Michigan

We arrived in Michigan yesterday after driving a good part of the day. We stopped at the Michigan visitors bureau and found a brochure about our next campground. Boy, did it look great, with putt putt, a lake to swim in, video games, etc. Well... it's day two and the place is starting to grow on me, but let's just say that a slick brochure belies reality here. The photo of the putt putt course must have been taken about 10 years ago. It's a little run down, but the kids don't seem to care.

We spent most of today at the Henry Ford Museum, which was defnitely worth the trip. What an amazing collection of inventions of all sorts, as well as historical pieces collected by Mr. Ford himself. Of note: the rocker Lincoln was sitting in when he was assassinated, Kennedy's limo where he was assasinated, Rosa Park's bus, George Washington's camp cot... just a ton of cool stuff.

We enjoyed seeing a bevy of cars, of course... the very first car all the way through the concept cars, but we enjoyed most those that were the same as those owned by our family members -- a Corvair like the one that belonged to my dad and at least two or three like grandfather had owned. One was just like the car my granddad was driving when he "sailed" over an apple orchard, throwing the family all over the car. My grandmother claimed that her joint pain was derived from granddad pulling her through the passenger-side window that day.

Another car from the early 1900's was sure to be similar to the one my great-grandfather drove my other grandmother and her family from North Carolina to California around 1920. I think three kids and a pregnant dog rode in the back seat.

Finally, we really enjoyed a walk through time, where Cheryl and I came face-to-face with some old "friends." Maybe you remember these toys: Merlin, The Pet Rock, the Banana Phone, an LED hand-held football game, Simon, and of course the 1 mb Mac-in-a-box. My dad bought me one of those in 1989 for $2400, and it came with a dot-matrix printer. Bonus!

Anyway, we are back at camp tonight and will head back to the Ford Museum tomorrow to visit Greenfield Village. Please leave us a note in the comment section! We miss our friends!

Summer RV Trip to South Dakota

We have talked about this trip all summer in a way that sounded like we needed to convince ourselves that we would ACTUALLY do it, but here we are, on the way to South Dakota with four adults and five children between the ages of 7 1/2 and 4 1/2.

We pulled out of Lincolnton on Saturday, in the early afternoon. Cheryl, my sister, purchased a pull-behind that we call "Buffalo Bob," which she outfitted nicely for our children and us. Mom and Dad have their 37-foot RV that we have named the "Chuckwagon" after much deliberation. Dad's name is Charles, so when this idea was presented, it drew a unanimous "yes" from the adults, but the kids totally didn't get it.

We made it to Beckley, West Virginia, last night with little to write about other than the gorgeous scenery. We pulled into the campground and, of course, the kids were anxious to do everything there... unfortunately we are in "hightail-it" mode right now, so we will have a few days of pulling in for the night and heading out in the morning. Today (Sunday), we drove almost all day, save a stop at a Super Wal-Mart. (We told the kids this was what we came to see and that we could go home now. They weren't amused.)

We are now just north of Columbus, Ohio, in a campground with a brochure that describes it as the "2003-2004 Park of the Year!" Folks, this is as good as it gets! (Debbie, I'm dreaming of that Pinehurst Spa trip right now...)

So anyway, the kids see the pool, playground, etc., and I hate to tell them that it's almost 9 p.m. and we're packing up tomorrow morning for another day of driving. We will head to Dearborn, Michigan, to the Henry Ford Museum. If the kids thought Wal-Mart was boring, wait until we get to Dearborn... good thing they have the Wisconsin Dells and the "Big Presidents' Heads on the Mountain" to look forward to.

I will update the next time we get an Internet connection!

Jennifer