Wayne County Fairgrounds Campground Belleville, Michigan Aug 21 – 27, 2025

We left Straits State Park in St. Ignace, Michigan around 8:30 am on Thursday, August 21st and drove 5 1/2 hours south to the Wayne County Fairgrounds Campground in Belleville, Michigan for a 6-night stay. Our major achievement that morning would be

Crossing Mackinac Bridge With Nomad in Tow

As you may have read in our previous post, we drove across Mackinac Bridge (The Mighty Mac) a few times to get back and forth to the northern point of the Lower Peninsula during our stay at St. Ignace. It was good practice to prepare us for the crossing that day while pulling Nomad.

Several factors were in our favor that morning. First, it wasn’t nearly as windy and as it had been the previous times we drove across during our stay. Second, large rigs like semi-trucks are limited to a speed of 20 mph while crossing the 5-mile stretch of bridge. Third, those vehicles are constrained to driving in the right lane which is concrete, and not the metal grid deck of the inner lanes.

As soon as we paid our toll and entered the bridge I saw a large tractor-trailer rig just ahead of us and pulled in behind it while keeping a respectful distance and we were off! I remained behind the tractor trailer at a speed of 20 mph and we slowly, but surely, ascended and descended the Mackinac Bridge as we followed in the far right lane. You can get a little taste of it by watching the video accompanying this post.

Normally we would drive straight through to our next stop, which in this case was the Wayne County Fairgrounds Campground. But Laura, Royda and even Kirk had all encouraged us to take the time to stop along the way at

Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland Store

Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland Store in Frankenmuth, Michigan bills itself as “The World’s Largest Christmas Store” and with a building consisting of 320,00 square feet that is open 361 days a year, they may well be!

In business since 1945, Bronner’s describes itself on their website this way: “Bronner’s features a fantastic selection of Christmas ornaments, trims, trees, Christmas lights, nativities, and collectibles. Christmas cards, garlands, stockings, Advent calendars, and wreaths are also among the many items available. Of the more than 6,000 styles of ornaments which Bronner’s carries, half of the glass ornaments are Bronner’s exclusive designs.”

While Cindy spent 45 minutes browsing through only a part of their huge complex and picking up a few new Christmas items that we don’t have room for, lol, I walked Bella and took a little rest in the cab of Voyager. Then we were back on the road.

Wayne County Fairgrounds Campground

We arrived at Wayne County Fairgrounds Campground around 2:45 pm and got set up. The site was a field of grass, but nicely level with 30-amp electrical and water hookups. Our closest neighbor was two sites away, so we didn’t feel like we were on top of each other. No trails, of course, but lots of grassy area for Bella to walk.

We ate a dinner of grilled chicken on salad and watched the latest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, then read for a while before heading to bed. We had a busy day coming up the next day with our friends Kirk, Laura and Laura’s mom and Royda.

Greenfield Village

Friday morning we were up early to enjoy breakfast then get showered and ready to head to Greenfield Village to meet our friends at 10 am. Cindy and I had never been, so were looking forward to our first time visiting this unique attraction in Dearborn, Michigan.

The best description I can give of Greenfield Village is that it is an open-air museum of American culture and innovation. And, like a museum, most of the structures are the actual buildings that were painstakingly moved from their original locations around the country to this village. Greenfield Village was the creation of Henry Ford and is located on approximately 80 acres just outside of Detroit, Michigan. He established it in 1929 and over the years it has come to include more than 100 buildings and cultural icons that cover American history from the 18th to the early 20th century.

We met Kirk, Laura, Laura’s mom Royda and, were pleasantly surprised to have Laura’s sister Cathy join us, at the entrance to Greenfield Village. Our first stop was the Liberty Craftworks part of the village where we watched artisan glass blowers at work; saw punchcards being used to create a particular pattern in the weaving shop; enjoyed a short lecture on old-style printing at the print shop; and observed ceramic designers at the pottery shop.

Though all of these crafts were done in the style of an earlier time, they are all also functional, decorative and sold throughout the shops in the village. It’s almost as if you’re purchasing an item from a bygone era in the here and now.

Pretty cool feeling.

Then we wandered over to the Edison At Work section of the village. Here, we found that Ford had relocated the remaining structures of Thomas Edison’s old Menlo Park facility in New Jersey (some had been previously destroyed by fire) and recreated what could not be relocated in exactly the way they had been laid out to function when Edison headed up the facility.

Although I was, of course, aware of Thomas Edison I had never really looked into his life that much before this. The visit inspired me to read a biography of him since our visit and I read that Ford and Edison were good friends. Ford had asked and received Edison’s permission to relocate the buildings several years before Edison’s passing. And Edison toured these very same buildings before his death while visiting Ford in Dearborn.

Even the office that Edison worked in, as well as the boarding house where several of his scientists stayed while working at Menlo Park were present in this section of the village. And they were all filled with exactly the same machines, chemicals, lab equipment, and furnishings as the original Menlo Park buildings. It was truly like stepping through a portal to the late 1800’s.

We also enjoyed the Firestone Farms, where you could see a field of pumpkins growing or various livestock grazing. In fact, all the horses that pull carriages around the village live at Firestone Farms.

Then we took a ride on the old steam engine train that runs around the perimeter of Greenfield Village. This ride gives you an idea of the size and scope of the village and provides a sort of overview of the different sections. We even got to see the engineer shoveling coal into the boiler to keep the fire going hot enough to provide the steam that moved us along the track. There’s some good scenes of it in the video that accompanies this post.

