Here's Bill & Joan!!!!

TODAY: We drove 24 miles to the Ford Museum in Dearborn. We paid $136.50 including the Museum, 2 days in the Village and the Factory Tour minus coupons and discounts. We started with the Museum Wow one can only describe it as an experience not to be missed. Presidential Limousines, Scores of autos form the Model T, Tucker, GM models, Stanley Steamer, Packard, Studebaker, Hudson, Fraiser, and many models I forgot or never saw before. About ½ dozen Trains, stage couches, Buggies, sleds and more. We saw old time farm equipment, steam engines, balers, thrashers, reapers, corn planters, tomato harvester. Airplanes built by Henry Ford including the Admiral Byrd excursion over the South Pole. A replica of the Wright Bros. plane and the first all metal plane built by Ford. Joan scouted the furniture era and I took pictures of the big engines that were 20 feet high and 75 feet long that generated electricity for New York City. There were several Hugh oil pumps run by steam, water wheels, and turbines of several designs. We spent about 4 hours taking pictures and touring the indoor elegant museum with its chandlers, platinum windows, marble columns and haring bone parquet oak floors. Hungry we headed for the Weiner mobile Café. A Weiner mobile is displayed just outside the café. I had the foot long Texas dog with chili and peppers. Joan had the Greek salad. Joan toured the gift shops while I relaxed on a bench. Next we walked outside the Ford Museum and got on the shuttle bus to the Rouge Ford Factory Tour. Wow! The factory complex is I mile by 3 miles. The Ford family Farm is within 5 miles of this location. We were directed to a theater for a 15 minute movie about the history of the rouge facility now over 100 years old. It showed the early assembly lines and how employment went from hundreds to over 10,000 employees. In WWII the factory stopped making cars and manufactured military jeeps, trucks and more. The industrial revolution changed everybody’s life. The middle class was developed when Henry Ford doubled the wages of his workers and now his employees could afford to buy the car they were building plus homes and more. Next they guided us to a second theater that demonstrated the assembly line of today with sound effects, like a Disney movie. Next we took a self guided tour of the Final Assembly Line that offered a 1/3 mile cat walk overlooking the assembly lines. Everything was in motion. The floor was moving with the partially completed F150 Trucks. They had dozens of video screens explaining each process. Along the way a guide would point out and talk about a certain way things were getting done. I was all eyes and ears. Amazing after the truck is painted they take off the doors to install the insides. They produce 60 new trucks in one hour. That’s one truck a minute. Joan asked who is buying all these new vehicles. We also got a roof top tour showing the 11 acres of roof that is all planted in grass that retains the water and keeps the building a comfortable temp. Rain water is collected and used to water the landscaping. The Factory Tour lasted about 2 hours.

Where is Bill & Joan??? Is Joan in the Ocean? See the following story!

Around 9:45 am we drove north on M25 to the town of Lexington, MI. This is a small colorful village with many old buildings. We found the local Library and were successful getting on the Internet. The window on the Library said since 1903. This is a small friendly library. They had a book sale going on and Joan found some books. The book sale was to restore the stain glass window in the library. We drove around town checking out the town park located on the water front with a boat marina. Main Street had a dozen or so shops we decided to eat at the local restaurant called “Wimpys” delicious hamburgers and hot dogs were the menu of the day. After lunch we toured through the shops. The local Dairy Queen was not open. We traveled back to the Lakeport State Park and just past the entrance is an Ice-Cream Parlor called the Pepperoni Cow they advertise 100 flavors of shakes, custard and hand dipped. We enjoyed the treat and then returned to the Airstream. I relaxed under the awning in my lounge chair listening to the XM radio and reading. Joan took her beach chair to the beach for the next 3 ½ hours. I got out the folding bikes and pumped up the tires and attached the baskets. When Joan returned we went for a 2.8 mile ride around the campground. This place is larger than I originally though. According to the brochure there are 565 acres. We visited the camp store and notice that many campers had arrived for the weekend. All sites are paved with a picnic table and a fire ring. All sites have electricity. On both campground areas there is access to Lake Huron. Joan said she saw 5 people while she was on the beach today.

TRIVIA: The Blue Water Bridges: The only international border crossing that is owned jointly by the State of Michigan and the Canadian province of Ontario. The original Blue Water Bridge, described as a steel cantilever truss bridge, cost about $3,250,000.00 to build and opened to traffic in 1938. In 1997 they renovated the original span at a cost of $25 million dollars. The same day the second span opened to traffic. The original bridge is 1.25 miles long and 152 feet high. It contains some five tons of rivets and weighs slightly over 87 thousand tons. The bridge is paid for by Federal and State revenues plus tolls from the users. Construction of the second span cost. $79 million dollars completed in 1997.

Hello Obie! From Steve & Linda Koreny #2241

We had a very nice trip to Black Moshannon State Park. Airstream camping handled the weather challenges very comfortably. We particularly enjoyed kayaking in the water lily filled bog which we explored to find the source of the water, the Black Moshannon Creek, and paddled a good way upstream. The creek was narrow but quite deep enough and, at one point as we wound around, I could hear water rushing though I could not see far enough to see what it was. As it turned out, we met a beaver dam which needed to be portaged over. Eventually we turned around and the swift current rapidly took us back to the bog and the lake.

I am sending you some photos,
Linda

Here are the Central Penn Unit Gang at the Region 2 Rally in Lockport, NY. on Memorial Day weekend.Those attending were Buchers,Leitners,Davis,Merediths,Jacobs,Olshefski's,Bates & the Obers!! we sure had a busy week, You can read about it on my Blog..AirstreamHobo Travels.. http://airstreamhobo.blogspot.com/ There will pictures also...Obie

Here is a Blog from the Landvaters.....
We were at Assateague State Park, Maryland from May 16 til May 20, we went with another couple that Ken had worked with for 32 years at Case New Holland. It was a cold, windy, and wet for the first 4 days, and of course it was clear and really nice the day we left to come home.
While there, we went into Ocean City for the Hot Rod Car Show, any kind of car and truck you can think of, we had gone in for the cruise night which was Saturday. We had drove around for a while and then parked in a CVS parking lot and sat and watched them cruise by.
We had ate at a Bar-B-Que spot, had ribs and chicken, chicken was smoked, very good. Stopped at KFC, registered for our free rain checks, which I had originally downloaded coupons from Oprah's show. We had also ate at Phillip's for their buffet, all the food was very good.
We really didn't do much else, cause the other woman just got out of the hospital on Wednesday before we left, with kidney stones. The weather also played a role in us not doing much, too cold and windy.

Make-a-Wish Clowns at Mothers' Day Convoy, May 10,2009

Check out the Album!!!! What a Fun Day!!! 45 clowns having a Ball making Wish Kids Smile!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/AirstreamHobo/MakeAWish2009Convoy#

Hi Central Penn Unit Members!!! Steve and I have made reservations at Black Moshannon State Park in upstate PA for Wednesday, May 13th through Monday, May 18th. We plan to do some kayaking, bike riding and hiking. If anyone thinks this is a great idea, has the time and wants to join us, make a reservation and let me know so we can meet up. We have reserved Site #41.

Please contact Linda directly
saknlak@epix.net and Hurry!! It sounds Like a Great Outing!!

Linda...Take lots of Pictures..."Obie"