Vehicles – RDZ Photography

Ash Grove, Missouri – May 2019 – Getting Your Kicks on Route 66 Missouri Style

Architecture, Art, History, Transportation

As the song goes Route 66 went from Chicago to L.A., going through Missouri along the way. While much of it is gone, replaced by freeways, there are still portions that are intact.

Many unique places remain along these portions of the Mother Road. One such place is just west of Springfield, Missouri. It is a restored Sinclair Gas Station full of cool, quirky things, including numerous ‘vintage’ vehicles.

A very nice lady named Barbara is the current owner of the property, having taken over for her father after he passed away. Barbara enthusiastically welcome all visitors, and the visitors seem genuinely pleased to be there.

On the day we were there one of the old trucks her father had owned was returned to it’s rightful spot at the station.

As noted plenty of tourists make the stop to check it out. I suggest if you get the chance you do the same.

Columbus – October 2017 – A Day at the Zoo

Festival, Transportation

The Columbus Zoo was sponsoring a car show, which seems a bit strange, but then again they do commercialize a lot of things.

The cars were quite nice, and with the water park and other amusement rides providing interesting backgrounds, it was a good day for a car show. Plus there were animals later.

Tacoma, Washington – September 2017 – LeMay Auto Collection

Art, History, Transportation

Harold LeMay made his fortune hauling garbage in Tacoma, Washington, but his passion was cars. At his death he owned a record 3000 cars. Today the collection is split into two separate museums.

The first is housed at a formers boys school with a number of buildings.

The gymnasium make a great setting.

Sliding doors!

The had cars stacked 3 high in some places.

The second museum was in downtown Tacoma and was more formal.

A Rambler with a Ferrari engine.

Dayton – April 2017 – America’s Packard Museum Revisited

Art, History, Transportation

Since we were running ahead on our day in Dayton, we made a return visit to the America’s Packard Museum. We had visited this museum a couple of years ago and were pleasantly surprised to see they had completely rearranged the automobiles on display, swapping out many of them for others in their collection.

The post war collection has been greatly enhanced as well.

As always with Packard’s there is an amazing collection of hood ornaments.

Located in a former Packard Dealership in downtown Dayton, the entire place gives off a feel of travelling in time (luxury time travel at that). There are few locations that are as good to visit a second time, but the Packard Museum is one of them.

Dayton – April 2017 – Porsche Gathering

Art, Transportation

We found ourselves in Dayton on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, checking out another transportation museum (in other posts), when someone came in looking for an event hall. He explained to the ladies at the counter he was late for a Porsche Club gathering.

Having heard that there were ‘a hundred’ Porsche’s just parked on the street a block away we headed down. And it was true, there were Porsche’s everywhere in the old Dayton neighborhood surround Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School.

Cleveland – March 2017 – Piston Power

Art, Festival, History, Transportation

This mid March Sunday was another cold, dreary one, so the decision was made to go to yet another car show. This one was back at the IX Center in Cleveland, but the thought was ‘better than sitting around the house’.

Billed as the Piston Powered Show, it turned out to be far far more than a car show. Their motto is ‘anything with a piston’, but in reality there was even more than that.

Among the categories seen: Classic Wood Boats from the 1940s and 1950s, Airplanes, Motorcycles, Bicycles, Trucks, a huge collection of cars, custom vans, small train maintenance cars, model building competition, art competition, a large display that someone made with matchsticks, a bumper car made into a go cart, a small soap box derby hill with racers, old campers, construction equipment, military equipment and one lonely snowmobile.

After 6 miles of walking around this massive hall, we went home agreeing this was one of the best shows we had ever seen.

New Bremen, OH – March 2017 – Bicycle Museum of America

History, Transportation

The very small town of New Bremen, Ohio sits in far western Ohio, not far from Indiana. It is a very unlikely place for a world class bicycle museum, but it is there, the Bicycle Museum of America.

The museum’s content was purchased by Jim Dicke, who owns Crown Equipment Corporation. Crown’s primary business is fork lifts, and business must be good because it allowed Jim to purchase the collection from the Schwinn family which had displayed it on the Navy Pier in Chicago.

Among their holdings is the oldest existing bicycle in America, built in 1815. Their collection of pre 1900 bikes is amazing. Also of note is the collection of bicycles that challenged standard engineering, including direct drive bikes, one with a massive gear in front, spikes for riding on ice, and many others.

The first floor has the showpieces, a collection of 1800s bikes including some high wheeled ones.

On the upper level is a nice display of Ohio made bicycles, as well as some Whizzers.

The day we were there they opened the lower level where they store the others not normally shown. While impressive, it pales in comparison to the quantity that we saw at Bicycle Heaven in Pittsburgh. This is no way takes away from the stunning collection upstairs. It is clear Bicycle Heaven has the quantity, this museum has the quality. Both are well worth a visit, and spectacular in their own way.

This was our second visit, and I am certain it won’t be our last.

Delphos, OH – March 2017 – Postal Museum

Architecture, History

The small northwest Ohio town of Delphos, like all American towns has a post office. But Delphos goes one better, they have one of 3 Postal Museums in the country. Their long time postmaster, Gary Levitt, started collection Postal Memorabilia and displayed it in the post office lobby until it became too large, so it was moved to a former horse livery.

As you enter the museum you are greeted by a large elephant covered in stamps, along with a mural depicting the town and a postal wagon.

One of the first exhibits shows an older postal office, complete with the sorting bins, tables, and a great looking old bell.

Throughout the museum are a number of old stamp machines. Once ubiquitous, they are now a relic of the past. Many have a classic elegance to them.

Also located in the museum are hundreds of thousands of stamps from various collections.

A number of postal based toys are included in the exhibits.

The highlights of the museum are the antique postal delivery vehicles including a sled, a wagon and a number of small 3 wheeled scooters.

Cleveland – February 2017 – IX Center New Car Show

Transportation

February means another trip to the car show at the IX Center in Cleveland.

Columbus – February 2017 – Easy Riders Bike Show

Art, Transportation

The second Sunday of February found us at the Columbus Convention Center (again), this time for the Easy Riders Motorcycle show.

Easy Riders magazine has been around since 1970, emphasizing customized motorcycles and usually scantily clad women. This show had mostly the former, with about 100 custom bikes.

While I enjoy motorcycles, I am not normally a Harley fan, as I appreciate the speed and grace of the sport bikes. This show however did a nice job showcasing the artistic approach that the people who customized the bikes took.

While most were stretched and chopped, with an amazing array of unusual approaches, including massive front wheels, belt drives, and an eclectic number of themes, many seemed to deal with death.

The crowd was almost all older guys in full Harley attire, with the leather and tattoos, chains and long grey ponytails, but to each their own. While it did provide a number of interesting photo subjects, the lighting and bare set up of the convention center, couple with the relatively high price to get in ($20) makes me think this will be a once in a lifetime experience. It paled in comparison with the Progressive Motorcycle Show at the IX Center in Cleveland.