the Henry Ford?

We stopped in Ann Arbor to visit some friends and used the opportunity to go the museum in nearby Dearborn which i thought was called "The Henry Ford Museum".  But when approaching the area the signs called it Henry Ford, or if a definite article was used it was lower case so that it was "the Henry Ford", and "museum" was not included in the title.  I should have asked a museum staffer about the naming/branding.

Unlike the Mercedes Benz museum, this is museum is more than cars.  There was a lot of American history on display with sections on manufacturing, vintage furniture including the chair Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot, racial history with the restored bus ridden by Rosa Parks on display, aviation, and of course cars.  If we were there midweek or Saturday we could have paid extra and had a Ford factory tour as well.  Its not a cheap museum at $21/each and another $27 if you want to visit Greenfield village (a made up town next to the museum with historical buildings), but it was worth the stop.

The best Science museum

The Museum of Science and Industry on the South side of Chicago is one of the best museums ever.   This was our only stop during our quick visit into Chicago.  It's been 9 years since our last visit so the boys appreciated the exhibits more. The U boat and the chicks were still favorites. They still have some of the cross sectioned body parts in the display and the Apollo 8 command module and we also stopped at the automation display and watched the assembly line build gyroscope tops toys, this time each of the boys got their own personalized souvenir.

On the way back we stopped to get some Chicago beef and loaded hot dogs. We were so excited for the food that I missed the photo op!

John Deere green

As part of our unplanned detour through Iowa, we accidentally found the John Deere tractor and engine museum in Waterloo Iowa.  We saw the museum as we went by on the highway so we backtracked a little so that we could visit the museum.

The newish museum describes the company's beginnings as a maker of plows (that are pulled behind horses) to moving into tractors after purchasing a local Waterloo company in the early 1900s. Lots of nicely restored tractors in their shiny green finish on display.  

The corn state

I decided to make a detour off our trip so that the boys could add another state they have visited. Our drive was on country two lane roads and we went by miles and miles of corn fields.  Corn is obviously big business in Iowa, even the gas stations are involved as they offer different percentages of corn based fuel at the pumps. The stations advertise 87 octane unleaded as premium but when it's the only gasoline offered at the pump I guess it would be premium.

Spam

We had to stop at the Spam museum in Austin, MN.  I don't eat much of it anymore but I like Spam. The boys learned to cook using Spam so I knew the visit would be interesting.

While the focus is on Spam, it is basically a Hormel corporate museum with history of the family and how the company started making Spam and their community service activities.  The displays were informative and fun and occasionally so one would walk by with a different flavored Spam hors d'oeuvres.

Whats a Corn Palace?

Its a building that decorated on the outside walls with dried corn on the cob.  Inside it a large auditorium for small shows, basketball games and vendor areas for selling corn based souvenirs.  It was originally developed in the 1920s so that travelers would stop by the town.  I guess it still works almost 100 years later as it was the only reason we stopped in Mitchell, SD.  Maybe it would have been more exciting if we were there during the corn festival which is later in the summer during harvest.

Missiles among us

Did you know that most of the intercontinental ballistic missiles and their silos were in South Dakota?  Just across the highway from the east entrance to the Badlands was the Museum for the Minuteman Missiles.  The small museum has a quick historical overview of the cold war and the nuclear missile buildup between the USA and the USSR.

You could also visit an actual missile silo and tour a decommissioned control center which are located a few miles away.  Unfortunately, the control center tours are limited to 6 people at a time and require reservations which fill up the day they can be made 90 days in advance.  We still were able to visit a missile silo and a listen to a park ranger explain the different parts of the silo and how the missiles were loaded and launched.  We could see a decommissioned missile still in the silo and he had a sample of the blast shielded wire which was used to connect the missile systems to the control centers.