Road Trip 2015, Day 7: June 30 2015 (Dearborn, MI to Niagara Falls, Ontario)

Touring the Rogue Factory!
(click here for today's pictures)

Reagan slept in Grannymom's room last night and the rest of us spread out in our room.  It was nice to have one last night of being spread out since I am sure that will be our largest hotel room.  Everyone wanted to go to breakfast with Grannymom and Grandpa and Reagan was not too pleased with this. We had already told the others that they could go when Reagan came in our room in tears saying that it was her turn.  I told her that she could come with Whitman and us to eat breakfast after she went with Grannymom and that made her some happier. 

This morning when I pulled Whitman out of his bed, he was sound asleep and laid pretty still and quiet on my bed for a while before Robby put today's clothes on him.  Then it was our breakfast time.  Robby saw that the elevators might be a problem (one broken) so he skipped breakfast with us go get a cart and take our bags to the van.  Whitman devoured a banana and cup after cup of juice while I feasted on the scones.  Reagan was going to get some toast as her second breakfast but we let it burn and she decided that she didn't really want anything else after all.

We went back to the Henry Ford complex for one more day.  Today's outing included the Ford Rogue Factory Tour.  I thought that the Rogue was the actual name of a Ford car (that I just how much I know my cars) instead it is the name of the factory.  When we had planned for the trip, the factory was in production but since then things changed and they were not producing F150s today.  

That was fine though and this meant there was a lot fewer people on the tour (almost like none other than us!)  We caught the first but to the factory (Whitman's favorite part of the day) and then watched a short film about Henry Ford and the factory through time-union, WWII, depression and recession.    

After the first movie, there was a second-it had plenty of special effects-enough so that Keaton decided that she needed to go to the bathroom so she could leave the movie (we waited until it was over though).  Then we went to the observatory so we could see the factory.  They had a green roof (a roof with a grass type substance) which lowered the temperature in the factory by 10 degree and helped prevent water leaks in the roof.  

Then we walked along a catwalk above the factory floor.  It was pretty interesting.  The workers were on a break for a week or two and the factory floor was left just like in was when the whistle blew at quitting time.   We were able to see varying degrees of trucks on the line and could almost imagine what it would be like-but I would still love to see it all during production time.  I have a feeling we will get back to the Henry Ford some time or another and I can do it again.

At the gift shop, they had a kiddie ride on F150.  Whitman and Keaton were inside of it in a flash-it didn't move but the steering wheel did turn and they loved this.  Keaton pointed to the logo on the streering and said "Whitman, this says Kroger."  I guess the blue and white Ford logo looked somialar to the blue and white kroger logo.  

Our next stop was Ford's Estate.  The grounds were so nice that we decided to have a picnic.  We all spread out on a brick retaining wall and had a big feast.  After our picnic was over, the kids played frisbee and football.  Then we walked across the field to see a tiny little farmhouse.  While we were over there, we noticed the trees-where they cherries or plums.  No one was sure so we picked sme to see and that is when we saw the security gaurd walking towards Tony-we all got into trouble. 

Of course the lady was really nice and asked us to not play on the field or pick the fruit.  We laughed about this and made a big deal out of getting into trouble.  But my Campbell thought none of this was funny at all.  She just burst into tears and told me that she was ready to go home.  We had scared that baby to death.  Since we couldn't play anymore we took a walk near Henry's house and his power plant but Campbell was so upset all she could do was hang on to me.  No matter how much I explained that we were teasing and the security lady was nice (she answered questions for us as we were looking at Ford's power plant), Campbell was just plain upset!

The grounds were pretty but at some point had been given to the University but have recently given it back to the Ford foundation.  Apparently, the university did not take the best of care of the house and grounds and even opened a restaurant in the house.  Currently, they are restoring the house to the original condition.  As we were walking back to the car, we did see a rat scurry across the side walk and that pretty much sums up how Campbell feels about this stop on our trip.  Once we climbed into the car and pulled out of the parking lot, she let out a huge sigh of relief and that child will probably never buy a Ford car because of her bad memories from this place.  

After this, it was time to drop Grannmom and grandpa off at the airport.  Right before we stopped there, we ran and bought gas and ice.  Then we said bye to Grannymom and Granpda-well, those of us who were awake told them bye (Witman and Keaton were sleeping)  They have a few hours to wait in the airport before their plane takes off but will still probably beat us to tonight's hotel.

Next up was drive through detroit and a pass by a stadium and the GM building.  By this time we had already started pulling out the snacks.  And then the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel was upon us and we were in Canada.  It took us a bit to cross the border becuase the man had to enter all of the kids birth certificates and then he came to the door to see the kids.

By the time that we had left the border, the Wilsons were ahead of us and Keaton had to potty.  We pulled off at McDonalds and tried to reach them.  Robby didn't pay for an international plan on his phone so getting a hold of them was a bit difficult.  At McDonalds he was able to get on their for a few minutes.  

The drive into Canada had lots of windmills and it is always pretty amazing to think that you are in a new country yet you aren't that far away from home.  After awhile Robby got a bit tired, so I took over at the wheel.  I kept myself entertained by the signs on the road-most were writting in English and then Frence.  One sign that I found particularly interesting was the one that said "retards possibles"-apparently that means delays possible.  

I tried to go the speed limit-80 kmh but that is crawling but the police were everywhere.  So I tried to compromise and drive slower than the other cars but faster than the trucks.  After quite a long stretch we finally caught up with the Wilsons at McDonalds.  We all pottied and then were back on the road with our hamburgers in hand.

We then took a detour off the main road and drove down some beautiful Canadian countryside-even saw some skydivers.  The goal was to see the Eerie Canal with this little diversion but we did not.  So we continued down the road and arrived at our hotel.  We are back in a Comfort Inn and tonight it is a motel!  Whoop, whoop!  No cart-just walk out the door and into the car!  It doesn't even matter that our room is 1/4th the size of last nights room.

We all unpacked and then the Wilsons hopped into our car and we headed out again.  This time we made it to the Eerie Canal and saw a boat in the lock.  Then the boat left just as we did and we hurried to make it across the canal before the draw bridge had to be raised-we missed that but we did get to see the bridge being raised so that was neat.  Unfortunately, the boat was going to slowly for us to wait and see it go under the bridge.  

Then we were off to see Niagara Falls.  We found parking and then walked towards the falls.  Whitman was buckled in his stroller for this leg of the journey and he did not like that but I did not care!  That little wall that separates you and the zillions of gallons of rushing water is about waist high to me so he could be over that thing in an instant!  The falls are impressive-even at night.  But it is still hard to see them at night despite the huge spotlights on them.  

We saw horseshoe falls and the American falls.  We even walked through some mist from the falls as we walked down the sidewalk.  The kids had a great time tonight and Tony even suggested skipping tomorrow and just heading on to DC.  He was only kidding and I know that my crew can not wait to get on that boat tomorrow.  

It is 11:48 right now and we put laundry in the washer about 10 minutes ago so it is going to be a pretty late night.  And since Walmart was closed tonight (everywhere so far on this trip has closed early) Robby will run over there before time to load up in the morning.  And our leave time is 8:15 in the morning-our earliest yet!  Eeek, I better take a nap while the laundry is in the dryer or I won't be able to make it!

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