Detroit is a History Lesson

What a place for Erica to begin roadschooling the kids. We arrived in Detroit after a long journey from Wisconsin by way of going around the southern tip of Lake Michigan and around the city of Chicago.  We made the most of the trip by swinging by the the childhood home of Michael Jackson in Gary, IN. It's a diamond in the rough area of southern Chicago.  We chose not to get out of the RV despite my and Boyd's urges to get up close and personal with history.  We entroduced the kids to Michael's music very young and they were as excited to be there as we were. The locals were not happy to see us come there as a lady screamed at us to turn around and stop coming down their street.  Truthfully that was preempted by the fact that this huge RV was headed the wrong way on a one way steeet.  The direction sign was covered with stickers and graffiti so we had no idea.  Anyway, the tension was present and so we stayed put inside and snapped some shots.

We headed 30 minutes north and watched the sun set by walking the beach as we camped on the shore of Lake Michigan in Indiana Dunes National Beach.

Next we ended up boondocking at Westview Orchard (Harvest Host location north of Detroit) for two nights, a 205 year old family run business for the entirety. The kids enjoyed a full day on the farm where we picked two full bags of apples and two full bags of peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, cucumber, and a bunch of other random vegetables.  The salads and pico have been really good to eat from all this harvest. The last night ee were there we listened to live music and drank fresh hard cidar and wine in their winery. 

We then spent three nights and four days at St Clair RV Park near the Canadian border where we relaxed the first evening in the park with three other families who are full time RV'ers.  It was great to connect with and share homeschooling tips and life on the road tips with people who have been doing it for years.  One woman was raising two teenagers and two kids under seven years old.  Another family had four kids under nine and were making it happen.  Another family had three kids under eight.  All had various background stories and all made a choice to live this type of life in order to give their kids a different experience than their stationary life provided. 

The next two days we spent exploring Detroit at the Henry Ford (a museum and Old Town Historical Park that rivals the Smithsonian in my opinion) and Motown records. We could have spent a full two days at the Henry Ford. 

We sang "My Girl" by The Temptations in Studio A at Motown records.  The tour was led by a guide giving us a history lesson of how Berry Gordy began with a family loan and a focus on bringing people music that was catchy and filled with the optimism of many black people at a time when struggle was felt by most.  This music brought the races together when so much was being wedged between them as white people found the sound to be infectious too. This was only a couple days after Aretha Franklin had died and it felt incredible to get to share in the memory of this living space.  

In contrast to all things great in Detroit, we spent the afternoon in Belle Isle. It is an island in the Detroit River that was the grand city park of yesteryear. It showed our family a lesson in what was and what can be destroyed by corruption in government and a city under seige from hard economic times.  The grand statues and fountains mirror those times as their cracks were filled with crabgrass and weeds and the water was shut off.  The large children's play grounds were unkept and look sad. The state has come in recently and took over the park from the city in an effort to restore it back to it's glory if the early twentieth century.  Progress is sure to be slow, but according to locals has improved greatly since the low of the mid 2000's. 

Detroit was an historical phenomenon and we were honored to spend our time there.

Peace and Love