Dayton, Ohio to Auburn, Indiana

I left Dayton early this morning, heading west on I-70 then north on US127 and west again on US6 to Auburn.  Auburn, for some reason, is home to several very interesting Automobile museums.  The premier museum is the Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg Museum.  All three makes of cars were manufactured in Auburn until around 1937, when the company went bankrupt.

Travelling up US127 was pretty quiet until I came upon this:

I had no idea this was in this part of the country, and there was just a little sign pointing to a side road leading past the cemetery.  The historical marker adjacent to the grave itself was interesting:

I headed on up to Auburn and the first stop was at the Kruse Museum on the south side of town.  Kruse, by the way, owned an auction house like Barrett-Jackson, but fell on hard times when the economy crashed.  Anyway, the museum is pretty interesting.  Half is devoted to unusual automobiles and carriages, and the other half is a military museum.  Here are some shots from each:

This is a carriage once owned by President US Grant:

 This is one of the "General Lee" cars from the Dukes of Hazard.  Apparently, they used up over 200 cars during the show's run on TV:

This is "The Fonz"'s Bike from "Happy Days":

And, finally, a replica of the first winner of the Indianapolis 500 in 1911, the Marmon Wasp:

The military side of the museum had a number of old WWII vehicles, but, frankly, I think the collection has been reduced in size since the last time I was here in 2011.

The next stop was the National Automobile and Truck Museum of the US, next door to the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum.  NATMUS is actually housed in one of the old assembly buildings for the car manufacturer and houses a lot of cars.  Here are a few shots:

Here's a 1955 T-Bird:

A line of Hudson's:

And, finally, does anybody remember Checker Cabs??

Next, it was next door to the Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg Museum.  This houses some of the most beautiful automobiles from the 1920's and 1930's that you've ever seen.  It's housed in the car company's headquarters building and is really stunning. Here is a small sample:

A 1931 Cord Boat-Tail Speedster:

A 1931 Duesenberg:

Some more of the cars on display:

And, finally:

Anyway, there was lots more to see than I can relate here.

Tomorrow, it's up to South Bend, IN for the Studebaker Museum and then up to Milwaukee on Tuesday for the Harley-Davidson Museum.

Miles today:  227
To Date: 713