Tag Archives: Museum Travel Series

2022 Road Trip Part 6

5 Oct

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 6 (5/21/2022)

This morning after breakfast, Terry and I headed off in search of the Blue & Gray Museum located in Decatur, AL.  We found the address, but the museum had closed (another victim of Covid I guess).  As we were walking down Bank Street, looking for the museum, I saw this historical marker and took a photo.  It seems that Ellen Hildreth was the founder of the Alabama Women’s Suffrage Club, there in what was then called New Decatur, in 1892 and hosted many National Suffrage Leaders at the Echols Opera House which is also located there on Bank Street.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

We gave up on the Blue & Gray Museum and it was only a few blocks to where we visited the Historic Decatur Railroad Depot Museum there in Decatur.  This small museum is situated in the old restored 1905 Southern Railway Depot and displays many antique railroad artifacts and memorabilia related to the early development of Decatur and the surrounding De Kalb County, dating from the early 1800s.  The museum also has a model railroad layout on the trackside of the depot.  The curator informed us that as many as 100+ trains still pass by the museum in any given day.  Busy place!

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

Terry grew up in the Decatur area and he and the museum curator, who was also from Decatur, had a wonderful time talking about old times in the area and the many things they remembered that had changed over the years.  I finally pulled Terry away from the curator, so he could talk to other visitors, and we headed for one of Terry’s favorite restaurants there in Decatur.  This turned out to be the Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q Restaurant, where I ordered a plate of their St. Louis Bar-B-Q Ribs with a sweet potato, coleslaw, and a glass of their ‘real southern’ iced tea.  The ribs were falling-off-the- bone delicious and tender. After that wonderful meal, I still had enough left over to enjoy that meal again tomorrow night.

Photo Credit: lastoneeating.wordpress.com/big-bob-gibson-bar-b-q/

After that fantastic meal, we headed back to Terry’s house in Lester where I took a quick nap.  That was my first nap since I started this trip, and it really felt good.  We spent the rest of the afternoon talking about the ‘Good Old Times’ in Titusville, what had happened to all the friends we had worked with, and how so many things have changed.  We brought each other up to date on our children, grandchildren, our lives, and the many ailments us old geezers have to deal with.  We pretty much exhausted every subject we could think of until it was time for dinner.  Mary had prepared a light meal of chicken Taco Salad (Tostado) and it was delicious.   

Photo Credit: https://images.search.yahoo.com/ Chicken-Tostada

After dinner I called DiVoran with my nightly update, and we spent a good hour, each taking our turn talking to her.  Mary went to bed after that, and Terry and I stayed up talking about my trip plans and all the new aviation books he had read.  

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

So ended another great day with friends.  The trip to the museum, all that good food, and reminiscing with Terry and Mary, were just the thing I needed to put me to sleep for a good night’s rest.  ZZZZZ.

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 65 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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2021 Mid-Eastern Road Trip Part 12

1 Dec

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 12 – 7/23/2021

Leaving Knoxville this morning, I headed southeast 30 miles on I-40 and SR-66 to visit the Tennessee Museum of Aviation located at the Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge Airport in Sevierville, TN.  This museum has several beautifully restored WWII aircraft, in flying condition, and has other aviation artifacts and memorabilia, dating as far back as the Wright Brothers glider replica on display.  Flight demonstrations, put on by this museum’s aircraft, are a frequent occurrence, but that didn’t happen while I was there.  Bummer!

Photo Credit: https://www.facebook.com/TN.Museum.of.Aviation/

It was only a few miles to where I visited the Floyd Garrett Muscle Car Museum there in Sevierville.  This museum has 90+ perfectly restored muscle cars dating from the classic ’50s, ’60s, & ’70s and some of the more recent 2000s – 2010s.  To say this museum is filled with some of the most delicious looking ‘Eye Candy’ is an understatement.  That little tour took me back to my high school hot-rodding days.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

After that wonderful trip down ‘Memory Lane’ I headed southwest 25 miles on US-441 to visit the Cades Cove Museum located in Mayville, TN.  This small museum can be found in the restored 1790 Thompson- Brown log cabin adjacent to the Cades Cove Visitor’s Center.  The museum displays many family relics and family heirlooms from the generations who lived in this area prior to the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (1934).

