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My 2016 Mid-West Trip~Part 16

19 Oct

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

 

Day 16 (Sunday)

 

I began the day with a nice drive west on I-10 from Mobile to Gulfport, Mississippi. Since it was Sunday, I didn’t expect any of the museums to be open, and most of them were not. But I wanted to take a look at their locations anyway. My first stop was to check out the Busted Wrench Garage & Museum there at Gulfport. The building was closed and very small, and didn’t look big enough to house a lot of cars. But, when I Googled the museum, I was surprised to see photos of a nice collection of beautifully restored cars that I missed.

 

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Just down the road a ways was my next stop at the Mississippi Coast Model Railroad Museum. Here again the museum was closed, and the building was not very large.   I could see through the window that they had a good sized model railroad layout, but not much room for anything else.

 

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Next I drove a sort distance south of I-10 to check out the Gulfport Dragway strip. The fellow attending the entrance gate informed me that they had drag races on Wednesdays only, and no other races were scheduled for today. That made three closed attractions in a row so far today.

 

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As part of the planning for this trip I had contacted my son about the possibility of meeting my granddaughter in Gulfport for lunch. Lacey is attending college in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, about 65 Miles north of Gulfport, and this would provide the perfect opportunity for us to meet and spend some time together. As it turned out, she was able to meet with me and we had a delightful lunch at Shaggy’s Gulfport Beach Restaurant on U.S. 90 overlooking the beach.

 

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After lunch I took some time to drive around the beautiful Gulfport Marina, and took some pictures. There was a large ship tied up at the Gulfport docks, which looked like it might have been a cable-laying ship. I had never seen anything like it, and couldn’t figure out how it might work.

 

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Then I headed west again on I-10 for New Orleans, LA. I tried the Cars of Yesteryear’s Museum in Metairie Louisiana, but here again they were closed.

 

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Next I took on the 24 mile long Lake Pontchartrain Causeway from New Orleans to Madisonville. My objective was to visit the Lake Pontchartrain Maritime Museum.  This was a very nice museum filled with a large verity of local historical memorabilia.

 

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Of course, there was also a considerable amount of information about the Civil War. This included a replica of the 2-man Confederate submarine CSS Pioneer (1861), which was a predecessor to the famous Confederate Civil War submarine, the CSS H. L. Hunley (1864). I had never heard of the CSS Pioneer and was surprised to discover that during initial sea trials, it sank with the loss of the crew of 2. After being raised and refitted for more sea trials, it was scuttled, for fear of capture, when the Union Army advanced on New Orleans in April of 1862.

 

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More well-known is the Confederate Civil War submarine CSS H. L. Hunley, which was even more deadly than the Pioneer. During the sea trials of the Hunley, it sank on two different occasions, with the loss of the entire crew of 8 both times. Each time the submarine was raised, improved and refitted for more sea trials. Then finally, in February of 1864, when the Hunley was successfully used to attack and sink the Union ship USS Housatonic, it became the first submarine in history to sink an enemy ship during wartime. Unfortunately, the Hunley was lost, on that sorte the final time, taking all 8 crew members to their death, including the inventor Horace L. Hunley. Interestingly, I saw a full-scale replica of the CSS H. L. Hunley when I visited the Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, AL just yesterday.

 

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As I was leaving Madisonville I noticed a complex of unusual condos over-looking a small bay and marina. The owners had their living quarters on the second floor and underneath each condo was a protected slip for their private boat moorings. How convenient.

 

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Driving North from Madisonville, back across that 24 mile Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, seemed to take a lot longer than it did going south. I was curious about the construction of the causeway and found the following details on Wikipedia. The two, 2-lane bridges that make up the Causeway qualify it, in the Guinness World Records, as the longest “continuous” bridge over water in the world, at 23.83 miles long. The two spans were built between 1955-1956 & 1967-1969, and the two causeway bridges are supported on 9,500 concrete pilings, and 40,000 cars cross the Causeway daily.

 

 

By the time I got to the motel, I was ready to relax and have some supper. I had enough of the Taco Bell Mexican Pizza left over from last night to satisfy me. Then I had a cup of Blueberry yogurt for dessert. That did the trick for my hunger, and I headed to the motel’s computer to check-in for tomorrow’s flight home.

