Back to Caseville

3^rd  – 7^th  Sep

We returned from Canada back to Caseville for our last few days with Charlie and Doreen.  Charlie’s son, Brian was staying for a few days and on the Thursday we all went kayaking for the afternoon on the Pinnebog River, down to the shores of Lake Huron.

Travelling on the road is not all plain-sailing and whilst staying here we have had the opportunity to sort out a few problems with the car and RV.  The car has been on a manufacturer’s recall for the last 6 months; so we finally got it to a GM garage to have the work completed.  The RV had started to miss-fire just as we arrived 3 weeks ago so spark plugs and leads have been replaced.  Paul fitted a new toilet that was delivered and did some redecorating inside the RV. 

So now we are ready to begin the next stage of our trip travelling south. 

 

8^th – 11^th Sept – Detroit

We drove down to a campsite near Jackson, just west of Detroit to get a garage to look a problem we had with the RV levelling jacks. On the way we came across trucks taking the sugar beet to be processed.

On the Thursday we had a day trip into the city of Detroit.  

 

1946 Dinner

The Henry Ford Museum not only displayed a number of cars but also exhibited inventions innovations from the past 100 years or more.  Inter-active touch-screens by some exhibits offered additional info and images which you could enlarge for angles not visible from behind the barriers.  We had lunch in this 1946 dinner. VW was one of the first "Camper Vans" on the market.

How about this wood burning stove in your front room.

Wood Burning Stove

 

 

VW Camper

We spent 4 hours there which meant we didn’t have time to visit Greenfield Village as we needed to get into the city centre to visit the Motown History Museum.

Hitsville USA is where Berry Gordy first established Motown Records in January 1959.  He bought several houses along the West Grand Boulevard turning them into one of the biggest recording companies of the time with over 180 No 1 hit songs worldwide.  The tour took us around the ‘first house’ and including the converted garage ‘Recording Studio A’ where the likes of Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and Jackson 5 recorded hits.

The first Motown record to sell one million copies was in 1960 (Shop Around by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles). 
No photography was allowed in the museum.

We spent an amount of time driving around trying to find the Model T Automotive Heritage Complex we had seen on the internet.  We drove right past the location according to the website but could not find the building.  We saw many derelict buildings around Detroit.  The area was very run-down in places with buildings falling apart.  It was the saddest city we’ve ever seen.