More of the mitten - part 4

Michigan's Lower Peninsula - continued

(Sightseeing, genealogical research and seeing friends and family)

October 10, 2017 - November 13, 2017

We had gotten some potentially bad news while at a quick oil change shop in Bad Axe.  They thought we might have blown head gasket in our Honda CRV.  They couldn't have been nicer, not even charging me for the oil and antifreeze they put in the car. When does that ever happen????  There was no place nearby to fix the problem so I decided we'd have it looked at when we got to the Port Huron area since we planned to stay there for about a week.  Again, long story short, it turned out to be a leaking cam shaft seal which was fixed with a minimum of effort and cost.  Whew...we were happy to have dodged that bullet.

We stayed in Marysville, near Port Huron in a Thousand Trails Campground, of which we are members.  Off again on again weather from bright sunshine to drenching rain.  When you're inside an RV when it rains hard, you know it.  Poor Barney just couldn't understand what all the noise was about.

Fall colors adding to the beauty in the woods.

Barney enjoying the leaf litter.  He'd be even happier if he could just get to the spot where there's sunshine.

Lots of big "puddles" after a rain storm.

Leaf patterns left on a sidewalk.

Once the car was finished we headed over the Blue Water Bridge between Port Huron, MI and Sarnia, Ontario, and made our way to Auburn, Ontario where some of Laura's "Roetcisoender" cousins live.  If any of you have ever met someone by the name of Roetcisoender, you've met one of Laura's cousins.  It's a "made up Dutch" name deriving from the original Swiss German name of Rutishauser.  A single Rutishauser man made his way to the Netherlands in about 1798, married a Dutch woman, and through the years the name began to morph into Roetcisoender.  All Roetcisoender's descend from this one man.

Driving north along the Lake Huron coast we discovered a beautiful area - lots of farmland and nice small towns.  It also helped that it was a beautiful sunny day.  We settled into our campsite and went to visit Hielke and Teresa R.  Hielke is a half second cousin to Laura.  Their respective grandfathers were half brothers.  We had a delightful time with them, looking at pictures, hearing how they both happened to come to Canada and about their lives since arriving.  Several of their children stopped in to meet us and say hello and a group of us went out to a meal in a nearby town.  It was really pleasant.

Our campsite!  That's us on the far left.

More of the campground.  As you can see, it was virtually empty.

Nice river flowing by the campground.
I can imagine the early French fur traders paddling down rivers live these in the 16 and 1700's.

The picture doesn't do this tree justice.  It's beginning fall colors were beautiful.

Hielke and Teresa.

Selfie of the half second cousins.

From Ontario we crossed back into Michigan and headed to a campground near Holly, Michigan so I could meet a second cousin of mine who lives nearby.

View from our campsite in the McGinnis Lake State Park.

Another view of the park.  The fall colors were much more beautiful than this picture would indicate.

We visited my cousin Joanne at her beautiful condo in Grand Blanc where we spent a nice afternoon chatting and having lunch. We had fun discussing various common relatives and I showed her the various pictures I'd collected of the family.  As a genealogist it's fun to tell people things they didn't know about their relatives.

My cousin Joanne and I in her condo. 
Those beautiful painted objects on the wall behind us are masks which were imported by her brother CJ from Costa Rica. 

I think they are incredible!

I know the top two are masks but I'm not sure about these although a mask is part of the design in these three.

The designs and colors are so unique.

From our campground near Holly we drove around the countryside to check out the areas of Holly, Fenton and Rose Center where my Connor ancestors had once lived for many years back in the 1870s and 1880s.  Holly and Fenton are quite grown up now whereas Rose Center is just a blip in the road.  It's a nice area and I enjoyed seeing where my great-grandfather grew up with his siblings.

While driving around we stopped at a local cider mill and bought some fresh cider which was delicious.  While looking around their shop at pictures of how the mill looked through the years we saw this advertisement for Samson folding tables.  Cost at that time: $3.95!!! The "woman of the house" is shown smoking a cigarette in a cigarette holder while setting down a tray full of wine glasses.

The add says:
All Purpose Folding Tables
Strong enough to stand on!
Have all these extra value features
Washable surfaces - strain-proof - colorfast
Double braced - gives absolute rigidity
Continuous tops - can't collect dust
Tubular steel legs - can't snag hose
Smart design - beautify all rooms
Ideal gifts for all occasions
Packs flat - saves space
Protects carpets and rugs
The busiest tables in the house!
As Advertised in the Leading Magazines

 We get quite a kick out of old ads like these.  Makes you want to run right out and buy one!

