USA

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Many things have changed since my last update.
We have sold our Bushtracker Caravan, built a new house in Sale, Victoria and purchased a new truck and caravan.

Kokopelli

Pennsylvania

Hershey

A detour through Hershey, PA to inspect the Hershey's chocolate factory.

Massive factory.

The entrance to the gift shop and tours.

Chocolates galore.

New York

Niagara Falls

Like the Grand Canyon, you have to see it to comprehend its enormity.

Niagara Falls 

A view across to the Canadian side.

Niagara Falls - The movie.

The viewing area on the Canadian side.

Steps down to the bottom.

Permanent rainbow.

The Falls on a really cold day.

I followed the  Niagara River up to Lake Ontario. The fall colours were beautiful. 

It was coming up to Halloween and there were roadside pumpkin sellers everywhere.

Rochester

Eastman Museum
George Eastman was the founder of Kodak.
His house in Rochester, NY has been converted into a museum and an educational institution.

 George Eastman was born in 1854.

Eastman formed the Eastman Dry Plate Company & reincorporated it as The Eastman Kodak Company in 1892.

During his life George Eastman donated more than $100 million to educational and arts institutions, hospitals and charitable organisations around the world.

In the late 1920s, Eastman was diagnosed with a progressive and irreversible spinal disease, and in March 1932, he ended his own life.
In a note to friends, he wrote, “My work is done. Why wait?”

The entrance to his mansion.


The gardens are beautiful.


The entrance.


In the centre of the house the day room was cleverly created during the building of an extension.

The Catskills

The Catskill Mountains
I decided to travel to the Catskill Mountains to see the fall colours in New York (state).


Interesting and typical American barns.


This was in the RV park I stayed at.
The RV parks were nearly empty as the winter was approaching.


Fall colour along the road.


The tourist train at Phoenicia, NY.
Catskills Railroad


The lake at Brook-n-Wood RV Park where I stayed.


A nearby creek.


Halloween display along the road.

Michigan

Detroit

Haas Lake RV Park

I stayed at this picturesque RV park near Novi.

A morning view from my RV.

The RV park is huge and built around 4 lakes.

These cute guys were constantly entertaining me running around gathering nuts.

RV Show in Detroit

There was a RV show on in Detroit so I decided to attend.

In the show they had an exhibition of J.F. Kennedy memorabilia  and included the presidential limousine.

The original is in the Henry Ford Museum below.

1961 Lincoln Continental

Dearborn Ford Factory

Ford Rouge Factory Tour

The Entrance.

A view from the upper level across the massive Ford plant, Dearborn.

There is a walkway which overlooks the assembly line.

We were in the Ford F150 model assembly plant.

We were told not to take photographs. 

This was a bit of a joke as I downloaded all of these from the internet.

The larger components have their own little assembly lines.

The line is multi dimensional.

Nearly finished.

On the way to final inspection.

Final inspection.

The foyer has a few classics on display.

Henry Ford Museum

This fascinating exhibition is a deconstructed Model T Ford.

Circa 1923

The opposite side shows the timber framework.

Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. 

22 feet long.

Circa 1952

Bugatti Type 31 Royal Convertible

One of only 6 built.

Circa 1931

Edsel Citation Hardtop

Circa 1958

Goldenrod

Held the land speed record for more than 25 years. 

In 1965 it broke the record at Utah's Bonneville salt flats doing over 409 mph, 658 kph, driven by 4 Chrysler engines.

Ford Mark 1

Two times 24 hour Le Mans winner.

Circa 1968

There were many other displays including homewares, farm machinery, aviation, railways, and many more.

The Presidential vehicles.

Teddy Roosevelt's Brougham

Used by Theodore Roosevelt, William H Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G Harding & Calvin Coolidge. Mainly used for household duties.

Brougham 

Circa 1902

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's  Sunshine Special

The first expressly designed and built Presidential car..

Used by Franklin D Roosevelt & Harry S Truman.

Lincoln

Circa 1939

Dwight Eisenhower's Bubbletop

Used by:  Harry S Truman, Dwight D Eisenhower, John F Kennedy &  Lynden B Johnson.

Lincoln

Circa 1950

The Kennedy Car

Used by John F Kennedy until he was assassinated in 1963.

The vehicle was rebuilt to provide better security then later used by Lynden B Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

Lincoln Continental

Circa 1961

The rear bumper and grab handles for the FBI Security to stand on the rear of the vehicle

Reagan Car.

First used by President Nixon then by Reagan after his attempted assassination.

Also used by Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter & George W Bush.

Lincoln Continental

Circa 1972 

Chariot made by William Ross

Circa 1800

Next to the Henry Ford Museum is

Greenfield Village

Interactive Map

This is an entire township built on 80 acres with roads and infrastructure, skirted by a 19th century steam driven train.

There are 83 authentic historic structures, from Noah Webster’s home, where he wrote the first American Webster's Dictionary, to Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory to the courthouse where Abraham Lincoln practiced law.   
Most of these buildings were purchased from their original sites over America, Canada and England and relocated to Greenfield Village.

Town centre.

Sir John Bennet's watch and jewellery store Circa 1931.

Herschel-Spillman 1913 Carousel on the right.

Mechanical figures chime every 15 minutes.

The building has the restored exterior decorative elements from the original London store.

The only traffic on the streets are T Model Fords, old buses and horse drawn carts.

I was lucky to strike a beautiful spring day and the walk around the village was serene.

Martha-May Chapel in the Garden of Leavened Heart.

The steam loco on the 3 mile track skirting the village.

Cotswold Cottage

Exported from Chedworth, England

Circa Early 1600's

Ford Model AA Bus
Circa 1931

Noah Webster Home

Circa 1823

Giddings Family Home

Circa 1750

Cotswold Forge

Blacksmiths forge 

Built Worcestershire, England

Circa 1600's

Ladies cleaning up after lunch at Daggett Farmhouse.

Daggett Farmhouse

Built in Connecticut 

Circa 1754

Sarah Jordan Boarding House.

Serviced the workers at Edison's Menlo Park. 

Built in New Jersey

Circa 1870

Boarding room.

Recreation room.

Edison Homestead

Built in Ontario, Canada

Circa 1815

Thomas Edison's

Menlo Park, New Jersey replica Laboratory.

Built 1929 in Greenfield Village.

One of the laboratories.

This guy was giving a demonstration of how an Edison Phonograph cylindrical record was made.

He would talk into the speaker and it etched the sound on to a cylinder. 

It recorded the sound and then was played back to us. 

One of the machine shops.

Edison Illuminating Company Station A

A scaled down reproduction of a electric power station designed around 1880 to power cities.

Circa 1944

Horse drawn omnibus.

Railroad Depot.