July 1st, 2010

Spent most of the day in Auburn, IN, which apparently is the museum capital of Indiana.  Went to the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg museum as soon as it opened.  What a fabulous collection of "Classic Era" automobiles.  There is also a lot of good information about the engineering that went into the cars and about the history of the Auburn Automobile Company, which manufactured all three lines of automobiles before going belly-up in 1937.  The museum is run by a local group of individuals, and it is every bit as impression (but much smaller) than the Henry Ford museum.  Check these pictures out:

View of the inside of the 3rd floor gallery.

Two Auburn Boat-Tail Speedsters from the late 1920's-early 1930's

A Cord 810 on a rotating pedistal.

Anyway, if you like old cars and old engineering, this is worth the trip.

Next door to the ACD Museum is the National Automobile and Truck Museum of the US.  A lot of pretty cool stuff, but no where near the degree of sophistication as the ACD Museum:

Plymouth Road Runner and other cars at the NATMUS Museum.

Down the road from these two museum is the Kruse Museum, including a Military Vehicle Museum, a collection of 60's Funny Cars, a collection of carriages, the Early Ford V8 Foundation Museum, and the Andy Granitelli Hall of Fame.  (Kruse, BTW, owns the auction house that you see on the Speed Channel.)  The V8 Museum needs some work, and Andy was out to lunch, so I didn't get to see anything there.

Left Auburn and headed up I-69 to US6 to US31 to South Bend, IN.  Studebaker Museum tomorrow, and then on to Milwaukee for the Harley-Davidson Museum.  Weather has been great so far, clear skies and moderate temperatures.  Miles today:  127.  Miles to date 637.