… on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
It was a picture-perfect morning on Saturday, September 11, 2021, mirroring the early a.m. weather on that fateful day exactly 20 years before.
I decided to visit Ford Field Park and head to the Rouge River Gateway Trail in Dearborn, Michigan after a quick, one-mile walk at Council Point Park to feed my furry and feathered friends. I aimed to clear my head of cobwebs and also to bulk up my walking miles.
The Dearborn venue was a good choice as it was Day #1 of the “Old Car Festival” at Greenfield Village (rebranded “The Henry Ford” in 2003 – most people still call it “Greenfield Village”), so I was sure to spot a Tin Lizzy or two rolling along Michigan Avenue enroute to this Festival, as the event is just a stone’s throw away from the Gateway Trail. One day I hope to visit this annual fun and historical event, where owners of hundreds of vintage vehicles, circa 1890s through 1932, travel across the country to congregate. The atmosphere is similarly vintage with period costumes and even food and games reminiscent of a bygone era. This event is really a big deal in Dearborn, so it seemed appropriate to top off my journey with a visit to the estate where Henry Ford and his wife Clara lived for over thirty years.
I visited the Ford Manor on three occasions in 2021, so over the Winter I’m going to spin those photos into a few posts … there is lots to see, especially if you love old architecture, a bounty of flowers and a picturesque view of the Rouge River. I went to view the blooming lilacs in the Spring, the rose garden at its peak mid-Summer and on this particular day, I photographed multiple flower gardens and the buildings. I visited once in 2019 and had a treasure trove of photos, but the mansion and various buildings on the property have been undergoing renovation since 2014; there was outside scaffolding present in many of the photos, so I have better photos with no obstructions now, so stay tuned.
A journey through Downtown Dearborn and into the woods.
I parked the car at Ford Field Park. There was a nip to the morning air, a subtle reminder that Fall was not far off, despite a prediction for temps to climb to near 90F (32C) over the next few days. Unfortunately I overdressed and within fifteen minutes my hoodie was looped around my waist.
On my 10-mile road trip here, I had been listening to a recap of the events that transpired 20 years before, on September 11, 2001. The sky was similarly bright blue, the sun was shining, just like that morning, a late Summer day that began so beautifully and seemingly normal, yet ended so tragically.
After a quick stop at the wooden covered bridge to peer at the roiling Rouge River from either side ….
… I then walked up Brady Street, and, by 8:46 a.m. – the time of the first strike into the World Trade Center, I passed this house with a huge American flag. I stopped to take a photo from the right side.
I took another photo from the left side as there was quite a breeze. The homeowners’ entire front lawn consisted of wildflowers and several tall sunflowers seemed to secure the flag as the breeze stirred it gently.
Once out of the ‘hood, I headed along the usual route, crossing the overlook where the now-closed Andiamo restaurant, shuttered as a result of the pandemic, juts out. The venue at this primo location will now re-open in May 2022 as “Boardwalk Eateries” a 24-hour establishment which will feature many types of ethnic food in various stalls, a cigar bar, a speakeasy and conference rooms for meetings.
I was looking at the scenery when out of the corner of my eye, I saw an antique car rolling down Michigan Avenue; I fumbled getting the camera ready and managed to get this shot.
Too bad my view of the highway was gone now that I’d be entering the woods.
On the Trail in the shady woods, the mosquitoes were horrible! Thankfully I was wearing long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, but the little buggers mercilessly honed in on my hands, neck and face – yikes! I returned home with a mild sunburn and mosquito bites galore.
As I walked along the Trail, dribs and drabs of color perked up the forest floor.
I stayed on course, eager to get out of the woods and far away from these annoying, biting creatures and in the distance I could see an opening. Yay! Meanwhile, I racked my brains trying to think if there was another route to take back to the car from the Estate, but couldn’t come up with a Plan B.
Suddenly, in the still morn I heard a noise, a birdcall I was unfamiliar with. I looked up, then against my better judgment, I traipsed off the Trail and headed through the brush to investigate (thus inviting a few more mosquitoes to feast on me in the process).
In the end it was worth the effort AND the mosquito bites. I’m no birder, but this was a first for me and it wasn’t even on my “Birdie Bucket List” so I eagerly took a ton of shots, lest this bird should fly away. So was that sound a mating call? Or was it shrieking in fear from the tall stranger who gawked at it, then lingered on, lurking in its personal zone? Who knows, but I spooked it and it flew across the narrow Rouge River to safer territory.
