Funky, Fun and Fascinating Museums Worth Getting Off the Highway

As a kid our family vacations started an hour before dawn...hopping in the car (invariably an Oldsmobile), driving for two hours, having breakfast, getting back in the car, driving at least four more hours before stopping for a picnic lunch - typically a banana, crackers and braunschweiger, all washed down with Coca-Cola.   Before the ants could even gather to carry off the crumbs, we were back in the car, driving until dusk, then starting to look for a motel along the highway.  If you could see something interesting from the road you were in luck.  If anything was five miles or five minutes off the highway it remained a mystery.  We covered a lot of ground and we had fun, but...

 

 

There are many interesting sights five miles off the highway, much less (oh, my, dare I even suggest it?) twenty-five miles off the highway.  On several of our trips Mike and I have discovered a number of funky museums that certainly deserve a visit.  We would like to share a few fun, funky, and fascinating museums.

 

My first road trip.  Pictured are my Mom and Dad, Dorothy and Tracy, somewhere in 
New Mexico.  Mom was 8 months pregnant with me when this photo was taken

 Yvonne, family friend Bonnie, and Mom "styling" in a convertible
at a J. C. Penney's in New Mexico about 1954

 

Vacuum Cleaner Museum               St. James, MO

       * 600 working vacuums

       * Social significance and historical context explained

       * Includes vacuums from the collection of the famous St. Louis
             organist Stan Kann

       * Did you know...that no vacuum cleaner business went out of
             business during the Great Depression?  Why? The introduction
             of a new business strategy called time payments!

       * The prototype for R2-D2, of Star Wars fame, was a canister vacuum.

Free Admission...and you can also buy a new vacuum cleaner while you are there!

 

http://vacuummuseum.com/

 

 

American International Rattlesnake Museum               Albuquerque, NM

       * Home to the largest collection of different species of
             LIVE rattlesnakes in the world.  The museum considers
             itself a "conservation" site as much as a museum

       * Most rattlesnakes are 2 to 4 feet in length, but the longest

             one on record was 8' 1" long

       * Rattlesnakes are only found in the Americas (North,

             Central and South America)

       * The Timber Rattlesnake was seriously considered as the United

             States' national symbol, and was found on many early flags

 Admission charged          www.rattlesnakes.com

 

 

Museum of Independent Telephony               Abilene, KS

       * Re-creation of a telephone exchange circa 1890-1910

       * Extensive collection of telephone insulators

       * Display of rotary dial phones through the decades

BONUS:  On the grounds you will also find the Dickinson County (KS) Historical Museum and an Outdoor Village Museum of restored 19^th century buildings.  Housed in one of the buildings is a fully restored, functional, 1901 Parker Carousel.  And yes, you can take a ride on the carousel.

Admission charged                http://www.heritagecenterdk.com/

 

 

 

 

Leila's Hair Museum               Independence, MO

       * Hair jewelry and hair art

       * Thousands of pieces of hair jewelry from the Victorian Period,
             including watch fobs, necklaces, pins...

       * Over six hundred hair wreaths, including one using the hair of
             members of the League of Women Voters from 1865

       * Snips of hair from famous celebrities, several Presidents of the
              United States, and many historical figures

       * You can even take a class from Leila to learn how to make the
              almost-lost art of hair weaving and preservation

       * Visit Leila's ”gallery” on her website for dozens of examples of
              this unique art form

Admission charged               http://www.leilashairmuseum.net/

 

 

After visiting the museum one day in June 2013, we had a chance meeting with Leila and her husband at a local restaurant. She is a charming lady who is quite the expert in her chosen field.  It is fun to meet people who have a grand passion!

 

 

 

Pearl Button Museum               Muscatine, Iowa

       * Muscatine, Iowa began producing buttons in 1865

       * By 1905 Muscatine button manufactures produced 1.5 BILLION
             buttons annually, nearly 1/3 of the world's supply

       * The material used for the buttons were freshwater mussel shells
              from the Mississippi River

       * The museum includes recorded stories about and interviews
              with people involved in the manufacturing and packaging
              of buttons. 
       * At one point over half of the town's work force was involved
              in the button industry

       * There are vast examples of products made from 1865 to
             the 1950s

Freewill donation requested        http://www.muscatinehistory.org/

 

 

 

 

National RV Museum & Hall of Fame               Elkhart, IN

View great classic RVs ...including but not limited to...