 

—–To Be Continued—–

 

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My 2016 Mid-West Trip Part 15

12 Oct

A Slice of Life

 Bill Lites

Day 15 (Saturday)

 

It was a beautiful fall morning as I left Montgomery and headed south on I-65 for Mobile, Alabama.  My first stop was to visit the Foley Railroad Station Museum located just north of Oyster Bay in Foley, Alabama. This was a small museum with early Railroad memorabilia and a nicely restored collection of rolling stock.

 

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In a separate building they had a large model railroad layout that fascinated adults and children alike. A High Point for many of the children was the small scale train that the museum provided for rides around the museum property. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a young child that didn’t like to ride in a small scale train like that.

 

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Next I headed across Mobile Bay on I-10 to visit the Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama. This Memorial Park is made up of the battleship USS Alabama (BB-60), the submarine USS Drum (SS-228), a replica of the Civil War submarine H. L. Hunley, various types of Army, Navy & Air Force airplanes/vehicles, as well as an indoor aircraft pavilion. It’s a very nicely laid out attraction, but the outside display aircraft and vehicles need some help with protection from the elements. The aircraft in the aircraft pavilion are beautifully restored and very nicely displayed.

 

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Next I checked out the Fort Conde (4/5th scale reproduction) located in downtown Mobile. According to Wikipedia, Mobile and its Fort Conde (originally called Mobille & Fort Louis de la Mobille) were founded by the French in 1702, and actually located some 27 miles north of its present location. Then after heavy damage by the flooding Mobile River in 1711, the town and fort were relocated to their present location.

 

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Over the years (1702-1813) the region around Mobile was occupied by the French, British, Spanish, and finally the United States. There was a lot of construction going on around the fort, which made it difficult to access. I finally found a parking lot close enough that I could take a picture of the fort, but opted not to go inside today.

 

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Down the street and around the corner was the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center. There was a large group of Young mothers with their 2-4 year old children in hand, entering the center as I pulled up in front. I surmised, from the looks of things, that this was an “education day” for these kids and decided I did not want to share the experience with all that noise.

 

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Not far from the science center I visited the Mobile Carnival Museum. This was a new experience for me. Not being a fan of the Mardi Gras, I did not think this would be a very interesting museum. As it turned out, this was probably the high point of my day. I never knew that the annual Carnival Celebration (Mardi Gras) is celebrated pretty much worldwide, and I had never heard of it being a big deal anywhere in the United States, except for New Orleans. Do I lead a sheltered life or what?

 

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The Mardi Gras costumes, and history of the celebration, as explained to me by the museum tour guide, was astounding. The other fact that was hard for me to get my head around was that Mobile was the first city in the United States to celebrate Mardi Gras (1703). And all this time, to me, New Orleans (founded in 1718) was getting the credit for that. The tour guide also informed me that Mobile puts on about 35 Carnival type parades each year that draws an average of 1.5 million visitors. All this activity keeps an entire community industry busy, year around, designing and fabricating all the necessary costumes and floats. For an in-depth picture of the history of the Mobile Mardi Gras, I would suggest the book “Mardi Gras in Mobile “ by L. Craig Roberts, who just happened to be my tour guide today.

 

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Next I visited the Continental Classic Cars collection located in west Mobile, only to discover that it was a private collection. However the owner, Dennis, was in his office and was gracious enough to show me his collection of automobiles. They consisted mostly of beautifully restored 1950s-1970s muscle cars, and a few classic hot rods.

 

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When I told him I was disappointed not to be able to find more automobile museums in the Mobile area, he suggested I check out the Henderson Collection, which was not too far down the road. He said that Jim Henderson had a collection of over 100 beautifully restored cars, and that if I could catch him at his Mobile Lumber Company office, he might agree to give me a tour of his private collection. The lumber company office was closed and Greta and I tried diligently to find Mr. Henderson’s building, that houses his collection, but to no avail.

 

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So, I called it a day and headed for tonight’s motel for some rest. On the way to the motel I spotted a Taco Bell and stopped to feast on a Mexican Pizza and a Beefy Chedder Crunchwrap Slider. The Slider was OK but, the Mexican Pizza with lots of Verde sauce to spice things up was much better, in my opinion.

