Gilmore Car Museum

Friday we went to the Gilmore Car Museum which is located in Hickory Corners, Michigan, which is in the middle of absolutely nothing but corn.  When we arrived to our location, boy were we surprised.

The museum was started by Donald S. Gilmore after his wife gave him an old Pierce Arrow when he retired as President and CEO of Upjohn Pharmaceuticals.  His mother was widowed and 5 years later married a local physician named William Upjohn who was also widowed with children.  Dr. Upjohn started the Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company and Donald Gilmore ended up marrying his step-sister, making Dr. Upjohn both his step father and his father-n-law.  It was Donald Gilmore who grew the company.  Under his leadership, the company developed cortisone and synthetic steroids.  He was personal friends with Walt Disney and, in fact, tried to get Walt Disney to bring his theme park to this area (Grand Rapids area) instead of Orlando.  Mr. Disney declined due to the weather in Michigan.  The museum is the only place which has an actual movie set from a Disney movie.  The set is part of the Gnome movie which is the inside of a car made oversized so the life sized people would look small. 

A sample of 1 of the many buildings showing a
ramp to get cars to the 2nd floor

 

There are so many vehicles on exhibit in the museum.  There are approximately 10 or so buildings meandering over approximately 90 acres of land.  The museums are constructed like large barns and each barn houses genres of vehicles.  We estimate that there are several hundred million dollars worth of vehicles here.  There are so many that it is impossible to even begin to talk about them.  We must, however, point out a few.
 

 

This motorcycle was the one used by Henry Winkler (the Fonz) on Happy Days.  The one below, as we understand it, was used in a

Harry Potter movie.

There are many Pierce Arrow automobiles contained in one building and this one of the many fine examples.



This is a 1938 Mercedes.

This is a 1933 Lincoln Phaeton

This is a 1959 Metropolitan that Van is standing next to.  It just so happens that when Van was in college he had one exactly like this.  Same year and same colors.










We don't remember what kind of vehicle this is but it was manufactured with a wooden frame









This is the famous Tucker automobile.










This is a 1931 Pierce Arrow limousine which is unrestored.  The inside view below shows how fancy the interior was, which included the top hat rack and flower vase.
 
 

The founder of the museum's son inherited enough money where he could have done nothing if he had chosen to but instead his father had instilled in him to work, which he did.  He also fell in love with racing and  became the owner of the Gilmore Racing Team which A.J. Foyt raced with.  The picture shows one of A.J.s cars.



This museum has many cars that we did not talk about including, believed to be, the very first automobile.  The Oldsmobile turbine car, which actually had an airplane jet engine in it.  There was also a 1931 Model A Ford pick up truck which was very similar to the one Van bought right before he went off to college and his grandmother sold while he was away in school.  Also, there was a 1907 electric run about child's toy car, which cost $800, which was $150 more than the popular full sized automobile of that year.  This museum is really a must see if you care anything at all about vehicles.  For me, I know nothing about vehicles  but I do know when something is beautiful.

We are now north of Detroit sightseeing this area until Thursday.  Then we head to Niagara, Canada.  Wifi is "iffy" here so hopefully we can blog again soon.

Meyer May House, Grand Rapids, MI

Thursday we decided to go back into Grand Rapids and see the Meyer May House.  The architect of the house was the famed Frank Lloyd Wright.  This was his first commission in Michigan.  The owner of the home owned a clothing store downtown.  Meyer May, his wife and 2 adopted children built the home.  Sadly the wife died 2 years later.  Meyer remarried and his new wife had 2 children.  The house was only 3800 square feet with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and 1 bedroom for the maid.  An addition was made to the home at this time.  All the homes that surrounded this new home were built in the Victorian style, making this home really stand out.  This house was built in the prairie style, which Wright as famous for.  As was customary, not only did Wright design the home, but he also designed all of the furniture, rugs, light fixtures, etc  for the home, scaling the furniture to Meyer May's height.  Mr. May was very short so when you walked near the wall scones you had to be careful because they were hung lower than normal. 

