Day 3 – 6/6/22 – Birmingham, MI – Summer Road-trip

We got up early and started our day with a small free breakfast at the hotel lobby. Nick likes to cut his muffin with a knife. I find this adorable!

On the road again! West Virginia is beautiful! We have decided to visit again when we have more time.
West Virginia has a rather large power plant!
Can you make out the bridge in the distance? It was magestic!

That was the bridge that connected West Virginia to Ohio! Here we come Ohio! First stop will be The Bicycle Museum of America! I’ve been waiting to see this place for a few years. The story goes – about 4 years ago we passed the town of New Bremen, OH on the highway and I saw a sign for The Bicycle Museum of America and I really wanted to stop. Nick wouldn’t stop but he promised to take me someday. Well…. Today is the day!

Dayton, Ohio’s skyline
Dayton, Ohio’s skyline.

It wasn’t long and we arrived at the Museum! I think Nick was happy when the place looked very small. So sad for him… It turned out to be 3 stories and so much stuff to read and take pictures!

That’s our car in the background. We got a primo parking spot!
These are all the emblems that bike companies made and welded on to bikes. There were so many! Lots of companies took their turn at making bikes, it was a hot industry before the automobile!

So Albert Goodwill Spaulding (Spalding Sports Balls Company) created the American Bicycle Company in 1899. He already had a sports manufacturing company that he started in Chicago in 1876 which today focuses on Basketball.
Albert A. Pope started the very first bicycle manufacturing company and wouldn’t join up with Spaulding. Instead he started the League of American Wheelmen, an organization that lobbied for safer roads.

This was an eye opening bike! No it isn’t a wheelchair, but it was used by an invalid woman that was called “the cripple suffragette”. Rosa May Billinghurst was born in London and was in constant trouble and in jail fighting for the right for women to vote and run for office! They said the police would tip her bike over during protests but she didn’t let that stop her! Bikes were said to have empowered women on many levels and this is a very amazing level!
This was invented by a Scottish blacksmith in 1839 and it was the first pedal powered bicycle. The pedal is considered the second leap for the bike design.
The Highwheel was produced throughout the 1880’s.
That was such a great light! They don’t make them like that anymore.
This is such an important story. It needs to be told! I never knew anything about Major Taylor. This was a young black man that was first a trick bicyclist and then an international athlete! He was also called “The Ebony Wonder” and “The Black Cyclone”. He was a star in his chosen sport. But he had his share of death threats and he would quote Booker T. Washington “I shall allow no man to narrow my soul and drag me down by making me hate him.”
The first Monocycle from 1869 built in France.
This bike is made on one continuous piece of wood!
Neil Armstrong’s leather jacket!
This is a two person wide tandem bike! Look at the machine behind it – only 2 pennies to play it!
This is the most famous missing bike. Pee Wee’s Bike from the famous movie Pee Wee’s Big Adventure!
Look at the chain on this one!
Motorcycle companies made bikes!
This was the military room. It had some very interesting equipment positioned on the bikes. Some of the equipment was so heavy that people could not ride the bike up hills!
This was something China made for the 2008 Olympics held in Bejing.
My Maternal Grandpa had a bike just like this. He got it in Germany. It folded in half and we all thought it was awesome!
Welcome to Michigan!
So we had to stop off first and see the ruins of Oakland Hills Country Club.
It was very upsetting and emotional. I just hope they are working diligently to build a new place that will house more fabulous tournaments!
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By olivemywhiskey

Teri is a retired CFO and Nick is a partner in a private equity firm. We are both very irrelevant in the business worlds. We jumped up to a 52 foot boat because we were in need of more adventure. We are on the Great Loop around the East Coast of North America. It's been a wild ride!

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