Automotive Playgrounds (and other cool stuff)

August 9^th, 2026

Beloit, WI

Woke at 8:00am, but was so tired, I reset alarm for 9:00am and sat in large chair.

Alarm woke me up, had actually fallen asleep in the chair.

Still very tired, but needed to get going.

Showered and dressed and gathered the cameras and batteries, then left to see if breakfast was still being served.

I was in time since it was a weekend, they run an extra hour on those days.

Had a small plate of scrambled eggs and some juice.

Then went out and uncovered the bike and put things in place.

Rode out of the hotel and back onto the interstate for a few miles, then pulled off again shortly after entering the state of Illinois.

The first stop for the day was right off the freeway, tucked into a small industrial area.

The Historic Attractions Museum.

This museum has a large focus on automobiles, but also lots of other historical artifacts as well.

Spread across 2 large buildings, the size of 3 American football fields, and divided into several sections with a common theme, there is enough here to easily use up 2-3 hours, and longer if you like to read every sign and really stare at things.

The entrance is also the gift shop, full of lots of stuff, but I went up to buy my ticket.  A couple had gone in just as I arrived, and 4 older gentlemen showed up right as I was going in as well, and were just in front of me.

One of them asked me a few questions about they bike and my travels when he found out I was not local.  Talked a bit while they were buying tickets, then I too went up to buy one.

Girl at the counter offered to sit my helmet behind the counter so I did not have to carry it.

I also decided to go put the riding jacket in the pannier, was already hot inside.  Since this place was a bit isolated, and not that busy, figured I would risk it being in the pannier.

I entered the doors and the first section is the old west area.  Lots of artifacts from the mid to late 1800s.  Looked at a few of the wagons and some guns on display.

Conestoga Wagon - Late 1700s

Then you go into the Elvis room.  Lots of original clothing, and other period pieces.  Some smaller displays on other artists and actors of the same time.

The next room focuses on the cars of world leaders.  A few interesting vehicles in here and some history and details about them.

Gorbachev's 1991 Mercedes Benz SEL 540 Limo

Then you have the US Presidential car gallery.  Several former presidential limos from FDR to Trumps first term.  These are the actual cars too, not replicas.

Jimmy Carter's 1976 Cadillac Limo

The next gallery is gangster cars.  Some of these are replicas, some generic, and a few traced to a particular gangster.

Jack "Legs" Diamond's 1929 Lincoln Model L

Then you enter a gallery of one-off oddities.  Car’s custom built by people that are more art than vehicle in many ways.

1969 Roeling 1

The back galleries have various racing vehicles, land and water as well as one of the largest Big Foot monster trucks built.

1999 Ford Big Foot Monster Truck

There is also a gallery of land speed vehicles and huge section on Illinois stock car racing and some other stock car artifacts.

1975 Bonneville Boss Custom LSR Hauler (replica LSR car)

Now you head back up toward the front of the building, first going into the War Room gallery which was focused on military, mainly having lots of uniforms, some dioramas and various artifacts.

Hollywood Prop Ship used in various films in 50s/60s

A small gallery next details the story of a new Plymouth Belvedere put into a time capsule in 1957, to be opened in 2007 and the car would then be awarded to the winner (or their heirs) of a contest.   But sadly, the supposedly water proof vault was not.  It leaked in water and flooded, pretty much ruining the car and much of the other stuff placed with it.  The car is on display here, and a few small items.

Then you have a small rest area, with restroom and vending machines.  I definitely needed the restrooms at this point.

Next up was the Journey through Time room.  Lots of clocks dating from the 1800s on up.  Some interesting time pieces.  Also, the walls are lined with various types of organs and similar musical contraption.

You the find a small gallery of Egyptian themed pieces.  There are several movie props from the films Cleopatra and The Ten Commandments, but much of the stuff in here is just generic replicas.

You then get to the 911 Memorial room.  This is just information and names of those lost on that day.

The next gallery is the Hall of Christ, which has a wax figure recreation of the last supper along with various information on the walls.