Dejected by the bird’s rebuff, I returned to the Gateway Trail and crossed the picturesque walkway; it is still the Rouge River here, just calmer and not churning.
Just moments later I heard another birdcall. Through the bushes I saw its mate, or maybe a pal, but likely it was the same bird as it glared at me intensely. Naturally, there were more photos. I’ll keep you guessing and the mystery bird will appear in this week’s Wordless Wednesday post.
I went to the Fairlane/Ford Estate and walked around the grounds. It was peaceful and I was the only one there.
Not quite the “Motor City” … but motoring along nevertheless.
I headed back to the car, once again meandering along Michigan Avenue, where most businesses were flying the flag at half-mast – this huge flag was flapping in the breeze.
All the while I was eyeballing that busy street for antique vehicles. Well I hit pay dirt as one zipped past me, then pulled into nearby Westborn Market’s parking lot. I crossed the street to get a shot of that vintage car, then the owners came out toting a few bags of ice. I said I was going to wait and take a few shots as they pulled away. They both smiled and gave me a toot on that rather tinny horn, which reminded me of my tricycle horn, a very long time ago.
While I was at the Market I got shots of the many mums they had in the parking lot, which I used for a Wordless Wednesday post back on September 29th.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
A wonderful walk and tour of many different places. It is like walking along with you. I love it when I hear a bird singing yet it sounds like one I have never heard and have to go investigate, hoping to see something new. We do that all the time. 🙂
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Thank you Sandra – it was such a beautiful day and that made the walk all the nicer. It was fun hearing the bird and then discovering it. This trail through the forest is pretty long – I just went off to the left to connect with the Ford Estate I’ve not been on the entire bike trail which stretches for many miles (19.5 one way) through several cities, but the portion I walked is two miles each way. I wanted to go back in the Fall with the color change, but didn’t make it back … next year for sure.
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I’ll be anxious to see what the bird was!
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It was quite a surprise Kate and I hope it doesn’t disappoint!
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What a tease to keep us guessing like this!
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Ha ha – I hope it doesn’t disappoint! It was a first for me and was the equivalent of seeing a zebra and foal out in the open for you.
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Lovely post.
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Thanks Anne.
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you always take such good care with detail Linda!
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Thanks Wayne. What I started doing this year because it is sometimes many weeks (if not months) before I do the post, is coming home and writing notes, sometimes even a rough draft of the eventual post while it is fresh in my mind. Then when I have all the pictures loaded (also sometimes weeks later), I just pair it to the story. That’s been working really well as I’d never remember the details.
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a friend (Adrian) is a big time birder. He takes a not pad in the field with him and makes the notes in place when discovered. I agree with this method as our memory does get rusty with age!
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I used to do that when I traveled Wayne as I would never remember everywhere I went on a tour. We did have the tour brochure which helped, but when I came back from trips, once I developed the photos, I put them in albums and used a Dynamo labelmaker beneath each picture to identify it. Wait to you get to be my age … oh wait … 🙂
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Ahh, it looks like you snagged a very late (1925-27) Ford Model T (or two). The last 2 or 3 years were offered in different colors.
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I enjoyed getting close up to the last one JP. The owners, just a young couple, were happy to have an admirer. They were in and out of the store in a flash, likely late for the parade of cars. This festival is a lot of fun and when the COVID era has passed, I hope to go someday. Have a look at the video on this page when you get a chance: https://www.thehenryford.org/current-events/calendar/old-car-festival/
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It sounds like you had a good day Linda, with lots of variety. I’m anxious to see the Ford estate and to find out what the mystery bird is!
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Yes it was a good day Joni – lots to see on this walk. I ended up deleting all the photos from my original visit to the Ford estate back in 2019 … remember I wanted to go to the lilac gardens in 2020 and add that to the post, but they closed off the entire estate due to COVID. They still only have the gardens accessible while the renovations are ongoing. I wanted to add some historical references to the post and I took some photos of the information panels they have around the property. It will probably take a while to compile it all. I hope the mystery bird doesn’t disappoint. I had too many photos in this post, so put them over to Wednesday.
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It still sounds interesting even if you couldn’t go inside. I would like to know the history of it. Will watch for the bird!
