Zebulon Montgomery Pike Trail to the sources of the Mississippi 1805 — 1806

Day 37: September 16th, 2002 Detroit

Today will be the Henry Ford Museum visit. After a big and excellent prepared breakfast by Jean, Matt and I leave the house. Jean doesn’t feel really well, so she decides to stay at home. Matt wants to show me the IMAX movie of the Lewis & Clark Trail, which I followed in 1999 and 2001. After the movie he has to go to work.

But the cashier tells us that the movie is already sold out. There are only seats left in the afternoon. Alternatively we can get two seats tomorrow morning. We decide to take the seats for tomorrow. The drive from Detroit to Pittsburgh is not this long. I am sure I can make it not too late, even if I leave around noon. This will be much easier for Matt.

We say good–bye and I start with the Henry Ford Museum visit. When looking at the name, you would expect, that there are only cars to see. But in fact they show a complete picture of the history. It starts with old kitchen utilities, shows old agricultural utilities and eventually also shows trains. Sure there are also plenty of cars to see.

You learn a lot about how these roadside Cafés started and how the Americans loved to travel. I spend several hours in the museum before I walk over to the second highlight: The Greenfield Village!

This little village shows the life in an American smalltown around 1850. Also the peoples are all dressed up in historical cloths and live the life of that time. To my taste it is already a bit too touristy, but all in all nice and very interesting.

Especially the buildings are fascinating for me: They were not built for this exhibition but are old original buildings from all over the US. This looks like a whole lot of work. They also tell you about the history of Edison, who was a good friend of Henry Ford.

I am finished with my visit just in time before the museum closes. I walk over to my car and drive back to my friends. Currently only their son is at home. Just a couple of minutes later Jean arrives from shopping and also Matt arrives around half an hour later.

We chat for a while and while we talk, we also have his PC as topic. He would like to put in an additional hard drive. But he is not sure what he has to take care of. This gives me the chance to offer my help and pay a little bit back for the great hospitality I receive!

We drive over to a nearby computer shop and buy a suitable hard drive. Then I start to install the new hard drive. In the meantime Jean has finished dinner and we have to interrupt our work. After dinner Matt would have another business appointment. But he does not feel comfortable to leave me with all the work alone. I tell him, that I am absolutely fine and he shall not worry about this.

I finish the installation work alone and set up the hard drive in his computer. When Matt returns, formatting the hard drive has just finished. I explain him briefly what I have done and how he can access his new hard drive. Then we go to bed. Tomorrow I will already drive back to Pittsburgh and my journey of this year comes slowly to an end…