Our Ride on I-94

We arrived in Mackinaw City on May 25th for a five night stay. I will be posting about our stay here once I get the blog caught up to here. 

Mackinac Bridge

I took the above picture Saturday evening, May 27th, as the sun was setting to the left of this picture standing on the shore of Lake Huron. Across the way is the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Today after 17 nights at the Wayne County Fairgrounds RV Park in Belleville, Michigan we packed up, pulled out, and headed East on I-94. This would be the last time we would be taking this ride for a while. (Side note: we took this ride 15 times while we were here. Today the difference will be that we are in the Stinger "B".)  The reason we stay here is so we can spend time with our son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren pictured below.  

We visited the Eastern Market in Detroit on Sunday, May 21st.
Thomas, Nadine, Noah
Jonah, Marcella, and Thomas

 

Highlights of our Ride (The ride is about 74 miles roundtrip and the pictures were taken on various days as we made the ride to our son and his families' home.) 

Merging on to I-94

A Delta Airline Flight landing at Detroit Metropolitan Airport 

Noticed this billboard just after the Taylor Exit sign.

Gateway Bridge

It is known as the Gateway Bridge, because it acts as the "gateway to Detroit" for those traveling on I-94 from Detroit Metropolitan Airport to the City of Detroit.

The Gateway Bridge was developed by the Detroit Regional Gateway Advisory Council (DRGAC) in preparation for Super Bowl XL, hosted in nearby Detroit in February 2006. It was one of several improvements made in the mid-2000s along 18 miles of Interstate 94. The bridge cost $14 million and was part of an approximately $520 million I-94 improvements. The bridge completed in the Fall of 2005 was covered with three coats of blue paint and one clear coat to prevent fading. 

The bridge features twin tied-arch steel spans featuring two large blue ovals, augmented with additional ovals, meant to evoke images of footballs, to commemorate Super Bowl XL. The arches reach 70 feet above I-94 and 87 feet above US 24. The bridge is 250 feet long and 75 feet wide. The six-lane bridge carries I-94 over the eight-lane US 24. 

Prior to the bridge's opening, Wayne County and Detroit governments pledged $250,000 per year to maintain the improvements made to I-94 that prompted the bridge's construction. MDOT is responsible for maintenance of the bridge itself.

The Uniroyal Giant Tire was created by the United States Rubber Company for the 1964 New York World's Fair, where it functioned as a Ferris wheel. It had 24 barrel-shaped gondolas, each carrying up to 4 people, and could carry up to 96 passengers at once. It was driven by a 100 hp engine and sat atop a 40 foot  foundation. During the fair, the wheel carried over 2 million people, including prominent passengers such as Jacqueline Kennedy, Telly Savalas, and the Shah of Iran.

The tire in 1965

Since 1966 it has served as a static display in Allen Park, Michigan, alongside Interstate 94, between the Southfield Freeway interchange and Outer Drive overpass.

The tire has a diameter of 80 feet and weighs 12 short tons (11 t) is anchored in 24 feet of concrete and steel, and can withstand hurricane-force winds. The exterior tire tread is 6 inches  deep, with an interior volume of 120,576 cubic feet. It is not made of rubber, but of a Uniroyal-developed polyester resin reinforced with glass fiber, which makes it flame resistant.

It is the largest non-production tire scale model ever built, and one of the world's largest roadside attractions.

Rouge River

One of the entrances on to I-94 and they are very short. It is sad
they are in such condition I can still see what is left of its beauty.

We went by one day and we could see workers planting trees

and the next day all of these trees had been added.

From I-94 I could only see this part of what must have been a
beautiful church at one time. 

Lansing or Canada your choice.

Last year. as I recall,  this overpass was up the hill
on our right being built.

The Our Lady of the Rosary Church is a Roman Catholic church located at 5930 Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. It was originally built as St. Joseph's Episcopal Church – from 1893 to 1896 – and is a historic Romanesque Revival church complex. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 3, 1982

The original building in this complex, St. Joseph's Memorial Chapel, was a gift of Mrs. L.R. Medbury, and was built on the corner or Woodward and Medbury (now the Edsel Ford service drive). The chapel, consecrated in 1884, soon proved too small, and a larger church, completed in 1896, was erected facing Woodward.[

In 1906, St. Joseph's congregation merged with that of the congregation of the nearby St. Paul's Cathedral. The St. Joseph's building was sold to Father Francis J. VanAntwerp in 1907, and Our Lady of the Rosary Roman Catholic Church was established. The new congregation altered some of the church's structure, extending the nave and adding an oversized, gilded statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary atop the south tower's hipped roof.  

In 2020, the church became the location of Detroit Catholic Campus Ministry which serves the campuses of Wayne State University, University of Michigan-Dearborn, the College for Creative Studies, and Henry Ford College, along with other surrounding campuses.

Carhartt
This is the best picture I have ever been able to take going by.

Carhartt was born in Detroit in 1889. 126 years later (on August 27th, which happened to be our founder Hamilton Carhartt's birthday) we opened our Flagship store. We are located at 5800 Cass Ave in Midtown (on Wayne State campus) in a building that is in the national historical buildings registry. The people who brought the store to life and built the gem of our retail owned store fleet were union workers that are natives of Detroit and Michigan. The wood that is used throughout the store is reclaimed lumber from houses that have been torn down in Detroit (and each piece is stamped with the address that it came from). Our mural that faces I-94 (and is one of the largest in the city) was designed and painted by locals from Detroit. The majority of our pictures within the store are of native Michiganders using Carhartt and embodying the spirit of the Carhartt brand. Our concrete floor, rugs, counter tops, building signs, bathroom tiles, interior painting, were all sourced through local Detroit companies.

I found this picture of the mural online. Going East on I-94 I
have never been able to capture the whole thing. Whoever took
this was going West or was across the Interstate. 

We are almost to our exit.

Our exit is the first of these four.

The Stinger "B" is parked in front of our son and 
daughter-in-law's home for the night.

This was our first time spending the night on a city street. Our son called the city to ask and they said we could be parked on the street of 24 hours. 

Our Grandson is in this band seated in the back right. 
Tom did get a picture as he was leaving the stage upper right.

Our original plan was to leave the RV Park at the fairgrounds Monday morning and possibly stop in Frankenmuth for a couple of nights. Then Noah asked us several times when we were leaving and each time he added that means you will not be here for my band concert. So we decided to stay an extra night at the RV Park then surprise our grandchildren and be parked in front of their house when they arrived home from school on Tuesday. It was worth staying to see the look on their faces when we were still there. 

Today, May 30th, after 256 days the Stinger "B" will bring us across the Mackinac Bridge and we will be home. We may live in a motorhome affectionately called the Stinger "B" and we may currently be residents of the lovely state of South Dakota yet the Upper Peninsula of Michigan will always be home. 

So glad you stopped by!

If you have time to leave a comment we would enjoy hearing from you.