The Tallahassee Automobile and Collectibles Museum

We were supposed to visit the museum yesterday, but then we went to lunch. We visited a brewpub in Tallahassee called the Fermentation Lounge. Mike had a local brew, and I had a glass of hard cider along with our lunch. As you might guess, we just wanted to head back to the RV and take naps while our substantial lunch digested. On the way to the RV, I checked the hours for the museum and found they opened at 8:00 a.m. this morning. That made it easy to put off our visit until this morning.

Let me tell you, the museum was so much more than antique cars. Holy Moley! I didn't know so many things existed in the world. After seeing this museum, I can say with confidence that if the thing exists, it exists in a collection at the museum.

At the front door was a non-working fountain. With the cold, I'm thinking the fountain is shut off for the time being. Nevertheless, there were manatees there. I knew right away I was going to like this place.

Also outside, the Elvismobile. Despite having been born during the 14th Century, Elvis mania was just a tad before my time, and so I'm not sure what the Elvismobile was all about. When we got to the Batmobiles, we were talking my language.

Inside, we paid our admission ($15 a piece for seniors), and it was well worth it. This was an amazing place. It was so much more than an antique car museum, although it certainly was that.

They had on display the earliest known pre-production car built in 1894.

Here's some information about it.

This is the hearse that carried Abraham Lincoln's body for burial.

Here's an antique Florida Highway Patrol car.

The cars were lined up by vintage, starting with the earliest and moving forward. Mike pointed out that in a period of two years, they went from carriage wheels to rubber tires.

In a matter of four years, they went from squeeze bulb-style horns...

to electric horns.

Here's an antique milk truck. Milk delivery was a little before my time as well, but I like to imagine it was wonderful having fresh milk delivered to one's door back then.

The father of a high school friend was a milkman. I sent her this image to see if this was like her dad's truck. She thought his was the next newer model.

I think the thing we really came to see was this Tucker. In 1988 there was a movie made about the Tucker called "Tucker: A Man and his Dream," and it's worth seeing if you haven't already. There's an interesting story about bringing this car to market.

Here's some information about it.

There was a large Corvette collection going back to the earliest models. There at the top of the image below is the very car Mike has. His doesn't have the decals on the side, but it's the same car right down to the color, called "Millennium Yellow."

Here's an antique school bus.

Everything you've seen so far was in the downstairs part of the museum. We walked up a long ramp to the upstairs. We first saw this collection of about a billion golf clubs extending from the right of the image below on into infinity toward the left of the image.

And here we saw things that made our eyes pop. Collections of cash registers and fans...

Telephones...

Typewriters...I think I learned to type on one of these.

Then, in my former life as a legal secretary, I had the pleasure of working with a correcting Selectric II like this one. It was state of the art. When one interviewed for a job as a legal secretary, one wanted to know what kind of a typewriter would be provided. If it was anything less than this, then one would probably want to look for a different job.

Later on came the Mag Cards and Memory typewriters, and the correcting Selectric became old hat.

Okay, and this whole long aisle was a collection of knives on both sides...and there were more knives. This was only the beginning.

There were vintage motorcycles.

Here was the other thing we came to see...the Batmobiles. There were three of them and the Bat ski boat there in the back.

This next one was the one used in the television series.

I knew you'd want to see the vintage sewing machines. The first ones were off in a little room, as if they weren't quite ready for prime time.

There was some engraving on the stitch plate. I tried to get some pictures you could read, and that's what you'll see in the next two images.

There were more sewing machines in the main part of the museum. I'm not an antique sewing machine aficionado, but I know some of you are. Here's the sign that accompanied them.

Oh, and there was so much more. I thought Mike's head would explode when he saw this collection of outboard boat motors.

This whole wall was fishing lures, and they extended around the corner covering another whole wall.

Here were some toy pedal cars.

Radios, and these too extended around the corner covering two whole walls.

There were sewing implements in this glass case.

Here, I stood to the right so you could see everything.

Oh yes, and belt buckles.

Here's one of those carnival fun mirrors. We're looking good since going on diets, don't you think?

Now this display was kind of back behind the reception desk. Initially, I didn't take any pictures, but then decided I wanted to remember it. It's a display of KKK memorabilia. Kind of creepy, but it's all from the local area. They carried membership cards and special KKK knives and other items that kept them apprised of secret meetings and identified them as members. Ick.

On a brighter note...pun intended...was this display of Steinway pianos. We were told that one of the pianos is currently on loan to the White House for some function or another.

And don't think that I've shown you everything from the museum. I most definitely have not. It was the most unbelievably eclectic collection of collectibles either of us has ever seen. If you get a chance, it's well worth a visit and the price of admission. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

From there, we had just about an hour to clear out of the Tallahassee RV park and make our way to our next stop at the Ochlockonee River State Park. It was just about 40 miles down the road, and so it was a quick drive today.

And nothing could happen until we got Himself out for a walk.

It was so warm in the sunshine that we brought our shadow selves along.

It was a rather short walk because we were hungry for lunch. It was such a lovely day that we sat outside and enjoyed the warmth and sunshine. Looking up we saw blue skies, oak, and long leaf pine trees.

Do you ever get the feeling you're being watched?

I'll tell you more about the park in tomorrow's post. We can see the river from the RV window, and so we want to get out and do a little hiking before it starts to get dark. We have four nights here, and we're expecting good weather.