2010 Michigan Jamboree

Time before the Trip. Dan and I had decided to attend the Michigan Jamboree of T's last spring. So right after the Milwaukee Model T Ford Club's 50th Anniversary, I started to prepare my 1926 Tudor for the trip. We planned to travel to Manitowoc, take the Badger over to Ludington then drive up to Manistee for the Jamboree. After the event we wanted to drive to the Mackinaw Bridge, before turning around and coming home. Well, in checking out the car, among other items, I wanted to check out the rear axle bearings. Last year a lot of work was done to the axle. Well, this was the first sign of trouble. I was having trouble removing the Hyatt bearings. They seemed to get stuck as I attempted to pull them out. I figured that maybe the cage of the bearing was acting like a Chinese finger trap and jamming as it twisted. After some frustration, my son Dan got both bearings out by using a gear puller. The puller was turned by hand and the bearings walked right out. This was the first sign of trouble, the grease appeared dark. The bearings looked good and the cases were tight, but the axle shafts looked bad. The outside the bearing surface was rough. So out came the axle and it was bad news. Both shafts had similar wear on the outside half of the bearing surface. Well, I ordered two new shafts, bearings and sleeves. I had decided to try the new bearings instead of the original Hyatt's. I took me two weeks to get the parts, reassemble the axle and get it back into the car. I also repaired a water leak, installed a new Anderson timer, tightened all the electrical cleaned, etc..... Then I remembered that I had purchased a new set of Kevlar bands about two years ago. Here could be my second mistake. The old bands were working fine. In fact we drove the car more than 75 miles at the Anniversary with no trouble. Well, I decided to replace the bands. We were to leave Wednesday morning, I started to work on the bands Sunday night and had them out that night. Monday, as I was installing the new bands I dropped a spring into the transmission. It jumped past my rags and my heart sank. I spent the rest of the night fishing for it. My daughter tried and eventually, my son Dan snagged it. After tightly packing the transmission and using string and wire to hold these elusive parts, the new Kevlar bands were in. After some adjusting and moving up and down the driveway, the bands were readjusted again. Then around the neighborhood. Another adjustment. Then a 10 mile trip with another adjustment. All seemed ok. Tuesday, we packed and were ready to leave.

August 25th --- Day One.Wednesday morning at about 0800 AM we were off for Manitowoc. Well, we hardly made a mile and the low speed band was loose, OK so another adjustment. Then after a couple miles the low speed was loose again. To make a long story short. We had to readjust the low speed 5 times before we stopped for breakfast in Port Washington. Here I waited for the car to cool and I opened the transmission cover. The lint screen didn't have any lint in it, so I took up all the bands. We got up to County Highway LL and had to stop at the Sentry store. I took off the transmission cover and the lint screen was full of lint. The low speed spring was a good 3/4 inch more compressed than the others. We decided to turn around and go home. We let the car cool, changed the oil, cleaned every thing and set off for home. We made Germantown before the low speed would not work again. Off again with the transmission cover, again it was full of lint. Time to have the car carried home. Got it home and removed the bands. Each band had what looked like mud on the surface of the band. The low speed band ears were only 1 inch apart where the other bands were 2 3/4 inch apart. RATS! The car needs attention.

Well, we rescheduled a few things and Dan and I were off in his '08 Ford, 2008 F-150 that is. We took the Badger car ferry to Ludington, unfortunately we had to take the 0100 AM trip. The sky was clear, the stars were out, with a full moon, the breeze was fresh and when we got to Ludington, about 04:00 AM, we were beat. We slept a little on the boat and then took a nap in the truck.

After some breakfast in Ludington we drove to Manistee, found the hotel, but we were too early to check in. So, we decided to go back into town and take a tour of the car ferry 'City of Milwaukee'. The tour cost $9.00 per person and at first I was skeptical of what were about to get for $18. Turns out there was no one there and we got a first class tour by a guy who really knew shipping. We got a tour of the cargo area, the engine room, the flicker, passenger deck, texas deck, the officiers quarters, galley and the forward and aft pilots area. The City of Milwaukee has two, triple expansion 1400 hp engines. The high pressure piston is 22 inches in diameter, the intermediate piston is 38 inches in diameter and the low pressure piston is 52 inches in diameter. The ferry was built between 1930 and 1931. Orignially was fueled with coal but was converted to fuel oil. The railroads built these car ferries. The car meant train car, autos did not cross the lake until much later. The City of Milwaukee could carry 38 loaded train cars. In 1950 you would have to pay $7.50 to cross the lake.

The City of Milwaukee boat tour was much more than I had expected, we spent about 90 minutes looking at it and asking questions. We then drove back to the casino. Here we saw a few Model T's. After casually looking the mover we registered at the casino. The Little River Casino must only be a few years old, everything looks brand new. Dan went to find our room and I went up to the Jamboree registration room. Here they had some items for sale, books, shirts, hats, etc. I picked up our registration package. This included maps, tour descriptions and area information. Since we spent most of last night awake on the boat, we decided to take a nap. About 4 hours later we awoke and toke a short trip around the driveway and found a number of Model T's. We later found out that there were 114 Model T's had arrived for the Jamboree. We then decided to eat supper and go to bed.

