Thank Heaven the trip wasn't by Covered Wagon

We've traveled across the continent, so I felt like we should have been using a covered wagon.  However, if we had, we would only be  outside of Grants, New Mexico, assuming we made about 20 miles a day - which would have been the covered wagon equivalent of flying down the highway at 90 mph.  Instead we took sixteen days on the road with a week prior to leaving Arizona to get ready to go and a week after arriving in New York to get set up.  We drove a bit over 3000 miles during that sixteen days, and we stopped for two day pauses three times.

I will never, ever complain again about the 'new' Jeep which replaced our Aviator after the terrible wreck. Thanks to the factory installed tow/haul feature, and better torque (whatever that is), Drake was able to use cruise control for about 80% of the trip.  He certainly found the drive to be less arduous than he feared.

Our two day pauses were built in for family reasons, as well as a cushion in case of some type of trouble on the road.  We had no trouble other than having to get a windshield repaired (while still in Arizona) due to a kicked up rock outside of Winslow which started a star crack.  Easy/peasy in terms of road trouble.  These types of problems make our hand held computers invaluable.

What we did do on our two day pauses was go to art museums - big surprise, right?  The first was Crystal Bridges in Bentonville, Arkansas.  I've been reading about this place for a few years now, and I've really wanted to see it.  This is the museum Alice Walton has assembled using the Walmart fortune she inherited from her Daddy, Sam.  First, and foremost, it's a museum of American art from native American times forward.  She's scoured the country and purchased some surprising paintings and sculptures.  The initial gallery is called:

This is a piece of art comprised of all different types of shoe laces.  The artist is Narl Ward who uses found objects to create sculpture. 

Here's a section of the above sculpture

Included in the initial exhibition are paintings and sculptures which are representative of all citizens of the country across our history.

George Washington by Gilbert Stuart; circa 1795. This was a surprise.
Who's able to score a Stuart portrait of Washington?
 Alice Walton, apparently

Jaren by Jordan Casteel

In addition to collecting amazing artworks, she commissioned and paid for a world class building to house the art.

If the art and the building aren't enough, the setting which has walking trails and outdoor sculpture is open from dawn to dusk.  This museum is interactive on so many levels - not just inside the museum, but with the community.  There's a musical performance space as well as yoga classes, art classes, kid classes, astronomy and nature offerings.

The 'guards' are called 'protectors', and one of their main jobs is to interact with the people at the museum asking what they like, where they are from, and how can they be helped to make their experience with the museum better.  The museum is also free, yes, free.  And, if you bring a classroom of kids, well, the museum pays for the bus and the gas.  The people coming here don't look like 'museum' people.  They look like the McDonald's crowd.  Kids are excited.  They talk and ask and point and tug on clothes to show their significant adult what they've discovered.

And this place isn't standing still.  There's an enormous additional museum planned for working artists to create pieces on site.  Ground will be broken for that within the  next couple of years.  People will be encouraged to talk to the artists.  This is an interesting place.  It's obvious Alice Walton's mission is to have a world class museum which attracts everybody because the art is great, nobody is 'priced out', and it's fun to come.  Don't miss it.

After driving through Indiana AGAIN after we promised ourselves we would never do that, we arrived at Detroit.  (Indiana doesn't maintain their roads, and the interstate is filled with potholes.  Driving the interstate in Indiana is like playing reverse whack-a-mole.  Drake was tense the entire length of the state dodging major potholes while driving 70 mph)   Anyway, we stayed at the Dearborn Inn outside of Detroit in Dearborn.  The hotel built by Henry Ford in 1931.  It's a grand old hotel, which is technically a Marriott, but not really.  This place is immaculate with impeccable service, and it's close to the Detroit Institute of Art, and the Henry Ford Museum of Innovation.  The Henry Ford has the greatest collection of cars I've seen.  It was a walk down the history of the automobile.  There were also several other interesting exhibitions besides autos. 

1956 Chevy Convertible in front of a working diner
under an original McDonald's neon sign

The Detroit Institute of Art is owned by the City of Detroit.  Because of the enormous amount of $$ which flowed through this town for about 100 years, there's some amazing art here.  My favorite was the Diego Rivera fresco - painted on wet plaster - there're no 'do overs' when you use this technique.  Imagine an atrium surrounded by 20 foot walls, and those walls were Rivera's 'canvas'.  It was painted in 1931, and it shows industrial production at the time, and specifically the Ford auto plant.  Here's a sample:

There was a great docent who helped us look at this fresco - and remember, this is only ONE SIDE OF FOUR.  We spent about an hour looking at this piece.  It was difficult to photograph, and I could write a lot more about it.  I hope my pictures will help you grasp this enormous work of art.  Here's one of his most controversial panels.   People were outraged he included 'the nativity' in the fresco, and put it in a modern, scientific setting when he represented it.    

The other 'famous' piece in the museum is by one of Drake's favorite artists.  It's called "The Wedding" by Pieter Bruegel, the Elder, and it was painted in 1566.

        

Can you find the bride?  Here she is:  the only woman without her hair covered, and she's wearing black.  "White" didn't become the Western Europe wedding color until Victoria wore it on her wedding day.

This museum has quite a few other great pictures which you can see by clicking on my photo link.  I loved the flower pictures.  Here's one by Jan Bruegel, the Younger painted in 1600.

When we were planning the cross country trek, Drake decided it would be prudent to built in a couple of days for emergencies.  That's why we spent two days in Buffalo, New York.  We didn't have any trouble, so Buffalo stayed on the itinerary.  However, when we arrived, we found another surprising art museum.  It turns out the fine art museum in Buffalo, New York, had a curator around the turn of the century who bought those new fangled Impressionists, and Expressionists (ie VanGogh), and the museum marched forward buying contemporary and modern art.  The Erie Canal and the resulting boom in trade and shipping made Buffalo a very rich and influential city in America for most of the 19th century.  In 1901 it hosted the Pan American Exposition, and this is where President McKinley was shot and died.  Roosevelt was sworn in here in a friend's house.  As for the art museum,  here's an example of what we saw: 

Van Gogh - The Old Mill - 1888

It sounds like we just museum hopped across the country, and I suppose we did.  However, we also spent an awful lot of days driving seven hours a day, checking in and out of hotels, and figuring out where we could do our laundry.  And, truthfully, the worst part was the food.  We had one decent meal in Dearborn, and that was about it.

We are settled into Saratoga Springs, and it's a really nice town.  I already have my library card, and we've toured a couple of places.  This weekend we attended an art festival in the next town over.  This is going to be a great place, and we are going to have such fun.  This coming weekend, we are kicking off our performance tickets by going to New York City to see the American Ballet Theater perform Swan Lake.  Oh, and we will be visiting our still in the oven grandson who is weighing in at about 13 ounces these days, and who will be arriving in the world in 136 days.

As always, here are the pictures.

Crystal Bridges, Bentonville, Arkansas 
https://photos.app.goo.gl/NtMTQvobYRgVby3s7

Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, Michigan
https://photos.app.goo.gl/e61R7Qbr88wNNeuDA

Theodore Roosevelt's Inauguration House
https://photos.app.goo.gl/f1tpKdtKDqZ1tAZE9

Buffalo Museum of Fine Art & Buffalo Historical Museum
https://photos.app.goo.gl/JQEgGH4dmNvTnNVS9

Theodore Roosevelt Inauguration House - 1901
https://photos.app.goo.gl/f1tpKdtKDqZ1tAZE9