With gas prices on the rise and new policies and ideas on the table, it's time to look at how we get around. We all need to get someplace and we use many different modes of transportation to do so. As we kick off 2011 at OnMilwaukee.com, we're taking an in-depth look at how we get around with a special "Transportation Week," featuring all kinds of stories about how Milwaukee gets where it's going. So, buckle up, hop on and all aboard.
While OnMilwaukee.com rolls out "Transportation Week" it would be a travesty not to mention one of the world's great monuments to wheeled transportation, the Volo Auto Museum.
Located among the rolling farmland outside Volo, Ill. the museum is a throwback to attractions like those that popped up along Route 66 as America's fascination with the road trip bloomed.
Unlike some of those attractions, which relied on flashy highway advertising and mystery to reel in weary travelers, the Volo Auto Museum delivers with tons to look at for gearheads and non-gearheads alike.
The museum, located on a 30-acre former dairy farm, showcases some of film and televisions most famous vehicles like the original Batmobile from the 1960s television series "Batman" as well as quirky lesser known cars like a motorized wheelchair from Will Smith's late '90s bomb "Wild Wild West."
The museum is also home to a collector car sales showroom filled with gorgeous classic and custom cars of almost any make and model you can imagine, and you can even drive home some of the cars from television and film if you have the cash including a 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible from "2 Fast 2 Furious" going for $25,998.
William Grams moved his family to the land in 1960 and started operating a used furniture store there. Grams and his two sons Greg and Bill loved to tinker with old cars and soon built up a large collection of un-restored antique automobiles. As word of their cache spread, other car enthusiasts would loan their cars to the Grams to display.
After flipping a 1931 Chrysler roadster they bought for $300 and sold for $25,000, Greg used the money to modernize the showroom and officially launch the museum which continued to grow into the five sprawling climate-controlled showrooms and several antique store warehouses that stand there today.
Some of the most interesting attractions on display are vehicles created by the legendary auto customizer George Barris who created TV's Batmobile, a 1921 Oldsmobile turned into a truck for "The Beverly Hillbillies," and KITT, the talking car from TV's "Knight Rider."
Displays offer interesting information on the vehicles' appearances and other trivia.
Cars that have made more recent appearances on display include the time traveling Delorian from "Back To The Future," Vin Diesel's custom Dodge Charger from "Fast and the Furious," the Volkswagen from "Herbie Fully Loaded" and an 18-wheeler driven by Heath Ledger as the Joker in "The Dark Knight."
Novelty cars like a piano on wheels inspired by Jerry Lee Lewis, cars owned by celebrities like Bette Davis, and a large number of military vehicles and paraphernalia round out the collection which takes several hours to peruse.
You can get relatively close to most the cars making for great photo ops for car and movie nerds alike. And if you can fit, you can sit inside Michael Andretti's blue and yellow Indy 500 car.
An on-site food-court offers standard snack food fare, but otherwise dining options in the rural area are pretty slim. Luckily the museum is only 60 miles from Milwaukee, so you'd probably be fine to catch a bite on your way out of town or in Kenosha or Racine on your way back.