Since we enjoyed the train ride, we decided to visit the railroad roundhouse. There, they keep the locomotives in good working order and we were able to tour the facility on both the ground and second floor. I had walked into the roundhouse at one end while Kirk walked in at the other and Cindy, Laura and Royda (Cathy wasn’t with us at this time) were outside with Royda in her scooter to make getting around less difficult for her.

“Help, I’m Stuck And I Can’t Get Out!”

While I was exploring around a locomotive on a platform between the first and second floors, Kirk approached me from the second floor and said, “Jeff, let someone on staff know there’s a woman stuck in the elevator.” I didn’t even know there WAS an elevator but they had one on the end of the building Kirk had walked into. I looked down, saw a staff member and passed the message along, feeling sorry for the woman who had gotten stuck. I heard the staffer radio security that the elevator was stuck with someone inside it. Cindy and Laura had, by this time, walked into the roundhouse below me, so I came down the stairs and we walked back out to the front.

I told them about what Kirk told me as we walked out. We looked for Royda where we had last seen her sitting on her scooter and she wasn’t there. We looked all around the outside and didn’t see her. You probably can tell where this is going, right? Because we certainly didn’t. Lol!

Laura called her mom and when Royda answered Laura asked her where she was.

“I’m stuck in the elevator!”

I never connected that when Kirk said a woman was stuck in the elevator that it was his mother-in-law, because the last time I saw her she was outside on her scooter. I felt like a dunce.

We all rushed over to that end of the building to find Kirk and some security guys standing outside the elevator doors. Security called a maintenance guy and it took him about 20 minutes to figure out what to do and how to do it in order to get the doors opened. Laura kept her mom on the phone the whole time to be sure she was OK. Fortunately the car was at ground level and not caught between floors. When they finally freed her, I got some good scenes in the video accompanying this post. Royda was a champ throughout the entire ordeal, but I told her, “We’re never going to stop kidding you about this.”

That whole experience worked up our appetites, so with Cathy rejoining us we had lunch at one of the dining establishments in the village; A Taste of History.

After lunch we visited the Wright Brothers home and Bicycle Shop next door, then a quick tour through the 1/4-scale original Ford Motor Company building where we saw the Fifteen-Millionth Ford automobile on display. It was really interesting to be walking along and see old Model T’s motoring on the roads around you and then look the other direction and see a horse drawn carriage rolling by.

And that concluded our visit to Greenfield Village that day. We returned Royda’s scooter and Cathy had to take her leave of us, but the remaining five of us still had another place to visit.

The Henry Ford Museum

The Henry Ford Museum is right next to Greenfield Village, but it’s still far enough away that we drove down to the main entrance and parked there. Inside, we secured a wheelchair (no scooters were charged enough) for Royda and off we went.

You can see the parts of the museum we toured in the photos and videos accompanying this post, but here’s a quick rundown:

1. Presidential limousines through the ages
2. Steam-powered locomotives
3. Recreational Travel vehicles through the years (one of our favorites, lol)
4. Cars through the ages
5. Airplanes through the years
6. The Dymaxian House

There were many more sections to the museum, but we were running out of time and Cindy and I knew we would be able to return to both Greenfield Village and The Henry Ford Museum before we left Dearborn to catch up on whatever we didn’t see during this visit with our friends.

Kirk and Laura were kind enough to treat us all to dinner at a nice place not far from the Wayne County Fairgrounds Campground and then, with our tummies full, we said goodbye to our friends. We wouldn’t see Kirk and Laura again until we return to Orlando in November, but we would see Royda again on Sunday.

Saturday was another day of much-needed rest and relaxation.

Sunday Lunch With Royda

Late Sunday morning we drove over to Royda’s house to pick her up and take her to lunch at a place of her choosing. This was our first time at her home, so we spent a few minutes visiting before heading out to Ram’s Horn Restaurant, which was not far from her home.

Cindy and I had never heard of Ram’s Horn, but it seems they are pretty popular in Michigan. The food and service were good and we enjoyed a nice time visiting with our friend of almost 30 years over the meal. Then Royda acted as tour guide as we drove over to see the house where Kirk grew up when he was living in this part of the world. Afterward we took Royda back home, spent a few more minutes visiting and then said our goodbyes. We won’t see Royda again until she comes down to Florida to visit Kirk and Laura during the Christmas/New Years holidays.

Greenfield and Ford Museum Redux

I’ve been a fan of Motown Music all of my life. One of the places I wanted to visit while we were in the Detroit area was the Motown Museum and we planned to do that on Monday, August 25th. Then we discovered the museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. You could see “The Tracks of My Tears” as I wondered aloud, “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?”

So we went back to Greenfield Village earlier than we originally intended, primarily to visit the Porches and Parlors section we had not seen the previous Friday. For about an hour we toured the homes of Noah Webster (of dictionary fame), Robert Frost, and George Washington Carver, among many others. All moved from their original locations across the country and placed in Greenfield Village by Henry Ford.

Then we walked over the Henry Ford Museum and took time to see exhibits we did not get to visit on our previous visit like Iconic Signs, Hallmark Miniature Ornaments, Women’s Right To Vote, Civil Rights and, most importantly, The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.

Before leaving the museum, we took time to have lunch at Larry’s Diner, a working classical diner of the 40’s and 50’s inside the museum. Cindy even got her Coke in a real glass bottle!

Tuesday was another day of rest and relaxation before we had to move on to our next stop the following day.

Again, it’s hard to put into sufficient words just how much we enjoyed this portion of our trip and all the things we got to do with our friends, especially in their hometown. It was another wonderful experience and we’re grateful for the opportunity.

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