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

Now I headed 20 miles west on US-321, thru Ainwick & Friendsville to visit the Lenoir City Museum & Cotton Mill located in Lenoir City, TN.  The small museum relates the history of Lenoir City, and that of Major William B. Lenoir, who moved to North Carolina in 1810 and settled on land granted to his father.  The Mill was one of several mills built in 1821 by Lenoir to produce cotton yarns and battings.  It survived the Civil War and was converted to a flower mill in the late 1800s.  The mill continued to operate, producing flower until the 1950.  Only ruins of the mill remain, as it was burned by arsonists in 1991 and was not restored.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

I headed southwest 30 miles on US-11 to visit the Sweetwater Depot located in Sweetwater, TN.  The restored 1852 Sweetwater railroad depot uses photographs and antique railroad artifacts, to tell the story of the development of the city of Sweetwater and the surrounding Monroe County area from the early 1800s.

Photo Credit:Bill Lites

It was another 35 miles southwest on US-411, thru Etowah, Delano, and Wetmore where I stopped to check out the Chilhowee Gliderport located in Benton, TN but there was nothing going on at the airfield.  So, I continued southwest about 10 miles to Ocoee, where I picked up I-75 and another 35 miles southwest to visit the Tennessee Valley RR Museum located in Chattanooga, TN.  This museum is situated in the reconstructed 1920s East Chattanooga Depot and displays restored steam locomotives and other rolling stock.  The museum has antique railroad artifacts dating from the early 1800s and offers daily short excursions, and other special offerings, on their restored 1950s era steam-driven trains.

Photo Credit: http://have-kids-will-travel.com/index.php/2018/11/01/tennessee-valley-railroad-museum-

Now I headed northwest 80 miles on I-24, across the Tennessee River, to visit Beechcraft Heritage Museum located adjacent to the Tullahoma Regional Airport in Tullahoma, TN.  This Museum displays 35+ beautifully restored civilian aircraft, including the very first 1924 Beechcraft Travel Air ‘Mystery Ship’ and many others in the Walter Beech Hanger.  My favorite is their 1932 Beechcraft Staggerwing.

Photo Credit:Bill Lites

After that thrilling tour thru aviation history, I headed southwest 75 miles on US-64 to visit my friends Terry and Mary, who have a beautiful home in the boonies, just across the border, near Lester, AL.  Greta (my Garmin) took me on a few back roads to get me there, but I finally made it to their house.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

Terry told me I was just in time to go with him to Jim ’N & Nick’s BBQ for dinner.  I ordered their St. Louis Spare Ribs plate with baked beans, cold slaw, and a cornbread muffin.  That was a great meal!  And, I had enough left over for tomorrow night’s dinner.  It was dark by the time we got back to their house, and we spent the rest of that evening reminiscing about old times, when our kids were growing up together in Titusville, FL.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 64 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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2021 Mid-Eastern Road Trip Part 4B

8 Sep

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 4 – 7/15/2021 (Continued)

Leaving Burlington, NC I headed north on US-87 toward Roanoke, VA.  On the way I crossed the border and stopped in Ridgeway, VA long enough to take a photo of the famous Martinsville Speedway.  Built in 1947, this ½ -mile oval track is home to the NASCAR Cup Series races and is referred to as “The Paper Clip” by many drivers.  I’ve watched a lot of NASCAR races that have taken place at that track, over the years, and wanted to at least be able to say I saw the track.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

Another 10 miles north on US-220 I visited the Rucker’s Antique Emporium located in Martinsville, VA.  I wanted to check-out the Telephone & Telecommunications Museum which I was told was on the 2nd floor of the Emporium.  This museum uses antique artifacts displayed to allows visitors to walk thru the history of the telephone and other telecommunication devices dating from the early 1800s to the present.

