Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum

Auburn, Indiana is the home to the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum. 

The museum is the former executive offices of the automobile company and has been restored and is on the National Register of Historic buildings. The automobiles contained within represent some of the finest automotive engineering of their time period.

The entrance to  the museum

The outside of the building is architecturally interesting

The interior showroom where the cars were originally presented for sale has been restored to its Art Deco splendor

View from the staircase

The staircase handrails are design features themselves

Period art work is on display throughout the museum

The Cord design studio was located here and has exhibits to show how this famous design was created

The cars were designed and modeled in clay one quarter full size and then translated to the full size patterns

Julie with one of the favorite cars

View looking down the stairs

All of the signage carried the Art Deco theme through out

My sister overlooking the showroom

This is a fabulous museum and well worth the time to visit

Travel by Amtrak

We are off on an Amtrak adventure to see family in South Bend, Indiana.

I have concerns about driving this time of year near the Great Lakes so we decided to take the train.

This involves leaving from Newton, KS in the wee hours of the morning.

Watching the train arrive

We boarded the sleeper car and I got a picture of Julie before we turned in for rest of the night.

This was a great trip to see a wide variety of rail equipment

Very well done art work was placed around the train showcasing the various train routes around the USA

This was the first trip we've taken where we did not share a meal with other train passengers.

Julie in the dining car

The rivers are pretty well frozen over in this part of the country

Watching the world roll by the train window

We had lunch starting in Galesburg, Illinois. 

Food is included in the dining car when you get a sleeper compartment. Less expensive options are available in the club car.

One of the passengers was good enough to take our picture

Lounge car offers great views all around

This is where you get goodies in the club car

Arrival in Chicago

Our train in Union Station

How to get around - lots of choices

Admiring the Great Hall

Great Hall

Looking up

Shower is in!

We had our tenants mention the kitchen ceiling below the upstairs shower was showing signs of water damage. Turns out the tiled custom shower had gotten water in the backer board and was leaking.

We tore out a sample of the tile and found the entire unit needed to be torn out and replaced. That proved to be a lot of work. We tore out the old unit and carted it down the winding staircase in five gallon buckets. Eventually got it torn down to bare wood and dried everything and installed a molded unit. Had to use a multi-piece unit to be able to get the parts up the winding staircase.

It turned out rather well and should last for a number of years. Got to re-sheetrock a portion of the kitchen ceiling as part of the job.

The home is from the 1880's so all work starts with getting everything plumb

Almost done

KATY Trail

My cousin and I are starting our planning to ride the KATY trail across Missouri this coming May. This is a 'rails to trails' success story of converting the former KATY railroad right of way to a bike trail across the state.

Interesting blogs of those who have ridden the trail can be found at the trails website:
Trail website home page

Blog with lots of good images
Blog of a fellow who rode the trail on a recumbent trike

After the Holidays

We went out today with Mandy and Greta and had lunch at the B&C BBQ buffet in old town and after enjoying the no doubt healthy food there we headed over to Nifty Nut House, a Wichita landmark.

This was the first time for Mandy and Greta to go. It was fun to see the store thru the eyes of first timers.  We stocked up with BBQ flavored almonds and a new assortment of Jelly Belly candies.

Heading into Nifty Nut House

Cold weather brings out the desire for good chili. This reminded me that many decades ago I obtained a pamphlet put out by Marlboro full of really good chili recipes. This was part of their Marlboro Man marketing efforts. I never did smoke, but I sure enjoy the chili recipes.

Worth a search to find in the used bookstores

One of many great recipes from the Chili article

I've wanted to learn to play the piano and have put it off until retirement. One actually needs a keyboard of sorts to learn so we treated ourselves to a digital piano for Christmas and have been learning the basics ever since.  I am just at the point I can put out the beginnings of recognizable sounds. As they say, "The longest journey begins with a single step".

 The cold weather has played havoc with this car wash. Makes me wonder how long it will take for this to melt away...

The Holidays

We spent Christmas day at Mandy's and enjoyed gift opening, good food and visit with all of our children and grandchildren. It was a very nice day.

Greta

Julie, Emery and Bennett

Wesley with Emery, Bennett and Blake in the background

Bennett, Greta, Julie, Emery and Blake

John and Julie

We are spending time camping in the Airstream in really cold weather. It keeps us warm in 7 degree weather, but the furnace runs a lot. Our tenants mentioned their shower enclosure had sprung a leak so we are spending time camping in their back yard fixing the problem. Turns out the backer boards for the tile have gotten wet and given way so we are tearing out the entire shower and replacing it with a molded enclosure.

Camping out in the middle of town

This is similar to what we are installing to replace the tiled enclosure

Shopping for showers with my buddy Jim

The rental house is located in a small town that has a self service bakery. The goodies are put on display and you are responsible for making your choice, packaging, paying and making change  for payment. Very trusting and easy.

Self service bakery

 

All of the choices are good

Especially good cookies and pastries

Betsy took me on a tour of her school over the Holidays and I was impressed with the quality of art work on display. The art teacher has her act together for teaching various types of techniques using attractive topics for the training. 

I helped my friend Phil put up the banner advertising the local model railroad show and swap meet. We took advantage of the time at the museum to get a good shot in the cab of one of the museums diesel engines.

The finish on the Airstream has deteriorated due to the ultra violet effects of sitting outside at altitude and it is time to get it refinished. Much research has gone into who does that kind of work and we are making arrangements to have it repaired by a firm in Ohio.  This is our chance to realize that long delayed visit to the Air Force museum in Dayton. 

Clear coat is failing