Exploring Southeast Michigan and Northwest Ohio: A Model T Road Trip

A quick little side note: If you’re new around here, you’ll see me refer to my daughter as “W.” It’s just a little way to protect her privacy while still sharing some of our family life here on the blog. 🤍

Hi friend,

My family and I spent last weekend exploring Southeastern Michigan and Northwestern Ohio on the Michigan Jamboree of Ts. I realize that this is a very niche hobby that not many people will relate to (especially women my age), but it’s been a big part of my life and sharing things like this is the whole reason I’m here. Even if antique cars aren’t your thing, I think anyone with a lesser known hobby can probably relate in some way. You might find some hidden gems from our itinerary for fun things to do in these areas too! We, along with about eighty other Model Ts, drove around 80-100 miles each day with multiple stops along the way, so there’s a wide array of places and activities to share.

I’ll save the whole origin story of how my love for these vintage cars came to be, because I think it has earned its own spotlight. Just know that I have been riding around in these cars since I was a baby and driving them since before I had my driver’s license! This Model T crew has become an extended family of mine over the years.

A Little Side Note for Parents

I would like to use this whole trip as encouragement for new parents to just do the dang things. Take the trip, go to the restaurant, disrupt the schedule a little. You still deserve to experience life (as does your kiddo!) and losing the schedule for a short bit won’t be the end of the world.

Usually, my daughter is a champ at being flexible with sleep (yes, I realize how much of a blessing this is!), but this trip was the exception. It was actually laughable how much of a fail it was as far as sleep goes. She took a short nap on our drive there and ended up staying awake until 1 a.m. that night. What a lovely start to vacation! The bright side? She was giggly and in a good mood, but lordy lordy I was not prepared for a late night. She ended up only napping thirty minutes tops each day of the trip too. This was a huge change from her typical two hour afternoon nap. We survived, and everyone was a champ through the roller coaster that is a sleep-deprived toddler. Even though we had to be a little more flexible and creative, I would do it again in a heartbeat! A little bit of chaos was well worth the memories.

Day One

If I had to pick, this was my favorite day of the whole trip as far as the itinerary goes. We had our usual coffee and donut stop in the morning – this is basically a sacred Model T tour tradition at this point. Don’t try to take away our coffee stops or ice cream stops if you know what’s good for you. ☕️🍦 We spent the rest of the day wandering through the Indian Creek Zoo, Millbury Classic Cars and Trucks Museum, and Western Lake Erie Historical Society. An ice cream stop at Bluestreak Snack Shop rounded out our first day of the tour.

Indian Creek Zoo

This place was unassuming at first glance – when we parked, I thought it was going to be a quick stop at a cute little zoo but I was quickly proved wrong. It’s a privately owned zoo on about fifty acres, and turned out to be just a bit more extensive than “a cute little zoo.”

There was a great variety of animals, including a few that were new for my daughter, so that was exciting! There were also some more immersive aspects where you could have “animal encounters” or feed the animals. I think this was the most memorable part of our visit. I fed the giraffes with W and boy, were they enthusiastic! We were the first of our group to feed them, so they were ready to rock and roll for their lettuce treats. W was giggling the whole time despite being too chicken to hold the lettuce herself. Core memory unlocked.

The attentive involvement of the staff and owner made the experience all the better. The owner was zipping around the property throughout our group’s entire visit, sharing interesting information and making sure everyone was getting the most out of their time there. The staff that we chatted with knew the animals extremely well and shared some fun little tidbits about them that made our visit that much more interesting. It was entertaining to see the personality differences between the giraffes in real time as the worker explained them to us. Seeing the passion that everyone had for the animals was heartwarming.

One helpful tip – if you’re looking for a bathroom, swing by the gift shop for an actual bathroom rather than going to the port a potties that are found scattered along the walkway.

Millbury Classic Cars and Trucks Museum

Believe me when I say that I have been to my fair share of car museums over the years. It comes with the territory when you’re in a car club. Sometimes someone is feeling gracious and even opens up their private collection for our club to check out!

