Madhouse Road Trip- October 2019

I had a boring weekend, and it was chilly and rainy for most of it. So I thought, since I actually had the weekend off of work this week, I'd go for a little road trip. I grabbed my trusty Canon camera and jumped into the Lincoln and went sightseeing.

Being in Central Michigan, we're strapped into the Rust Belt, so there's always something interesting to see. This is just a few of (mostly) automotive related images and establishments I came arcorss during my mini-road trip. Many of these have given me modeling ideas, and maybe they'll be good for that to you as well.

Near my home in Ashley, Michigan, you will find The Country Stop. Up until 2001, this was a gas station, party store, and laundromat, with a two-bay car wash. Today, the building is still there, but the gas pumps have been removed and the party store half of the building has been blocked off. The laundromat is still plugging along, and so is the car wash, although the right side bay always seems to be out of order.

Here we have the entrance to the laundromat. Though the building looks rather lonely, it appears to have been kept up, and is pretty clean inside.

Inside it's a little worn but again, it is kept clean. It doesn't have the smelly armpit odor that pretty much every laundromat I've ever been to has. And it's never busy, which is a plus given the number of machines. I've grown more attached to this place ever since my own washing machine decided to stop, you know, washing, recently.

In the corner is a small carpeted play area, including a toy washer and dryer so little Timmy or Molly can do what Mom or Dad is doing if they so choose. I love that panda bear toy box for some reason.

In the other corner are five decommissioned washers, ready to be hauled off. The wooden panel you see used to be an open doorway which led into the long-defunct party store in the other half of the building.

Leaving the Ashley village limits, I then traveled West toward US-127. Near the junction of 127 and M57 you will find Terror On 27, an old farmstead which sits abandoned for much of the year, until late October when the barn becomes a haunted house.

This Oldsmobile hearse has stood guard out front for years. I've never seen it being driven, and given it's nose-high stance, I'm assuming it doesn't have an engine in it. Terror On 27's website is there for you to visit, and you can see the barn which houses the haunted attraction in the background.

Continuing West on M57, you'll come to a dot on the map called Middleton. Middleton Car Care is based out of a small wood-framed building that looks like it may have been a service station at one point. Though I saw no activity going on when I passed, it does appear to still be in operation.

Hey, speaking of small-town automotive operations that are semi-retired, and Oldsmobile, the next sighting ties the last two sightings together pretty well! On M66 rests the village of Sheridan, and one of the first things you will see upon entering town is the former Beardslee Oldsmobile dealership. Obviously it has not been an active Oldsmobile dealership in decades, but it is now the home of Beardslee Racing, who appear to campaign a Cutlass Supreme drag car. The showroom contains a pair of vintage Rockets and a couple of engines. I don't know if they're technically "open for business", but I'd certainly love to see more of what's in that showroom sometime!

Every so often you'll still see a tattered-but-running old Bumpside with a slide-in camper parked along the curb. Central Michigan... it may be mostly crushing disappointment, but the pleasant surprises more than make up for that.

Later, I visited St. Johns, which is the home of the now-defunct Patterson Equipment, an Allis-Chalmers dealership that is currently for sale and something I may need to investigate later. But on this particular trip, I checked out a motorcycle/metalworking shop that recently opened up.

Here's the sign of that establishment.

Here's the GMC you can see just behind it, done up in a Milky Way bar scheme. I'm so used to seeing these rusted out I had to go in for a closer look.

There were also some amazing scrap metal creations on display, including this elephant sculpture.

Around the corner is this tattered Dodge truck, which was treated to a V8 swap at some point.

On the way home, I went past Travers Auto, a salvage yard along Old 127. Leaning along the wall to the office was a mangled old door from a Clinton County truck. Travers is pretty much all late-model wrecks, but I have to wonder if they rest of the old truck is out on the lot. Maybe I'll have to revisit and see?

The next Madhouse road trip may not be as long of a drive, but should have lots more visual treats. There's a private junkyard nearby and I'm trying to persuade the owner to let me go in and poke around. We'll see...