Photo Credit: https://didyouknowscience.com/top-technology-breakhroughs-in-the-1800s/  

Now it was another 50 miles north on US-220 to visit the Virginia Museum of Transportation located in Roanoke, VA.  This large museum is housed in the old 1918 Norfolk & Western Railway freight depot and displays many 1940s era steam locomotives and other rolling stock.  The museum also has on display several restored 1800s antique cars, in addition to the Big Lick; a 1940s era passenger station replica and much more.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

Just a few blocks away I visited the O. Winston Link Museum, there in Roanoke.  This small museum is located in the restored 1852 Norfolk & Western Railway passenger station and displays the photographic works of Winston Link, who is said to be considered the 20th century master railroad photographer.  His railroad themed photographs are nationally known and have appeared in many books and magazines over the years.

Photo Credit: https://hddsite1.com/

In another few blocks, there in downtown Roanoke, I visited the Virginian Station which is the old 1909 Roanoke Passenger Station.   Renovated after a fire in 2001, the station now displays historical exhibits, artifacts, and memorabilia as they relate to the influence 

of the Virginian Railway Line on the early city of Roanoke and the surrounding Roanoke Valley area.  Passenger service from this station was terminated in 1956.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

Before leaving downtown Roanoke I stopped to check-out the Roanoke Pinball Museum located at #1 Market Street, in the Market Center, on the 2nd floor of the Center in the Square building.  This museum has 60 fully playable pinball machines and other interactive displays dating from the 1930s to the present.  And yes, I remember spending a lot of time playing pinball machines as a teenager.  But Snooker was really my game of choice.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

I was running out of daylight, and by now it was time to locate my motel, there in Roanoke, and get checked.  Once I got everything in my motel room, I ask the motel clerk for restaurant recommendations close by and he said he liked the El Cazador Mexican Restaurant down the street.  I had their Chili Verde plate with Spanish rice and refried beans.  It was wonderful, and I had enough left over for tomorrow night.

Photo Credit: http://elcazadortaqueria.com/menu.php?cat=19&item=46&loc=5

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 64 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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My 2019 Great Lakes Road Trip Part 14B

5 Feb

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 14 – Monday August 5 (Continued)

To continue this day’s activities, and as I mentioned last week, at the Chicago Maritime Museum, I was interested to read, as part of the museum’s information, the story of the two 1900s paddle-wheel passenger steamers that the U.S. Navy converted to the aircraft carriers “USS Sable” and “USS Wolverine” during WWII.  These two carriers were stationed in Lake Michigan and Chicago was their home port.  The two aircraft carriers were used to train U.S. Navy carrier pilots.  Navy records indicate that many aircraft were lost in the lake, due to multiple causes, and the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum in Florida, where I now volunteer as a tour guide, has one of the restored F4F Wildcat airplanes that was recovered from the lake 1993.  However, that fascinating story is for another time and another blog.  Look for that blog coming soon.

As I was leaving the maritime museum, I ran over something and damaged a tire on my rental car.  I had made plans to have dinner with my niece, Karen, and her husband, Brian, that evening, so I called to tell them I might be late.  Brian is a great communicator, and he set about to locate the closest Avis agency for me.  He found one within 3-miles of where I was stranded.  This car did not have a spare tire (only an Emergency Repair Kit), so we called the Avis Roadside Assistance people for a tow.

The Avis Roadside Assistance wanted to tow my car 20+ miles to trade cars with me.  Brian said, “In Chicago’s rush-hour traffic that will take hours!”  So, we ended up using my personal Roadside Assistance people, who said they would take me to the closest Avis agency.  They said they could have a tow-truck to my location within one hour.  That was great.  But then about 45 minutes later, they called to tell me that the driver had been given the wrong address, and it would be another hour before he could get to my location.  It was a total of three hours before the tow-truck finally dropped me off at the local Avis lot.   The agent said they didn’t have another car of the type I was driving, or even a tire to exchange, and anyway they were getting ready to close.  Did all this upset me?  Nahh!  

