There are no words!

Marshall, Michigan
Camp Turkeyville RV Resort
Back In #17

There are no words to describe what we saw today.  I thought about titling it "Wow" but that didn't seem to fit. Trust me, there are no words or photos that can describe it. I can't believe we drove within a few miles of this place last summer.  If John and Karen Knoll hadn't told us about it, we still wouldn't have known.   

Okay, so you want to know where we went today.  We started out early this morning and I had three different ways to get to our destination.  All of the routes were over two lane country roads.  I plugged in Hickory Corners and off we went.  There were a few roads that were closed to traffic, with no directions on how to detour, but we finally ended up at our destination--The Gilmore Car Museum.  

Those of you that follow this blog regularly know that last summer everywhere we went we saw cars.  They just seemed to pop up in every town we visited.  Bill and I aren't into cars, but we do love history.  But since we were in the area, and the Knoll's had recommended it, we went.

Lucky for us, we got an early start.  I didn't turn in at the entrance that said musuem parking and went down to the intersection.  I couldn't believe how large the campus is.  It is situated on 90 park like acres.

Admission was $11 for seniors and I did notice active military were free.  For our RV friends, there is RV parking as well as overnight dry camping.

This is a museum within a museum.  There are 15 buildings with a new a Cadillac La Salle Museum to open soon.  

 I have about 300 photos that we took and it's going to be hard to pick out a few to post.  Many of the over 400 cars had unique stories.

Here's some of the Cadillac-La Salle Club Museum which is temporarily set up in the Carriage House.

The next building we entered was the Motorcycle building which had motorcycles from 1890's to 2006. 

This is a 1898 Leon Bolle Voiturette from Le Mans, France.  Leon and Wilbur Wright became friends and some say the engine resembles the one on the Wright Brothers flying machine.  

This recreated 1930's gas station has original pumps and memorabilia and a work bay.  The corvette parked in the garage is being raffled off.  

The next musuem was a collection of pedal cars.  While we've seen more pedal cars in the Omaha museum, these were in much better condition.  

 This Rolls-Royce is the actual car that starred in the 1967 Walt Disney movie The Gnome-Mobile.  In the days before  computers the studios used trick photography to make the people appear small. 

  

And this is how they make 
people look small inside this car. Just make the car interior bigger. 

Gilmore worked with Walt Disney to create a pharmacy and they became friends.  Walt Disney allowed Gilmore to buy the Rolls Royce and when it came he was pleasantly surprised to see that they also sent the movie set.  Three months before Walt Disney died, he came to visit Gilmore. 

The next building was a replica of an old train depot.

Inside was a huge collection of mascot/hood ornaments.  

I thought this one would look good on our ram.  

The Classic Car Club of America Museum  was the next two story building.

This building was rectangular on one side with a circular room attached and it had a second floor.  I wish I had some idea of what the square footage was, because the photo can't show the size.  

As we entered the building there was another hood ornament collection.

If you were rich enough to own one of these, you had a golf club compartment.

I wish I could remember the names and years, but my brain was already on overload.

This beauty was a 1928 Stutz Chantilly Sedan.  It had leather like fabric stretched over a wooden frame to make the car lighter in weight. 

These cars were on the second floor.

There was a huge drive up ramp on the end of the building that made exiting the building much easier. 

This building was the Pierce-Arrow Museum which had luxury cars from 1901-1938.

This helped to identify the building with a Pierce-Arrow out front.

What a beautiful hood ornament. I wish the cars of today would start using them again.

Did you know they also built bicycles?

I might be convinced to trade, if I had this for the tow vehicle.  

Did you know that Pierce-Arrow made trucks.  This is a 1917 5 ton truck.

A 1931 Model 41 Limousine which is in original condition.

I thought the hat rack was an added addition.  Bill could use one of these in the truck for his Stetsons.

The next building was unique in the fact that it was an 1897 barn which was moved about 45 miles and reassembled piece by piece in 1966.  The lower floor house cars from the 1940's and the floor cars are from the 1930's.

This was a 1940 American Bantam and Bill wanted me to stand next to it to show its size.  

Little Fall Iron Works of Little Falls, Minnesota was the manufacturer of this 1947 14 foot Dufrene Camping Trailer.

Remember we are in a barn, what a staircase.

Somehow this photo doesn't show the size of this 1897 barn that was moved.  

Lunch time and of course this 1941 diner has a story too.  George and Sally's Blue Moon Diner was moved from Meriden, Connecticut and restored in 2004.  Lunch was very good, reasonable and we needed to sit down and rest awhile.  We still haven't been to the main buildings.  

See the Model T that is parked at the diner, they give you driving lessons here.  The front had a "student driver" sign on it.

It's difficult to show the grounds here, but there are paved streets separating the buildings and picnic tables and benches everywhere.  The grass was manicured and the landscape rivaled any park.  

The next musuem is the Model A Ford Museum.  The building resembles a Ford Dealership as it would have looked in 1929.

I wanted Bill to make sure and take a photo of this for Jim Dixon and his son, Todd.  Jim worked  as a parts manager for the other guys, (Chevy).  Wasn't 1929 during your time period, Jim?  

This model A that was the first one to come off the assembly line in 1927 and was given to Henry Ford's friend, Thomas Edison.  

How about a building full of Franklins?  Yep, they had that too.  

This Franklin was built in 1909.

Do you remember the Checker Cabs?   From left to right a 1982, the last car that was made, 1936 and 1923.  

The next building was the Lincoln Museum.

Look what Bill found.  

After the Lincoln Museum there was the steam barn.

This one had a chauffeurs/mechanic seat on the outside.  

I must say they had Hudson's on display but nothing like the Hudson museum in Shipshewana.  

This Railton was one of my favorites in the whole museum.  

Custom made luggage to fit precisely.  The upper flap has a tool kit.

The tools were painted to match the car.  It did say that there was a hidden compartment for sporting rifles.  I think it was under the tool tray but since I knew not to touch it we'll have to assume its there.  

Unfortunately, the photo I took of the inside had reflections and didn't show the fold down walnut inlaid bar with silver flasks and chocolates. There were two sun roofs and built in jacks so changing a tire was a snap.  

The Corvette section appeared to be small after seeing everything else.

For some reason the Hot Rod museum was exceptional.  Maybe it was the music playing and also that we were almost finished.

One more room and we did it all!

1929 Duesenberg.  I must say I thought no car museum could ever compare with the Auburn museum but was I ever wrong.  

My Dad always loved the Packard.  Here's a 1930.

This one only had 16,000 miles on it.  

I could go on and on, but you get the idea.  If you haven't seen it, you need to see this place.  It appears to me that they are constantly adding more.

All the times we've been in the Elkhart area and we've never heard of this place.  

Thanks again, John and Karen for recommending it to us.

That's it for tonight, I'm exhausted.  

Turtle Safely.....