 

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—–To Be Continued—–

 

 

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My 2016 Mid-West Trip~Part 14

5 Oct

A Slice of LIfe

 Bill Lites

 

Day 14 (Friday)

 

Leaving the Birmingham area this morning I headed south on I-65 for Calera, Alabama to visit the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum. I got there before they opened and it was obvious that it was a very small museum that could only house local railroad memorabilia. There were a couple of steam engines on display and some Pullman cars. Other than that, most of the rolling stock on the museum grounds was old and unkempt.

 

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Next on the list down the road was to check out the Airpark at the Maxwell Air Force Base, located just northwest of Montgomery, Alabama. The Internet had implied the Airpark was open to the public, but at the base visitor’s center I was informed it was not.

 

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So, I headed south again, around Montgomery, some 50 miles on U.S. 231 to visit the Pioneer Museum of Alabama located in Troy, Alabama. This was a nicely restored early Alabama farming community representation, consisting of several log structures. The memorabilia area inside the museum building had some very interesting early 19th century exhibits. The many outside community buildings included a log cabin, barn, grist mill, chicken house, church, and a general store.

 

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On the way back from Troy, I stopped by the Hyundai Manufacturing Facility, just south of Montgomery, to see if I could get a space on one of their guided tours. They said the tours were by reservation only, and they did not have any cancellations for the tours today. So I moved on toward Montgomery.

 

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I drove into downtown Montgomery to check out the Capital of Alabama. The capital building is a magnificent structure, as were several other government buildings, surrounding the central area around the capital building.

 

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Next I took another 40 mile side trip, west on U.S. 80 out of Montgomery, to Selma, Alabama to visit the Old Depot Museum. This famous route of the civil rights movement is dedicated to those who were at the forefront of that struggle.  Each of the four-day overnight stop locations, associated with that famous civil rights march, has dedicated historical markers on each side of the highway. The Old Depot Museum in Selma turned out to be located in an old restored railroad station. The museum itself was mainly a collection of very interesting memorabilia related to the history of the civil rights movement, and some early history of the city of Selma, Alabama.

 

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My trip to Troy and Selma doubled the number of miles I had expected to travel today, so by the time I got back to Montgomery I was getting hungry. After I located the motel and got checked in, I warmed up my leftover Longhorn Baby Back Ribs and sweet potatoe. I missed the garden salad, but the ribs and potatoe still made for a marvelous meal again tonight. Now it was time to relax and see if I could find anything good to watch on TV. No luck! So, I gave up and set to work recording today’s activities and prepared tomorrow’s list of museums.

 

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—–To Be Continued—–

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My 2016 Mid-West Trip~Part 13

28 Sep

A Slice of Life

 Bill Lites

 

Day 13 (Thursday)

 

As it turned out, I was disappointed to learn my friend, Terry, woke up with a sever crook in his neck and couldn’t go with me to the museums today. After breakfast I wished him a quick recovery, and headed out for Birmingham. My first stop today was to visit the Southern Museum of Flight located adjacent to the Birmingham-Suttlesworth International Airport. The museum’s collection of airplanes is located in a small exhibition hall (beautifully restored static displays) and outside static aircraft displays two blocks away.

 

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The outside displays are enclosed in a chain-link fence with no access. So, any pictures of the aircraft on display there have to be taken through the fence, which sometimes can make for a difficult process.

 

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I had tried to contact someone at the Old Car Heaven Museum in downtown Birmingham, but was unable to find out what their operating hours were. Greta took me to the correct address, but there were only two cars out front and the doors were locked. Just as I was getting ready to leave, this guy pulled up and went to enter the building. I asked him if I could take a look at the museum’s cars, and he told me to walk around to the back stairs and ask for the mechanic.

 

 

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The mechanic’s name was Tom, and he didn’t seem too happy to see me. After I told him I just wanted a quick look at the museum’s cars, he cooled down some. He walked me around the warehouse full of some 103 cars of all makes and models, in various stages of restoration. He informed me that he was the only mechanic, and was responsible for keeping all the cars running, and preparing the ones the boss wanted to display for any given event the restaurant/lounge sponsored. I told Tom I understood his frustration, when Fred (the guy from around front) let someone in without notifying him. He warmed up at that point, so I took some photos, and he told me all about some of the museum’s unique cars.

