This museum would have to be one of the most amazing museums and probably the best one we have ever visited. Not only does it contain a pretty extensive collection of cars (not all Ford) but presidential limousines including the car JFK got shot,the seat Licon died on, Washington’s bed,  Planes, Trains, and other forms of transport. There is jewelery, the first McDonalds diner sign, furniture, steam engines, generators, even the real Darth Vader costume, Bat mobile and Ghost Busters mobile.  But the highlight for us was the Wiener Mobile which was a car turned into a giant sausage.  The building itself is huge and elaborate even the toilets are all marble with fancy chandeliers- no expence is spared it is incredible. Ford finance mustn’t have existed in the 30’s & 40’s.

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When  we visited the VW Golf Factory in Wolfberg Germany on our last roadtrip  http://roadtrip.intown.net.au/09-oct.htm  we sampled their sausages and beer for lunch, so we thought we should do the same at the Henry Ford Museum. Our verdict is the Germans do it better, Their sausages are much more tasty and Ford doesn’t make anything you would want to drive, well perhaps the Edge which is very similar to the Territory and looks pretty good unless you see the hideous job they have done to the Lincon version.  The new focus is ugly, Fusion, Taurus are boring, the new Flex it looks awful, too square and too big and long with some weird lines through the body- looks like something Scooby Doo’s team would drive.  Then they have the Crown Vic and some all those other ugly cars you see on the cop shows. Our range of vehicles are 1000 times more attractive- we don’t have a dud, they only have duds.  GM  and Chrysler don’t have much chop either- The Honda Accords and Camry’s seem to be the most common new cars over here.

What a hole,  Detriot must be one of the world’s worst cities. Run down, fallen down, old and decrepid. Surely it must be better than this… I thought Detroit was one of the world’s great cities?  Herny Ford turned this city into one of the richest and most industrious cities in the world, now less than 100 years later the place dosn’t seem to even have a glint of its former glory.

You come across the bridge from Windsor in Canada, which is a ok sort of a place nothing special just another town, then come across the huge US security station and enter an absolute hole. The first thing you see is disused and run down factories, grafiti, burnt out cars the place is out of control.  Welcome to the USA.

We just drove past a police car and saw a sign on the back saying “Detroit Clean and Safe” don’t know how the came up with that slogan-the place is awful- well at least around Dearborn where we are based for the next few days. The photo of this Taurus pretty well sums things up- if Detroit was a car- it would be this one or the Pontiac we saw just after but were to slow to get a shot.  Michigan avenue is so run down, its just beer and brawl bars just like Moe’s Tavern off the Simpsons then a few run down shops a wrecked car a liquor store followed by a strip joint or a ‘adult’ literature establishment- even the McDonalds looks seedy. Anyway the hotel is good, our fridge is full of real cheap liquor and we don’t need to roam the streets at night- unless we want to or run out of our cheap liqour or need to purchase a gun or burger.

Today we had a bit of a road trip from Toronto to Detroit and found a bit of a diversion.  A place called Kitchener about an hour out of Toronto is holding a huge Octoberfest celebration (apparently the largest outside Munich). And being the Thanksgiving holiday in Canada today they had a huge parade with some pretty good characters. Instead of a huge beer tent fest, the whole town gets involved, all the pubs, restaurants and cafe’s get on board and have special Octoberfest beers and menus.  Check out our pictures, the bear was huge he would have been 4 or more metres high.

Under the Space Needle we found a cool place- the Steam Whistle Brewery- as soon as you get in “would you like to try a beer sir” – free of course, then another. We signed up for a tour- $8 with 4 free beers and a great bottle opener- then a few more free beers- what a great way to fill in the day. The beer is pretty good too- the guys just loved handing it out making people happy- its a Czech style Pilsiner- very tasty.

The tower is the worlds tallest tower standing at 555 metres the Eiffel Tower is 334 meters and Sydney Centre Point tower is only 309 metres and is even 100 metres taller than the Empire State’s spire- so it’s pretty high. They have a glass floor where you can stand and look down and the views were amazing.  There was even cloud under us at one point.

Being a Sunday the streets were fairly quiet, although shops were open. It’s a pretty clean and organised place.

We have done pretty well, we haven’t been into a burger chain of any type in the 12 days we have been on holidays. But we broke our embargo tonight and pigged out on half a cow between a bun with heaps of gooey sauce and pickles.  The pub was a bit too comfortable and we ran out of notes and were down to coins before finding an ATM tommorow. So we did what was unthinkable a few hours earlier- dine at Harveys.  Harvey’s seems to be Canada’ s answer to McDonalds or Burger king, its beef, beef and more beef.  They have a logo saying ‘it’s a beautiful thing’  – not really but after a few pints wasnt too bad, expecially the Canadian specialty – Poutaine  its basically chips, covered with cream cheese and gravy..yummy.  – No more crap food (until …well Vegas buffets!- lets face it who are we kidding)

We thought the best place for a drink after our 5 hour drive would be down the Distillery District. As the name suggests it is where the city’s distilleries were and has been recently renovated to include apartments and a leisure area- the brocure looked as if it was going to be a bit like Darling Harbor or even Docklands- well it wasn’t maybe in a few years when the constructions finishes. There were a lot of arty farty sort of things, out there art galleries, some art performance spaces and theatres a few very up market dining extablishments a few fancy wine bars for the rich and a 1 pub, but we couldn’t get anywhere near it, we went in but just too busy, so went up the street and found a great little bar called Betty and sunk a few pints of the good stuff.

We stopped by Oshawa about an hour or so out of Toronto, it is home to the Canadian Automotive Musuem, so we thought we would take a look.  It was really just a big shed with a collection of different cars, no real theme just all put together like in someone’s shed. No Ford Discovery Centre or anything. But it was worth a look, and they had Gary’ s favorite car- the Aquamobile.

John -here’s a picture  as requested here is the lovely Chrysler 300. Bit of a poverty pack lots of plastic and stuff but it smells ok unlike most US hire cars we have had.

We found this funny little casino in the middle of nowhere about half way between Montreal and Toronto and thought it would be a good stop for some lunch and refreshments.   Plenty of people hypnotized by the pokies instead of enjoying a nice sunny day.  The nearest town was a bit of a distance and had under 2000 residents, most of them must have been at the casino.  weird.