Who Needs These Stinkin' Things?

Just a partial sample of one of the many (many, many, many) agglomerations found in the Tallahassee Automobile and Collectibles Museum.

 

Notes From The Underground

 Alternate title: 'Mites 'n 'Tites @ Florida Caverns State Park

 

Wyland's Whaling Wall

 Just outside of Destin FL on the eastbound approach to the Destin Mid-Bay Bridge is a Robert Wyland (famous for his whale/ocean art) mural notable enough to have a sign indicating that one can pull off the highway to check it out:

Sure enough, the multi-Cetacean mural stretches across multiple large buildings, and for the roadside attraction-inclined, it's worth a stop for a photo op.

 Also noteworthy, though not apparent to the ground level passer-by, is the roof of the building (according to the "Love Destin" website) is decorated with the world's largest American Flag. 

'Bamahenge Selfies

So you discover a full size fiberglass replica of Stonehenge in southern Alabama...you gotta take a selfie, right?

Interesting side note: reading about this particular version of the Druid standing stone monument, we discovered they were fabricated by Mark Cline, the same guy who made "Foamhenge", the replica originally located near Natural Bridge VA (featured in our post of 8/22/14). 

TSG's Ironclad Contact

 On the itinerary today, a visit to the very cool USS Cairo in the Vicksburg National Military Park

Tony's B-29 Engine

 Today we stopped in to check out Tupelo's Veterans Museum and met the museum's owner/curator Tony Lute  (seen below in the personally autographed museum pamphlet)

Showing me around a bit, he pointed out his most impressive item, a Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone engine from a WWII B-29 bomber

Tony related the story of how he acquired the engine. One day he was talking to a friend and mentioned he would really like to have a radial aircraft engine, and through some sort of nudge-nudge-wink-wink collector's grapevine network, two weeks later the engine arrived on the back of a large truck. 

I asked Tony if he knew the provenance of the engine. He didn't know which plane it might have come from, but he did say that the Commemorative Air Force wanted to buy it from him as a replacement engine for their touring, still-flying B-29 Fifi. (The Wright-Cylones were notoriously unreliable) He turned down their offer of $100,000,even when they offered to include a non-functioning engine as a "trade-in". 

Anywho, we talked for a bit more and I thanked him for the personal tour before heading on down the road. If you ever find yourself in Tupelo TSG highly recommends a visit to check out Tony's awesome collection of military memorabilia.

Elvis Has (Not) Left The Building(s)...

 ...at least not in the buildings we were in today.

Memphis TN / Tupelo MS