Spring 2016 Mini-Tour (4 of 6)

This is one of a six-part series documenting my spring 2016 mini-tour from my house outside of Sanger, Texas to Wichita Falls, Texas. My route consisted mainly of gravel and dirt roads, and I covered about 130 miles over 2.5 days. Although this was a “credit card tour” which included meals and lodging purchased along the way, I did bring my coffee gear and had a roadside lunch on the second day. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, there were no towns or services along my route on the second day, and secondly, I’m a coffee snob. Documentation will be mainly in the form of photographs with a few captions or comments to relay something that might have caught my interest.

The series will be presented in six themes; (1) Flora and Fauna, (2) Roads and Rambles,(3) Little Texas Towns, (4) Classic Cars, (5) Lunch Outside, and (6) A Dog Agility Trial.

PART FOUR OF SIX – CLASSIC CARS

Nocona, Texas is host to Horton’s Classic Car Museum. I had time available and decided to visit. Beside the fact that I drive over 100 miles/day, five days each week, I’m not a “car person”. My 2008 Honda Civic is simply a tool. I spend way more time with a car than I want already. But I was there, and I do enjoy the design and aesthetic aspects of the automobile. So I might as well have a look.

As you can see in the photo above, the “Open” sign is lit. But the door was locked when I arrived. I peered into the windows confused. Nobody anywhere. Walking up and down, I looked for other doors. I tried the actual front door again. It was then the lady in the pick-up stopped in the street behind me and asked if I wanted to go inside (funny how things work out). After responding in the affirmative, she made a phone call, and said someone would be with me in a moment. He was, and that is how I toured the entire museum completely alone. Well, not entirely alone because my host checked on me occasionally, making sure I was behaving myself with the owner’s fancy cars.

I was told that there is a single owner, and the museum includes 133 “cars”. I guess the 133 number includes the trucks, but I’m not sure whether the bicycles and scooters were counted. The owner has a thing for Corvettes. In addition to the “only one ever made” Corvette station wagon above, he owns at least one for each year they have been made, except 3 or 4. I was told which years (in case I had a lead on a new Corvette for the collection), but I don’t remember the years. I’m not a “car person”.

I don’t recall seeing any motorcycles, but there were a few beach cruiser bicycles (I assume more as decoration than as collectibles), a scooter, and the bicycle “taxi” shown in my following photos, and several trucks. The collection spanned many years. A few modern classics and some from the early years. I think there were more of the tailgate benches similar the one shown above.

It was fascinating and visually stimulating. I guess there good reasons why these cars are considered “classic”. Aesthetics is probably one of those reasons. I kept asking myself why so many cars in use today are so ugly. It isn’t like we don’t know what an attractive automobile looks like. Many of the cars in the museum were pleasant to my eye. I could imagine actually enjoying owning and driving a few of them.

Here’s the other fascinating thing. After reviewing my photos, I realized I didn’t really provide comprehensive representation of the collection. I lingered admiringly plenty alongside Mustangs, T-Birds, Novas, and Camaros and other cars from the 60s and 70s. Apparently, however, it was the big, round, swoopy curves of the 40s and 50s cars that compelled me to get the camera out. This was completely unintentional. Maybe that tells me a little something about myself.

Next up – “Lunch Outside”…