When I was forming our itinerary, I planned for a day in Auburn (about half an hour away from Fort Wayne) because Wes mentioned that he wanted to visit the Auburn Cord Duesenberg automobile museum. Turns out that Kenny is originally from Auburn so he served as our tour guide, and we got to explore a little more than just the automobile museum. Auburn is even smaller than Fort Wayne so it made for a nice mid-morning trip. Sadly, we went on a Sunday and all the cute shops along Main Street were closed -- we still got to do a little window shopping, though.
The Auburn Cord Duesenberg museum is gigantic (much bigger than you'd think it is from looking at it from the street). There were so many cars on display (three levels worth!), I didn't think there would be that many since they are rare collectors' items. The museum is actually housed in the factory that the cars were assembled in, with the original show room and offices in tact. There were a couple of extremely rare models on display. I don't know a lot about cars so this post will mostly be pictures.
I thought the older cars were a lot prettier than the "newer" ones (new as in circa 1960s). Their colors were so vibrant; I love the blues and greens. I also really liked the detailed hood ornaments. The "trunk" for the older models was a literal trunk strapped to the back of the car. Wes's favorite cars were the Cord 812 and the black Duesenberg Model J. My favorite was the green one in the smaller picture above (I didn't write down its name, which is terrible because Dominique gave me a small notebook and pen when she picked us up from the airport. She must have remembered that I used to journal all of my travels).
The second floor of the museum had a little art gallery that displayed Duesenberg advertisements and old car show posters. The museum still hosts an annual car show to this day. The 2019 poster is pictured on the top right of the collage. The museum had a car set up for visitors to climb in and take picture with. I asked a passerby to snap a picture of all of us and afterward, he told me & Wes to go to the other automobile museum next door, and to not miss the basement. We had some time to kill so we took his advice and went to the National Automotive & Truck Museum. Weirdly, he also approached Dominique & Kenny and asked if we were their parents 😲
The National Automotive & Truck Museum was a giant mess. We started in the toy & model car collection and wandered into the first showroom. I think it was supposed to be set up like a garage or service station. There were a lot of old gas pumps, which I thought looked neat. Then we ventured downstairs to the basement showroom. That was a disorganized mess of cars. It looked like everyone randomly drove their car in, parked and left. There was no pattern or path for my eye to follow. We walked around a bit and I think we saw everything but there's no telling.
There was one cool thing in the basement. An old RV that was for sale! I don't remember how much they were selling it for but if we went RV'ing, I would have totally bought it. LOL It looked so cute! There was a fully functioning kitchen (stove, sink, counter space) and a couple of cushioned benches. I think that was my favorite thing in the museum. I recommend visiting the Auburn Cord Duesenberg museum, but you can skip the National Automotive & Truck one. Wes appreciated that the national museum showed a larger variety of cars but he preferred the Duesenberg museum as well.
For lunch, we went to Mad Anthony's Taproom. I got the Strawberry Tart (a fruity ale, very tasty) and Wes got the Harry Baals Irish Nitro Stout (Harry Baals was a former mayor of Fort Wayne). I wanted another fruity/citrus beer but they were out. We ordered Scooby Snacks (potato wedges with a cucumber & dill flavored Ranch dipping sauce) and house pork rinds for our appetizers. I got the falafel pita for my meal and it was really delicious. I'd say that Mad Anthony's was one of my favorite restaurants we went to.
I just realized that I never posted a picture of the guitar string ring I got from GearFest, so here you go.
After lunch, we went to Byler Lane Winery. We had a 6-wine tasting. I only really liked two or three of the six that I tried. They offered a margarita inspired wine that tasted exactly like lime and salt; it was not good. It wasn't my (or Wes's) favorite winery. The weather was great for meandering through the vineyards and lounging on the deck. It was nice to have a rest after all the walking around we've been doing. I wanted to stay for a proper nap but everyone else insisted that we move on. LOL
We drove through Amish country on our way out of town. We saw a bunch of horse drawn buggies (and tons of horse dung EVERYWHERE). We saw an Amish teenager with an iPhone. And several houses with solar panels. I guess they're moving away from the traditional Amish practices. Kenny took us to the Amish goods store but it wasn't open. Sunday really wasn't the best day to visit. Over all, we had a nice vacation, it was really relaxing -- probably because Fort Wayne was a tiny town (no traffic; no lines; no crowds!) My favorite part was getting to try all the local restaurants. We tried our best to avoid chain eateries. I'm not sure if Fort Wayne is exactly a "tourist destination" but I would definitely recommend GearFest. It is really informative if you're a musician and if you're not, you can still have a lot of fun as a fan. Since
eating isn't really an event or attraction, I'd say that GearFest was my favorite part of the trip.
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