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I may have mentioned to you some of the lilacs had issues in the Spring. They had a disease so when I got there to view them, they had cut back some of them to the ground to avoid contaminating the others (my luck) – they were planted sometime after 1915 and had thrived all those years. They had signs explaining what had happened to them. But the rest were fine.
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Oooooh…a cliffhanger until Wednesday. I will be waiting with bated breath to find out what the birds were that you saw. I doubt if the call would be a mating call on September 11. By this time of year, the chicks have flown the coop and mom and dad are free to roam – just what Bill and I are doing right now! 🙂
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Yes, that makes sense with the mating call Laurie, but in the woods, with no one around, the noise was louder than normal and I about flew out of my skin! Where are you and Bill roaming to for Thanksgiving week? It would be great if you recreated your Thanksgiving week 2019 event again – do tell!
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We were in California last week for a race, so we decided to just pop up to Oregon to celebrate Thanksgiving with our middle son, his wife, and some of her family. I will have to be satisfied with texts and emails to my nieces and sister for the time being. We have plans to visit my sister and brother-in-law in Florida in January.
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You and Bill are definitely making up for lost travel time during 2020 due to the pandemic. You have had an ambitious agenda in 2021 and now in January 2022 as well. How did your son do in his election bid?. Did he fare well in the primaries and go on to the November election?
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We are doing our best to make up for lost travel time! Our son won the primary election, but lost the general election. It was expected. The political party he represented is in a definite minority in our area. He wasn’t too disappointed. It was a good experience overall.
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Good for you guys. Sorry about the election – it was a good experience and better luck next time, if there is a next time for your son. A college friend who was on the school newspaper with me in the early 70s and who went on to be the editor of a local paper for decades, plus a local county commissioner for many years, just ran for mayor of Dearborn (the city where I visited in this post) and lost to a newcomer with no political experience, so it happens even to seasoned politicians.
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There’s so much history and place to visit where you live. I would enjoy touring the Ford house and their grounds. I hope they finish the reconstruction soon!
And what was that bird you saw? Kids and I are learning about birds this semester and for the untrained birder’s eyes, it’s tough to distinguish the differences. lol
I loathe mosquito bites too, especially the ones you get while sleeping and you hear their buzzing right by your ear. We found a spider in the room a few days ago, and kids were screaming their heads off while I chased it down with toilet paper.
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I hope to get a tour when they are all done – that may be years from now, since I’m sure they stopped working on the renovation part of the time during COVID. It is very beautiful there – the rose gardens are probably the length of a football field, mostly all pink. The mosquitoes were just wicked that day – any available skin (not much showing) was a target. I am scared of spiders and centipedes in the house. I will leave it as a surprise for tomorrow morning and it will be a teaching moment for the kids. 🙂
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The tour would be a nostalgic experience of a different time period and ambience. Football rose gardens sound too beautiful; must have so many people taking care of those gardens.
Hope those mosquito bites are healing. After the initial itch, the red bump and the bite prick stings. Are you using anything for it?
I’ll check your blog for that mysterious bird.
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No, they are long gone now – this was back on September 11th. I hung onto this post to use it Thanksgiving week due to the wild turkey picture. I had on long sleeves and pants and socks but they went for any visible skin – ouch! [I will be back later – I need to catch up on comments and in Reader … behind there again. The toll of publishing three posts in one week.
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Wow – now I call that a walk. You captured some great pictures. I loved the first one and the rolling stream. I can’t forget 911 – that is the day my granddaughter was born. I stood in the hospital waiting room watching the television as the towers were being hit. The violence in this world is overwhelming at times. When you escape into nature it helps one forget what goes on in the world.
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Thank you Peggy – it was a nice, long walk and a chance to see a little bit of everything, from nature to old cars and the Ford Estate as well. There were just a few leaves that had turned like the one in the first photo and we had a late Fall for leaf colors as we had an unusually hot Fall. Wow – what a memory of 9/11 for you … witnessing the horror on TV that was unfolding as well as welcoming a new life … is this the granddaughter pictured with you a few months back? You are right about the violence – locally, nationally and around the world. It’s a scary time for sure and escaping into nature to escape the news headlines is a real blessing.
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Yes, this is the granddaughter in the pictures of hugs. She is 20 years old now, going to college an hour away. She is a Junior this year and majoring in criminalogy. Our Fall was gorgeous and has lasted for weeks. Best Fall colors in a decade.
