Sept 9th

We don’t have a real plan for where to go next right now so we figured we’d head for Nashville and then Memphis and Graceland.  That decision and the desire to travel as many secondary roads as practical led us through Fort Wayne, Indiana and some real luck – good and bad.

First, the good luck.  We driving on I-69 just north of Fort Wayne and saw a billboard for the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Automobile Museum.  I had read about it earlier on the trip but had no idea where it was.  When I saw the sign I got excited because the Cord automobile was one of the nicest ever made.  Carol said it was OK with her and, because we had not plan except which WalMart to stop at for the night, we went.  What an amazing place – Carol loved it too.  The building is the original headquarters of the Auburn-Cord manufacturing company and the ceilings are all restored to the original art-deco and the lights and floors are the originals.  This is a don’t miss it kind of place if you are anywhere near the area.

Now, the bad luck.  After leaving the museum we were back on I-69 heading for the WalMart when a motorcyclist beeped his horn and pointed to the tow car with some energy.  I pulled over and found that the left rear wheel was smoking and had oil or grease all over it.  It was rush hour and we had to get off the highway so we took the next exit and found ourselves in a real rush-hour mess.  We used Streets & Trips and the WalMart file to find the nearest one.  They said we could stay so that took the pressure off and while I was trying to get the drum off so I could tell (for sure) what happened Carol found a city park with camping and free good quality WiFi provided by the city of Fort Wayne and, amazingly enough, the daily fee is only $17.

By the time we got hooked up and ready for dinner it was 9pm and we were really beat.  It is amazing how tiring things like that can be.