The small gallery next is dedicated to Abraham Lincoln and has some interesting items from his personal life.

Back into the front building you find the WWII cars room.  Mostly vehicles of Nazi Germany and various other artifacts.

You then have the Kennedy gallery.  This is 3 separate rooms detailing the assassination, including an exact replica of the limo built by the same company that made the actual car, and the original support car that was following the limo on that day.

1956 Cadillac Secret Service Limo (the one following JFK the day he was shot)

You also find the actual taxi that Oswald took when he left the area, and the actual ambulance that carried Oswald to the hospital after he was shot.

Lots of history on the signs and other artifacts as well.

Next is a small gallery of furniture taken out of the White House over the years.  Mostly post WWII stuff.

You then get a small gallery for NASA.  There is an Apollo capsule (I believe this was one of the many test flight capsules used before the actual missions.  Also, a mockup of the Mercury Freedom 7 capsule.  Few other replica or actual space items as well.

The following gallery is the super hero gallery.  It has cars from various films in it, mostly Batman, one of them being the screen used car, one a promotional car that was used to promote film and other a replica built using original blueprints.

1989 Promo car built by same company that made the film cars.  This car
was also the prize in a contest at that time.

The TV Land gallery is also cars, all from TV and film.  Many are promo cars, not necessarily the screen used cars, others are just cars based on TV characters, but not from any particular film.

Flintstones Movie car (Screen used?)

The final gallery is the Animals.  A few dozen taxidermy animals shown in various poses.  Some interesting species, and the elephant figure is one of the largest African elephants ever seen.

While I was going into the Animal gallery, I ran into (almost literally) Tony Farrell, Sr, who is the chief historian of the museum.  He was zipping around on a scooter to tell everyone in the place about a short presentation he was going to do in the Kennedy section in a few minutes.

However, we got to talking and he told me several background stories of some of the TV land cars as I had aske about them.  Had some great conversations and let me know I would review the place on Google as they are looking for ways to increase attendance and knowledge of the place’s existence.

I told him I would be writing about it and also the film I had taken that day would go into a YouTube video.  He gave me his card in case I had questions later, and I gave him mine so he could see what I put up in a month or so.

While we were doing this, he got a call and the girl up front said they were having a large group of 50 that were being brough over for a 45-minute tour.  Sounds like they just found out about it, so they had to scramble.

I decided I would just leave then, and went up and the bus was already there unloading.

The girl was standing out handing out maps and I asked if it was okay to walk behind the counter to grab my helmet since she was busy and she nodded it was.

Grabbed it and then went outside.

Thankfully the rain had stopped.  Heard it twice while in the museum coming down hard on the roof and winds blowing like crazy against the walls on one side.

I had seen rain was a high chance today, maybe I missed it and it has passed.

I got on the bike and rode down the road to the fuel station to fill the tank, then got back on the side road that Maps was telling me to use.

I was next heading to the small town of Volo, Illinois, just over an hour away.

The ride over was routed down lots of small, two-lane, country roads.  Was nice, but also strange that it did not find a better highway.

The rain managed to stay off on the horizon, so made it to Volo without getting wet.

Parked and walked over to the ticket signs and followed the path up to the building.

You walk through a series of small hallways with stuff in them to reach the ticket counter.

Once there, they started to tell me about the various ticket options and the different attractions.  Beside the Volo Automobile Museum, I had come to see, they also had a Titanic Exhibit, and the Jurassic Gardens.  Not really knowing what the others were, I decided to just see them all, which cost me $75!

Once they put the wrist band on me and gave me two token to use for access to the Crime gallery, I entered the gift shop area where the entrances to all 3 attractions is.

I of course started with the auto stuff.

This is divided into 5 galleries, some smaller side buildings and various outdoor items as well (mostly under covers, but still outside).

The first gallery was lots of really nicely done up classic and muscle cars.  The gimmick here is that most of these cars are also for sale!  Yeah, it’s a glorified car lot, just really special cars.

