Delay Day

So sorry. Forgot to mention I was on the northen road again. Back soon.

The Olds Days

On my last visit to Michigan we went to the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing.  Roughly 31% of my childhood/coming-of-age memories are somehow associated with the Cutlass so I was so excited to check this museum out. 

It may have been around awhile but we learned from a volunteer that the museum was under new direction and that they have hopes of it being of a Henry Ford level, By the way, if you haven't been to either of these museums you must go. If you don't know the history of the automobile you dont know America. But that is easy for me to say because I was raised in Michigan where everyone was somehow connected to at least one of the big three and I knew how to identify the production year of a camero from its headlights by the time I was ten. Thanks big bro! I have continued to develop this skill and hope to make it into a gameshow someday. 

The R.E. Olds Transportation Museum is on the Motorcities Passport Program, so that makes it even better for a National Park Passport enthusiast like myself. 

The place itself is lacking a bit of narrative (I like a museum map and a brochure/bio) so you never really get the whole story of RE's life or how things, like the cars, came to be and how things came to and end (Oldsmobile stopped production in 2004), but what it lacks in story, it makes up for in metal:

I spared you some of the photos of the earlier cars and skipped straight to the muscle. Grand National! Glory days!

I loved the group photos of all the folks that worked on the lines:

I wonder what happened to this rebel dude wearing the Lou Reed shirt?

To top it all off, the gift shop had vintage postcards from GM dealers:

*I like to imagine that 72 cutlass smashing a fixed-gear bike. Wait, I am totally kidding. I love bikes very much. 

Country Time

Michigan is cold and fresh as always. I'm having a nice visit out in the 'ville and I'm even testing out the Brinno on the backyard bird feeder:

It would be really nice if a big snowstorm could roll through here because that would make for a nice time lapse.  

Michigan List Pt 2

American Museum of Magic
Colon, MI
Fireflies (reminder to self: google "how to photograph fireflies")
Seventh Day Adventist Village
Ducks or something squawking outside my window in the early morn.
Hot air balloon racing
Grosse Pointe Parks and pools
Binder Park Zoo
10:10pm sunsets
Perfectly reasonable wine prices

Made It All These Miles

Got in way, way later than I anticipated. Wouldn't have been a big deal if my night vision hadn't been impaired by bug-guts-on-the-windshield glare for the last hour.  Forgot about the time zone change, ran into a couple traffic jams, and some surprising slow fast food service in southern Indiana.

All of that will get you to a place called Pure Michigan.