Tag: museum

If You Want to Make a Man Happy, Take Him to a Car Museum

October 29, 2023 – Traveling with Rich & Julie

Swope’s Cars of Yesteryear

I knew if I put this place on the list it would make Rich happy. Plus the fact that this museum in Elizabethtown, Kentucky is completely free.

All are free to enter except unattended children, which cost $100 to get in. Ha ha.

Don’t ask me to tell you what they all are. I just enjoy looking at them.

Enjoy the photos. Rich found his favorite car. See if you can guess which one it is.

This contemporary museum features old automobiles built from the 1900s to the 1960s, and new ones like a 2023 Dodge Charger.

It was an impressive collection of cars and Rich thoroughly enjoyed spending time looking at them all.

This free car museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm.

The host inside said they have 37 cars currently on display. There is a horseless carriage room also.

Each car has a sign on it to not touch. They are not roped off like most car museums. You can walk all the way around and look inside.

This 69 Camaro 350 SS Hardtop was gorgeous.

We spent most of our time right here.

I didn’t take photos of all the cars. But most of them I did. I do take a lot of pictures wherever we go.

Rich liked this Thunderbird, all except the color. I love seeing the cars painted bright colors. I owned an orange Dodge Dart.

I do like the color of this Camaro.

I like the color of any Camaro.

We owned a Jaguar once, but this 1953 one was much nicer.

Thank you Swope’s dealership for providing this museum free of charge.

Do you like cars? I hope you enjoyed seeing these. Thanks for coming along with us on our journeys. I love showing you all the places we see.

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park

October 27, 2023 – Traveling with Rich & Julie

Hodgenville, Kentucky

Did you know: If you visited only one National Park per year, it would take you 63 years to see them all — and that daunting number does not even include the plethora of national monuments, seashores, battlefields, and other properties managed by the National Park Service.

While the National Park System comprises 423 national park sites, only 63 of them have the “National Park” designation in their names. The other sites fall into different National Park System categories like Battlefields, Historic Sites, Monuments, Seashores, Recreation Areas, and others.

We are trying to visit all of them, or at least as many as we can as we travel around these wonderful states of ours.

And we hit another one yesterday…

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a small cabin in Hodgenville, Kentucky. His early life in Kentucky was a humble start for the 16th President of the United States.

The visitor center contains a small museum and gift shop. The photo above is the Lincoln Family Bible.

We always go inside the visitor center to get my stamp and sticker for my National Park Pass Book. The workers were extremely friendly and helpful.

The trails near the visitor center are paved and make it easy to walk to the buildings on display.

First is the Nancy Lincoln Inn and four cabins.

They were built by James R. Howell in 1928 to accommodate the increasing number of tourists who were coming to visit Lincoln’s Birthplace and Memorial.

The park preserves the Sinking Spring Farm, where Abraham Lincoln was born and includes the Memorial Building, which was built over the original log cabin he was born in. It was designed by John Russell Pope and was completed in 1911.

The building is a Greek Revival-style building with a white marble exterior. It is 100 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 40 feet high. It has a central portico with six Ionic columns. The inscription above the portico reads: “Abraham Lincoln, Born February 12, 1809, Died April 15, 1865, Sixteenth President of the United States.“

What a beautiful place to visit! I didn’t feel up to climbing the steps, so I didn’t go inside.

The interior of the Memorial Building is divided into two main rooms: the Memorial Room and the Lincoln Museum. The Memorial Room contains a marble statue of Lincoln by the sculptor Henry Merwin Shrady. The statue is surrounded by murals depicting scenes from Lincoln’s life. The Lincoln Museum contains exhibits on Lincoln’s life and family.

Off to the side of the memorial are some cement steps leading down to the Sinking Spring, a dependable water source which is probably why his father, Thomas Lincoln, chose this spot to build. This is called the Sinking Spring Farm.

There are additional trails through the woods, which we did not walk. Walking around the paved sidewalk was a good start for me to begin building my knee back up since surgery. I hate missing out on the entire area, but I just can’t do it all yet.

Entrance to this National Historic Park is free. We have our National Park Pass, but we didn’t need it here.

If you’ve ever been curious to see where Abraham Lincoln was born, this is a must-visit.

 

Iowa 80 Truck Stop & Museum

July 31, 2023 – Traveling with Rich & Julie

We left home in Ohio early this morning and traveled 358 miles to the Iowa 80 Truck Stop and Trucking Museum. This truck stop claims the title of the world’s largest truckstop.

It was established in 1964, which makes it as old as I am. Stepping inside the doors is like stepping into a large shopping mall. There are shops and fast food restaurants galore. Other amenities include a barber shop, chiropractor, custom shop, dental office, laundry facility, showers, library, and even a movie theater. Who could ask for more?

You can eat and shop and visit the trucking museum. The Iowa 80 Trucking Museum is down the street, but we walked to it from the parking lot. Entrance is free but donations are welcome. What a wonderful display of old antique trucks, modern trucks, rare trucks, and toy trucks.

If you are traveling down Interstate 80 through Walcott, Iowa, you simply must stop and visit the largest truck stop in the world. Overnight parking in the RV is allowed and there is plenty of room.