4 museums 2 days

2 busy days and 4 museums later: 

The Auburn/Cord/ Dusenburg museum in Auburn IN is pretty nice and larger than I though it would be. Bonus is the auto and truck museum next door. Lots of heavy trucks and fun odd balls.

Indy motor speedway museum: Disappointing. Was there many many years ago and its lost 1/2 its content. Rows of cars have been replaced by pretty displays of trophies, helmets and kid friendly activities. I asked where all the pace cars went, "Storage. We don't display them anymore". 

Next up, the American Sign Museum in Cincinatti. Best suprise of the trip. Place is loaded with neon and vintage signage. Its also a working sign shop in the middle of it all. Very cool.

Final stop, Air Force Museum in Dayton OH. This place is HUGE. Everything from the Wright bros to a B52. Walk through retired Air Force One and marvel at the 6 engined XB-70 Valkyrie.

The AF museum takes an entire day to see everything.  If you had time, the Packard museum was in downtown Dayton.

Saving the Auburn/Cord/ Dusenburg museum and the American Sign Museum in my maps. Both sound like a great time.

Cincinnati has a lot of great museums. Highly recommended city for a weekend trip for someone who loves museums. 

I've been to two of those, but not for many years. I visited the Indy museum on a USGP weekend in 2005-ish, but I haven't been to the USAF museum since the mid-90s. I need to go back. 

Also, if you like the USAF museum, the Smithsonian Air and Space museum is a natural fit, particularly the annex out near Dulles airport.

Almost forgot, our Star Wars groups will have characters at the AF Museum next month September 27th for Rocket Day.

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Upcoming/Events/#Rocket

Colin Wood said:

Saving the Auburn/Cord/ Dusenburg museum and the American Sign Museum in my maps. Both sound like a great time.

Auburn/Cord museum is more than cars.  The building is super cool - I was impressed.

IMS? I'm in whatever is going on - it's still a fun visit. 
 

Glad you shared this! I’ve always heard about the Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg Museum but never knew it was that big. Sounds like it’s worth the trip. If you were fitting four museums into two days, which others made your list?

I did something similar once when I was in Boston and squeezed in a couple of stops with friends. We ended up using MetroWestCarService just to make the travel easier between places, and it honestly saved us some stress. Curious what travel hacks others use when bouncing between museums or events do you usually just drive yourself, or plan ahead with something like that?

Glad you posted this! I’ve always heard about the Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg Museum but had no idea it was that extensive — definitely seems like it’s worth the visit. If you managed to fit four museums into just two days, I’m curious which other ones made the cut. I had a similar experience in Boston when I tried cramming a couple of museum stops into one trip with friends. We used SALLimoService to get around, and it really took the stress out of juggling multiple stops. Do you usually just drive yourself when doing that kind of trip, or do you plan ahead with transport to make it smoother?