First stop was the Clive Cussler Museum in Arvada, just northwest of Denver. Cussler, or "CC" as we like to call him, is an author that we've read continuously over the past 40 years or so. He writes action-adventure mysteries and we've always enjoyed his novels. In his books, he always weaves into the plotline references to his car collection, allegedly housed in an abandoned hanger at National Airport in Washington. HAH! Apparently he moved it all to Denver.
Anyway, on display were the better part of 100 or so cars covering most of the 20th Century. And according to one of the employees of the museum, this represents about half his total collection. The museum is located on a side street in a residential area and is pretty inconspicuous, but it was spotless, well-lit, and interesting. You can see from the entrance, it's a pretty modest building:
Here are a couple shots of the overall collection:
This is the first antique car that Clive bought, and he and his son Dirk did all the restoration work on it. It's a 1946 Ford:
Here are some of his classic cars from the 1920's and 30's:
The museum was filled with beautiful automobiles, and it's remarkable how valuable and rare most of them are.
After drooling all over the cars and being asked to leave, I headed to Denver for the Forney Transportation Museum on Brighton Blvd. This is really the low-rent district in Denver, but the museum itself is housed on an old warehouse that has been upgraded and modernized. Years ago, when we were living in Denver, I stopped in at the old Forney museum, which was located in a ramshackle building down in the rail yards right off I-25. This is well-organized and well-presented.
Here are a few pics:
I was surprised to see this car. It's a 1923 Kissel with "suicide seats." If that sounds familiar, I saw the same car at the Wisconsin Auto Museum in Hartford, WI last week. The difference being...this example at the Forney Museum was once owned by Amelia Earhart:
This is amazing. It's an unrestored 1951 Studebaker with its original paint and upholstery:
After taking in all the cars I could handle for the day, I rode on over to the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum, located in one of the old hangers at the old Lowery Air Force Base, near where Stapelton Field used to be. The museum was nice and was really set up to cater to kids, with lots of information about flying and the space program (anyone remember that?).
The museum had a pretty good collection of more-recent aircraft, including an F-14 (Top Gun):
And an F-4 Phantom II, mainstay of the Air Force and Navy during the Vietnam War:
I did come across what must be a prototype for a new single-seat fighter plane that has obviously been kept secret from the public:
Anyway, it's nice to see that Lowery AFB is being renovated and utilized by the public.
Tomorrow, it's over the big hills to Grand Junction on the Western Slope.
Miles Today: 82
Total: 3,013