Just to show you how good God is.  There just happened to be a Goodyear Tire shop right next door to Avis.  Now is that a coincidence or what?  So I thanked Him for the tire shop, bit the bullet and took the car to Goodyear for a new tire.  They were swamped with work, but were kind enough to work me into their schedule before quitting time.  I considered myself lucky that it only took them another hour to get the tire replaced.

I chalked up the flat tire fiasco and missing the other Chicago area museums on my list today to some kind of Divine Intervention that I would never figure out.  I  headed north about 60 miles on I-90/I-94 to Lake Villa, IL where I hoped my relatives had not gone to bed.  As luck would have it, they were still up and even had some left-over dinner that they warmed-up for me.  After a short visit, I was more than ready to take a relaxing shower and sleep easy tonight in their guest room.

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 61 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

 

Bill

 

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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My 2019 Great Lakes Road Trip Part 10

18 Dec

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 10 – Thursday August 1

I woke to another beautiful Minnesota day for visiting museums.  After a really great complimentary breakfast at the motel, I headed southeast, thru about 10 miles of  I-694 and East River Road morning traffic, to visit the Firefighter’s Hall of Fame & Museum, located just north of downtown Minneapolis.  This small museum houses historic fire trucks, firefighting equipment and memorabilia related to Minneapolis Fire Departments dating from the 1860s.  The museum also has interactive displays for children of all ages.

Now I headed about 10 miles southwest on I-394 to visit the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting located in the St. Louis Park area.  This museum displays a large collection of antique and vintage radio, TV, and broadcasting equipment dating from the 1920s.  I found it very interesting that the museum has one of the first German AEG Magnetophon tape recorders (unknown technology in the US at the time).  This recorder was brought to the U.S. after WWII and first used, by John T. Mullin, to record the Bing Crosby Shows in 1947.  It was also used to record many of Crosby’s famous songs of the time.  The evolution of this technology, over the years, has led to many of the high-tech radio, TV, movie and high-quality recording systems we enjoy today. 

Next I drove just a couple of miles east to visit the Minnehaha Railway Depot (part of the original “Milwaukee Road”) located on the shore of Lake Harriet, in the Minnehaha Regional Park and Wabun Picnic area.  Built in 1875, the depot served Minneapolis commuters and visitors to the park until 1963, when it was turned into a restored historic site.  I was intrigued with the Indian names associated with the area.  It is said, in the 1855 poem, The Song of Hiawatha (excerpt) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, that Minnehaha (laughing waters) was the wife of Hiawatha (1525-1595).  Hiawatha was a fictional Ojibwa warrior in the adventures of Longfellow’s poem.  Check out the history of this famous poem when you have the time.

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Now I headed west about 15 miles on I-394 to visit the Wayzata Depot Museum located on the shore of Lake Wayzata, in the small town of Wayzata, MN.  This depot was built by the Great Northern Railroad in 1906, to replace the original 1867 depot, and serviced the community of Wayzata until 1971.  The museum has a large display of vintage train memorabilia, including rare photos of the depot and the city of Wayzata from the late 1800s.  There is also a permanent miniature Minnesota Garden Railroad layout on the east side of the depot that is operated by the Wayzata Historical Society, on the weekends, to the delight of children and adults alike. 

Greta (my Garmin) took me a few miles east now, to visit the Bakken Museum located adjacent to the Lake Calhoun in the St. Louis Park area.  The museum is Minnesota’s only Smithsonian-Affiliate, and is the only library/museum in the world that is devoted to medical electricity.  The museum educates visitors about the history of electricity and electromagnetism, as it relates to medicine, from as far back as 1200 AD to the present.  The museum is filled with artifacts and memorabilia that tell the evolving story of medical electricity over the centuries.

