Michigan Is a State of Mind, Pt. 3, Detroit/Ann Arbor

The Henry Ford Museum

What more can be written about the (in)famous city in Michigan that began the last century as one of the bastions of American innovations, "can do" attitude, and wealth, and started this century as an example of almost everything that can go wrong?! Well, quite a bit actually. We pulled in to the Wayne County Fair Grounds RV parking area on Sunday, the 30th of June. Again, the RV park situation is limited in this part of the country, and this place is located about mid way between Detroit and Ann Arbor ( More in depth on Detroit here ). Our main reasons for stopping here were The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, curiosity about the food scene, what one of the biggest college towns in the country's like, and Grosse Pointe (because the movie Grosse Pointe Blank http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ7AXKWmWOg is on our top 10 quirky films list, and we wanted to see GP up close). After we settled in, we headed over there. We drove through Downtown Detroit, and except for a few blighted areas which we find in most big cities, it looked fairly normal from a distance. We hit Lake St. Clair, which, with The Detroit River, separates The U.S. and Canada (Windsor's over there) and made a left, taking us way up along Lake Shore Road. The beautiful homes along the way mostly look like America's post WW2 affluence. (Oh, by the way, as I'm writing this chapter, I have WCSX/ 94.7 Detroit's...Classic Rock, tuned in on tunein on my Roku Box in H2. Why? More on that later!). You can ROCK while you're reading this! Click this.  We stopped in downtown GP to pick some items up at the neighborhood TJ's (Gotta love all those abbrevs!!). While we were there, we stopped a couple of the locals working in the store and told them we were from out of town. What happened next was fascinating to us and an insight to the area. The two fellows stood there scratching their heads when we asked where we should head next to see the sights. After downtown, they both ran out of places! "What are you doing in Grosse Pointe?" one of them asked. Most any other place we've been, we can't get the locals to stop telling about all the places they want us to see. Here? Not so. They did manage to eek out a couple of ideas, but this was the start of what we now call the stuck culture we found all during our visit here. We began to notice that this place is where most of the Michigan clichés (and even though they are stereotypes, they're usually based on some reality) come from. Here are a few we noticed: Hair cuts/styling for men and women? Nay! (think Ted Nugent). From May until September...shirts are optional for guys just about anywhere. Rock and Roll means..The 70's! We actually liked this! The stations here are stuck there, and that's not a bad thing. Tune in WCSX, and you'll hear what we mean. Here's the best...fires! Picture folks with long, shaggy hair, guys with their shirts off, listening to Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, Mitch Ryder, and Grand Funk Railroad, all while sitting around a campfire...and it's 85 degrees out! Oh, here's one more, July 4th fireworks last at least until July 10th. They go crazy with elaborate backyard displays, and they keep it up until way after the holiday's finished. Must have something to do with...FIRE!



The quintessential Ted Nugent

 We had heard about The Henry Ford Museum, and spent an entire day there. It's a world class collection of motorcar, transportation, and other technology. The grounds, museum, and Greenfield Village, a separate "town" with a collection of interesting and very old buildings, are well worth the time. Their website's even worth an online trip. http://www.thehenryford.org/
We spun (sometimes pretty quickly!) through Detroit neighborhoods like Southfield and Oakpark. We did a driveby of the Motown HITSVILLE studio, and on a Saturday, visited The Eastern Market. Now this place is worth a few words. The Eastern Market is one of America's oldest farmers markets and also one of the largest. It takes up a large area near Downtown Detroit, and is open six days a week. You can buy just about any type of food item you can imagine there. On the Saturday we visited we immediately saw, on entering one of the huge open air buildings, a couple of fellows handing out newsletters. They were saying things like, "don't you feel that our government needs to be changed?" Then we noticed more of them. They were all over the place. What were they handing out? The newsletter from the Communist Party. Made sense! Take your Communist views to places where the economic situation is worst. Try to grow it from there, and sow the seeds of revolution. It surely worked in Russia (right?)! In fact, that's exactly where I suggested to one of them he should go. Mary Ann had to pull me away from getting into a deeper discussion with him. The point is that we saw conditions in the city that looked like a bomb had gone off. There were people on corners all over, just sitting around with nothing much to do (just after we left Detroit, the city declared bankruptcy). It is really depressing. Some of what is going on there, in our opinion, has to do with the people there. Mary Ann had a conversation with a lady from the area who gave us the term "stuck." She used it as a way to define the culture there and some of her own children. Is it a reason why The American Automobile Industry tanked? The people seem to have a stubborn attitude..."This is how we've always done it. It worked before, it'll work now!" New ideas are not readily accepted, so the result is very evident in Detroit. It's going to take a lot of new, can do type thinking to get this part of our great country back in business.

Detroit past..Henry & Clara Ford's home in Dearborn

Detroit today..need a reservation?

A taste of Ann Arbor/Summer Music Fest

 We headed west a few days later and toured around in Ann Arbor. It's a pretty nice middle-sized town with cozy looking neighborhoods. Most of the main U. of Michigan campus adjoins the downtown area so there's lots of good walking. Now we know some folks who'd disagree, but this place is no Madison, Asheville, or comparable Foodie town. Arguably, the most famous eatery in Ann Arbor is Zingerman's Deli http://www.zingermansdeli.com/?utm_source=mailorder&utm_medium=zinglink&utm_campaign=zcobbar. It's been written about on every food outlet you can think of. Our quick comment is: Go during off hours since the lines can be long, and don't split things because even though prices are pretty high, portions are not Jewish deli huge. Stick to those rules, and you may not be disappointed. On the bright side, their baked goods are good and their other restaurant, Zingermans Roadhouse http://www.zingermansroadhouse.com/?utm_source=deli&utm_medium=zinglink&utm_campaign=zcobbar, is really good (and worth the premium prices). They'll give you samples of their delicious bbq or other specialties, and every dish we tried was very high quality, farm to table wonderful!

Zingerman's Roadhouse

 

 The Independence Day rush has long since passed , and we've chosen to head to the North Carolina mountains to spend the rest of the summer. Detroit's thermometer was tipping well into the 90's now, so we knew we'd overstayed our welcome. Our route was set to follow I-75 into Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and then straight for a revisit to Asheville, where the current high temperature in July is 73 degrees! We're on the way...