Today, we went to Detroit to go to the Detroit Tigers game and decided to spend some time at the Henry Ford Museum. We got there about noon just as several school busses were unloading kids for a field trip. (Great! Not my idea of a fun day….spending my time with a bunch of kids on a field trip). We paid our $34 per person entrance fee along with the $9 parking fee and started our visit. The first thing I noticed was how big the museum was. I know it is supposed to be big, but where were all the kids? I realized that there would be plenty of space where I could look at what I wanted and not be interrupted! So, if you happen to go on a busy day or weekend, you should still be able to walk around and check everything out. There is a lot of walking, however, it is all one level (no stairs) and the air conditioning works well! I only saw one set of restrooms and that was in the “front” of the museum.
The first section we came to had cars belonging to various presidents. This one was the limo Ronald Reagan was getting into when he was shot. They had limos from Kennedy, Eisenhower, FDR, Teddy Roosevelt’s Brougham. Interestingly, Teddy preferred a carriage to a car.
After the presidential section, we came to the stagecoach and railroad section. I was amazed at how big the locomotives were. I know they are supposed to be big, but man, they were huge! We could walk up some steps to climb into a locomotive. This was fun because you could press the horn. It wasn’t the real horn, or course, but still cool. The “cabin” of the locomotive was huge. I could very easily picture myself traveling down the track, pulling on the horn, coming into a small town in the old west. I couldn’t tell if it was a coal operated or steam operated locomotive. Guess that is the girl in me! One thing I did not realize was that they used to have stage coaches that hook up like cars on a train. The wagon wheels were replaced with wheels built for train tracks. What I can’t believe is that the coaches were meant for 9 (that’s right, 9 people)! It would be uncomfortable with 4 people. Not to mention, the cushions did NOT look very comfortable.
After that, we entered the section on sports car racing. To me, this was the funnest and most interesting part of the museum. They had a Penske Formula One car and a couple of NASCAR race cars, including the car of the youngest winner ever of the Daytona 500. His name is Trevor Bayne. This 6ft 2in 178lb driver drove his #21 car to his first Daytona win at the age of 20 years and one day. What a birthday present!
This section of the museum had the most interactive exhibits including a Nascar simulator. The exhibit is called Driven to Win: Racing in America. In addition to the simulator, there is a movie theater playing a 10 min movie about 5 different drivers from different types of racing. I don’t remember them all but one of them was drag racer, Brittany Force. Brittany is one of 3 sisters and daughter of John Force, winner of 16 NHRA drag racing championships. Another highlighted driver was a woman driver who races in the Bonneville Salt Flats. I knew about this kind of racing but had totally forgoten about it. Racers here try to make new speed records often reaching speeds of 400 and 500mph. They go so fast that conventional breaking will not work so they have to use parachutes!
The racing simulator exhibit is called “In The Driver’s Seat”. The CXC Simulator uses the latest technological advances to achieve realistic motion and car control systems and has 6 racing Pods that can “race” against each other. Our group consisted of my husband Allie, a former truck driver, my daughter Judy, her fiance, Christian, and myself, a.k.a “Lead foot Lucy”. We were able to practice for a few minutes to get the feel of the simulator and then real fun started! Wouldn’t you know it, our race started and in great future mother-in-law fashion, I promptly hit Christian in the first curve! Fortunately, we both recovered. Then we got back in the game. At the end of the race, Christian had the fastest time followed by me, Judy, and then Allie. I didn’t cross the finish line first, but I feel like I can keep my nickname of Lead foot Lucy. I’m not exactly surprised that Allie came in last. He was a truck driver for 12 years hauling 80,000 lbs. You need plenty of time to stop with the big trucks and can’t drive like a NASCAR driver. You don’t loose those habits when you stop driving truck. Still, I think our race times were respectable with a range of 53.66 seconds to 1.14.31 minutes. The 15 minutes of race time went kind of fast, but I would pay the $9 racing fee again!
After the simulator, we got to try our hand and some other interactive training. The game we played would flash a checkered flag on the screen and you would have to try touch it as quick as you could. At the end of the game, it would tell you how much slower you were compared to a driver. On my best performance, I was still 54% slower than a race car driver! How is that for not making you feel old!
I don’t remember what the next section was called, but it consisted of historical artifacts from before the American Revolution through current times. The Ford Museum had displays of a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, and some of the constitutional amendments. I was REALLY surprised to see they had an actual copy of Common Sense written by Thomas Payne. Common Sense, you may remember, was a 47 page pamphlet written by Thomas Payne It was published on January 10th, 1776 in Philadelphia and advocated independence from Great Brittan. It sold 120,000 copies and became an overnight success. Close your eyes. Can you hear it? The sound of a horse racing on dark cobbled streets. Paul Revere yelling “The British are Coming”?
The last item we focused on was the chair that Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot at the Ford’s theater. (How on Earth did the Ford get that???) On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play “Our American Cousin”. His guards took him across the street to The Peterson House where he passed away at 7:22 am on the 15th. It was a sobering sight to see his chair. The hair stood up on my arms and I was filled with great sadness. You could even still see stains on the chair.
I really would have liked to had more time to wander the museum. I feel like we didn’t even scratch the surface. I would really like to go back for another day to wander the museum and to go through Greenfield village. We really only spent a few hours there before we had to get going to our ball game. We went to Hooters for wings and the the game was delayed due to rain. *sigh* So, if you get the chance, I definitely recommend spending the day at Henry Ford Museum.