My plan was to drive a few miles northeast to visit the Minnesota Newspaper Museum, located in the Falcon Heights area, but Greta couldn’t find the address.  I was disappointed not to get to visit this museum, as I have not come across that many newspaper museums, during my trips, and I am interested in the early evolution of the printing press and newspapers in general.  Their website informed me that they have volunteers, who can print souvenir copies of the “Maynard News,” using vintage linotype equipment.  I would love to have been able to witness that operation.  As a boy I was actually allowed to operate an old linotype machine (supervised) that was in the basement of my father’s office building.  It was being used, at the time, to print newsletters and other articles.

By now it was time for Greta to take me back to Brooklyn Center where I stopped in at a Chick-fil-A for some of their Chicken Fingers and a bowl of their famous Chicken Soup.  This was the easiest thing I could think of, to help sooth my upset stomach.  That seemed to work, and I headed for the motel to record today’s events and see if there might be something on the TV.  Of course there wasn’t.

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 61 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

 

Bill

 

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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My 2019 Great Lakes Road Trip Part 8B

27 Nov

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 8 – Tuesday July 30 (Continued)

I continued north on SR-35/SR-37 about 60 miles, to visit the Chippewa Valley Museum located in the Carson Park area, just to the west of downtown Eau Claire, WI.  This is a very interesting museum that displays artifacts and memorabilia dating from the late 1800s, that tells the history of the early Scandinavian pioneers to the Chippewa Valley area.  The museum hosts local field trips to the off-site Schiegelmitch House that teach the participants about Chippewa Valley history and culture as far back as the 1650s. The museum also hosts several special events throughout the year.

Now I headed north another 15 miles on US-53 to visit the Chippewa Falls Museum of Industry and Technology located in downtown Chippewa Falls, WI.  This museum is situated in the Cray, Inc. building and displays computer models, artifacts and scientific memorabilia; including some of the hand written notes of Seymour Cray who was born and raised in Chippewa Falls.  Cray is known in the computer world as “The Father of Supercomputing” and is noted for his creation of the early high-speed computers, and the founder of Control Data Corporation (CDC).   The efforts of Cray, along with others, led directly to the development of what we call “Supercomputers” today.  As a point of interest, the first advanced Cray-1 Supercomputer system was installed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory facility in Los Alamos, NM in 1976.

I headed west on County Road “N” about 20 miles to visit the Colfax Railroad Museum located in Colfax, WI.  This is a small museum, located in the third depot building to be built on this site over the years.  The museum consists of railroad artifacts dating from the 1850s and a large collection of railroad paper weights. Several pieces of original rolling stock are on display outside the museum.  A museum volunteer happened to be available to give me a tour of the museum’s rolling stock and a brief history of the Old Colfax Depot and the museum.

To get to the last museum for today I drove west on I-94, about 75 miles, across the Mississippi River again, back into Minnesota, where I visited the Bell Museum located on the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus in Saint Paul, MN.   This museum has been Minnesota’s official Natural History Museum since 1872.  The museum is now housed in a new building which includes wildlife dioramas, high tech exhibits, an on-line searchable interface that integrates data from the museum on birds, mammals, fish, plants, and fungi.  The museum also has a 120 seat digital planetarium, where visitors can explore interesting films of our own Earth and other planets with new “seamless” technology presentations such as “Habitat Earth” and “Out of This World” or “The Hunt for Dark Matter.”

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By now it was getting late and I asked Greta to take me to the motel for the night, located in the Brooklyn Center area, just a few miles north of downtown Minneapolis.  After I got checked in, I warmed up my leftover BP Smokehouse Baby Back Ribs, baked beans and some coleslaw.  Yummm!  I love BBQ anything, and anytime!

Description: Image result for baby back ribs with baked beans and cole slaw

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 61 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

 

Bill

 

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

Tags: , ,

My 2019 Great Lakes Road Trip Part 7B

13 Nov

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 7 – Monday July 29 (Continued)

 Before leaving Baraboo I visited the Circus World Museum, located on the outskirts of town, adjacent to the Baraboo River.  The museum was founded in 1954 to preserve the history of the “Big Top” circus in America, and teach future generations about the traditions of this American art form of life.  I learned that this museum is situated on the original Ringling Bros. Circus Winter Quarters site.  The museum displays many original Ringling Bros. circus wagons, and other pieces of Ringling’s equipment, and includes a large variety of circus artifacts, and memorabilia.  The museum also offers many year-around special events and a business meeting center.

