Stepping Back in Time

Before we get into today, here’s a quick recap of Friday, June 19…

We left T-town around 5:00 this evening and headed to Hartselle, AL, to pick Anna up from camp. There were a few wrong turns before we could get to where we needed to go (in the middle of nowhere), but hey that’s just part of life. Once we were all four loaded up, the trip could officially commence. 

The first few hours involved Anna sleeping, a Buccee’s stop, and me working on the blog while my parents drove. When we reached about midnight, the drive definitely seemed to drag a little. 

Our goal was to drive halfway to our first destination of the trip and get in the eastern time zone, so this little town- just south of Louisville- was perfect. We reached our hotel in Shepherdsville, KY, at 2:00 AM, crawled in bed and went to sleep because tomorrow morning’s wake up call was coming early. 

Now for today- Saturday, June 20… 

This morning we dragged ourselves out of bed and got moving because we were headed to our first official destination of the trip.

After eating breakfast, we checked out and got on the road about 10:00. Along our route, we passed Louisville, KY, and Cincinnati, OH, before stopping in Dayton, OH, for a lunch break. 

Dayton was a quiet but cute town just off the interstate.  I found us a cool restaurant called Jimmie’s Ladder 11 that serves traditional American fare. The restaurant itself is in a renovated fire station that was originally built in 1892. Many of the original features were still intact and the walls were lined with old artifacts and photos. It made for a pretty unique atmosphere as we enjoyed our delicious lunch!

Following lunch we continued the drive to Dearborn, MI, toward Greenfield Village. 

Also, if anyone is looking for a great enterprise opportunity, I’ve got just the idea for you. The one and only Punjabi Dhaba truck stop in Ohio makes customers buy $20 worth of gas station food (that would probably give you food poisoning) or buy 75 gallons of diesel to park, which might explain why there were zero customers. Better yet, you can pay $30 for “premium” overnight parking. (Those must be the spots with lines.)

You can also learn from the beautiful landscaping. They just might be onto something here.

Anyways, at about 5:30 PM, it was time for our first destination of the trip: The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. Since the annual Motor Muster event was happening, the village had extended hours to view the 600+ historic cars, boats, and motorhomes. I can definitely say I’ve never seen this many old cars in one place at a time!

Walking into Greenfield Village truly felt like stepping back in time. That’s because this area of the Henry Ford campus was designed to do just that. It’s a literal village that looks like what we read about in our history books. Everywhere you look, there are historic homes, buildings, and structures—like windmills and stone bridges. Most of these structures hold significant importance in our nation’s history. It also gives visitors a sense of what it was like to live a simpler, quieter life.

Even though most of the buildings were closed for the day when we got there, just seeing it all from the outside makes me excited to see them open tomorrow.

After browsing around for a while, we stopped for dinner at a grab-and-go place towards the back of the park. The food was alright, but the atmosphere was neat.

Not too long after dinner, we made our way back to the car to head to our hotel for the next two nights.

Along the way, I stumbled across a path that went along a beautiful field of crops, and a small water wheel. They call this area the Working Farm. It was so peaceful and kind of reminded me of Alabama in a way. At the end of the trail, I reached the railroad track where I got to see the steam train pass by… that was pretty cool!

It was also surprising to see some animals. The horses are a part of the Working Farm and the ducks are just… living their best life. (There were tons of ducks.)

As I type this up, we’re at our hotel getting ready for bed and tomorrow’s adventures.

See you then!