We moved to another campground a short distance away so I could see my former college lab partner from the Michigan State Medical Technology program.  We met in our sophomore year when she was switching over to the Med Tech program and I had just transfered to Michigan State in order to get into the Med Tech program.  We were fast friends from the start. The course content was very regimented and there were only about 50 people in our class.  We more or less marched lock step from class to class for 3 years.  Phyllis and I were lab partners in every class, be it chemistry, microbiology, parasitology, microscopic anatomy, etc.  It was a rigorous course but we sure had a good time.

We spent a fun day with Phyl and her husband Dave.  They live on a beautiful lake in Metamora, Michigan, quite near where more of my ancestors lived back in the 1920s-1940s.  We completely failed to get pictures while we were there so I'm including some from a previous visit back in 2003.

View from their deck

My buddy Phyl

Dave starting work on a stream with a waterfall in their side yard.
It's now complete it and absolutely beautiful.

Phil and Dave have some interesting interests.  They built a kit car together then restored a number of old cars including an old 1927 Chevy.  They use to "collect counties" by which I mean they have both been in every county in the United States and they once walked 800 miles along the Appalachian Trail. Phyl refinished a player piano and is now refurbishing a bunch of the music rolls they use. I feel like a slug when I think of all the things they've been involved in. 

A poor picture but a great car.  We went out for ice cream cones in it.

The day after we saw Phyl and Dave we drove around the area to see the places where my ancestors had lived.

This is the farmhouse in Columbiaville where my maternal great-grandparents lived from about 1910-1935.
Although this picture is from 2003 it looks about the same today. 

This farmhouse in Metamora is where my maternal grandparents lived in the 1940's.

This is the house in Oxford where my paternal grandmother lived from 1934-1964.

We tried hard to get a good picture of these skeletons we spotted while driving around.
The are completely made from 1 gallon milk/water jugs. We thought they were very original and clever.

From the Metamora area we drove to the Belleville area where we stayed at the Wayne County Fairground campground.  That allowed me to visit some additional second cousins who live in Plymouth and Troy, Michigan.  They are both first cousins with Joanne whom we met in Grand Blanc.  We got together for a chat over lunch and as typically happens, we forgot to take any pictures.  I guess, someone needs to give us a slap upside the head.  That said, I'm inserting a picture  from our 2003 trip and an old picture from 1992.

Barbara Ann in 2003

Virginia (Ginger) in 1992.
We were both at Michigan State at the same time but had never met before.

While were in that area we went to a very old cemetery in Plymouth to see if I could find my 3rd great grandmother's grave.  It's locked so you have to get a key in order to get in. The records they have for the cemetery are not very good and totally unorganized but they gave us a copy and off we went.  Although I was unable to find the grave I was looking for we did find half the marker for her 2nd husband Milton.  She is supposed to be buried right beside him but we found no marker.  Many of the stones have fallen over and are half buried in the dirt.  Others are broken and just laying against one another.  It would be a good project for a genealogy society or an eagle scout to try to 1) clean up the records and 2) get all the markers set upright in the cemetery before they are completely lost.

Partial headstone for Milton Young.

Next we were on to Grosse Ile where I was raised.  My brother and his wife live nearby in Wyandotte and cousins (my aunt's 2 children) also live nearby.  We stayed in my aunt's driveway and had ourselves a good time visiting and checking out the old "hood."  Grosse Ile is an island at the end of the Detroit River.  It's population has doubled since I left in 1968 so there were lots of houses where formerly there were only woods.

My brother Rich and his wife Phyllis.

My aunt Marie's 5 grandson's.  They would be my 1st cousins once removed.
Warren, Landon, Caleb, Andrew and William.
This was taken at a big joint birthday party my aunt organized to celebrate
her BD, my brother's BD, my BD, and my sister-in-law's BD.
Managed to take only this one picture at the affair!  After that we were all busy talking.

While my aunt and I were looking at some of her pictures I noticed that virtually none of them identified who was in the picture.  When I asked her about it she replied "well some day I'll get to that." I said there was no time like the present so we started in.  She kept pulling out pictures from all sorts of places but, over a number of days we finally got everything identified that we could.  In the process she found some really nice unused photo albums so I picked out some large pictures from various categories (her family, my uncle's family, their joint family, etc.) and put them in the photo albums.  I think we both felt good about getting it all done.  While we were doing that project, Laura worked on taking pictures of items in my aunt's home which had come to her from various family members.  Sort of an inventory for her sons and their families.  She then put the pictures into a Word document with an explanation of the item and were it came from.  By the time it was done it ran to 54 pages!!!  We put a copy on her computer and sent it off to both sons as well.  Another thing to feel good about and sort of payment for her allowing us to camp there.

