Mary and I spent a week (July 24- 30) in Auburn, Indiana going to museums and getting our fill of cars.

We spent Wed. at the Auburn, Cord, Dusenberg Museum and had the most enjoyable time visiting with Mr. Meyers, a 94-year-old former employee of Auburn car manufacturer, E. L. Cord. He pointed out a museum

Display picture taken in 1929 of the Auburn assembly line with him at work. He still has his last check issued in 1929. He told of meeting and touring Jay Leno. And how Jay Leno keeps in touch with him, sending him articles and postcards. He said, “ I think I have something he wants.�

The ACD Museum is housed in a beautiful art deco styled building restored as it was for E.L.Cord headquarters, and the cars are spectacular.

The National Automotive &Truck Museum was in back of the ACD building and while it was interesting it didn’t take a lot of time. There is the Wankle powered Mustang displayed along with all the articles written about it at the time. Also, there was a diesel truck that set a speed record at Bonneville of 200 MPH (if I remember correctly).

Thursday was a trip to South Bend, IN to the New Studebaker Museum. We rode with Bruce Nelson & Mary Hyberg in Bruce’s ’49 Ford. The Museum is very nice and also covers Oliver Farm implements starting with the first good plow invented and patented before John Deere. Deere had to pay royalties to Oliver for the use of his design. The Studebaker brothers started with wagons and wheelbarrows and later automobiles. They also collected carriages. Including two that two Presidents had taken their last ride in, Lincoln to the play and McKinley to the train station. U. S. Grant’s presidential carriage was there too.

We had lunch at Tippecanoe Place Restaurant, Clement Studebaker’s former home. Built in the late 1800’s to the tune of $250,000, it had 26,000 square feet, 40 rooms and 20 fireplaces.

After lunch we toured the Oliver Mansion, Copshaholm, built in 1895. It has 12,000 square feet, 14 fireplaces and all the original furnishings of the Oliver’s. The house stayed in the family and the grandchildren gave it to the state at the death of their parents with the condition that two housemaids could stay and work as long as they wanted.

We also visited a workers house furnished to reflect life in the thirties. A vast difference between the residence of the factory owner and the worker.

Friday’s Tour was to Lima, Ohio to see the Ford Engine Plant. The parking lot had a bunch of new Fords, Mercury’s and Lincolns to try on for size. And all the Fords joined that display for the morning break for the workers. After lunch and a safety movie, we toured the facility. By the time our group got to go everyone was on break again, so not much was happening. We did get to see a machine screwing spark plugs into an engine. We also saw intake manifolds being machined and drilled from raw casting to finished product.

After we returned to Auburn, Mary and I were walking across the street from the HQ hotel to our hotel when this pickup with camper in tow pulled into the parking lot. Mike and Vivian Timmerman hopped out so now the Minnesota group was six. Lucky for us as we immediately loaded Mike’s trailer with all the things Bruce had scrounged from the eastern Meet. Our MN contingent had dinner then to a car show on the town square.

Saturday, we toured to the Garrett Historical Railroad Museum, a 1901 freight house. In the basement was an HO train layout that filled the downstairs. It was computer controlled with plug in throttle controls. The operator had 30 seconds to unplug and move to the next plug in or the computer would stop the train. Our operator was a little overwhelmed with the number of people crowded in such a small area. I hung around ‘till it thinned out a little and the operator was going to bring a long freight out of the staging area onto the layout. The train disappeared through a hole in the wall and the operator unplugged and moved to the next plug in. He was explaining the LED lights on his throttle control when freight cars started falling on the floor. I left before things got resolved as I could see pieces of cars on the floor. The historical museum was a bust, but out front the tracks were very busy with real trains and engines switching cars to make a new train.

From there we traveled to Kendallville, IN and the Mid-America Windmill Museum. That was interesting. I never saw so many windmills, some turning some not. There was a display in a 1800’s barn explaining how the windmills protected themselves in a strong wind. Some turned out of the wind, while others folded up their vanes for less exposure to the wind, and reopened when the wind died down. In a farm like setting with two hills, there were 50 turning windmills with placards telling the maker and information about type. It was great to walk around the working windmills hearing their chatter.

Saturday night was the banquet at Kruse Automotive and Carriage Museum and WWII Victory Museum rotunda. What a huge place! There was every kind of wheeled vehicle that ever moved in WWII displayed there. Unbelievable! We had dinner, a little entertainment and an auction. Mary and I plugged our 2007 TCRG Meet

On our way out after dinner we saw some reenactment WWII guys playing outside in the heat and humidity, I guess having not been in the military, it might provide some entertainment. For me, having been an MP in the Army for real in the heat and humidity in the Far East, I would not want any part of doing it again real or make-believe.

Sunday AM, we hit the road for home. We stopped in Galena, IL. and toured U.S. Grant’s Home. We drove around town a bit. It is very interesting! But it was about 113 heat index degrees. We continued home arriving around 9:30PM.

We were glad we had driven Mary’s VW with Air-conditioning as it was HOT and Humid the whole tour! And after having driven the Mercury to Texas in the heat in April we were not ready for another round of extreme discomfort.

Dobie