Gary, Indiana and Detroit, Michigan

On the way to Detroit, we stopped in Gary, Indiana to visit the Jackson family home. We didn't know the address, but Lorenzo remembered "2300 Jackson Street" from the song, so we figured we'd go with that. Gary is a small city without much economy to speak of. The old Jackson family neighborhood, like the rest of the city, is pretty run-down and has numerous boarded up homes. We were surprised how small the home was since the Jackson family is so large, but it looked well taken care of compared to the rest of the neighborhood. Unlike most of the historic sites we'd visited, however, there was no plaque or sign in the yard identifying the house as the Jackson family home. We just figured we were in the right place based on the street name and the pictures, flowers, and balloons other visitors had placed along the fence.


Welcome to Gary!


The Jackson family home


The corner of 2300 Jackson Street and Jackson Family Drive where the Jackson family home is located

Because of Detroit's history as an automobile manufacturing capital, a factory tour was at the top of our must do list. We decided on the Ford Rouge Factory Tour, which included a Ford museum with movies and exhibits in addition to the factory tour. The factory tour led us on a 1/3 mile track above the floor where employees assembled Ford F-150's. It was really interesting to us to watch the different parts of the trucks come together. We saw windshields attached, headliners added, and the cab and bed of the truck connected.


Part of the Ford Rouge Factory


Historic Ford cars exhibit inside the Rouge

After the Ford tour, we headed over to the Motown Museum/Hitsville USA. Although the museum is relatively small, the tour lasted about 2 hours and we were really impressed by our tour guide's knowledge about Motown's history. The most interesting part of the tour was our visit to Studio A, where thousands of famous Motown songs were recorded. Before leaving Detroit, we also explored the downtown area, GM Renaissance building, and the Riverwalk - a walking path along the river that separates downtown Detroit from Canada. Although we did see some boarded up buildings around Detroit, overall the city seemed to still have an active economy and we enjoyed the history and sights.


Lorenzo on the front steps of Hitsville USA


Hitsville USA


Kim and Lorenzo at the Riverwalk


A view of Canada across the river full of floating chunks of ice


The GM Renaissance Center


One of many boarded up buildings around Detroit

We originally planned to go to Toronto and Niagara Falls after Detroit, but because Kim's grandmother passed away, we decided to end our trip a little early. We are still heading to Europe in April for the next leg of our journey so stay tuned!