Day 23

A few horrible intense coughing fits in the middle of the night, but I did probably manage to get more sleep than I’ve been getting. At least I feel less zombie like this morning. The amount of dew on our tents when we woke up was incredible. If it had rained overnight our tents might not have been as wet. Dew even got inside, making the outer part of my sleeping bag wet. We packed up the tents and they are just a sopping, dripping mess.

You all know that G3 is on a quest to visit every president’s house. Sadly, not all presidents have a home that has been turned into a museum. Gerald Ford is one of those men. He grew up in Grand Rapids, but his boyhood home is privately owned. This morning we drove to the house—there is a sign out front notifying passersby that the house is significant—so we could see it and take a picture, and then we went to the Gerald Ford Museum to learn a bit about his life and presidency. Kati and I could not believe how many houses in Ford’s former neighborhood had queer flags hanging out front. We saw more queer flags than we do in Asbury during pride.

If G3 and I had our Boy Scout uniforms with us we could have gotten into the museum for free. Scouts and leaders do not have to pay admission if they are in uniform. Oh well! Gerald Ford was the only president to attain the rank of Eagle Scout, and even after becoming president, he considered that one of his greatest achievements. He had it easy though because in his day one did not have to complete an Eagle Project. G3 was very quick to note that Ford was fourteen when he earned Eagle Rank. This is significant because G3 is fourteen and if he completes his project in the next month and gets his paperwork done he too will be fourteen when he attains the rank of Eagle. Ford’s sash with his merit badges is on display in the museum. The merit badges look different now, all except first aid which is almost the same.

Gerald Ford was born on July 14 (his birthday was two days before my dad’s) 1913. His mother named him Leslie Lynch King Jr. But her husband was extremely abusive, so when her son was two weeks old, she left her husband and Nebraska where they had been living, and moved in with her parents in Grand Rapids. It was there that she eventually met and married Gerald Ford Sr.

At the University of Michigan, Ford played football. During his senior year, both the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers expressed interest in him. However, he wanted to go to law school, not play football professionally. He did not practice law for long before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. After that, he joined the Navy where he was stationed on the USS Monterey, an aircraft carrier that saw action in the Pacific. The USS Monterey—and Ford who was on it at the time—survived a terrible typhoon that killed more men on board than the Battle of Midway.

Following World War II, Ford ran for a seat in the House of Representatives. It was in Congress in 1949 that he met Nixon who, at the time, was also a young Congressman. He served 25 years in Congress and would have probably been content to live out his political life as a Congressman if it hadn’t been for the 25th Amendment.

In 1967, prompted by JFK’s assassination, Congress passed and the states ratified the 25th Amendment which states that if the office of the Vice President were to be vacated for whatever reason, the president would nominate a new vice president who would then need to be Confirmed by Congress. If a president left office, the vice president would become president. In 1973, the 25th Amendment was first utilized when Spiro Agnew resigned because he was facing charges for tax evasion and for bribery while governor of Maryland. President Nixon nominated Ford to be the next vice president.

Of course you are all familiar with what happened next. Nixon became tangled in the Watergate scandal and before he could be impeached, he resigned. As a result, on August 9, 1974, Gerald Ford became the first president to assume office without being elected either as president or vice president. A month later, after consulting lawyers, Ford decided to pardon former President Nixon. He wanted to be able to focus on the problems affecting our nation—Cold War, Economy, the fall of Saigon—instead of Nixon’s legal battles. The pardon, however, hurt him politically and probably helped Carter defeat him in the 1976 election.

Ford was only president for 895 days. In that time, he participated in the Helsinki Accords, which helped bring about the eventual demise of the Soviet Union. He also requested humanitarian aid for the South Vietnamese and lobbied Congress until they agreed to fund 120,000 immigrants from Vietnam. Two thousand of those immigrants were babies who were adopted into American homes. When the refugees arrived, Ford and his wife were there to greet them.

While President, there were two attempts on Ford’s life. One attempt was by a woman who fired a shot, but missed. The Secret Service was created by Lincoln, but its original intent was to investigate financial fraud and counterfeiting. (Ironic that Lincoln didn’t see a greater need and yet he was our first president to be assassinated.) It only started protecting presidents after McKinley was killed and Theodore Roosevelt became president.

When I was born, the First Lady’s name was Elizabeth. Okay, she went by Betty, but her name was Elizabeth. And I, the history nerd, didn’t quite realize this until today. Major fail on my part. Anyway, Betty Ford may have been a Republican, like her husband, but many of her social views somewhat scandalized the more conservative wing of her party. Reading about them even now it sounds like her social views were more in line with the Democrats. She was very outspoken when it came to discussing equal rights for women and she campaigned heavily for the Equal Rights Amendment which never did pass. She also spoke openly about drugs, premarital sex, and her support for legal abortion. For many years she took painkillers for a pinched nerve. That, combined with social drinking, led to a substance abuse problem. As a result, she founded the Betty Ford Clinic in an attempt to help others get sober. Not only did she raise money for it, before her death, she used to meet with patients.

After the Ford museum, we took a two hour detour to Bronner’s Kati’s favorite Christmas ornament store. Every time we find ourselves in Michigan, we stop. We spent more than two hours wandering around and picking out way too many ornaments. We had to get one for each of our little kittens.

It is our last night on the road so we splurged for a slightly more expensive meal than usual while traveling. I very much enjoyed the swordfish and Kati thought the roast beef was fabulous. but G3 was disappointed in the brisket.