60 miles northwest on I-90 I visited the Tomah Area Museum located in Tomah, WI.  Much of this small museum is noted for its displays of newspaper stories, artifacts, and memorabilia related to the comic strip “Gasoline Alley” and the Menomonee tribal chief Tomah.

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The “Gasoline Alley” comic strip (for those of you who have never heard of it) was created by Frank King, who was a resident of Tomah.  First published in 1918, the cartoon went on to become one of America’s most popular comic strips of its day.  It is still found in newspapers across the nation today.  As it turns out, Tomah is also the boyhood home of John Sheridan, who became the illustrator for many of the Saturday Evening Post covers over the years.

Description: Image result for gasoline alley clipart

Chief Tomah was born in1752 and settled with his people in, what is now known as southern Wisconsin.  He is noted for declining to join the great native worrier, known as Tecumseh, in his battle against the early white settlers in this area.  He went on to befriend many of the early homesteaders, who named their settlement after Chief Tomah (1856) for his kindness to them over the years.  

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Today I drove thru some of the most beautiful rich, green, rolling hills and valleys, covered with corn crops, as far as the eye could see in every direction.  The temperature was a perfect 76 degrees, with blue skies dotted with puffy white clouds.  I could not have asked for a more perfect day to be on a road trip.  God filled my heart with His unspeakable joy today, and I reveled in it all day long.  By now however, it was time to call it a “Wonderful” day and get something to eat.

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I asked Greta to take me to the motel, there in Tomah, for the evening.  After this long travel day, I felt like rewarding myself with something special to eat tonight.  So, after checking in at the motel, I headed over to the BP Smokehouse BBQ Restaurant, there in town, for a full-rack of their delicious Baby Back Ribs, served with baked beans and cole slaw.  AHHH, how satisfying!  After this delightful meal, the only thing left for me to do, was to go back to the motel, record my day’s activities and get some sleep. 

Description: Image result for baby back ribs with baked beans and cole slaw

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 61 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

 

Bill

 

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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My 2019 Great Lakes Road Trip Part 3B

25 Sep

Day 3 – Thursday July 25 (Continued)

Continuing today’s activities, I headed northeast on I-94 to visit the Wills Sainte Claire Auto Museum located in Marysville, MI.  This museum tells the story of C.H. Wills, who after working as a design engineer for Henry Ford, left Ford in 1919 to start designing and building his own cars. The resulting modern and stylish Wills Sainte Claire Model A-68 car and other cars he created were not a success. The price of his cars for the time, and the Great Depression, caused the company to close its doors in 1929, along with many other car companies of the time.

Next I headed west on I-69 to check out the Sloan Museum located in Burton, MI.  This museum is part of the Cortland Center Mall, and has around 30 beautifully restored cars on display dating from 1904, including 5 ultra-rare Concept Cars.  Because I took so much time at the previous museums, I was running out of time for today. So I decided to skip the three museums, on my list in the Flint, MI area, and head north on I-75.

My sister, Judy, and another friend had told me that if I got a chance, I should stop in Frankenmuth, MI to check out that unique and beautiful Bavarian city.  The downtown Bavarian designed buildings were unique but I wasn’t particularly impressed with the Abby’s of Frankenmuth tourist trap area.  I was also very disappointed that the Michigan’s Military & Space Hero’s Museum there in town was closed.

I took time to watch the Bavarian Bell Riverboat return from a run down the Cass River, and took a stroll thru what is called Michigan’s Largest Wooden Covered Bridge.  Built in the late 1977s, this beautifully designed covered bridge (Holz Brucke) is 239 feet long and is wide enough for two auto lanes with sidewalks on either side.  As a serendipity on this long day my son, Billy, called to check on me while I was standing in front of the bridge watching the Bavarian Bell Riverboat dock across the Cass River.  He looked up my location on his cell phone, and was describing the surroundings in such detail that I asked him if he could see me waving.  What fun that was.