 

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Next on the list for today was a visit to the Baker Vintage Motorsports Museum located just east of Birmingham, off I-20 in Leeds, Alabama. This is a huge five-story museum complex housing somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 motorcycles, represented by over 200 manufactures from 20 countries, plus 100 race cars and automobiles. The museum building is laid out in such a manner that you can take an elevator to the fifth floor, and then slowly walk on a gradually sloping circular walkway, around the interior of the building, allowing you access to all of the motorcycles and vehicles on each floor as you slowly travel down.

 

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Each of the older motorcycles (beginning with many from the early 1900s) is perfectly restored, while many of the newer models look to be brand-new. This is an absolutely amazing display. In addition to the Vintage Motorsports Museum, the Barber Motorsports Park includes a world-class 16 turn 2.38 mile road course, and a vehicle proving ground which are both open to the public. If you are a motor sports fan, and ever get a chance to visit the Birmingham area, be sure to check out this museum and motorsports complex. You will be overwhelmed!

 

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I had planned to visit the Avondale Brewery, which was not far from the Old Car Heaven Museum there in Birmingham, but they did not open until 4 PM. While I was waiting for them to open, I Googled breweries in the area, and found that there were two others close.

 

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So, I went down the street a few blocks from there to see if I could get a tour of the Good People Brewery. They were open but informed me that they only gave tours of their brewery on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

 

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So, it was back to the Avondale Brewery to wait. I took a walk to stretch my legs, and down the block, I came across the Post Office Pies Restaurant.  The name intrigued me, so I stepped inside the door, only to find out that it was all about pizza pies, not dessert pies.

 

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At 4 o’clock I received my mini-tour of the Avondale Brewery. It consisted of two very small buildings and was a very quick tour. I commented to the tour guide/office manager how, as far as I could see, they had all the processing equipment that Budweiser had, and she said, “We would be a tiny speck on a sheet of paper compared to them!”

 

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On the way to the motel, I spotted the local Longhorn Steakhouse and stopped for another dose of my favorite meal of their baby back ribs, a sweet potato and a garden salad with ranch dressing. Then I headed for the motel to record today’s activities and prepare my list for tomorrow’s museum visits. So ends another great day of scenic travel and museum visits.

 

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—–To Be Continued—–

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My 2016 Mid-West Trip~Part 12

21 Sep

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 12 (Wednesday)

 

I got on the road from Huntsville by 8:30 am, and arrived at my friends, Terry and Mary Simmons, house at 9:30 am. Their house is located just a few miles northwest of Lester, AL on the Alabama/Tennessee border. The plan was for Terry and me to drive over to the local R/C model airplane field and watch the members fly their models. As it turned out, by the time we had breakfast and got to the airfield, all the members had finished their flying for the day and were gone. So we headed back to his house for some lunch.

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Terry was telling me about the owner of the property, and how he had built his own grass landing strip next to his farm house. When he mentioned the owners name I was surprised! The man’s name was Epps, and the reason for my surprise was that we have a replica of a 1907 Epps ultralight aircraft on display at our VAC Museum in Titusville, Florida. I’m wondering if the man in Alabama might be related to the man who built and flew the original 1907 Epps aircraft in Georgia. That, by the way, was the first airplane recorded to have been flown in the state of Georgia. Terry is going to find out his full name so I can Google him to see if he might be related.

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After a delicious grilled ham and cheese sandwich and a short nap, Terry and I looked at airplane books and he related many stories of aviation enthusiasts and historical events. Mary cooked us a wonderful Milk Can supper. I had never heard of that, and when I asked her about the name of the dish, she related the history of the Milk Can supper to me.

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Mary used her Chef’s Oven to cook our small Milk Can supper, but I understand that people still use the traditional milk cans when cooking for large 40-50 person gatherings. I also discovered there are lots of Milk Can recipes on the internet, and even some “How-To” YouTube videos on the subject. After supper, Terry and I talked airplanes until past my bedtime. I finally called it a night, and settled down to a nice quiet (no traffic sounds) night’s sleep. He and I had made plans to visit aviation museums and car museums together tomorrow in Birmingham, Alabama, as my trip took me in that direction.