Car museums aren’t really up my alley – like yes, I can admire a cool looking car as much as the next person, but can I tell you any sort of details about it or do I want to know every interesting fact about the engine? Nope, that’s just not where my interest lies.

After reading that, I hope you hear me loud and clear when I say that this is one of the best car museums that I have been to! When we hit a gem like this on a tour, I actually do really enjoy my time wandering through the displays.

The museum had a huge collection with a lot of variety in a building that ended up being far larger than I expected. They had entertaining displays recognizing shows the cars were featured in or any other relevant pieces of their history. The place was extremely clean and climate controlled, and you could easily see how well the cars were taken care of.

My personal favorites were the Mystery Machine display and the Cars display. The Cars one was my daughter’s favorite – she LOVED seeing Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater up close and personal.

The people there were super sweet and gave us postcards as keepsakes – so we of course had to get one with the Cars vehicles pictured on the front. W didn’t put that postcard down the rest of the day and made darn sure we didn’t forget that she had it.

Western Lake Erie Historical Society

I’m not going to lie, we actually skipped this stop. It looked like a nice place and the ladies in the parking lot were super sweet! We just didn’t have the time, unfortunately.

We had lagged so far behind all day because we were working with a sleep-deprived toddler, so in order to make it back for dinner we had to skip a stop. That’s the nice thing about these Model T tours though – you can make them your own. I know plenty of families who have gone off on their own little side quest to hit a beach or some other attraction they didn’t want to miss.

Even though we didn’t make it inside, I’m including this in case someone wants to recreate any of our tour days in its entirety.

Bluestreak Snack Shop

A huge shout out to Bluestreak Snack Shop for not only hosting us for our ice cream stop, but also for sponsoring it and providing free ice cream to our whole crew! That was not something I was expecting when we started the day, so it was a really nice surprise.

They even had one of my favorite flavors – blueberry waffle cone. You have to try it if you’re like me and your favorite part of ice cream is actually the waffle cone. It’s to die for. It has a blueberry swirl with actual waffle cone pieces in the ice cream!

Between giraffes, Lightning McQueen, and blueberry waffle cone ice cream, I’m not sure that our first day could have been much more of a hit for our little crew.

Day Two

Day two kicked off with another coffee and donut stop – we even made it there in time to get some, unlike day one! 😅 We spent the rest of the day traveling along back roads to the historic Henry Ford Macon Mill and the gorgeous Hidden Lake Gardens, then spent the evening at the hotel for an ice cream social.

Henry Ford Macon Mill

It was fitting to incorporate a little Henry Ford history on a Model T tour, especially in Michigan. A huge thank you to the owners for allowing our group to see this unique piece of history and to the volunteers who acted as our guides. I know we weren’t the only people who really enjoyed the stop!

Before our visit, I hadn’t heard anything about the Macon Mill, so it was all new to me. The hydro-powered mill was built in 1944 based on plans for mills from the 1840s and was primarily used for the Dynamic Kernels project. During our visit, we were able to tour the picturesque country mill and its neighboring millwright’s house. The guide even had the mill’s water wheel running for us while we were there, which I thought was the coolest part of the whole visit! W seemed to agree – she simply had to go see it up close as soon as she saw it spinning.

Along with the mill equipment, there was lots of vintage memorabilia to look through in both the house and the mill. We entertained ourselves for a while with the vintage toys that were located on the second floor of the mill – the big dollhouse in particular caught my daughter’s eye. That may mean there’s a project in my husband’s future…he doesn’t know this yet though. 😉 My dad found a top that he used to play with as a little kid and after mentioning it to his mom, he actually discovered that it’s still somewhere in his parents’ house. It brought back some unexpected memories for him!

Hidden Lake Gardens

Hellooooo, sweet serenity! The moment we turned onto the winding, rolling road that leads into the gardens, I knew I wasn’t going to want to leave. I wish we’d had more time to walk around and enjoy the beautiful landscape. Michigan State University’s team has done a great job at making this a truly enjoyable nature escape. The entire property spans over 755 acres, so we barely even scratched the surface for the short time that we were there.