My last museum today was to be the Saginaw Railway Museum located in Saginaw, MI.   Of course, I had planned too many museum visits for today, and it was after 6:00 before I got to Saginaw.  The museum was closed, but I got some pictures of their museum building and their rolling stock.  The museum website informed me that the museum is housed in the restored 1907 Pere Marquette Railway depot that was moved from Hemlock, MI and sits on the original 1881 site of the Marquette Union Station. 

By now I was past ready for Greta to take me to tonight’s motel in Auburn, MI. After I got checked in at the motel, I heated up last night’s leftover Baked Lasagna from Leonardo’s Italian Grill, and enjoyed that delicious meal again.

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 61 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

 

Bill

 

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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My 2019 Great Lakes Road Trip Part 2

11 Sep

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 2 – Wednesday July 24

I was glad things worked out as they did yesterday, since one of the main reasons I picked this area for this road trip was to visit the Air Zoo Museum in Portage, MI.  This is one of the most amazing aviation museums I have visited.  Their 35+ beautifully restored aircraft are strategically positioned and lighted so the visitor can get good photos.  Their restoration building is one of the most organized and clean facilities I have ever seen.  This museum was one of the high-lights of this trip!

After this great museum visit, I headed northeast on SR-43 about 25 miles to visit the Gilmore Car Museum located in Hickory Corners, MI.  This turned out to be another fantastic experience!  The museum consists of some 18 individual buildings, situated on 90 acres, filled with 300+ beautifully restored automobiles, motorcycles, and vintage memorabilia dating from the late 1890s.

The collection actually had on display more vintage Duesenberg motorcars than the Auburn/Cord/Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, IN that I visited in 2016.  There is also a replica 1930s full service Shell Station where gas is always $.18 cents a gallon.

And if you’re hungry, there is the 1941 “Blue Moon Diner” where visitors can stop in for lunch.  I could have spent a whole day at this museum, but I had miles to go and other museums to visit, before this day was going to be over.  

From here I headed southeast on SR-89/37 to visit the Post Cereal Museum located in Battle Creek, MI. Started in 1892 by Charles Post, on this site, the Postum Cereal Company produced cereal drinks and breakfast cereals such as Postum, Grape-Nuts, and Post Toasties before becoming the General Food Corporation in 1929.  Through the years the company grew and was purchased by various conglomerates, until it became a part of Kraft Foods in 1989.  I didn’t have time to wait for the next scheduled tour to begin, so I opted to move on to the next museum.

Now it was east on I-94 to visit Ye Ole Carriage Shop in Spring Arbor, MI.  Because of road construction in the area, this small museum was very hard to find.  I was looking forward to getting a look at a 1902 JAXON steam car in their collection.  The JAXON (which I had never heard of) was built by one of the 24 companies building cars in nearby Jackson, MI during the early 1900s.   When I finally did find the museum, it was closed.

Just a few miles northeast I planned to visit the Cell Block 7 Museum in Jackson, MI.  The museum is located on the grounds of the operational State Prison of Southern Michigan.  What originally began as a log structure in 1839, housing 35 inmates, has grown over the years to become one of the largest walled institutions in the world, housing as many as 5000+ inmates at any one time.  As with the Post Cereal Museum, I didn’t go through this museum as I would have had to wait for the next guided tour.  I have found that these guided tours usually take 1½ to more than 2 hours, and that is more time than I usually like to spend to see a museum.

While I was in Jackson, I tried to find the Hackett Auto Museum, but discovered they were in the process of restoring an old building for their collection and wouldn’t be ready to open until sometime in 2020.  So, I headed east on I-94 again to visit the Waterloo Farm Museum located in Grass Lake, MI. This farm museum is built around the original 1854 farm home of Johannes Siebold and his family.  The museum honors the Michigan pioneer farmers of the 1850s, and has a restored farmhouse,  farm buildings, and farm equipment used during that time period.

