I’m on the way back home now and, since I have never used I40 for a cross country trip, that’s what I’m using to head east. Today’s journey was from Amarillo, TX to Oklahoma City, OK and, as expected when zipping through flat countryside on an interstate, the drive was not very interesting. For much of the way I could see historic Route 66 running alongside the interstate but I didn’t see anything interesting alongside that.

The map and road video are here.

The main thing I wanted to see in Amarillo was Cadillac Ranch and, since it only added 10 minutes and 23 miles to my journey and I’d never been to Amarillo before, I figured it was worth it. However, when I looked on TripAdvisor for things to do, the number one attraction in the city was an RV museum. It sounded unlikely but the reviews were all wonderful and I had time so that was today’s tourist stop.

Jack Sisemore Traveland RV Museum is a small museum on the grounds of a large RV dealer but it had some unique exhibits and was very interesting. The museum is free and is obviously a work of love for the Sisemore family who have collected and restored RVs and camping trailers dating from 1935. Almost all of them are open for the public to just walk in and some of them are in original condition with the contents they had when first used. The unique exhibits included the world’s oldest Airstream, the prototype Itasca brand motor home (made by Winnebago) from 1974, and the bus used in the 2006 Robin Williams film “RV” (which I’ve never watched but will check out when I get home). Another unique artifact in a 1941 trailer donated by a WW1 veteran is a photo of his ship that is signed by 17 US Presidents.

I had thought about buying a small RV when I retired but there are no dealers near Washington so I spent some time looking at current models after visiting the museum. The luxury motor homes were amazing at around $250,000 but it is possible to spend over a million.

I love to find a unique style of museum and this was a professional standard, family owned museum offered for free as part of a business. Definitely unique!

This is a general view of the RV museum. On the left is a 1976 RV that was owned for many years by Max Factor Jr, the founder of the cosmetics company, and on the right is the RV movie bus. There were also many Harley Davidson motorcycles but, since I had already visited their museum, I ignored these.

This is the world’s oldest Airstream trailer from 1935.
This picture, signed by 17 presidents, was inside a 1941 trailer. Click the image for the full size version if you want to read the signatures.