       * The first and only 10-foot-long Airstream trailer ever built

       * The “home on wheels” that Paramount Studios offered to entice
             Mae West away from vaudeville to motion pictures

       * All the major manufactures have joined together to establish
             and contribute to the museum.  Most manufactures, including
             some trail-blazers that no longer exist, are represented in
             this glimpse of a national past-time through the decades

 

 

Admission charged           http://www.rvmhhalloffame.org/

 

 

  

NOTE:  Due to the possibility of changing prices, no specific admission fee has been listed.  At the time of this posting, no entry fee was higher than $10 and the majority of those that charged a fee were less than $5.

 

 

There are tons more of these quirky museums out there to be visited.  Maybe we'll bump into you at a turnstile, but you can be sure we'll be visiting others and sharing more Road Stories.
 

 

1940’s travel postcard

 

 

 

From the 19th to the 21st Century...and Back

Two can travel in harmony if you can hit the right balance of what each person finds interesting.  We started on our trip to Indiana for a gathering of FROGS (Forest River Owners Group).  Mike is the gregarious one; he chats with everyone along the way; he has never met a stranger.  I, on the other hand, have friends that I have known for thirty or forty years --or the friends I meet in the novels and nonfiction works that I enjoy reading.  I can chat easily with someone over a shared interest such as antiques, but hand me a glass of wine and put me in a social gathering and I practically turn to stone.  Sooo... we need time for Mike to roam and chat and time for Yvonne to look and collect antiques.

Springfield, Ohio gave us a great place to start. The Air Force Museum was our first destination. It is a fascinating place of great magnitude.  Two days of touring gave us some insight into highlights of aviation history. Mike found the end of WWII to the Vietnam era captured his interest the most since he was in the army during what they are now calling “the Southeast Asia War”.  I found the Flying Tiger plane piqued my imagination since we had the opportunity to visit the Flying Tiger Museum when we were in China several years ago.  Another connection for me stems from my teaching career.  I taught the poem “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell to some of my high school classes.  I could hear echoes of the lines as I gazed at the planes.  We both found the art work displayed on the fuselage of some of the planes and on the leather bomber jackets gave a more humanizing touch to the cold steel and aluminum.  The only disappointment was that the hanger containing the Presidential Aircraft was closed due to the federal sequestration.  It is almost unbelievable when you think that in the span of about sixty short years, we went from the Wright Brothers first flight in a bicycle-parts-and-canvas airplane to putting men on the moon and returning them safely to earth.

The Flying Tigers operated in China in 1941-1942

"Bock's Car", the Army Air Force B-29 that dropped

the "Fat Man" atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan

Two examples of custom painted WWII bomber jacket art

 

 

Two other days were spent scouring the antique malls including Heart of Ohio Antiques which reportedly covers 116,000 square feet.  The hunt is the heart of the fun of collecting.  Finding a tatting shuttle in a color mom doesn't have or discovering a state hankie not yet represented in my collection is always exciting for me.  Just consider the hands that held these small treasures over the decades and all the stories connected to these inanimate objects.

Moving on to Indiana, we were among the first wave to show up at the Elkhart County Fair Grounds in Goshen for the FROG Rally.  Frankly, the two big draws to this event are the bountiful quantities of delicious Amish food and the factories fixing any and all issues (free of charge) on all brands of Forest River RVs.  This year 354 RVs gathered from all over the US and Canada to attend the rally.  Mike was part of the parking crew, and parking 354 RVs - from R-Pods to forty foot motor homes is no small feat.  Neither is serving breakfast and dinner to 723 people. What is even more mind-boggling is the ability to remember names of individuals met once over a year ago, which the organizers, brother-in-law Bob and sister-in-law Cindy, are able to do.  We were able to re-connect with many of the people we met on several trips last year, plus make many new acquaintances, both American and Canadian.  We even saw a fellow from Missouri that Mike went to grade school with.

Food, all tasty and in abundance, ranges from pit-baked chicken to buffalo steaks.  Crowds gather and lines form at least a half hour before dinner is to be served.  But this simply gives people a chance to chat about their travel destinations.  The Lexington (KY) Horse Park is now on our list of “let's try that sometime.”