August 26th --- Day Two. Thrusday morning at about 0700 AM we got up and had some breakfest at one of the resturants in the casino. Our casino room costs, included $30 of gambling money, $30 of food coupons, the 55 club, which gave 50% off on breakfest and a few other items. We looked over the tour instructions, all four pages of them and found that this was going to be an elaborate tour. After eating we walked out into the parking lot and met a bunch of people from all over Michigan. There were others from Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. The Michigan Jamboree is rotating tour, that is hosted by one of the Michigan MTFCI charters. This time it was the Crankn T's. Others clubs that I saw were the Tin lizzie Travelers, The Casual T's, Huron Valley, etc. This morning is when we realized just how many Model T's were at the Jamboree.

Friday Morning

We left the casino on the Friday tour about 0900 AM. We toured along the shoreline of Lake Michigan to Frankfort where the Trinity Luthern church hosted us for a coffee break. We generally followed M-22 north to Frankfort. We arrived about 10:00 AM. Here we filled the parking lot and local streets with Model T's. There was coffee, milk, orange juice and dozens of donuts. There was plenty for everyone. We socialized for about an hour. The tours, today and tomorrow are free for all, meaning you can leave and arrive when you like. Although the food events are scheduled and you need to arrive within the time periods alloted.

Friday Coffee Stop

After the coffee break, we then drove to Sleeping Bear Dunes in Empire. We continued to drive north on M-22 then on M-109. The Sleeping Bear is just west of Glen Lake. At Sleeping Bear, we toured around the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. This circle route provided wonderful views of Lake Glen and Michigan, plus excellent views of the sand dunes. There are 12 stopping points on the drive. Glen Lake is kind of a figure eight and the highway M-22 passes through the narrow middle of Glen Lake. At the second stop point you can see the M-22 bridge in the distance. The next 5 stops over look the vast sand dunes of Sleeping Bear Point. Stopping points 9 and 10 overlook Lake Michigan. There is also a very steep bluff that decends down to a narrow beach on Lake Michigan. There is a sign that states a rescue fee will be charged if you go down the bluff and can not make it back up. Still, many people were going down. It certainly appears that the slope of the bluff is more than 45 degrees. It must take nearly an hour to make the trip up from the lake.

Touring to Sleeping Bear

Scenic Drive

Sand Dunes

Pierce Stocking

Glen Lake M-22 Bridge

Steep Bluff

Covered Bridge

Manitou Islands

Scenic Drive

Lake Glen Bridge

Steep Bluff

After the dunes we traveled to Maple City where the Lions Club provided us with lunch. After the delicious lunch, we drove back to the casino. Our tour was about 140 miles end to end. Once we returned to the casino we had supper and then in the parking lot we were treated to an ice cream social courtesy of the Traveling T's. While the ice cream was eaten, we all socialized, kicked a few tires and talked about the nice tourwe just completed.

Lions Club Lunch

August 27th --- Day Three. Well after a couple of days with no web access, here's the pictures from Saturday's Jamboree. Today we headed inland. After about 20 miles of driving, between 9:30 and 10:30 we stopped for a coffee break at the State Fish Hatchery in Harrietta. I have not memtioned the weather, we are having excellent weather, sunny and warm to hot, nearly perfect. When we are near Lake Michigan we had very nice cool breezes. At the Fish Hatchery we had coffee and donuts. We spent about an hour socializing and looking over the Fish Hatchery equipment.

Leaving the Casino

Touring

Saturday Coffee Stop

Fish Hatchery

Saturday Coffee Stop

After our coffee break, we drove only a short bit to the Scenic overlook. Here we parked and climbed a tower that over looked a very nice valley, looking on to some hills and sand dunes farther out.

Over Look Scenery

Us in the Parking Lot

Next, after the overlook, there was a choice of either what was called some two tracking on some dirt roads or your could bypass the dirt. We elected the dirt roads! The two tracking was a few miles of ruts in loose sand. The Model T's seemed to negogiate these trails pretty well, although the canopy would slap the car tops or the people tops of the open cars. Some of the trails were rather narrow and you had to watch the trees. Some areas were deep ruts and the cars seemed to just follow the ruts, especially on the down hills. The ruts ended and we returned to more traditional dirt and paved roads. We even met some small kids selling vegetables on the roadside. We purchased cucumbers.

Two Tracking

Touring

We eventally arrived at the Buckley Old Engine and Steam Show Grounds. Here we had the Lunch/Banquet. At the grounds, there were a number of old tractors, a steam train that we all could have a ride on and some heavy equipment (a triple expansion engine, probably from a car ferry, and some electric equipment. We could walk the grounds and look over the equipment. The Banquet started at about 1:30. The lunch was excellent and later there were a few Thank You's and announcements. The next Michigan Jamboree in 2011 will be in Port Huron and everyone is invited.