For those of you who have
been following the blog, you know that this week I'm off to Sturgis,
South Dakota to attend the Defense Training International (DTI)
Urban Rifle Course, taught by John Farnam. My course starts on
Wednesday morning, but I figured I'd share some of my adventures on
the drive. So far, it's been a great trip, accompanied by my lovely
wife, Laurie.
I'm breaking in two recent
purchases on this trip: a Tantal AK74, which I'll be running at the
rifle course, and a great condition Chevy Tahoe I just picked up. So
far, the Tahoe has been a pleasure to drive, and we'll see how the
Tantal holds up in a couple of days.
We left on Saturday
morning with a plan to see some sights on the way out. Our first
stop was actually an unexpected surprise – our route took us
through Darwin, Minnesota – home of the World's Largest Ball of
Twine!
Our next stop was De Smet,
where Laura Ingalls Wilder (author of the “Little House on the
Prairie” books) and her family had settled. We got to tour two homes owned by the family, as well as a school Laura and Carrie attended.
We ended our day in
Mitchell, South Dakota, home of the one and only “Corn Palace.”
If you haven't been there, you're not missing much. It's essentially
a large gift shop.
Dinner was prime rib at
Chef Louie's – I'd highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in
Mitchell.
The next morning we headed
out towards the Badlands, but along the way we kept seeing signs for
Pioneer Auto in the town of Murdo. Our original plan was to stop at
Wall Drug after the Badlands, but the possibility of a classic car
museum was too good to pass up.
Pioneer Auto advertised
over 200 cars, and I think we saw them all. Initially we found a
well-lit showroom style display, crammed with classic cars and
odds-and-ends, in the style of House on the Rock (one of my favorite
other roadside attractions, in Spring Green, Wisconsin). Among these
was a General Lee from the Dukes of Hazard TV series:
And racer in the style of
Richard Petty (I couldn't determine if Petty actually drove it or
not, but he had autographed it):
In the next room were a
bunch of...well, all sorts of stuff. A giant wooden chicken:
Cases of depression glass,
old dolls, old typewriters, some Star Wars figures, and other
oddities. Following this was a very large rock collection (which was
neat, if you like rocks).
In the next room were some
guns, which I know regular readers of this blog will appreciate:
Here's a BAR cutout, oversize for training. I've always wanted one of these, just
because they are so neat. I've seen them pop up for sale from time to time.
Some of the pistols were
pretty rare, including this Roth-Styer and a pair of French Pinfire
revolvers:
As well as an M1 Carbine
training cutout:
I was so into the M1 that
I almost missed it was hanging behind a Cord automobile! Those are
pretty rare. There were two of these on the grounds, but this one
was the nicest.
As we moved on, the
quality of the buildings (basically old barns and stables)
deteriorated, but the cars did not. Here's a 1930s Chevy – most of
the cars you see in this era are Fords:
This was stored with a lot
of other seriously old – and potentially valuable – cars in the
shed:
The next shed held some
interesting cars , including a 1934
Packard owned by cowboy star Tom Mix:
As a non-sequitur, in the
same shed we found a bunch of old PCs – nothing historic, but they
had clearly been there for a while.
Next was the “muscle
car” display. Some very cool stuff in here, including a Plymouth
Superbird, one of my all time favorite cars:
The next shed had a bunch
of old motorcycles, out in the open. In a glass case, however, was a
Harley owned by none other than Elvis Presley!
Then things started
getting kind of weird. A wedding chapel was populated with mannequins
and didn't look like it had been used for some time:
A horse drawn hearse with
a Boot Hill diorama next to it:
A shed full of old steam
tractors, some touring cars, and a 70s AMC Pacer:
Another shed held some
nice classic cars, as well as a 1970s...Ford Pinto?
I didn't get any pics, but
the solar-powered Odyssey Concept Car was in this same row. As the
Pinto.
Another shed held a large
collection of what I'd call junk, in a display that was more
archeology than museum. I theorized that the owner of the museum may
have bought out entire estate sales and put everything he got on
display.
I really enjoyed Pioneer
Auto, but couldn't help having some mixed emotions. I'd ballpark the
total value of the collection at three million or more – but most
of these cars are just sitting, collecting dust, upholstery and tires
rotting, and probably haven't been maintained in years. If I were to
wish the fate of these cars, I guess I'd say I wish they were at
least getting washed and better protected from the elements. But
they don't belong to me, so I have to just appreciate that someone's
keeping them around.
Could be worse, right? They could be in junkyards.
TOMORROW – Badlands and
Mount Rushmore.
No comments:
Post a Comment