Car and Carriage Caravan Museum
Apparently I cannot get away from car museums - and I'm happy!
I was visiting a CAVE! I was there to see rocks and trudge around underground! But look: there were CARS here! AGAIN! THE CAR MUSEUMS ARE FOLLOWNG ME! And at this point, I’m just happy to see them.
(I bought my ticket to the caverns, and you didn’t need to show tickets anywhere else in this complex. So, I’m guessing that if you were in the area of the Luray Caverns, you could skip the cave and just go to these other things. There is a huge parking lot, and I see it - this was a great place to go! Definitely good for adults, and also really family friendly for kiddos too.)
I’ve said this a dozen times, but I have never had any interest in cars. You put your key in the car, turn it, and the car goes. I don’t care beyond that. I’ve driven my brother bananas on several occasions when he asked me what kind of car I saw and I verbally shrug and say “…red?” (Apparently, that is an incorrect response.)
But I’ve been in so many car exhibits and museums on this trip, I’ve really learned a better appreciation for them. I know enough now to know that several of the cars I saw here, I hadn’t seen elsewhere; and there were some familiar favorites.
This is a Portuguese Nobility Carriage, from the mid-18th century. (I don’t just know these things; I’m reading off the information signs on all of the items.) This is a fancy two-seater, and you can just look at this and tell that all that fancy artwork that this is made for very wealthy people, in this case it was for some royals. (They have a complicated name that I’m not going to try to type here.)
This is a very cool looking car, not a carriage! It is one of the oldest cars on display in the country, an 1898 Benz Vis-a-Vis! Yes, it was made by the precursor of the Mercedes Benz factory in Germany. It was a five horsepower, one cylinder, water cooled gasoline engine. I can see myself in one of these, just dashing off to work, no big deal. I’d look very stylish!
Ad this is a 1900 Spider Surry! Yes: it’s a Surry with a fringe on top. Let’s all sing it! Thanks, Rogers and Hammerstein for so many great songs! (And if you only know Shirley Jonas from the Partridge Family, or not at all - she’s delightful in that video.) Or, enjoy Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal singing it in a Sharper Image.
Okay, back to cars! This is a 1908 Delaunay Belleville. The wood you see is mahogany, The fender and the seating are leather. This car was custom-made for the Baron Rosenkranz. How cool is that??? I’d love to have a custom-made car! Darn the lack of competition we have now, where all the small vendors have been put out of business by the big carmakers. (Did the car belong to this guy? I was looking around for the owner, and it might be him. He’s certainly interesting, anyway!)
This is a 1913 Stanley Steamer! Yes: it’s powered by steam!! There is a wooden frame surrounded by a detachable aluminum frame. They thought the wooden frame made the car more comfortable. And to help prevent accidents (remember: no seatbelts or airbags or any other modern safety features!), they wrapped piano wire around the steamer in case it exploded. So…great, I guess; but I’d still be nervous. It does look amazingly cool though! It was built in Newton, MA.
Ooooooooh! Here’s a new one: a dairy truck! It’s a 1914 Model T Ford Milk Truck!! So yes: it could have driven on the Lincoln Highway. (I’m guessing it didn’t but what do I know about the life of this car?) The front lights are gas powered (the last year Ford did that), and it apparently went 200 miles on 10 gallons of gas.
And this one is a 1932 Rolls Royce! It is a gentleman’s hunting vehicle. It’s called a shooting brake, one of only a few produced that year. Apparently that means the car could hold the gentlemen who were shooting, along with their equipment and their game. Seems like a useful car - but it’s also so beautiful!
And let’s wrap up the viewing with a 1925 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost Town Car. Even before I learned anything about cars this summer, I knew that was a fancy, cool car. This was potentially ordered for Rudolph Valentino, but they don’t think that he ever actually took possession of it before he passed away. See how it kind of looks like old leather, or like alligator patterns? That was done deliberately, to make it look like it was covered in feathers!
And there was STILL MORE TO DO! I’m going to wrap it up here though. But just know that you can ALSO go see Shenandoah Heritage Village. There is a nice museum building, and then you can walk around all the outdoor buildings and areas. (I pulled up my Seek app that I’ve talked about before, and was busily scanning all the plants and flowers to get more identified. It’s not required, but I had fun!)
Maybe today is the day to go for a ride in a car! Or spend some time looking at history in technology to see what might be awesome a hundred years from now.