The Terrible Catsafterme

It was all Bob’s fault that I spent over $100 at CD Connection in Huber Heights on Friday, July 25, 2008. Had his flight arrived on time, I would never have ended up there while waiting, and I never would have purchased the entire run of Scrubs on DVD. But that’s all water under the bridge now. As it was, his American Airlines flight that was scheduled to arrive at 5:23pm that afternoon, didn’t actually get in until around 7:30. The reason for his arrival: he and I were about to embark on the granddaddy of all “website-driven re-visits of places I’ve already been but have to see again because I was too stupid to take photos of myself by the landmarks when I was there the first time” tours.

 Bob arrives at the Dayton International Airport, two hours late

So after loading him and his lone bag into the car, I drove for a couple hours as we headed north toward Grand Rapids, Michigan. The objective was to make the nearly five-hour trek, find a motel, and then head out on our five-day journey on Saturday morning. Even though Bob’s flight was late, and even though we stopped at the obligatory Cracker Barrel (reuben here), and even though I was way too tired to drive all the way, Bob – who was still in California time – was able to get us there by around 1am.

Enjoying a late meal at Cracker Barrel. Bob thought gravy was a beverage until he was twelve.

This put us back in prime position to depart to our first destination that morning: The Gerald Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids. We got there around opening time after enjoying a nice continental breakfast at the Best Western. In fact the breakfast made up for the fact that they had given us a room where the toilet didn’t flush, forcing us to change rooms, during which time the dog across the hall kept continuously waking up and barking at us. And that’s not to mention the Boy Scout belt and buckle, sunglasses, and empty Coke can we found in our new room. So after barely five hours of sleep, our first stop was the Ford Museum. Further details can be found in the posting Gerald R. Ford and Me.

 Ketchup on eggs indeed

 Hard-boiled egg and nut

Bob and me at the Ford Museum with a chunk of the Berlin Wall. Bob nearly blends in.

Our next stop was in the Michigan capitol city of Lansing. I was working toward completing my state capitol visits and this one was right on the way between Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor (and the Detroit area) making a visit here a no-brainer. Unfortunately, it was CLOSED. I found this amazing and appalling that a state capitol building would be closed on the weekend. In addition, the roads of Michigan were just as bad as I had remembered them from my last visit in 2004. Cutbacks indeed. I was ticked at the entire state from that point forward. I gathered some photos outside the Capitol – but unfortunately it didn’t really count toward completion of my goal. Now I’ll have to go back there again some other time. Ugh.

 ‘Nuff said

 In front of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing. Too bad this doesn’t count

Disgusted at this state…of affairs

In lieu of visiting the capitol, the state had seen fit to leave the Michigan Library and Historical Center open on the weekend. Admittedly, this museum was actually rather impressive. It was an interactive museum tracing the history of both Michigan and the country with some very nice period displays. I always enjoy playing in museums like this.

With my brochure outside of the Michigan Library and Historical Center

Messing around in the museum

Elvis Satterfield

A mish-mash of displays in the museum. William Kellogg started his cereal company in Battle Creek, Michigan

No comment

The State Capitol isn’t the only attraction that will bring me back to Michigan against my will. The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, which is located in Ann Arbor – our next stop – was closed as well. Although there is little more than research material inside (and I have been in there once before) and I gathered a couple photos outside of it, a revisit will be necessary here too. This will help me to feel like a complete man of Michigan.

Things didn’t get any better at our next stop at Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit. By that time it was around 3:30 in the afternoon, and although the cemetery was still open, they had closed the Rosa Parks mausoleum already. Her grave was the main reason that we had wanted to visit the cemetery. While there we did get to see the gravesite of Edsel Ford, son of pioneer automaker Henry Ford – obviously after whom the Ford Edsel was named.

I’d have even sat in the rear of the mausoleum if they’d have just let us in!

Drifting off by Edsel Ford

Bob and I then decided that while in Detroit, we would visit the Motown History Museum. When we drove by it, there was virtually no parking and there were crowds lining up out the doors of the small building. We drove off and went to the Ford Cemetery, located in what appeared to be an abandoned churchyard – not only overgrown, but with a completely ripped-up and bulldozed area surrounding the cemetery. We trudged our way to it – and I posed on top of the Henry Ford grave, climbing up on the gate. My irritation with Michigan was making me a scofflaw.

Hovering over Henry Ford

We then went back to the Motown History Museum. It was still crowded but eventually we were herded in and the tour began. The room was packed to the gills and it was even worse once we went into a video presentation room where we had to stand for fifteen minutes packed in like sardines. From there we went up to the ‘museum’ area where gold records adorned the walls and Michael Jackson’s glove from his 1983 performance of Billie Jean on the American Music Awards was encased under glass. A different tour guide came in to speak and since the room was so crowded, we couldn’t even hear her.

At that point, Bob asked our first guide Peter if we could simply walk through the house quickly because we were under a tight schedule. He agreed and we took off through the original Motown house – the famous Hitsville U.S.A. house which served as the company headquarters from 1959-68. Peter then caught up with us and began to give us a private tour of the rest of the house including the recording studio where so many amazing Motown legends like Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, The Four Tops, and The Jackson Five had worked to develop ‘that Motown sound.’

Although there were no photos permitted in the building, this portion of the tour easily became the high point of the day, with Peter’s boisterous, enthusiastic, and dynamic presentation of the history of the house and studios keeping us both enthralled for nearly twenty minutes. It was fascinating to see photos of the performers who once packed into the little room to make some of the most memorable music ever committed to tape, hanging up on the walls of the studio in which we were standing.

 With Peter Williams, historian, lecturer, researcher, and our fabulous tour guide

I tried as hard as I could, but was never able to claim the $7500 per year prize

We headed south out of Detroit (and out of Michigan altogether), stopping briefly to take a photo of the half-destroyed old Tigers Stadium which looked like a pile of rubble in the middle of the city, and then headed back across the Ohio border. We stopped in Toledo to make a return visit to the famous Tony Packo’s Cafe, most famous for being mentioned on episodes of M*A*S*H by Jamie Farr as Klinger, whose hometown on the show was Toledo. We ordered the Bunker Buster Combo. Nice and filling it was.

 Pointing to Tony Packo’s – as if you couldn’t have figured it out

 With one of the many autographed hotdog bun displays. Note the Jamie Farr pennant at the top.

Two huge weenies

On the route out of Toledo, we made one brief stop in Pemberville to see the historical marker indicating where future-President William Henry Harrison and his troops camped while heading toward Detroit during the War of 1812. It was around 10pm when we arrived in Fremont, Ohio, where we would set up camp for the night at a Travelodge motel. Despite the smoky room, hard beds, and Bob’s snoring, I was able to get twenty or thirty winks.

Harrison slept here. We should have too.

The trip will continue…

Bypass the trip and continue with 2008…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 6:33 am and is filed under 2000's - Late, Famous Graves, Historical Locations, Music, US Presidents, Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.