I am posting this thread for suggestions for a GTG, this GTG would be a spring/summer thing next year. I have by no means thrown this year to the side, but I am thinking Weekend event for this. So, please, look around at the post, vote, and any and all comments welcome.

Based on the location of our members, I am leaning towards Sterling Michigan for the camping and canoeing.
The Ford Truck Plant will be in Dearborn
Car show??up in the Air
Sand Dunes, SilverLake
Hooters..It almost has to be Lansing, for old times sake..But I did say almost has to be.

 

Disneyworld

 

you and my kids........

 

Maybe the better question would be,,,,

Does anyone even want to have a G2G???

Come on people,,, speak up!!!

 

Let's do the Hooters GTG again. Everybody seemed to have a good time.

Ford Truck Plant Tour would be fun to.

 

Hmmmmmmmmmm Yeah Hooters lol Ford Truck Plant Tour would be fun to.

 

Hooters don't inspire me. Scarletts or a club in Windsor does. problem is, I don't have a passport so I'm an illegal.....

I say go to Traverse in the spring, hit the Casino on the Northwest side (for about 20 minutes) and have an outta sight steak at the beanery in town.

I'll ride my bike up, you guys can drive your trucks lol

Actually, I'm game for anything, even some camping. I'll just slide my Lance Camper in the 350. It has on board generator, air conditioning and a big refrigerator for beverages, a full galley and a kick butt sound system.

You guts can tent it and I'll kick back under the awning and watch the fun.

 

I have always wanted to do the Ford plant tour and then drive my brand new truck home...The last part isn't really materializing so I suppose I'd settle for just the tour.

 

I have to say.. I was never a real "Hooters" person, I met up with Mark there once, the place was real friendly, service was fantastic, servers went out of their way to be friendly.. and then they were also pretty.. So when we had the GTG in Lansing, I no longer expected a striper type atmosphere, and again, the service was fantastic, all of the girls were friendly as can be, and again they were pretty to boot. What was fun to watch, the girls were normally talking to our wives and girlfriends..I would have no problem brining a family there, it was a very decent, outgoing place. My .02

 

So, here is some good news..
The event
Factory Tour Hours and Tickets
The location
Directions

All we would need from here is a place to grab Dinner or lunch..

 

I might be able to book a private tour of Great Lakes Steel in Ecorse (if you want to visit and see a working steel mill in operation). I have a very good friend who just happens to be the second shift plant manager up there. I've been through the mill a number of times, from the BOF to the rolling stands.

You would need hard hats, safety glasses with side shields and hard soled shoes, preferrably with steel toes. I've never asked Chuck about a small group but I could.

Building vehicles is one thing, making iron is another.

I'm presuming that the Ford Rouge Tour don't include the mill which isn't Fords anymore. I believe Servistal bought the mill. Haven't been up there in a while.

Remember, I'm in the steel business....

Of course If you want to go to Indiana, we could tour the SDI facility in Butler. That's a remelt (scrap) operation with 3 triple lance electric furnaces and a continuous caster plus a rolling mill and a bar mill as well as a coating line.

 

Would the hardhats and side shields be provided?

You are correct though about the tour not including the steel mill. It is a decent little tour, I enjoyed it, covered everything from their " Go Green" with the plant covered roofs, the bridge where the Union and Ford's hired Muscle men went at it, a little video, and the tour of the plant itself. The plant is functional, but if we went on a Saturday, we may be walking around a silent plant. We walk on platforms above the line, as the line functions, if the shop is not running overtime.. we see nothing in process.

Steel mill would be fun..

 

Probably not. They don't give tours normally. This would be on a know someone basis. I always have a hard hat and many pairs of safety glasses all the time. I can't go into any of our plants without PPG (another acronym) Personal Protection Gear. The mill would be in full operation so there is the inherent danger risk. Steel mills are in-your-face operations. It's hot as well. Making steel is a noisy, dirty operation, even in an ultra modern nill like SDI in Butler.

I regularly trudge around the mill in Butler, I know the owners pretty well.

Imagine an arc welder but the electrodes are 2 foot diameter carbon rods. 3 for 3 phase, each rod delivering 1 phase at 28,000 volts and who knows ehat amperage. Quite a show. They melt around 300,000 pounds of material in 3 hours in a continuous process. The vessels are bottom tapped and deliver molten steel to a continuous slab caster and then on to the rolling stands. Eacj roll has a 1000 horsepower DC electric drive motor and reduction gearbox. That's how the coild are made that you see on trucks. BOF is basically the same but the steel is produced from ore,

 

I say we do the ford truck tour then hit HOOTERS afterwards.

 

There are a couple good strip joints out side the Rouge plant on Michigan ave. I think they have great steaks IIRC been awhile since I was there.

I know the Rouge Plant inside out used to be a MRO vendor. back in the 90's. What a great place. Iron Ore comes in & a Ford Truck drives out the other end. When I was there it was the Mustang Plant. I sill have my badge, lol