Tuesday 16th May – Detroit - The Motor City

They really do look after their grounds here at the Firekeepers’ Casino – I awoke to the sound of not only lawnmowers but also strimmers and a lorry load of fresh plants being delivered into the car park.  But it wasn’t too early and it was good to get us moving so that we could make the most of our day in Detroit. It was just over an hour and a half to reach West Grand Boulevard and the birthplace of Motown.  First impressions of Detroit?  A bit of a run-down dive and the road surfaces are AWFUL!

After our flash spending in Chicago on the weekend, Detroit would have to be achieved more in our usual style, hence the freebie overnight stop!  We successfully found free on-street parking just across the road from Hitsville USA and went over to book a tour at the Motown museum.  You have to join a guided tour here, which lasts about an hour and cost $15 per person, so not too bad.  We purchased tickets for the 4pm tour as we had other places to see that would close by that time.

As it was another lovely day, we got the bikes out to reach our other site-seeing goals.  Neither of us felt completely relaxed about the neighbourhood we were leaving Harvey in but we hid all our valuables and we were parked near some traffic lights on a busy highway, so we just had to hope it’d be okay.  Our first goal was an added extra – Piquette Avenue – to the site of the very first Ford factory.   

They do tours but are shut on Mondays and Tuesdays so it was just a visit to see the outside of the historical birthplace of automobile production for the masses. Built in 1904, Ford models were produced here until 1910 when Ford became the world’s largest producer of cars. The car that changed the world, the Ford model T was designed here in 1908 and the demand was such that Ford had to look into innovative new technology and the possibility of a moving assembly line. But the plant here at Piquette was inadequate, so production moved in 1910 to a much larger plant in Highland Park, where the moving assembly line was implemented. The model T was produced for 19 years and at one point, most cars in the world were model Ts. It was the affordable and reliable car that made driving accessible for everyone.

From there it wasn’t much of a pedal to the Historical museum of Detroit which covered the entire history of the city, for free!  It was very well done.  From the basement which contained the reconstructed streets of old Detroit, along with some quality fakeys (right). 

 

Then we learnt more about the history of how Detroit came to be known as Motor City, seeing Detroit’s first car (below) that was driven down Woodward Avenue in 1896.  We spent almost two hours there in a mixture of exhibitions.

Si rocking it in a Ford model T

A recreation of one of the earliest versions of an assembly line that gave Detroit the capacity to meet the high demand for automobiles to make the City world leader in production

This is Meier's wonderful clock (left).  It took Louis Meier twelve years to build before its unveiling in his Detroit jewellery store in 1904. It features a master clock with twelve smaller clocks displaying the time in major world cities. The sphere at the top shows the phases of the moon, making a full rotation every 29 days and 8 hours. There is a calendar at the bottom showing the day of the week, month and date.  Why so special? All of the different mechanisms are run from a single pendulum, making it one of the most complicated compound clocks of its time. It was displayed at the Chicago world Fair in 1934 and the family of Mr Meier donated it to the Detroit Historical museum in 1982.

You can't tell from this photo but it stands over 14 feet high.

We had less than half an hour to cycle back to the RV for our Motown tour, so I took Simon on one of my short-cuts through some pretty interesting, and by that I mean run-down, areas of Detroit.  Luckily, we made it out the other side and Harvey was still secure.  We locked the bikes away before heading over the road for 4pm.

Hitsville USA, 2648 West Grand Boulevard, Detroit - the birth-place of Motown

You get a good mix of people from all over the world visiting this iconic location, but it turned out to be a small world when we got into conversation with a chap wearing a Bluetones T-shirt who turned out to be from Harlow, Essex!  Our tour guide was very engaging and enthusiastic about the subject matter but I am ashamed to admit that I kept getting distracted by her outfit.  I’m afraid I couldn’t help it – obese ladies with saggy front-bottoms should stay away from leopard-print all-in-one body-suits, is that not obvious?!

 

I digress.  We were not allowed to photograph anything inside but Simon managed to get a sneaky picture inside world famous studio A (below) where we had a cringe-worthy a’cappella group singalong to ‘My Girl’.   

Studio A complete with original instruments used by Motown's greatest artists

We were given a demonstration of how they created reverb to assist in the creation of the Motown sound using an echo chamber in the roof of the building.  Our guide also explained how the owner of Motown records, Berry Gordy, employed a team to focus on the appearance, mannerisms and choreography of his stars to make them more appealing to the music industry as well as giving them vocal coaching.  There were restrictions at the time on how many records from one label could be played on a radio station in one hour.  Gordy got around this by creating numerous different labels to release his tracks on, so the radio was wall-to-wall Motown!   There were some very rare exhibits, such as Stevie Wonder’s harmonica and Michael Jackson’s glove and hat that he wore on his first solo appearance when he introduced the moonwalk to the world.  Studio A was still in the condition it was in when Motown moved from Detroit to California in 1972.  Other rooms in the buildings had been re-created back to their former glory from that time, including the flat that Gordy lived in with his family and the office and switchboard that administered Motown in its heyday.  They even had the original candy machine in the lobby with a very important fact attached – the Baby Ruth bar always had to be placed fourth slot from the right so that the young Stevie Wonder, who was signed to Motown aged only 11, could find his favourite chocolate bar.

The tour over-ran, which was not a problem at all for us, and we were relieved once more to return to find the RV intact.  We then did some research to identify a suitable stop for the night outside Detroit and found a state park only 2 hours away in State number 45, Ohio. There will be no more new states achieved before we return from our next jaunt into Canada to visit the final three.  We’re so close!

The road surface continued to be punishing as we headed out of the City. I found myself cringing every time we went over a severe bump wondering how the suspension was coping and hearing brand new rattles and squeaks as we went.  We reached Maumee Bay State Park on Lake Erie (that’s Great Lake number three for those paying attention!) about 730pm.  Despite our best intentions to save money, it was quite an expensive park, at $33 for camping and wood. Oh well, we can do a free Walmart night tomorrow to make up for it.  The cost was quickly forgotten when we requested the best spot available and parked up next to the lake with these views.

I was perusing their paperwork later on, as I tend to do, when I noticed they accept Passport America – the first time we’ve noticed this in a State Park.  This is amazing news!  We can forget Walmart tomorrow night if we can persuade them to let us have a second night here at no extra cost on our membership. Fingers crossed!