One of the possibilities during the rally is a factory tour.  Since both of our travel trailers have been the Rockwood brand, we toured the Rockwood plant, quite an impressive operation.  The dedication to detail is evident.  Some of the Amish families have three generations involved in the production line.  It is quite a contrast in culture to see the factories.  Inside, the Amish workers are building the latest in high-tech RVs, while out in the “parking lots” their mode of transportation to and from work continues to be horse and buggy or bicycle.  

The Amish presence is found throughout the community. It is quite a sight seeing a line of buggies at Wal-Mart.  Young Amish women can be seen at the Shipshewana Flee Market wearing traditional head covering, plain dresses and...flip flops!  A staid black buggy waits in front of the gas station so the youngsters can hop out  and get a Slushie.  Shops are quiet and cozy. The most sensory filled shops are the bakeries with savory herb breads, taste-bud- tantalizing cookies --chocolate, chocolate chip, molasses – light-as-air raspberry angel food cake...walking into a bakery is like getting a warm hug of deliciousness. I refrain from taking pictures of people because that would be inappropriate in the Amish community, but I do take a photo - after ensuring there are no people in the frame- at a local grocery store. 

At the conclusion of the rally we head northward --again not on the original schedule-- to visit the sand dunes and shoreline of Lake Michigan.  In Holland, MI we find a state park that is on the beachfront. Within a block of our site are the sand dunes and waves of Lake Michigan.  People are playing a fierce game of volleyball, children are gleefully burying each other in the sand, and others, like us, are strolling along the edge of the lapping water as the sun melds into soft pinks and purples and dips into the horizon.  We discuss possible destinations for future road trips, as the sun slowly disappears into the vastness of the blue waters of Lake Michigan.  More trips, more Road Stories...

The RV Factor

I’m sitting outside in a light drizzle because the little white dog insisted on freeing the area of marauding squirrels.  Actually, I believe that Mike, at least partially, bought the RV so that Sophie could join us on our travels in comfort.  Not a problem!

 

 

While initially I came up with forty-three reasons (not a hyperbole – I still have the list) why a recreational vehicle would not suit us, it has - surprisingly on my part and smugly on Mike’s – turned out to be just great.  The RV gives us freedom to wander and stay a day or three days.  It has allowed us to be flexible with our schedule with all of the creature comforts of home.

 How did this saga begin?  We had been boaters and travelers for decades.  We sold our last boat in September of 2011.  Then one day, less than two months later, we entered the RV world.  I had returned from visiting Mike’s mother, Virginia, in the care center where she lived.  I asked a routine question:  “Anything new?”   Mike replied “We bought a travel trailer” to which I queried “How do we like it?"

 

Our first travel trailer, a 2012 Rockwood 2604

 

Our new trailer, a 2014 Rockwood Windjammer 3008W

Apparently, and quite obviously, we do like it.  Our first trailer, a 26-foot Rockwood, was used 101 nights during the year that we owned it.  Almost a year to the day after that first purchase, we traded it on our current trailer, a 30-foot Rockwood Windjammer with a floor plan that gives us more room and more of the feel of a house, with the kitchen separated by a counter from the living room/dining room space. 

Tonight we are in a campground just outside of Springfield, Illinois.  We are returning from a trip to Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, including a fun FROG [Forest River Owners’ Group] rally with old and new friends in Goshen, IN.  The Illinois State Fair is in full swing this week and since I’ve never been to the fair, and Mike hasn’t been there since he was a kid, we decided to stop for a couple of days.  Stopping on a whim to see prize-winning livestock and new tractors and enjoy fried-everything-on-a-stick...such is the advantage of an RV.

As far as good times, I’m reminded, too, that we spent a week in this same campground last summer with our grand-daughter Allison.  We were in Springfield to visit the Lincoln Presidential Museum and other sites, since her Dad spent two years assigned to the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln.  While she was fascinated with the Lincoln history, her greatest joy was hitting the swimming pool every afternoon and staying up late playing cards with Grandpa every night.   

Since taking delivery of the new trailer in March, we have already used it 59 nights, with more to come.  And more of our ramblings and rumblings will be coming your way, with more Road Stories…