2013 Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Final Edition
(Yeah, I actually thought about buying it for 2 seconds, but that
would end the travelling)

If you liked a car, the price was on it, along with down payment and expected monthly payments as well.  You just talked to one of the sales people in offices along the wall.

Or you could just look at them and enjoy them.  Though they were parked a bit close so hard to see more than one side of each car.

Off to the side of this first hall was the military building.

They had it all setup with diorama type displays and several military artifacts and a few vehicles.  Lots of multimedia displays showing historical footage or movie scenes about historical events.

The actual GAZ-46 used in the Indiana Jones film (4th one)

Once I had seen that stuff, I went back into Hall 1 and found the exit to hall two.

This hall again has cars for sale, but also the cars around the outside wall were now movie and TV cars.  Some were actual screen used cars.  Others were replicas built in many cases by the same builder, or using original plans, and a few were creations from animation or other shows.

Screen used stunt car from James Bond Die Another Day.
(Aston Martin Vanquish, but really just a Jaguar with body panels)

Once you leave this hall, you get to the small building of Snow Vehicles.  This has a several special vehicles built to tackle snow in various ways.  Some interesting things in here.

1956 Tucker Sno-Cat (Recreation?)

Also along the outside wall of the main building are some fiberglass boats from the 50s that look almost like cars themselves.  Most were very limited productions and quite rare.

They next gallery is quite small, and focused on the Ford vs Ferrari film.  The actual screen used cars are here.  Two GT40s, A Ferrari P4 and the family station wagon.  (all are replicas built for the film, but these were the actual cars in the film)

They you get the Crime gallery.  This one takes the two tokens they give you as the entrance is not setup to use the chipped arm band that opens most other doors.

This gallery had some gangster items, very similar to last museum, and then a room of medieval torture devices and mock ups.   Not really that interesting, and definitely not a room for small children.

You then get to Hall 3.  This one is again lots of movie cars on the outside, and some more cars for sale in the middle.

The screen used Greased Lightning car

You then reach the outside sections.  These galleries are partly inside, but open to the outside.  This is where some vintage campers and travel trailers are.  Some really cool things in here, very early examples of what would become the RV craze you see today, including the one of the first RV every built.

1949 Spartan Prototype (only one built)

Hall 4 is a mixed bag of themes.  The row of Disney character displays is really there to take photos in front of.  A few cars themed on Disney.

They some historical vehicles and some movie cars as well.

Next up is the kiddie ride section, lots of vintage coin op riding machines. My favorite was a tiger from Esso (Put a Tiger in Your Tank).

Then they have a vintage arcade with some very early style games, no video stuff.

Then the final section was scooters and a few small motorbikes.

You next walk by a small park filled with farm implements and some tractors, which is also across from the building holding several other vintage tractors, including what may be the only Lamborghini Tractor in the USA.

Behind this is the building with restrooms and I had to use them, and nice that I did as you might miss seeing the Harrier Jet movie prop that was used in several films over the years (Think True Lies with Schwarzenegger)

The building next to it has a vintage carousel and lots of carnival music machines in it.  I just walked through it though as none of that holds any interest for me.

Outside there is the huge locomotive prop built for the movie Inception.  And then two old restored railroad cars used in various films over the years.

There is also an outdoor eatery here as well.

You then re-enter the main building.  Hall 5 is across the parking lot outside.

But first, since I bought the other attractions, I did them first.

I entered the Titanic Museum.  It has a few lifeboat mockups outside, and a replica of the main anchor (huge!).

Inside you find several cars that are the types of cars owned by some of the very wealthy aboard the ship, and in one case the car may have actually been owned by that person.  Also is the only other known example of the Renault that was in the hold of the ship when it went down.  Very valuable car.

1912 Renault Type CB

They have lots of period clothing and recreations of various items as well, along with detailed history on various people and details.  Of interest was the mechanical horse which is 1 of 4 known to exist.  One of these was in the gym onboard the ship, so is now in the wreck.  The other 2 are in the RMS Titanic museum and the Smithsonian.