 

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—–To Be Continued—–

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My 2016 Mid-West Trip~Part 11

14 Sep

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

 

Day 11 (Tuesday)

 

I began the day by heading south, out of Nashville, on I-24 for my first stop, to visit to the Cannonsburgh Village located in Murfreesboro, TN. Now according to Wikipedia, Murfreesboro was named Cannonsburgh until 1811, when the name was changed by the state legislature. How’s that for a really great trivia question? This village is a nicely restored early 1800s Tennessee farming community. Most of the buildings are of log construction and were moved from their original locations to this site in 1976.

 

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Included in the village buildings are a log home, a one-room schoolhouse, a general store, a church, a town hall, a gristmill, and a working blacksmith’s shop. This village gives people a good idea of how an early farm community would have looked in the early 19th century Tennessee hill country.

 

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From Murfreesboro I headed south on U.S. 231, through Shelbyville and Fayetteville, and across the border into Alabama. My next stop was to visit the North Alabama Railroad Museum located in the northeast outskirts of Huntsville, AL. This museum was very small and looked like it probably consisted mostly of local railroad memorabilia. The sign out front and on the entrance gate said the museum was supposed to be open but, I got there around noon and, it was closed. I suppose they could have just locked up and gone to lunch.

 

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Down the road a ways was the next stop on my list for today at The Historic Huntsville Depot located in downtown Huntsville, Alabama.  The depot was constructed in 1860 and is the oldest railway passenger station in Alabama. It was the eastern division headquarters for the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, and serviced its last passenger train in 1968. As luck would have it, the museum was closed in preparation for an event that was to take place in and around the museum grounds during that coming weekend.

 

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Next on the list was the U.S. Space & Rocket Center also located on I-585 just east of downtown Huntsville. I had been to this museum once before but decided to go through it again to see if they had added anything new. It didn’t look like there were any new exhibits and many of the outdoor exhibits that had been pristine the last time I was there, were now weather-beaten and looking poorly. I find it very sad to see an organization as large as this NASA museum allowing their exhibits to deteriorate to such a degree. Especially after all the money they pull in from visitors from all over the world.

 

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Next I checked out the Veterans Memorial Park there in Huntsville. This was a beautifully sculptured park, with a couple of very nice statues representing our military, and their part in the ongoing fight for our freedom.

 

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I wanted to see if there was a museum associated with the Redstone Arsenal, which has been so instrumental in U.S. rocketry development. However, I was disappointed when I called the base to inquire, and was informed that there were no museums open to the public.

 

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Next I visited the Veterans Memorial Museum located around the corner from the Veterans Memorial Park. The signs for the museum were a little hard to follow but I finally located it. This museum is dedicated to all of the U.S. military services, and has restored Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine equipment. Like many small museums I have visited, this one was hoping to expand soon, so that they could display many more of the items in their collection to the public.

 

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Now it’s time to head for the motel, where I will warm up and enjoy leftovers of St. Louis ribs, turnip greens, and corn-on-the-cob. I even have a nice piece of Jack’s BBQ homemade cornbread and some butter and Strawberry jam to spread on it for dessert. Yumm again!

 

—–To Be Continued—–

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My 2016 Mid-West Trip~Part 10

7 Sep

A Slice of LIfe

Bill Lites

Day 10 (Monday)

 

What a beautiful day to take a drive through the Kentucky and Tennessee Hill Country. My first stop today was to visit the Swope’s Cars of Yesteryear Museum located in Elizabethtown, KY. This really was a “cars of MY yesteryear” museum. It was filled with beautifully restored 1900s to 1960s cars, many of which brought back the memories of my teenage years. They had a Hudson Hornet that DiVoran told me she drove when she was a teenager. They also had a 1955 Ford Crown Victoria, similar to the one that my high school best friend’s sister had. She would drive us around town when we asked her to, so we could feel like we were high class teenagers.

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The next stop on my list for today was the Historic Rail Park & Train Museum in Bowling Green, KY. This was a good sized museum located in the original Bowling Green train station. They had memorabilia and model trains inside and some nicely restored Pullman train cars outside.

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As I was leaving Bowling Green, heading back to I-65, I came across Art’s Corvette/Art’s Auto Mart, just around the corner from the National Corvette Museum, located on the outskirts of town. It looked like they could have had as many as 100 different Corvettes and other cars displayed in those two facilities. However not being a Corvette fan, and not needing to buy a car, I elected not to pay the entrance fee and go through the museum. Besides, these two museums were not on my list and I needed to make tracks for Nashville.

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I stopped at the Tennessee Welcome Station for a short break and to pick up a Tennessee road map. They were playing country music on their speaker system for their visitors. After I used the restroom, I picked up a map and headed for my car. I saw a lady on the sidewalk, who looked like she was waiting for someone, and she was moving to the music. By the time I got to my car she had started heading toward her car, but she really wasn’t walking, she was line-dancing down the sidewalk to the music from the welcome station. It was the coolest thing. She had no idea anyone was watching and I don’t think she really cared. I wished I had thought in time to take a video, but I didn’t.

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My first stop in Nashville was to visit the Lane Motor Museum, located on the east side of town, just after I crossed over the Cumberland River. This museum was unbelievable! One man, Jeff Lane, has collected approximately 450 different kinds of motor vehicles and motorcycles from all over the world under one roof. What was so amazing for me was that almost all of the vehicles in this collection run, and many are shown at various car shows. A sign in front of the museum reads “Unique Cars from A to Z.” I had no idea that so many different types of vehicles have been manufactured throughout the world in days gone by.

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I tried to visit the Music Valley Wax Museum there in Nashville but discovered that it had been closed, due to a flood in the area in 2010. However, within walking distance of the wax museum building, I was able to walk through The Nashville Music Palace (The home of traditional country music) and The Willie Nelson & Friends Museum. Both were filled with memorabilia of various country music stars from over the years.

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My plan was to visit the Grand Ole Opry, but I was told the only way that was going to happen was if I bought a tour ticket, that included the Opry House and a stage performance. I probably would only see an empty Ryman Auditorium stage and I didn’t have the time to wait around for an evening show. So, I opted to do the whole Grand Ole Opry tour another time.

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Last on the list for today was to visit Nashville’s Centennial Part and take in the full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens, Greece. The Original replica was built in 1897 as the center piece for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition.   Later, during the 1913 & 1914 Spring Pageants, it was referred to as the “Athens of the South.” The structure was left standing for the next 20 some years, until weather and deterioration required its removal. It was permanently rebuilt, on the same foundation, between 1920 and 1931.

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The Nashville Parthenon now operates as an art museum, with a 41-foot high reproduction of Athena Parthenos (Greek goddess Athena) as its focus. It’s beyond me why anyone would want to keep something like that in their city. I guess it makes for a good tourist attraction. It got my attention didn’t it!

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When checking into the motel, I asked the desk clerk about a good place to eat, and he referred me to Jack’s BBQ Restaurant a couple miles down the road. Jack’s was a small place, but the aroma in and around the place made my mouth water and my stomach growl. I had some of the tenderest and most delicious St. Louis Ribs I have ever had. They came with collard greens, corn-on-the-cob, and cold slaw. I enjoyed a slice of their homemade cornbread and Grape jam for desert. Luckily, there was enough of everything, left over, for me to enjoy it all again tomorrow night.

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—–To Be Continued—–

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My 2016 Mid-West Trip~Part 9

31 Aug

A Slice of Life

 Bill Lites

 

Day 9 (Sunday)

 

The day started nice enough in Indianapolis, but as I traveled south I ran into some fairly heavy rain storms. I made a short sidetrack off I-65 to check out The Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum located adjacent to the Bakalar Air Force Base just outside Columbus, IN. Even though I could not see in the building, it was quite small and I’m sure the museum was made up of local memorabilia about the history of the Bakalar Air Force Base.