The house was built in 1908, Meyer May lived in the home until his death in 1936, and the house was used a private residence until 1985.  At that point it was in horrible disrepair so in 1986, Steelcase, Inc. (a local office furniture company), made the decision to restore the home.    It took approximately 2 years for the home to be totally restored.  The addition that had been added had to be removed so it could be restored identical to how it was originally built.   Before we toured the home they showed a video on how the reconstruction and reproduction was accomplished.  You would be amazed at the amount of work and research was done to bring this home back to its original splendor.   Most of the furniture was missing from the home, as were the rugs, which were perfectly reproduced from the research done. 

RV Hall of Fame Museum in Elkhart, Indiana

Elkhart is about 80 miles or so from where we are staying so we got up this morning and went to see the museum.  WOW!  We would recommend any one interested in motorhoming or camping to stop to see it.  It's right off the interstate.














This was very, very well done.  The museum shows the history all the way back to the very first travel trailer  in 1913.  It was called the Earl Travel Trailer and was pulled by a Model T Ford.

 We were surprised to learn that the first RV with slide outs was actually made in 1916 in San Francisco and sold for only $100.00.  It was called the Automobile Telescopic Apartment.  There were so many interesting RVs exhibited that it would take too long to describe them all.  We must, however, talk about a few.

We thought that Pam and Herm had the nicest and longest pull camper that we had ever seen but, believe it or not, there was one from 1954 called the Spartan Imperial Mansion which was 8 x 42 feet and was pulled by a truck.  For people that could afford these types of RVs in those days, they had chauffeurs.  These chauffeurs had their own quarters in the vehicle which towed the RV. 

Another interesting one was the 1931 Mae West House Car.  It was built specifically for Mae West by Hollywood movie executives to entice her to leave Vaudeville and begin a motion picture career. 

The 1929 Covered Wagon was the first production travel trailer in the United States.  It became the largest trailer manufacturing company during the 1930s, going public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1937.  The company went out of existence with World War II. 

 

There were a number of Tear Drop travel trailers exhibited which were used a lot in the beginning and are still very popular today.  Normally there is a bed on the inside and the back unfolds for a kitchenette.  Obviously, no bathroom.    The one shown below is a 1946 Kit Tear Drop pulled by a 1930 Model A Ford.

 

One of the most incredible stories regarded the trailer parked out in front of the museum.  It was lived in for 65 years by it's original owner, who purchased it with his parents when he returned from World War II.  During the 65 years he lived there, he had a wife and child who also lived there.  Only a few years ago, with the assistance of one of the guides in the museum that was a friend, the original owner went to an assisted living facility and donating the trailer to the museum.

Gerald Ford Museum and the Grand Rapids Public Museum

After our non productive day Monday, we decided to go into Grand Rapids and see the Gerald Ford Museum and the Grand Rapids Public Museum on Tuesday.  What a good choice these were.

Our first stop was the Gerald Ford Museum.  The first thing we learned was that Gerald R. Ford was actually born Leslie Lynch King, Jr.  His biological father had been abusive to his mother and they separated when President Ford was only 2 weeks old.  They soon divorced and approximately 5 years later, his mother met and married Gerald R. Ford, Sr.  Another interesting thing is that he began being known as Jerry Ford early on in his youth but his name was not legally changed until he was in his 20s.  The museum is well done and shows his life from an infant through his presidency.  There are exhibits regarding his football career, being an Eagle Scout, his military career and congressional career.  We also learned that he was an attorney and practiced with his best friend for one year before the World War II broke out.  When he returned, he practiced again.  Another interesting fact is that he was appointed Vice President under Nixon when Spiro Agnew resigned due to tax evasion problems.  Also, he became President when Nixon resigned for Watergate.  President Ford was defeated by Jimmy Carter and therefore, he was never elected either as Vice President or President.  He only served 2 1/2 years but was always regarded as an honest, decent and trustworthy person in every aspect of his life.  He and his wife are both buried on the museum grounds.

Then off for a quick bite downtown and on to the Public Museum, which was right across the street from the Ford Museum.