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I thought it might be the same young woman in the hugging post. At least she is not too far to visit and you might see her this weekend for Thanksgiving hopefully. That is an interesting major. I have been following the Gabby Petito/Brian Laundrie case on Twitter. There is an investigative reporter who delved into a lot of facts from the case and had interviews with a former FBI agent, now retired, who went into that line of work because she had been assaulted many years before. She has provided insight into how criminal minds think … this was all mostly before Brian Laundrie’s remains were found a month ago, then in the last few days finding the cause of death. That’s an exciting career. Our Fall was so warm that the leaves didn’t drop until the last few weeks and that’s because we had some very gusty winds lately.
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The case about Gabby is sad. I have followed it too. Such a senseless death of a lovely young woman. The evil in this world gets worse each day. Makes you wonder why one person is evil and another is kind.
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Yes it is – totally senseless Peggy. If only the police in Moab had done more – why could we see the videos of the bodycam interviews and sense there were bad vibes and they didn’t? I am sure they feel some remorse in how things turned out. I feel badly for Gabby’s parents. I hate to hear or read the news,as every day it is something new and worse than the day before.
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A wonderful morning meander, Linda, except for the mosquitoes! September feels like years ago already, so it was nice to see the new fall colors, the golden rod and the asters again. I’m glad you got to see a couple of the vintage cars — good planning. 🙂 Love the sound of those tinny horns. My favorite picture is the garden door hanging crookedly from the stone wall, held open with a stone. Very charming and inviting.
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Glad you liked this morning meander Barbara. It was a beautiful day for walking and observing the hint of Fall colors. The goldenrod always makes such a showy display in the woods doesn’t it? I would like to see this car festival some day – I know you and Tim enjoyed the video when I sent it earlier. Perhaps one day when there is no COVID and it is safe to gather in crowds again. That crooked door held open with a stone is at the Ford Estate and is Clara Ford’s rose garden. If you go inside, it is all pink roses that stretch about the size of a football field. At one end is a life-sized bronze statue of Mr. and Mrs. Ford and at the other end is a flagstone path and staircase that leads down through another garden to the Rouge River. A beautiful view to have from your home. The other entranceway to the rose garden is a black, wrought-iron gate that is similarly propped open.
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Did you get pictures of the Ford estate and the rose garden? I imagine you might be saving those for another post. 😊
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I did get a lot of photos Barbara and will split them up over several posts, probably some history and facts with the buildings and then another post of the extensive gardens and Wordless Wednesday separately for the lilac gardens and rose gardens. I picked a bad year to visit the Persian Lilac Gardens. Part of the bushes had a disease and had to be pruned all the way down to not contaminate the others. I’ll finish up with all the Fall walks and then do them. Seeing the colors will warm us up.
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Miss Linda………………………..you would make an interesting tour guide at Greenfield Village or the Museum…………………………..you are an excellent storyteller…………………….
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Thank you for the nice comment Ann Marie. I think it would be fun to be a guide at Greenfield Village. Here is a fact I probably never mentioned to you. I want to tell you that when I first started attending Henry Ford Community College in 1973, I had the job at the diner for weekends, Summer vacation and school vacation. However, the teacher/advisor we had for working on the school newspaper told us that Greenfield Village was asking for people from HFCC to work as volunteers (and there were some paid jobs as well) and she told us we should volunteer as it would look good on our résumé. You had to commit for ten hours a week and women had to wear black skirt and a white blouse and men had to wear black pants and a white shirt with tie. So, I went to fill in an application and you had to be an American citizen to work there – who knew? So, that was the end of that idea.
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Dejected by the bird’s rebuff? This made me laugh more than it should. I wonder if when you retire you’ll become a volunteer at one of these parks. You know the ins and outs, plus when to not walk if you want to avoid mosquitos.
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I wouldn’t mind to do that Ally – I think it would be fun. We have a pair of wild turkeys that appear every so often in an area about five miles from my house. They live in a wooded area and just amble out every so often, right into the busy intersection. The local newspaper or social media will show how someone calls the police as the turkeys just sit there and won’t move. So, the police arrive and take a jacket or something soft to shoo them across the street. I’ve never seen those turkeys and here I was ambling along and heard this screechy noise which could wake the dead, looked over at the River and there it was. I had no idea they were that big.
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