Once again we forgot to take pictures.  How can a person be busy labeling pictures and another busy taking pictures and yet forget to take pictures of your hostess!!  Pretty sad - but once again I have a picture from our 2003 trip to save the day.

My sweet Aunt Marie!

Marie is a rug hooker which means that she takes small wool strips (about 1/4 inch wide), and with an implement, hooks them into a linen backing.  You can buy numerous patterns for rug or create your own pattern.  You can buy wool in every color imaginable or you can dye the wool yourself. Marie has even dyed some of own her wool in her basement.  She has a special cutter to cut the strips to her specifications.  She's been doing this for years and yet she's still relatively normal!  Here are some samples of her work!  I think they are not only beautiful but amazing.

This is the largest piece she's done.  It's

This one was turned into a hassock.

In this picture you can really see each loop of the wool strip.

Can you imagine the untold hours that went into each one of these projects?  Unbelievable!

One day we took off to go see Laura's niece who had moved with her father's family to Erie, Michigan.  When we first heard they had moved there and looked on a map to see where Erie was it turned out to be only 30 miles from my home town!  Small world!  We met her for breakfast and heard all about her job and their new home. She seems to be enjoying it here but of course she hasn't been through a Michigan winter yet!

Laura's niece Jewel.

Practically the last thing we did before leaving Michigan was to visit the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. It's a wonderful museum with, yes, lots of cars, but also many other interesting things.

Some of the many cars:

I'd take any of these cars if someone wanted to give me one.

These old cars were sure great looking.

Planes:

The Wright Brothers plane.

Old Ford Trimotor

Cars with historical significance:

President John F. Kennedy was riding in this 1961 Lincoln when he was assassinated.

President Eisenhower's car - a 1950 Lincoln.

Franklin D. Roosevelt's car - a 1939 Lincoln built lower to the ground so they could get him in and out more easily.

President Theodore Roosevelt's Brougham carriage.

Trains:

Allegheny Locomotive.
It doesn't look as big as it is in this picture.  Believe me when I say this thing is humongous!
They were among the largest and most powerful steam locomotives ever built but
within 15 years they were eclipsed by more efficient diesel engine locomotives.

An 1831 DeWitt Clinton
This was the third train built in America for actual service on a rail road!
Notice how the cars look like stage coaches on train wheels.
The barrels on the front car were held water for the steam engine (not shown)

The dawning of the Recreational Vehicle

This 1975 FMC motorhome was used by Charles Karalt for his "On The Road"
 segments for the CBS Evening News which he did from the late 1960's through 1970's.

A 1935 Stagcoach travel trailer given to Charles Lindbergh by Henry Ford.

Furniture:

 Civil War Section:

Map of the opposing sides in the Civil War.

The Chair President Lincoln was sitting in when he was assassinated.

 Farm Implements of all kinds:

An old steam tractor.

 The Struggle for Civil Rights in the 60's and 70's:

This was the bus Rosa Parks was on when she refused to give up her seat to a white man.

I could go on and on.  We saw many other things at the museum.  Definitely worth a visit if you are ever in the Detroit area.  Right next door is Greenfield Village which consists of 7 different open air areas:  working farms, craftworks, Henry Ford's model T, railroad junction, main street, Edison at work, porches and parlors.  This is actually what I wanted to see the most but the weather wasn't cooperative.  You can get details on Greenfield Village at: https://www.thehenryford.org/visit/greenfield-village/districts/

The last thing we saw at the Henry Ford was the Dymaxion House.  It was once supposed to be the next big thing in housing but it never really took off.  You might think of as an Airstream trailer in the round or like an aluminium yurt.

An actual Dymaxion house in the museum.

At the Dymaxion House we found this museum made advertisement featuring my cousin Andrew,
who once worked at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village!
Looks like he came right out of the 50's.  Too funny!

Finally we have reached the last of the Michigan portion of our trip.  Still can't believe we spent almost 3 1/2 months there.  It's a beautiful place to visit - especially the NW corner of the lower peninsula and virtually anywhere in the upper peninsula that is near one of the great lakes.