The one spot that we made sure to hit was the suspension bridge. It took us a while to walk the path because we were trying to get some toddler wiggles out and W had to pick up every. single. leaf. that she passed along the way. On a tree-covered path, that meant her options were endless.

The path up to the suspension bridge was an enjoyable walk, although I could have used a little less Michigan mugginess. Pushing a stroller up the steeply inclined portion of the trail was no joke. I wish the gardens were closer to us because it would be a really great place to have as a designated walking spot!

Ice Cream Social

I told you, don’t take away our coffee stops or ice cream! They’re both almost a daily occurrence. The Model T Ford Club International actually has a t-shirt that says “All we do is ride around and eat stuff,” and honestly…accurate.

The weather cooperated, so we spent the evening catching up with everyone in the hotel parking lot while we snacked on our ice cream sandwiches. The camaraderie that develops during these tours is my favorite part of the whole Model T’ing hobby. Everyone oohed and aahed over my daughter’s purple, light-up butterfly wings that she got from the Hidden Lake Gardens gift shop, and she adored all of the attention. It’s touching to see how much everyone immediately treats the kids on tour like their own. Someone even gave her a princess tiara to go with her wings! Our little butterfly princess was thriving, to say the least.

Day Three

By now, you can probably guess how day three started…coffee and donuts! We were back on the road and spent our final day of touring at the Michigan Flight Museum and Old Mill Museum, closing it out with a delicious banquet before packing up to head home.

Michigan Flight Museum

Apparently, I had been here before as a little girl on a Model T tour, but I can’t say that I remember much of it. It’s pretty cool to me that my daughter gets to experience some of the same things that I did as a kid, though! I think if you asked her, she would probably say that the toy airplanes in the gift shop were her favorite part of the whole museum. We had to spend a good chunk of time picking out the perfect combo to form her own personal fleet.

The museum had quite a few interactive displays that were really interesting, including one where you could walk right into the cockpit of an airplane. I have no clue how you pilots out there do it – there are so many buttons and switches. It’s just a little overwhelming!

The displays were interesting, but I think my favorite parts of the museum were the ones that highlighted the involvement of women in the war efforts. I loved seeing and reading about the nurses and women who worked on the production of aircraft at that aviation site. Stories about nurses in the war always pique my interest because of my own background in healthcare, so I appreciated getting a glimpse into what their experiences were like. Thousands of aircraft were produced at this site during World War II, so it holds quite a bit of history. We could have spent even longer here than we did!

Old Mill Museum

Once again, we had to skip a stop because we were running a little too far behind. We wanted to make sure that we had time to get ready before the closing banquet – “T hair, don’t care” doesn’t really do it for me at a nicer event. 😉

While we didn’t get to actually tour the museum, this was the venue hosting the closing banquet, so I can speak to the event space side of the museum at least. The space was decorated perfectly to embody a modern event while still embracing the history of the museum. The catering through the venue was also delicious! It was an A+ in my toddler’s book too, which was a win.

After enjoying a lovely dinner with other club members, reminiscing over pictures from the previous few days, and winning a Model T-shaped cutting board, I can say that it was the perfect way to close out our time spent on the Michigan Jamboree of T’s!

More Than Just the Miles

Driving along scenic back roads is a big part of the Model T hobby, and with over 250 miles under our belts by the end of the trip, we had plenty of time to enjoy them. We even made our way through Toledo, although I can’t say that was my favorite experience in a slow, open car. 😅 I was hoping and praying that we wouldn’t have to stop because of my car overheating!

As much as I love the actual touring that we do, the relationships and memories made along the way are an even bigger part of why I love this hobby so much. The jamboree feels a little bit like a big family reunion every year, and I love getting to catch up with people that I’ve known for most of my life while making new memories together.

It’s even more special now bringing my own little family along for the ride. I’m so grateful for the way everyone has seamlessly invited my daughter into the fold. I mean, they even turned her into a fairy princess before she turned into a pumpkin at the end of the night. I’d say she’s fitting in just fine!