Different Groups but Two Things in Common
One of the delights for those of us who work with group charters is welcoming new folks aboard and learning about their organizations.
Two of our latest newcomers—Michigan Museums Association and Demented Mitten Tours—are very different from one another, but share an interest in visiting particular parts of our Great Lakes State. Also, they charter our motorcoaches for shorter trips, not long, multi-day excursions.
Michigan Museums Association
The mission of the MMA, founded in the late 1950s, is to share expertise and resources in order to help Michigan museums flourish. Its members include art, history, science, military, maritime, and youth museums, aquariums, zoos, botanical gardens, arboretums, historic sites, and science and technology centers.
Many are dedicated to preserving—and growing—historical collections related to our state.
“Our annual conference is always held in Michigan,” says Julie Cook, an MMA volunteer who helps organize the events. “Our themes each year are built around helping member organizations to thrive, so they center on collections, education, advocacy, outreach and funding.” When she’s not planning conferences and workshops for MMA, Cook serves as collections coordinator for the Historic Ford Estates in Grosse Point Shores.
Last fall, on behalf of MMA, she worked with Indian Trails to transport 200 attendees to points of interest around the Greater Lansing area from their conference site at the Radisson Hotel downtown.
As a first-time Indian Trails charter customer, Cook says the MMA appreciated how smoothly everything went for its group trips to sites such as the Michigan Historical Center and the Eli & Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.
“It was great,” she says. “The drivers were very nice, accommodating, and knowledgeable about where we were going. They knew how to avoid construction zones and one-way streets so our groups could get to their destinations more quickly. And the buses were always on time.”
Demented Mitten Tours
The idea for starting a family-owned company called Demented Mitten Tours in 2016 was a “fluke thing,” recalls Jenn Carpenter, who refers to herself as “an avid writer and true crime junkie with an interest in the paranormal.”
“We took a family trip to Chicago and went on a ‘Weird Chicago’ tour that included some of the Windy City’s more notorious locations—buildings rumored to be haunted, sites of disasters, mob hideouts, etc. It was a different way to learn about the city.”
After their return to Lansing, she and her oldest son were at a school baseball game in Bath, Mich., when Carpenter told him the true story about the Bath School Massacre that occurred in 1927. “He said, ‘That’s crazy. It sounds like stuff we heard on the Weird Chicago tour.’ That’s all it took, like a lightbulb went off in my head.”
Carpenter pounced on the idea of doing something similar in the Greater Lansing area. She immersed herself in historical research, focusing on paranormal and true crime stories, and mapped out potential tours.
They bought a 12-seat bus and, without even advertising, sold out every tour that first season. “Once we filled half the seats with women who were seniors and half with students from Michigan State University,” she says. “At first, I was a little worried about the mix, but they had a great time together and we knew we were onto something.”
In 2017, they added tour routes, began featuring special guests, organized theme nights, and sold out again.
With demand far exceeding capacity, they turned to Indian Trails and chartered one of our 34-passenger coaches, almost tripling the number of tour-goers they could accommodate.
“Since my husband, Dax, had always been behind the wheel of our 12-seater, I was a little anxious about using a charter company, but it was great,” says Carpenter. “We had looked into buying a bigger bus, but this is better. Indian Trails has actually made things easier.”
The unique—and macabre—themes of Demented Mitten Tours include “Horror in the Heartland,” “Demented Lansing,” “Wild Wild West” and “Monsters and Mobsters.” Tours are offered monthly from March through August, and every weekend in September and October. They typically last three to four hours. Guest experts on the history of the area, crime, and the paranormal often ride along to provide details and answer questions.
Carpenter says the subject matter draws folks of all ages, but they recommend the creepy tours for those who are 18 and older.
Her notoriety as an operator of weird tours has brought her success as an author, too. Arcadia Publishing contacted Carpenter about writing a book about haunted locations in mid-Michigan. As a result, “Haunted Lansing” will be in bookstores this fall, with a September 8 book signing and launch party at the Turner-Dodge Mansion, which is said to be home to the ghost of a founding family member.