Thread by @iowahawkblog

Imma share some trip photos so go ahead and mute this thread if you are annoyed by that kinda thing

Who knew? Iowa Louisiana, in the heart of Cajun country

Some hard-earned beads from New Orleans Pride Parade

Obligatory beignets & brass jazz band at Cafe Du Monde in Nawlins

Meridian Mississippi, hometown of country music pioneer Jimmie Rodgers, Mississippi’s oldest restaurant Wiedmann’s (highly recommended), and some neat architecture

The head-exploder of the trip: the Barber Motorsports Museum in Leeds AL. Blair and I both proclaimed it among the best collection of vehicles we had ever seen anywhere in the world

I mean just look at this stuff- board track racers of all makes from the Golden Age of Daredeviltry

No brakes, no throttle (the only setting is wide open), and flying around a wooden track at 100+ mph in a leather helmet and woolen sweater

Old-timey bikes:
1. Gasoline penny farthing
2. Wolfmueller steam bike, with locomotive wheel drive
3. Steam velocipede
4. Another crazy locomotive drive steam bike

The greatest thing ever: Whizzer’s prototype for a gasoline powered Schwinn Stingray, circa 1966. The only one ever made. #Rosebud

Scoots galore, including the Doodle Bug Super (made in Webster City IA) and the Occo foldaway scooter that you carry like a suitcase (made in Hackensack NJ)

My first 2 motorized 2-wheeled vehicles: Honda Z50 Trail and Honda SL. Both are pretty collectible today, and I was stupid in how I sold them. Also stupid in how I rode them

Bohmerland, a crazyass German bike from around 1920. Yes, those are the stock colors

Da comrade, Soviet Union invent Vespa in 1965! Apparently the Rooskies didn't feel like paying design royalties to Piaggio so they just swiped it. Not sure what the Cyrillic logo says, maybe Chernobyl

One of the great vehicle names ever, the Flying Merkel. Pretty sure this is the very same one I saw at the Leroy Hartung auction in Glenview IL a few years ago. Complete barn find, cleaned up but otherwise unrestored

hmmm this is the barn find one I saw in Glenview in 2010. Almost identical but belt drive not chain drive

Space Age Bikes of the FUTUURRRE </reverb>
1. Majestic (French, 1930)
2. Parilla (Italian 1958)
3. Aermacchi Chimera (Italian 1960)
4. Bandit 9 (French, contemporary)

Motorized unicycle, which seems like a hilariously fun way to die

More Lotuses (Loti?) than you can shake a stick at

one of Colin Chapman's earlier projects, the Lotus Mark II, based on an Austin 7 chassis; within a few years he was making the Speed Raceresque Lotus Mark X

Speaking of Hondas, here's one of the first ones ever made: a Type F Cub motorized bicycle, circa 1950

The cherry on top of the Barber Museum for me was Crocker. A flatout factory hot rod of a bike, and probably the fastest production vehicle made in the US pre WW2. On the right, a very early (1930-ish) single slug track racer

One more from the Barber: a faithful replica of the Captain America chopper from Easy Rider. The original movie one(s) no longer exist, but here is an interesting tale of chopper forgery and skullduggery involving Peter Fonda and Grizzly Adams maxim.com/entertainment/…

After Birmingham, next stop Chattanooga, as seen from the cheap seats on Lookout Mountain

Blair enjoys Chattanooga’s liberal indoor smoking laws at a chic downtown dive

some stupid hipster I ran into in Brooklyn

Nassau Hall, Princeton University, capitol of the United States June 30 1783 to Nov 4 1783

I don't get the big deal about applying to Princeton, they let you just walk right in