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I drove on into Louisville, Kentucky where my first stop was visit the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory located just across the Ohio River in the West-Main District of downtown Louisville. A guided tour was included, as part of the admission price to the museum, and it was very interesting and well presented. They showed us how some of the wooden bats were made by hand in the late 1880s (30 hours). We also got to see how a Louisville Slugger wooden bat is made today, from start (billet) to finish, ready for a game (30 minutes). I was amazed to find out that the Louisville Slugger factory produces as many as 1.6 million wooden baseball bats per year. And if that’s not enough, they are only one of over 30 some wooden bat manufacturing companies in the United States and Canada. It you happen to be a baseball fan, checkout Wikipedia under “Facts about Louisville Slugger Wood Bats” for some amazing information about wood baseball bats.

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This section of West Main Street, in the downtown area of Louisville, is called “Museum Row” and is a little rundown. It appears to have become an art enthusiast’s dream, with several art galleries and tea shops. I was not impressed with the “Artwork” some of the galleries choose to display on the sidewalks.

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My next stop was at the Kentucky Railway Museum located in New Haven, Kentucky. This was one of those museums that sell short railroad rides similar to those I’ve seen in Florida and Colorado. The inside of the museum itself was very small and filled with local train memorabilia. They had a considerable amount of nicely restored rolling stock but I don’t believe it was accessible to the public.

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Since the other railroad museum and the automobile Museum on my list in the area were both closed today, I headed for the motel in Radcliff, Kentucky. I was surprised to see on the map that the Fort Knox Gold Bullion Depository was only a few miles from Radcliffe, located within the Fort Knox Army Base. I asked the desk clerk at the motel if I could get a tour of the nation’s gold depository, and he informed me that security was very tight around the facility, and that they did not allow people to stop their cars on the highway in front of the building or even take pictures of the grounds.

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I just had to drive by and take a look at this famous facility. I headed down East Bullion Boulevard, and as you might guess, the local gentry have used the local gold depository in advertising of all types, just like at home with the “Space Coast” title.

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I passed several such signs for businesses, such as “Gold City Towing” and the “Gold Vault Inn.” Then when I drove past the treasury building itself, where most of the American public visualizes the housing of all that gold, it is really a very unimpressive structure. Wikipedia says that much of America’s gold is actually stored in a massive vault under the Depository building.

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Then it was back to the motel to warm up my yummy dinner of Outback grilled Pork Chop, garlic mash potatoes and asparagus. It was every bit as delicious as it was the night before. The only thing missing was the restaurant music and the sports on the TV, which I can do without while I’m eating.

—–To Be Continued—–

 

 

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My 2016 Mid-West Trip~Part 8

24 Aug

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

 

Day 8 (Saturday)

It was a beautiful day for my trip from St. Louis, MO to Indianapolis, IN.  My first stop was to visit the Indiana Transportation Museum located in Noblesville, IN. This museum turned out to be a very small and mostly a collection of neglected rolling stock.  However, there was a tour guide who showed me around, and informed me that much of the museum’s train equipment was in one state of restoration or another. He added that the restoration process was slow going because they did not have that many volunteers to do the work.

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I spent a lot of time with Greta trying to find the Rolls-Royce Allison Heritage Trust Museum located on the southwest side of Indianapolis. She kept taking me around in circles that always ended up at the same intersection, in front of a deserted building. I finally found the Rolls-Royce facility, a mile or so down the road, but did not see a museum sign anywhere. I couldn’t find any evidence of it, and I might be wrong, but the museum (if any) might be closed to the public.

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Next I headed for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum situated just west of Indianapolis in Speedway, IN.  In order to get to the museum I had to drive through the tunnel, under the speedway racetrack, to the infield where the museum is located.  The museum has a fantastic collection of race cars, many of which have been winners in races at the Indianapolis 500 race, and other races at the speedway, dating from the early 1900s to the present day.

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One of the tour guide to saw me taking pictures of the cars and said, “Would you like me to take your picture with one of these race cars?” When I told him I would like that, he said, “Just sit on the bench in front of this one, it is the car Juan Pablo Montoya won the last year’s Indianapolis 500 race with (and $2.5 million).”

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I tried to find the World War II Memorial, which is the centerpiece of the World Memorial Plaza in downtown Indianapolis, but Greta kept telling me she couldn’t find a match for the address I had giving her. So, after several tries, I gave up the hunt for today and headed for the motel.

