Yesterday was spent going to a museum, a used book store, and stuffing our faces until we exploded. I’m writing this from beyond the grave 😉
Going in chronological order and because I have lots of pictures, the first thing we did after lunch was make a return visit to the Lane Motor Museum . One of the things the Lane is noted for is one of the world’s largest collections of micro cars, cars with less than 500 cc displacement. These used to be quite popular over in Europe after the war for travelling distances too far to walk or ride a bicycle in the time available and not reliably served by train. They were also used for urban travel as many were small enough to take indoors when you arrived at your destination, eliminating the need to use expensive parking. Another thing they have at the Lane is an extensive collection of bicycles of varying vintages from pre WWII to the day before yesterday. And as befits a museum that has the goal of “everything runs”, they have an onsite bicycle shop.
You can see a bike on the stand, several bikes around the shop, and bins of old parts on the shelves.
I mentioned their collection of micro cars, which includes a running example of the Guinness World’s Smallest Production Car.
This is a Peel P50, which is basically a 50cc scooter with a fiberglass body. The staff at the Lane have actually driven this on the street in Nashville.
They also have one of these, described in this sign.
And this picture.
This display shows just how micro a micro car can get with this standard interior house door straddling the display.
The purpose of this American made micro was to take milady and her purchases home from the local grocery and all the way into the pantry. Only a few were built.
Microcars hung around in Japan much longer than in the US or even Europe, with this example from the late 1960s.
Yes, that is a Subaru, a 360 from 1968 if I remember correctly. Incidentally, I heard that they have a bunch of spare transmission parts for this model Scoobydoo at the Lane because they had to order 400 parts to be made to replace a single broken gear… 😀
Micro cars did not have to be stodgy transportation appliances, some had pretensions (or delusions) of sport.
I didn’t catch the name of this car when I took the picture, but browsing the collection online tells me it’s not listed (?!)
After the Lane Museum we visited one of the largest used-book stores in the US, McKay I fund a volume I really wanted to get because the title reached out an grabbed me Sex and Bacon , but I didn’t get it because I ran out of money.
After the book store we beat feet (drove, using the Interstates mostly) to Monell’s at the Manor a restaurant I have extensively reviewed in this blog previously. My current review of the food is this: I required assistance leaving the establishment because I ate too much… Oh, that meatloaf…
After that we retired for the night to console our distended stomachs.
So, how was your Saturday?
PSA, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 