Road Trip | National Motorcycle Museum | Anamosa, Iowa

Road trip to the National Motorcycle Museum

Road Trip! While visiting family in the Quad Cities area, my brother-in-law John mentioned to me that the National Motorcycle Museum was only 1.5 hours away. That afternoon we visited the Antique Archaeology store made famous by the show American Pickers. Antique Archaeology has a number of old motorcycles on display and looking at them made me want to check out the motorcycle museum. John and I have a number of years between us but a special closeness due to having a bunch of things in common. We both love DIY, have an affinity for mechanical things and a similar sense of humor.

I picked John up at his house on Saturday morning and we headed towards Anamosa, Iowa. Within 5 minutes of leaving his house. we passed a building with some activity and a bunch of cars parked outside. I asked John what was going on there and he said it was an auction but he had never been inside. I immediately pulled in the parking lot and said “when am I going to get another chance to check this out, maybe never.” After-all, my wife and I live 14 hours away in New Jersey. We went inside and walked around the old americana, antiques and well…..some junk to be honest. After a lap around the large room we agreed that the museum was our destination of the day and took off.

John had the address plugged in to Google Maps and we hit the road again. The route Google picked was interesting and I was certain at one point that we must have missed a turn somewhere. We spent most of the trip on back-roads, driving through long stretches of cornfields broken up only by farmhouses and little one block towns. It was like watching an old movie through the windshield. Little forgotten towns with boarded up storefronts, a church on the corner, a few older homes and then…..more cornfields. The drive was really special in a lot of ways. The scenery was incredible, stunning actually and the conversation was even better.

John and I talked about everything and nothing at the same time, like only friends can. Some people feel the need to fill every quiet moment with small talk but at times we just watched the movie through the windshield, both comfortable in silence. I later realized that we didn’t even listen to the radio on that long drive. We talked about family, hobbies, business and laughed a ton. Thinking back, I would liken our conversation to two philosophers not discussing philosophy. Maybe Voltaire and Kant on a road trip 🙂 Deep at times but lighthearted and funny.

We arrived at the National Motorcycle Museum later that morning and headed inside. The first display was dedicated to Evil Knieval. My Dad always had a motorcycle when I was growing up and he was a big fan of Evil Knievel. I remember watching Evil Knievel on TV when I was 6 or 7 years old and most importantly how cool I thought his Harley-Davidson was. Well, right there in front of me was one of his jump bikes. Damn that was cool. Right next to the display is an Evil Knievel face-hole. Had to get a picture of that. I think I said “when am I going to get a chance to do this again, maybe never.”

The next section John and I spent time at was the scooter display. This section had unusual scooters from manufacturers I had never even heard of. The Rumi was probably my favorite. The entire body was made of polished aluminum. I took a couple of close-ups but unfortunately I didn’t get a complete picture of this awesome piece of scooter history. We learned that Harley had also made a scooter at one time as well.

The museum has an amazing collection of early Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Really old examples dating back to the turn of the century were everywhere in that section. Some survivors and some restored examples can be seen here and they all were represented well. At one point John asked me how much I thought these old Harley’s were worth. I could see his gears turning and assumed he wanted to buy one. They are cool and I definitely want one too. I took lots of pictures and will share a few at the bottom of this blog posts as well.

The next section stopped me in my tracks! There in front of me was a Brough Superior. What at the time was known as the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles. The first production bike guaranteed to reach 100 miles-per-hour from the factory in stock form. They are remarkable, pure motorcycle art and even more remarkable in person. John and I marveled at the engineering that went into these machines in 1925. The levers on the handlebars pivoted from the bar-end and the cables ran inside the tubing. Not sure if that started with another manufacturer or not but is was a standout feature to us. These bikes are amazing and belong in museums for people to enjoy.

John and I marveled at bunch of different displays at the museum. Stopping at the Women of the Wall-of-Death to read stories of the brave women who rode the wall. We took a bunch of pictures at the Board Track Racing display. I spent a bunch of time staring at the Vincent Black Shadow on display. This bike was another turning point for the industry in performance. In 1948 the Vincent Black Shadow was capable of 125 mph!

John stopped at the Honda section and noted that he had owned two of the vintage Honda’s parked next to each other. I wandered over to the Kawasaki area and looked at a pristine KZ550 on display. This is a simple middle-of-the-road Japanese bike but I’ve always had a soft spot for them. The tour ends with a section on older bicycles and motorized bicycles. My favorite was the Hop Along Cassidy bike, equipped with cap gun holsters, saddle bags with fringe and a fringed mud flap. Just awesome!

Walking back to the car we started talking about food. We were both starving and agreed that we didn’t want McDonald’s even though it was in the same parking lot. We both agreed that Wendy’s would work but not McD’s. I think I said it would be a long hour and a half ride home after McDonald’s…LOL. John pulled out his phone and the first restaurant that came up had something called the tackle box. The restaurant was 11 miles in the wrong direction but it had tons of 5-star reviews and the infamous “Tackle Box.” Road trip! We headed out in search of this restaurant that served onion rings, waffle fries, fried mushrooms and deep fried cheese curd in a real life tackle box. Sounds like a road trip worthy stop!

The Stone City General Stone. After driving what seemed like far more than 11 miles, and once again feeling like we had made a wrong turn, we ended up at the Stone City General Store. The place was packed and we had to park on the street because the lot looked full. They had an outside bar along the river and the place was jumping. We checked out the bar downstairs at the suggestion of one of the waitresses but decided to take a table on the main floor.

We ordered the tackle box as an appetizer but our waitress talked us out of it and suggested we order the bait bucket instead. Apparently the bait bucket is a smaller version of the tackle box. We must have looked disappointed because she came back and said that she didn’t want to talk us out of the tackle box if we really wanted one. We both smiled and ordered a road trip worthy tackle box. If I didn’t say it out loud, I was thinking to myself “when I’m I going to get another chance to eat something called a tackle box?”

We drank Tangerine wheat beer, ate a ton of fried food out of a tackle box and had one of the best burgers I’ve had in a long time. At one point we both started laughing about something. It may have been the video John shot of me opening the tackle box and saying “oh shit.” Not sure what it was but we laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes. We bought Stone City General Store t-shirts and talked about another road trip for a tackle box someday.

The ride back to Illinois was much like the ride to Iowa. We took a slightly different route but it looked the same. Small towns, cornfields and long ribbons of beautiful two-lane roads. More movies of Iowa played out on the windshield and we talked about all kinds of different things. It was exactly what a road trip should be. Good friends, good scenery and good times.

I dropped John off in his driveway and thought to myself…. I wish we lived closer.

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