Road Trip - Iron Mountain

The rains of last night were gone and when I rolled out of bed at "0-dark-hundred" to drive Wayne over to the UC for the Vehicle Judges Breakfast, it was very cool, beautiful blue skies and a light breeze.  A perfect day for our tour to a couple of museums in Iron Mountain.  For these tours, Model A's were assigned start times.  Ours was 8:40 AM, however I messed up and we were almost late for our departure group.   Iron Mountain is about a 75 mile drive, so it's not exactly around the corner, but, the ride was pleasant albeit through miles of nothing but trees. 

We arrived at the Cornish Pumping Engine Mining Museum.  All the Model A 's lining the parking lot looked pretty good.  This museum pays tribute to one of the largest reciprocating pumps designed to pump water out of deep mines.  The pump has an impressive  flywheel 40 feet in diameter, weighing 160 tons and rotates at only 10 RPM.  But it's able to pump water at the rate of 3000 GPM.  I'm not sure if the ladies were intrigued by this monster machine as much as the guys were though. 

Next up was the WWII Glider and Military Museum.  This place had a number of nice vintage airplanes and a great display of Ford memorabilia from the collection of Guy Forstrom.  For those of us from the New England area his collection would be similar to that of Don Passardi's.   The star of this museum was the CG-4A Glider.  The glider was made right in Iron Mountain and played an important part in the allied effort.  These gliders were designed to carry not only troops (13) but cargo up to a Jeep.  I enjoyed checking out the details of the construction and operations of the glider.

After lunch we headed back to Ishpeming and we found a great antique shop to meander in.  We spent a little more time there than we expected, consequently when we got back to the hotel we had to head back to the Cliff Shaft Museum to line up for the big parade.  What a parade it was, about 200 Model A's cruised the streets of Ishpeming and Negaune and the streets were lined with residents waving and taking pictures.  The highlight of the parade was that it was lead by the Twenty Millionth Ford.

We finished the parade at the Al Quaal Recreation Area for a pig roast.  Thank goodness the parade was today and not yesterday.  The grounds of the field were filled with Model A's as were the lines for food.  We were entertained by the Blue Notes Drum and Bugle Corps.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the music provided by this group.

Our return trip proved interesting.  As we got close to the hotel I noticed a Model A in a parking lot, wheel off and resting on it's brake drum.  I pulled in to the lot to see what happened and if I could help.  The driver said the wheel came off, all the lug nuts were gone.  The wheel continued down the road and was retrieved by another Model A'er.  To get the wheel on, a scissors jack was need, and guess what I always carry in the Model A, yup a scissors jack.  In few minutes we got the front lifted enough to get the wheel back on, with lug nuts off his dual side mounts.  He was on the road again and had no trouble getting back to his hotel.

We did about 180 miles today.  Tomorrow I will be in a MAFCA board meeting all day, so Nan will be touring with the Champagnes and Doyles visiting lighthouses on Lake Superior.