The Man puts the red light on me. I see Mr. T's van.

Yesterday, I drove over to Auburn, Indiana to check out the WW2 Museum and take a look around at the town.

Small Mid-Western towns seem to be built in the same layout. There's a courthouse in the center and the old business district is built around it. Auburn is built in this style.

So I cruised down Main Street looking for the museum, which I understood to be across from the courthouse. It turned out to be a pretty busy town and the folks didn't seem inclined to let some out-of-town-Jasper dawdle along seeing the sights. They were down right pushy.
So I circled the courthouse, went back around to the front and parked, thinking I'd go into a cafe across the street and see what they had in the way of pie. That's when I noticed the police car with blinking lights blocking me in. Crap!

Some young guy came up and introduced himself in a manner reminiscent of a waiter. "Hi, I'm XXX with the Auburn Police Department." I half-expected him to say "I'll be your server today."

He asked if I had an appointment in the courthouse, probably thinking I had a van full of explosives and a score to settle with the local judge. I explained I was just a tourist looking for the museum and he told me it was back on the freeway, but just hang on and he'd give me directions. He took my "papers" and I waited while he ran my ID.
It took a while, probably because I'm from out of state, but he came back and gave me a warning ticket. He said an ambulance parked on the corner was blocking the stop sign and he understood. Then he gave me directions to the museum and sped off. Whew!
He was a very nice guy and wasn't at all threatening or intimidating but I noticed he managed to question me about my business without seeming to be doing so. Must be Homeland Security training.

I figured I better get while the getting was good, so I skipped the pie expedition and headed to the museum.

It turned out the museum was actually a group of museums all in the same huge building. Entrance fee was $10 but only $4 for veterans!
Guess all that time in the military finally paid off.

The WW2 section had a BUNCH of captured German vehicles, weapons uniforms, etc. I think there was more German stuff than American.
I saw a BMW motorcycle with a sidecar that looked just like my new Ural.

They also had Canadian, Russian, English and Italian stuff too, even a couple of planes.
There were mannikins dressed in uniform set in various tableaus, like riding in the vehicles, standing in groups, looking at maps, being taken prisoner and one scene of Russians meeting Americans.
It was really cool for a military buff (like me) and I highly recommend it to all.

I spent hours there and was getting tired but made a run through the Indiana baseball, Television history and car museums.
Most of the cars were Indy racing cars but one section had Hollywood cars. I saw Batman's car (it's really huge), Robin's Bat-Cycle (an old Suzuki 2 stroke), The Fonz's Triumph motorbike and last but not least... Mr. T's van!! I was totally surprised as I thought I read that it was rusting away in some Hollywood backlot.
It was pretty, shiny, impressive and looked totally cool. I may have to get a part-time job so I can build one just like it and get some gold chains.

All in all an exciting day.

I understand the RV museum is up the road in Elkhart which is on my route to the Great Lakes. This is car-lovers heaven up here.

...more follows...