NORTH AMERICA TRIP FOR DEN & KEITH, ANG & IAN

DETROIT (April 21st – 22nd)

Denver is a very large airport. Whenever you have to catch an internal train to get to your gate means it’s big.

It was at the gate that Ang & Ian got to fully understand about Keith’s deep passion for bags. Keith was carrying a bag full of bags and we mean ‘full’. All sorts of sizes, shapes, different materials, colours, some with handles, some without, all impeccably folded and organised. He has a bag for all occasions and if you are ever short of a bag (and we often are) look no further because Keith is your go to guy.

After an easy flight, we picked up the hire car and set off for our hotel, the Comfort Inn & Suites, Taylor, Detroit and checked in. Of course we were now 2 hours ahead due to the time zone change (back to the future Marty!) so we agreed to go out for dinner in 30 minutes and we found a local diner which did the job for us. On the way back we had a little visit to Wallmart to stock up on some supplies.

The next day we were heading to the Henry Ford Museum of Innovation which is part of a 93 acre indoor and outdoor complex that includes a 12 acre indoor museum and the 81 acre Greenfield village. It is the largest complex of its type in the USA. The museum has a movie theatre and thousands of artefacts including for example the 1961 Lincoln car which President Kennedy was riding in when he was assassinated (that was cool). There are planes, trains and automobiles a plenty and it even has a working diner where Den treated herself to a big fat milkshake and we all shared some Berry Pie and ice cream.

The museum included a special exhibition on Leonardo Da Vinci. Maybe you know, or maybe you don’t, but he wasn’t just an artist (Mona Lisa) he was also a mathematician and inventor of many things that are the foundation of what we all use today. One thing we all agreed upon is that he obviously wasn’t married as there was no way he’d get so much free time to invent all that stuff (ha, ha).

One of Mr Da Vinci’s inventions was the screw thread and Keith took it upon himself to explain the difference between the British standard Whitworth (BSW) drill bit size (the thing that makes the hole) and the Metric drill bit size. For example, the metric drill bit uses a direct calculation (e.g. M6*1 = 5.0mm drill bit for a 6mm screw thread. The Whitworth method requires you to identify the specific fractional TPI (threads per inch) because the decimal equivalent of the fraction does not directly indicate the necessary drill bit size for the thread to work, and this was only a snapshot of what Keith said!

Ian recorded all this on his phone and we are now selling it through Amazon as a contemporary cure for insomnia.

Greenfield village has nearly 100 historical buildings and their purpose is to show how Americans have lived and worked since the founding of the county. It even has a small steam train to puff you around, a working farm and many craft activities that you can watch, all very enjoyable.

There are also many staff all dressed in historical character outfits and as you enter a particular house they can’t wait to launch into a big speech about the house history etc. This can be a bit embarrassing as they make you feel like they’ve been waiting all day for you to share their knowledge and we just wanted a quick peek. We developed multiple techniques to make our exit including taking some important phone calls and pretending to faint with the heat.

We must have spent nearly 5 hours on the complex before heading back to the hotel for a chill (well, Ang & Den caught up with some washing). Our evening dinner was a very tasty and very spicy Indian in a trendy ‘boujee’ part of Detroit.

The next day we checked out and drove down to the Detroit River for a walk about in the sunshine and a view of Detroit’s skyline. Across the river you can clearly see the Canadian side, complete with the red maple leaf flag flying high. We headed over the Ambassador bridge that connects the two countries, handed over our passports for visa checks, answered a few questions and arrived in Canada as planned at 1130am.