<– Day 9 – Sun. May 12th: Tuckered Out? Then Visit a Firehouse   | Trip Overview | Day 12 & 13 – Wed. May 15th & Thurs. May 16th: Mixers, Foodies & Heavy Equipment –>

Monday May 13th:  Instead of trying to squeeze in a long day at the Ford Museum, we decided to take a day off instead, as we have a busy week coming up. So, Monday was a day of rest at Brian’s house in Fenton. Thanks to his hospitality, I was able to finish the 6th draft of the Amber Panels of Konigsburg book.

Tuesday May 14th: Today, we left Michigan for the state of Ohio.

We started the morning bidding a fond farewell to Brian, who’d opened his home to us for several days (Thanks!).

One of the places Brian recommended we visit before we left was a bakery in Fenton, MI, called CRUST. As soon as I looked up the website and examined their menu, I was hooked. Most of their breads are made with starters rather than commercial baking yeast. So, I HAD to visit the place.

I wasn’t disappointed. Everything looked so good, we walked out of there $37 poorer. I can’t recommend the place highly enough.

After the bakery, we’d planned to head for the Ford Museum. But, at the last minute, we changed our minds. I knew we had to be down in Ohio by dinner time, so I was concerned we’d have to rush through museum. Instead, we had the opportunity to take our time to drive south. It proved to be the right decision.

As we drove south, Ann’s cousin recommended we visit the River Raisin Battlefield National Park in Monroe, MI, from which the War of 1812’s “Remember the Raisin” call-to-action originated. At the battle of River Raisin the Americans thought they’d won, but then the Brits & Indians regrouped and beat the US troops. American’s were shocked by the loss, hence the rallying cry of Remember the Raisin. Ann’s cousin claims that one of the men captured was a distant relative of Ann’s. To capture the feeling of Ann’s relative, I put her behind bars.

From the Battle of River Raisin, we drove south. We were expecting to go to the Snooks Dream Cars Museum in Bowling Green, Ohio. But, fate intervened. Because, as we were driving through Toledo, we spotted the Jeep Assembly Plant and the old Willys Overland Plant. Of course, we had to stop and take some pictures.

The most unexpected thing about the Chrysler assembly plant in Toledo, OH, was that it was impossible to find a place to legally park. So, we had to do a park-in-the-middle-of-the-road-leap-from-the-jeep-take-pictures-quickly-and jump-back-into-the-jeep move before any other cars came up the road, because there were sign everywhere asking folks not to stop or park.

Not that it matters a whole lot, but that’s a Ford GP in the picture below, rather than a Willys-Overland vehicle.

Satisfied with our Toledo pictures, we hopped back into the Jeep and drove straight to Bowling Green. I’d spotted Snooks Dream Cars Museum during a search of museums in North Western Ohio. It looked like a promising small museum. It also was supposed to have a jeep.

Ann and I took about an hour to look through the displays and cars. Once again, we had the run of the museum to ourselves (do we scare people away?). Ironically, while the cars were beautifully restored, the GPW jeep, which contained more personal information and displays than any other vehicle, was inaccurately restored. This was especially disappointing since one display on the jeep claimed it was an “authentic recreation” of the jeep the museum owner used during WWII. However, as you can see, the jeep used a civilian frame and other parts.

On another post, we debated the authenticity of a civilian wagon that was purchased by the army as an ambulance. So I was especially interested by this toy wagon painted as an army ambulance. There were a few other toy jeeps as well.

Here are a few additional shots from the museum:

Our next destination was a 2:30pm meeting with Doug, who promised to take us to Roger Neff’s Museum outside of Findlay, Ohio. Doug said that would be a treat and he was right. Roger himself walked us through his museum and explained everything about it. It was a wonderful treat!

Roger used to have a variety of jeeps and WW2 vehicles, but he’s sold all but his amazing M-38A1D Nuclear jeep. What fascinated me was that his M-38A1 was supposed to be a 1955, but it had the hinged grille of a 1952 or early 1953. I asked him about it and he didn’t know the grille suggested an early jeep.

Many thanks to Roger for sharing his wonderful collection. Following our visit with Roger, Ann and I followed Doug over to his house to have dinner with his girlfriend Robin and her son TJ. We believe Robin was quite relieved to learn we weren’t crazy nuts from the internet (well, not too crazy anyway).

Doug smoked some wonderful pork loins for dinner. As we waited for them to finish cooking, he took us on a tour of his jeep projects. The blue GPW is a jeep he’s fixed up to drive when he was much younger. Now it needs another refurb to get it running and drivable again. The green GPW is a part’s jeep.

So, thanks to everyone for making the day memorable. On thursday we’ll be visiting the Kitchen Aide Experience in Greenville. In the afternoon we’ll be heading to visit Roger in Waynesville, OH, before heading to Hudson for the evening.

<– Day 9 – Sun. May 12th: Tuckered Out? Then Visit a Firehouse   | Trip Overview | Day 12 – Wed. May 15th: Mixers, Foodies & Heavy Equipment –>