The Public Museum was also very well done.  What a treat this museum is for all ages.  There were many hands on activities for children, some of which Van and I were intrigued enough to put our hands on (ha).  Unexpectedly, we found out that it just so happened that The Titanic exhibit was at this museum for a couple more weeks.  The sad thing is that no picture taking was allowed in The Titanic exhibit.  The exhibit was composed of more than 400 actual relics recovered from the sunken ship.  The exhibit also showed sample rooms for the various classes of people on the ship and the menus for each class.  As you entered the exhibit, you were handed a passenger ticket with the name and information of one of the actual passengers on The Titanic.  At the end of the tour, there was a wall with the names of the passengers and whether or not they survived.  When we checked our tickets, we discovered that my person lived and Van's did not.

 

 As you can see from the pictures below, Van and I had fun posing for pictures at the various spots.  Pay particular attention to the pictures of us at the two tents.  I made it clear to Van that my tent was much large and nicer than his (ha).  Also, there was a section on The Great Lakes Boat Wrecks and again, we liked the "hands on" exhibit.  The picture is showing that Van is "steering" the ship in the channel between other ships.  It's really a cool simulated exhibit.  I had a hard time getting Van to give it up to the kid waiting!  You can also tell from some of the other pictures, that the wild life ranged from prehistoric skeletons to deer.  There are many other exhibits regarding the history of this area.  We learned that this area was very prominent in furniture making.  Unfortunately, that one section of the museum was closed for updating.  There was even one section showing main street as it was early on.

 

 

 

 

One of Those Days!

How to begin on this very interesting Monday morning?  It rained  big time yesterday afternoon and since today was beautiful we decided to head out to see the House of David in Benton Harbor..  This was only a 70 mile drive so we decided to let Monet stay in the motorhome to get some rest from all the storms last night.  As we entered  the town of Benton Harbors what  a poverty stricken town it was.  Almost every building we passed was closed down.

The House of David began as a Christian commune apparently around the early 1900's.  They had strict religious rules and even practiced celibacy which may have contributed to their demise around the 1950's.  They built fine mansions for themselves and even had a musical band that traveled all around the country.  They also had a softball team that traveled as well.  At some point around the 1930's, there ended up being a split over the spiritual direction and accumulation of assets.  A Benjamin Pernell was very prominent, if not the founder, and he died in 1927.  Pernell's wife, Mary, split off and founded Mary's City of David adjacent to the original area.  At some later point, they welcomed Jewish people and allowed a synagogue to be constructed.  There is a very small vestige (Van's word for remnant) left.

What's ironic is as we pulled into the area, we discovered that the original House of David and Museum had closed and there is a remaining rundown, dilapidated museum for the City of David which is only opened on the weekends.  From the looks of it, it wouldn't have been worth seeing anyway.  So, we turned around and headed back.

Van had to get some prescriptions  refilled so the Sam's Club is located on the way back on exit 49.  We picked those up, stopped at a Wally World and continued on back.

There is a Burger King at this  exit 49 so, of course, Van let's me get a fountain drink as we pass it.  It just so happened that there is a quilt shop on this exit so since we were returning so early from our wonderful visit to the House of David, he agreed to let me go to it.  As we pulled up to the store, there is a sign on the door that read "Closed on Mondays."  Of course, this is Monday!!  So again, we head back to the campground.

Our spray nozzle to the toilet and a toilet seat needed to be replaced.  For those of you who don't know what the nozzle is for, it's when you flush the toilet in the motorhome, you push the nozzle button for extra "rinsing" when needed because it works on gravity.  But a few days back our nozzle started to spray every time we flush which means that we have hold the nozzle over the toilet opening or it sprays the walls.  Also, our toilet seat brackets have been cracked so we are trying to get Camping World to order us both pieces since it's only about 20 miles for us.  Wish us luck because we keep forgetting to hold the nozzle when we flush and are getting everything wet!!!

It's beautiful today.  Cool and breezy and we are sitting out.  Missing everyone.