has a nice yellow retriever. He is from North Carolina, but lived in Stevens Point in the middle sixties. If he was offered a job he would have stayed in Wisconsin, but that did not happen and back he went. Very nice gentlemen and we talked for about an hour. By 0800 PM it was raining again. Later in the night the thunder and lightning was tremendous. What will the morning bring?

August 9th --- Day Seven.At 0600 AM everything was wet, but no rain. We walked outside and it was a sauna. The ground was soaked and it was in the 80's all ready. The inside of the car was wet again and the windows were all steamed up. We had breakfast, packed up the car, checked the car over. We added 1/2 gallon of water, 1/2 quart of oil and lubed all the cups. A routine we did every day. I then went to start the car with the starter and it would not go. After wiggling the switch a little and the engine started, but the ammeter needle is missing. I don't know if the starter problem caused this or if the needle rattled off in our travels. Well, we run on mag anyway. We will have to check the circuit later, don't know if the generator is connected or not, or if the ammeter is burnt open. Well the car runs and we are off to Muskegon. We left about 10:00 AM and headed north to highway 44, then west on highway 44. First thing we noticed was the high head winds. The car is having a hard time holding speed. By the time we got 1/2 way to Muskegon, the terrain also got very hilly. This really affected the car. The hills slowed us down and then at the top of each hill the wind would blast us. The car was getting hot at 32 MPH, so we slowed down to 28 MPH. This helped, but we still would blow water at times. We had to turn north on the north side of Grand Rapids, the car noticed this right away and cooled down. At 13 mile road back into the wind for the last 30 miles. We stopped in Sparta to check the water and let the car (and us) cool. We got to the Car Ferry with out trouble (short of going the wrong way in Muskegon). Now to wait until 11:00 PM for the boat.

Sunset, maybe tomorrow will be better

Driving Thru Sparta

Fruit trees everywhere

We where not the only old car

Boat coming into port

The Milwaukee Clipper is in Muskegon

Lake Muskegon

Submarine Museum

Waiting to Board the Boat

High Speed Ferry

First Storm, pretty bad

Second Storm, just rain

Well, our luck changed! We signed up for standby on the 4:45 boat. Cost me another $25 to make the change, but we had a chance to get out of Dodge early. The boat books 44 cars and if a bunch of small cars board, there is generally some room for others. When the boat unloaded, I counted 48 cars, a good sign. After all the scheduled cars boarded the boat, there were three of us on standby, we were first. All three vehicles got on the boat. Great! We left on time. We didn't have seats inside, so we sat on the upper deck. Lake Muskegon is a nice lake, lots of sailboats and personal craft. Got a better look at the Milwaukee Clipper, apparently it has been on Lake Muskegon since 1997, when a restoration company purchased it. There is also a WWII submarine in the channel. We got out into Lake Michigan and they opened it up. They said it goes faster than 40 MPH, but Dan's Gps showed only 35 MPH. I suppose the 20 MPh Wind affect cars and boats the same. Well the wind on the deck had to be 55 MPH into our faces. We got about half way out into the lake and the sky grew black with lots of lightning. We went down inside the boat. The storm lasted about 1/2 hour and then the every thing became calm again. So, back outside. It wasn't long until the second storm came alone, but was not bad. We got to Milwaukee about 6:30 PM with only a short, but wet ride home.

We drove 601 miles (plus another 135 miles on the lake) and used 35.4 gallons of gas, for 16.9 miles per gallon. We used about 8 gallons of radiator water, 4 quarts of oil, three coils failed, ammeter burnt up, wore out two tires, had to clean the timer and mag post, the inside of the car got soaked, was delayed by rain, but we had an excellent time.

Dan and Mike's most Excellent Adventure

Greenfield Village or Bust --- August 3-8, 2009