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Tonight I treated myself to meal of some really great Outback Stakehouse grilled Pork Chops, garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus and a house salad with ranch dressing on the side. They were some of the best pork chops I’ve had in a long time. Freshly baked bread with lots of butter and Strawberry jam was my desert. Makes my mouth water just thinking about how good it was!

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Tomorrow morning I’m heading out early for Louisville, Kentucky.

—–To Be Continued—–

 

 

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My 2016 Mid-West Trip~Part 7

17 Aug

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 7 (Friday)

Since most of the museums on today’s list were on the west side of St. Louis I started with the Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum located at the Creve Coeur Airport. I had been unable to find their hours of operation on their website; I called ahead this morning and was told that they were only open on Saturday and Sunday. They also informed me that any other day of the week the museum was only opened to the public with a 24-hour advance appointment, which left me out in the cold. I was a very disappointed as the museum consisted of three hangers which I’m sure houses many beautifully restored airplanes. Maybe next time.

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Not too far down the road was the St. Louis Museum of Transportation located in the small community of Twin Oaks. This was a fairly large museum consisting of restored cars, trains, and aircraft. The most interesting item at the museum, as far as I was concerned, was their 1/3 scale train ride. The train was modeled after an early 1900s steam engine with open train cars for passengers that circled a portion of the museum grounds. Everything associated with the train ride was 1/3 scale, including crossing safety bars, flashing lights, railroad crossing signs, and the load & unload station. I took a ride and the little kid in me really enjoyed it.

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Next I headed for the Greater St. Louis Air & Space Museum located in Cahokia, but Greta had a hard time finding it. I reset the location three times for her but she never could get me there. Finally I stopped at a motel and ask for directions, which they printed out for me from MapQuest. I tried to follow the written directions, read the street signs and drive at the same time, but that didn’t work. So I tried a final time to input the location to Greta, and what a surprise, she took me right to it. However, when I got there the Greater St. Louis Air & Space Museum I saw at that location was a joke! It was one rundown Hanger with a beat-up C-47 sitting out in front with no engines, and they were closed.

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(This is the sign on the gate where Greta took me)

When I got home and looked up the museum’s website. I couldn’t understand what had happened. All the photos on their website showed something very different from what I had seen and photographed. There was some information about two museum site locations (hangers), so maybe Greta took me to the other location. Whatever, that doesn’t explain her taking me to the address I had for the museum. Mysteries seem to never cease with Greta. I may have to turn her in for the GPS system on my IPhone.

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(This is not the museum location Greta took me to)

Finally I headed for the St. Louis Gateway Arch. I had left visiting the Arch until last because the Internet had said their hours were 8 AM – 10 PM. I have always wanted to ride the elevator up to the top of the Arch, but today it wasn’t going to happen. I had noticed as I came across the bridge, over the Mississippi River, that it looked like there was a lot of construction going on around the base of the Arch. When I pulled into the parking lot I was told that parking was $15, and that Arch tickets might be sold out for the day.

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I was a little surprised at this statement, because it was only 4:30 in the afternoon. The parking attendant was very nice and informed me that today the Arch was closing at 6:00 PM and the last tram ride was at 5:45. I hadn’t known I needed to buy a ticket online before I left home, and would have to drive several blocks to the Courthouse to buy a ticket. Even if I was able to get a ticket, the chances would be slim that I could drive to the Courthouse, find a place to park, buy the ticket, and get back to the Arch parking area and walked to the tram location in time. As I was discussing all this with the parking lot attendant, I noticed a group of at least 75 – 100 school children, all dressed in the same uniform, heading for the Arch tram location. Even if both trams were working, I just knew my chances of getting a ride in one of the small 5-person trams would be likely impossible today. That’s when I called it a day and started looking for someplace to have dinner.

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After all the frustration of this day, I treated myself to a wonderful dinner at the local Cracker Barrel. I had enjoyed their Grilled Catfish so much a couple nights before that I decided to try their grilled Lemon Pepper Trout tonight. It was wonderful, and the collard greens and carrots were great. Honey on one of their famous buttermilk biscuits was my dessert. Once my tummy was full, I was ready to head for the motel for some TV and a good night’s rest.

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—–To Be Continued—–

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