Met, shmet. Those fancy museum are fine, but Flyover Americans never met an oddball museum they didn’t love. So much so, we had trouble choosing among the gajillions we’ve visited.
Today’s threefer guest writer is our buddy Eva Holland, senior editor of World Hum, swell writer, cool chick, and ’60s soul junkie, which explains her detour to western Alabama on a trip from Nashville to Memphis.
Jenna and I totally understand. An oddball museum is always worth a detour. (Oh, and BTW–we do like the Met, too. But in a different way.)
Photo by Eva Holland
My visit to Muscle Shoals, Alabama remains the greatest detour I’ve ever taken. Why? Thanks to the unexpected delights of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. Don’t laugh: Alabama packs some serious star power. Nat King Cole, The Temptations, Lionel Richie, Hank Williams and — of course — Alabama all hail from the Yellowhammer State, just for a start. And the Hall of Fame honors that talent with neon light displays, vintage jukeboxes, original lyrics written on scraps of napkins and old 45s in glass cases. It’s a music geek’s kitschy playground.
–Eva
Photo courtesy of the Chattanooga Area Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB)
I hadn’t ever given tow trucks much thought. But, in a fit of well, what the hell is that all about?, I decided to visit the International Towing and Recovery Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Step inside the ho-hum building and you get blasted with color. The collection features brightly painted classic tow trucks that date back to the early 1900s; toy trucks I imagine my grandfathers rolled around when they were wee; and, my favorite, dioramas of need-a-tow events. Just like that, a formerly invisible industry went Technicolor.–Jenna
The Texas Prison Museum? Oh my, yes please! It’s in Huntsville, home to Texas’ oldest state prison. We spotted it from the highway driving to Galveston (look for the guard tower) and simply had to stop en route home. Fascinating. Not only Old Sparky (an electric chair in which 361 men died–chills!) but also inmate art, including “Death Row Dolls,” made by female death row inmates, and a “Prisonopoly” game; info on famous inmates (including Leadbelly, David Crosby, and Henry Lee Lucas); weapons made by and confiscated from inmates; and prison “hardware” (leg irons, ball and chain). Totally wow. –Sophia Dembling
Eva, when you were in NW Alabama did you also visit the WC Handy Museum and Ivy Green?
The towing museum also awards the top ten towtruck drivers in the country each year. Almost all of them are from the snowy north, which makes one wonder why the museum is in Chattanooga?
The vintage television museum in Columbus, OH is one of my favorites. Just to be clear, it is a museum of television hardware and electronics, not television programming.
Still kicking myself for skipping the spam museum in Austin, MN…
Chris — Maybe you can tie a trip to the Spam Museum in with a trip to the Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco, TX. It’d be a long haul to pair the duo but….neither goody will spoil along the way.
Also, I have a feeling you would like–if you haven’t already been there–the Museum of Industry in Baltimore. http://www.thebmi.org/
Hey Chris – I missed out on those two, sadly. It was a pretty quick trip focused on FAME Records and the Muscle Shoals Sound. I did make it out to the coon dog cemetery, though!
The Dr Pepper is lots of fun and pretty fancy. You can also visit the Texas Rangers Museum and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in Waco. They’re all very nice … Waco is a pretty affluent college town (Baylor University). It has a great natural history museum on campus, too.
And my apologies to the Dr Pepper people for inserting a . into the name. I knew it was wrong but my fingers got ahead of me.
You’ll get a lawyer letter in the morning.
I would totally frame that.
The Roy Orbison museum in Wink, Tx is completely inaccessible from normal life as we know it. If you can find Wink, you have to call one of the phone numbers on the paper taped to the door to get someone to let let you in, but you may get an old lady in a big car who shows up who actually knew the master of misery and will share some stories as you see the humble artifacts of his barnstorming early years. The TX prison museum is a can’t miss for sure though.
I wanted to write about the Roy Orbison museum but I couldn’t remember exactly what we saw there! I remember some photos and dusty cases full of stuff … but I didn’t take notes. We’ll just have to go back someday and bother that lady again.
Bonus points for the cemetery! Did you take the Natchez Trace down from Nashville to get to the Shoals? I’ve actually never driven the TN portion of the Trace.
That’s a long time on I-35, but I think I’m up for it.
I haven’t done the Baltimore Museum of Industry. I loved the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry though. Actually I’ve never seen a museum of science/industry I didn’t love. Baltimore’s is now on the list!
Sadly not. If I remember right, I just took the interstate straight south from Nashville and then maybe the 72? It was a rough post-Tootsies morning, and I was pretty intent on just getting there. There was definitely an emergency grease/coffee stop at a Waffle House. I’ll have to get back and check out the Natchez Trace one of these days – so, SO much to see in the South!