Departed about 630am. 48 degrees. (out of focus pic, I know)
Met Justin (my son) a few miles south of town.
Rode south on same route I take to work at about same time.
Saw cars/people I recognized haveing seen from time to time... and though "Hey, and they are going to work haa haaa haa!"
Justin had us routed to avoid Interstate as much as practical.
Instead of 360 miles made it closer to 400, and require early start, but that is okay.
Here is Justin, somewhere well into Indiania
Made it the Kristen Museam (maybe not spelling it correctly). Is inbetween a big H-D dealer and a Yamie&other dealer, out in middle of corn fields, miles from any small town....
Go in between the two dealers and is the museam.
We said lets try to limit it to half hour, we said.
Was an older gentelman there, in an electric cart thing, just opening up (hour and half late) as we walked up.
We saw the $5 admission charge, went to hand it to him, and he just nodded toward a counter ther in the lobby, so we stepped over there and added our bills to some others that were scattered around in various places along the counter.
We signed the guest book, looked like 4 - 6 - 8 people a day in recent days.
Was thinking about the dealership hiring this fellow to attend to the museum.....
Stepped from the lobby, through the doors to the main part ... oh, man, look at all these... this is gonna be more than half hour....
Here is about 1/3rd of the first of 5 or 6 rows, and then another room of cars and trucks. There is the fellow that let us in. He started chatting and we were thinking that we just wanted to walk around.
Some other folks came in after us, and he started to chat with them, so we stepped away........
Found lots of stuff besides the rows of H-D. Lots of Kawis, and these few Zukis.
A few BMW, several british, and stuff like Matchless and such.
Some custom built stuff like a bike with a Lincoln V12 flathead....
Heard the fellow say to the other folk
"Yah, at one time or other I have ridden everything in here."
"Got all these one at a time over the years... not one of them from the internet..."
hum... then come to realize, this guy is Jim Kirsten.... this is his personal collection
This bike is the bike in the picture on dispaly, and that guy in the picture (1970?) is the guy that let is in, the guy in the electric cart can see there.
This is his museam of personal collection. He is the guy that started the dealerships there.
So did let the other folks catch up to us some so I could step over to talk to the Jim Kirsten.
"Yah, thats me and my wife, she was killed just down the road, truck pulled out in front of us, I was pretty smashed up too, I knew my head was busted, they later told me they didnt think they could save me......" (that sentence took about a minute and half for him to say).
"My kids run the both of the dealerships now."
Later I saw he is 83 years old, and later I saw a memorial to his wife, 2004. Oh!
Quite an expereince to see this museam and talk to the guy.
Caution though: Carefull in stepping inbetween the bikes, lots of oil dripping.
I would say about 40% is Harleys. And a lot of really rare or unique bikes.
I have been to other museams, but this is great to realise this is one guys private collection, and that is him there. Also had a 1/2scal replica built of his first dealership, complete with lifts and spare parts and such.
I do recommend it, will have to check to better describe where this is located.
Other pics of our travels that day.
Made it to Bedford about 430pm I think.
>>>Later note:
Info on the museam
Yep, I did spell it wrong, is spelled "Kirsting".
To describe where that is at... it is not close to anything, .... about 10 miles off of US421 in northwest Indiana.
8774 WEST 700 N. WINAMAC, IN 46996
(4 MILES SOUTH OF NORTH JUDSON ON HWY 39)
http://www.kerstingscycle.com/visit-our--museum
Kersting's Cycle Center sits between the tiny Indiana towns of North Judson and Winamac--about 110 miles due north of Indianapolis. "We're in the country, so it's us and horses and Harley? Hogs," Jim says, adding that some of those horses and hogs have served as payment over the years. "I've taken them in trade before, everything anybody wanted to trade," he says. "I still think it's a pretty good system. There's always someone wanting to buy horses and the pigs got put in the freezer."
In 1960, he married Nella, and they began work on their dealership's new home. "We built it out of cement blocks, and it was 28 feet wide and 70 feet long," Jim says. "The first 30 feet on the west end was our living quarters." Jim and Nella's two eldest children, Sandy and Randy, were born during the seven years the Kersting's lived in that building. The youngest, Jason, was born after they moved into a little home in North Judson.
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