Overall though it was a bit of a disappointment for what I probably paid for it.  Definitely pales next to the Exhibition in Las Vegas which is almost exclusively real artifacts from the wreck site.  If you have done the show in Vegas, you can skip this one unless you really like old cars, they are neat, even if linked to the Titanic only by possible ownership of passengers.

I then went over to the entrance to the Jurassic Garden.

This building starts with two huge animatronic dinosaurs out front.  A Brachiosaurus and a T-Rex.

Inside the building is a bit dark, and you follow a path through a series of displays of more animatronic dinos and back grounds.  Nearly every dino from the Jurassic Park films makes and appearance, and a few more.

The creatures all make noise, so is a bit loud.

Near the middle, you walk through a small room with real reptiles on display.  Few snakes, lizards, and turtles.  Most were hiding really well, so could not see them, few were out of the tanks at another show, some of the turtles were in a pen on the floor walking around, and staff had two animals out allowing people to see them up close and touch them. (Bearded dragon and a legless lizard).

You then complete the dinosaur section and exit through the gift shop.

Overall, this place is targeting smaller children.  Many of the interactive displays are sized for kids.  If you really like dinosaurs, then you should enjoy it, but not sure it is worth the extra cost.

Once done, I wandered the gift shop and small snack area, but did not see anything.

I passed the restaurant, thinking I might come back later.

Went outside and over to the building 5.

This one was all just cars for sale again, and nothing really special.

Outside I noticed a few trucks and such parked down at end of lot, and then saw a double decker bus driving into the field there.

I went back over to the main building and inside to check out the restaurant, but nothing looked good.  Went over to gift shop and bought a Coke, then went outside to sit down and rest and take off the hot jacket. (This place was very busy, and lots of people and close to town, so did not trust leaving the jacket with the bike, and they had no where to put it or the helmet, so wore the jacket and carried the helmet the entire walk).

After a bit I saw the bus pull up again and people getting off.  I walked over and looked and this is a former Disney World bus that the museum acquired.  I asked the girl driving and she said they take people out 4 times a day to the large field north of the main buildings.  I did not know this place existed, but only access was this or the small “train” vehicle.  Both were parked and I think done for the day, and probably cost extra anyway.

I decided to leave, but as I was leaving, I noticed the Antique shop entrance. 

This takes you to the stairs that go up over the building 5 cars and is full of small shops like a flea market selling everything under the sun.

Some interesting things, but nothing I needed to buy (or could fit on the bike).

I saw a hallway heading over to another large building that is also an Antiques mall, but was too late to go see it.  But looks like lots of opportunity to shop for things.

Once back to the bike I got ready to go.  Thankfully no rain had occurred and the bike was still dry.  Weather was looking better as well.

I plotted a course using bigger highways, takes me a bit out of the way, but is actually faster than route I used to get here.

Got out of lot but missed the turn, so had to turn around, then Maps re-routed me again, just changes the route to something different than what I chose because I am facing the wrong way.  Stupid program.

Thankfully I noticed right away and turned around again to use the road it had recommended first time.

This takes you along the museum property and you get to see some of that park the bus goes through.

Lots of animal statues, mostly ice age animals like mammoths and such.

Also saw a few other things in distance.

A hill blocked the view then, but last thing I saw was a train and a huge Jurassic Park like gate. 

I then hit the highway and over the next hour went back into Wisconsin and then back to Beloit.

I had not eaten anything all day and was starving, so stopped to eat first at the sub shop across the road from the hotel.  It started to rain a bit as I was going inside.

When I completed my meal, I rode next door to the convenience store to buy some stuff for tonight.  Again, it starts to rain as I am loading stuff on the bike.

Then rode around to reach the hotel and unload, secure and cover the bike.

Back in the room I worked on some stuff online and then wrote up this entry.

Will get it and last nights uploaded here soon, then figure out where I am going tomorrow.

Not much else planned, so guess we will catch ya down the road.

Todays Route: