Gateway, Colorado

I told Wally today that I am going to lose the few blog followers I have for two reasons.  One, I haven’t blogged in several weeks.  And two, we have taken a gazillion pictures of wildflowers and all my posts will start looking the same!  Well, those posts are yet to come and I will try to limit myself when the time comes. But first, I have to finish this post which has been setting in my live writer program for way too long!

On our Fourth of July getaway we visited Gateway, Colorado which is southwest of Grand Junction.  It is a resort town established by the founder of the Discovery channel, John Hendricks.  His grandfather used to farm in the area and I guess he got the land cheap??  There really is not much out there, except this stop on the road in the midst of Gateway Canyon.  So why go there?  Because it is home to the Gateway Car Museum which is also home to the 1955 Oldsmobile 88. 

Wally was sure missing his Dad as we went through the museum.  Pop was a great old car buff and Wally really enjoyed that with his Dad.  The museum had this motorcycle right in front as we walked in.  This is a 1913 Indian 61 Twin Board Track Racer…Big name but I was just glad not be on this kind of a bike

I got a kick out of this car, a Cadillac!  They have certainly improved over the years!

Below is a 1934 Ford Deluxe Rumble Seat Roadster.  I love the rumble seat!

Wally grew up near Auburn, IN where the original factory for producing the  Cord, Auburn, and Duesenberg, automobiles operated.  It went our of business in the late 1930’s and became a museum which he visited many times.  This is a 1936 Cord--

A 1936 Auburn…Supercharged Cabriolet--

And this is a 1931 Duesenberg

And this guy works at the museum…a car buff who has a job buffing cars!  Not a bad deal!  This is a 1938 Cadillac and you can tell they were moving up in the luxury end of the business. 

But this is the era that Wally loves, the fifty and sixties.  Here’s a Buick Skylark

This is a 1957 Chevrolet…in front of a Ford billboard!  Wally’s Dad was a Chevy man.  He restored several of them in his life time. 

Wally was disappointed there were no Falcons in the museum.  But I would probably trade Nellie for a t-bird like this…

The car we came to see is the Oldsmobile 88.  It has quite a story behind it…it should not even be here.  In 1954 General Motors was wanting to introduce a sleek sports car and four cars were shown on its “Motorama” show.  They selected the Chevrolet Corvette which had been produced the year before and the other cars were to be destroyed.  Though no one knows for sure, the story is told that the designer of the Olds 88, Harley Earl, did not destroy his car.  Instead, he snuck the car out of the GM plant in pieces, along with the blueprints.  Later, it was sold to E.L. Cord, the owner of the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg. and then into the hands of different car collectors until it was believed to have disappeared.  Then on January 29,2005, more than fifty years after its original debut, the Olds 88 resurfaced at a car auction in Arizona.  It sold for a record 3.24 million dollars!  Nothing at the museum stated this but Wally had heard on a program that the family of the designer, Harley Earl, found all the pieces in a garage after his death and they had it reassembled.  It truly is a beautiful car.

Simply beautiful! And if you have not seen enough old cars here, come for a visit…I have one or two more pictures to share!!