Now I headed east to visit the Argus Museum located in Ann Arbor, MI.  One of my first cameras was a 35mm Argus C4 that my Aunt Jessie gave me for high school graduation.  I used that camera to take tons of pictures in the many foreign seaports I visited while I was in the U. S. Navy (1956-1962).  According to their website, my camera was built in this building sometime between1951-1957).  The museum consists of camera displays, artifacts and memorabilia related to the company’s history from 1936-1969.

Since the Saline Depot Museum in Saline, MI was only open on Saturdays, and would take me 20 miles out of my way, I opted to bypass that museum and head east on I-94 to visit  the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum located in Ypsilanti, MI.   This museum is housed in the building that housed the longest operating Hudson dealership in Michigan (1927-1955).  The museum has 30+ beautifully restored cars, including a 1952 Hudson Hornet and a 1948 Tucker  movie prop. The museum name was changed around 1995,but the name on the building is still Hudson Auto Museum. 

By now I was getting hungry, and I asked Greta to take me down the road a few miles, to the motel in Romulus, MI.  The desk clerk recommended Leonardo’s Italian Grill there in town, where I had their delicious Baked Lasagna dinner with fresh baked rolls, and Tiramisu for dessert. Yummm!

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 61 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

 

Bill

 

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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My 2016 Mid-West Trip~Part 2

13 Jul

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

My 2016 Mid-West Trip Part 2
By Bill Lites

Day 2 (Sunday)

I was expecting today to be a long day, but that huge storm that hit Houston the day before was getting ready to make today even longer. That storm must have been moving slowly west while I was enjoying a good night’s sleep. I hadn’t been on the road more than a half an hour this morning when I started running into the rain. And it was solid rain from then for the next six hours. It was coming down so hard at times that I couldn’t hear my audio book on the car speaker system over the pounding of the rain on the car.

traffic_in_the_rain

Of course no one expects to have an accident just because it’s raining, but as you might expect, someone did. Just look at the car in the left lane, in the picture above, and tell me that is adequate separation for driving on an Interstate in a driving rain! How can people expect to arrive at their destination in one piece when they drive like that? Over the course of the day there were two major accidents which caused I-10 westbound traffic to back up for miles each time.

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During one of those stop-and-go episodes I was lucky enough to be able to pull off the Interstate for gas and to use the restroom. I was thinking that while I was accomplishing those tasks the traffic might hopefully clear. Well, not only did the traffic not clear up, but there were so many people stopping for gas, that there were lines at all 10 pumps, and people were using the covers over the pumps to stay out of the rain. When I finally was able to snag a pump, my credit card didn’t work. I asked the attendant why my card didn’t work and he said with all this rain his satellite connections are not working. Good thing I had some cash or I would have really been stuck. The light at the end of this very dark tunnel was that the weather in Houston was reported to be clear and dry.

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I finally made it to Houston and got to the Space Center Houston Museum around 2:30 in the afternoon. It was a large facility with a tram tour that included the NASA Human Spaceflight Training Center, the Manned Flight Control Center and the NASA Rocket Park. I ended up spending about 2-1/2 hours there, with the tram tour and walking through the museum.

4
By then I was getting pretty hungry and it was starting to rain, AGAIN, so I decided to take my supper at Fuddruckers, which was just down the road. I had one of their 1/3 pound Southwest Specialty burgers. Supper was wonderful and relaxing. Then after a couple of wild goose chases around the northern part of Houston, by my friend Greta, she finally got me to my motel for the night.

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After I got settled in at the motel, I remembered I wanted to pick up a couple of items from Walmart. I asked the desk clerk for directions and found it with no problems. But, as I exited the store I realized I had forgotten to bring Greta with me so I could find my way back to the motel easily. Even with a lot of prayer, and several stops for directions, it still took me an hour to find my way back to the motel. Boy, am I ever glad this day is over. I told myself, “Never leave home-base again without Greta!”

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—–To Be Continued—–

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