Interlude and Birthday

Interlude and Birthday

April 9, 1947

It all started 67 years ago in a small Windsor hospital, in a room with white walls, and surrounded by unimaginable pressure pushing in from all sides. Suddenly I was blinded by a bright light at the end of a tunnel... wait!! I can't go now, I haven't even started yet! Okay, rewind. Strange sounds, bright lights large objects moving all around me then being swaddled and jostled around before getting my first taste of ambrosia. Yes, that's definitely how I remember it! Heheheh!!

Rewind...

Here it is 67 years later and I still see bright lights at the end of a tunnel, for example...

View from the balcony looking the length of the fourth floor of the American Car Museum

Well I've never been accused of having an original imagination, but this was a corker for opening a birthday narrative!

As many of you know we are in Lakewood WA at Tina's Mom's home waiting to go up to Whidbey Island where we have a house. We've been renting it for the past three years to a wonderful couple, who are artists and own a gallery in Greenbank about ten miles north of Freeland. They are moving out on the 15th and we will be starting the process of getting the place ready to sell. We had been working with an Oregon couple who approached us in January to negotiate a private sale. Unfortunately the deal to sell their property in Eugene OR fell through and they weren't able to complete our deal. Oh well, as my Dad always told me, "It is what it is, deal with it!"

Entrance to the museum

So here it is April 9th, my birthday, and Tina and I are going to the Le May Auto Museum also known as the American Car Museum with daughter Lori and granddaughter Emma. We arrived around 1pm and parked in the upper lot. As you can see from the above photo we brought our Florida blue sky with us but left the warm weather home. This is Jeans and Jacket temperatures, mid to upper 50's!

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Inside the entrance was a collection of vintage motorcycles including a 1911 Pierce Arrow, a Sears, a 1909 Harley Davidson and a Flying Merkel. It felt like we were in the Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley NC. What a great way to start our tour. I bought my first bike in 1964, a Honda CB160 which I modified and raced as part of the Burien Honda Team. We had a circuit starting with races at Seattle International Raceway then up to Westwood Raceway (outside Vancouver CA) and down to Portland International Raceway just outside Portland OR. In later years I did Desert Racing in the hills north of Los Angeles. Great times!

Posing with my Sweetheart!

We had lunch in the cafe above the fourth floor of the museum then started our walkabout. The Museum has three levels below the main or entrance floor. There was no particular organization with cars from all eras mixed in together on each floor. For example, before we got to where we stand in the photo above, we passed a huge assortment of Volkswagons. From a 1942 VW Beetle that looked like it just came off the assembly line to Vans, Karmen Ghia's and race cars.

1947 Tucker

Beyond us were cars ranging from a 1911 Buick Runabout to a 1947 Tucker. But hat's not surprising as this is not a permanent collection, but a composite of Le May family cars and others on loan from other families and corporate owners.

Granddaughter Emma and Daughter Lori

We worked our way through all four floors taking pictures as we went. Surprisingly there were very few newer than about 1972 with an exception being a 2012 Lexus Hybrid supercar in the Electric Car display. Unfortunately my camera battery died before we got there but it was amazing to see early electric cars with "tillers" for steering next to the Lexus.

International Harvester Farm Truck

We spent about three hours in the Museum and could have stayed longer, but being the "old guy", my back was telling me it was time to leave. We had a great afternoon and visiting the museum made up for missing the one in Paso Robles CA on the way up the coast.

As we move to getting the Freeland home sold we'll keep everyone informed.

To see all our other photos from the museum go to our albums at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski

Ciao for now!


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