Driving today from the Chicago area to Cedar Rapids, Iowa… We stopped for lunch by chance at the Decker Hotel in Maquoketa, Iowa.  The hotel had been purchase only recently by two brothers who saved it from the wrecking ball and a new life as a parking lot.  The hotel looked like it had just been […]

Shoenthaler Collection In Downers Grove, Illinois is an extraordinary private collection of Ed and Judy Schoenthaler, who operate a suburban Chevrolet dealership.  All the cars are driveable and are routinely shown in concours events.  All are housed in a discreet building in a light industrial park. Ed and Judy showed us all around, and shared not only […]

The drive straight across Indiana took us south of Chicago and to the little towns of Geneva and St. Charles to prepare for a day-long excursion to Chicago. Nice Apartment Our host for cocktails was a local club member and businessman.  He wanted a house with a view along the river, so he bought an […]

Heading out of Canton, many participants toured the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Not having much interest in the subject, I instead performed another field repair on the 1932 Cadillac… One of the valves was out of adjustment and noisy, so I called up Pete the mechanic and he gave me clear instructions on how […]

Ketchup Fortune To start the day, we took in the Heinz memorial chapel on the campus of the university of Pittsburgh.  The chapel was built in 1933 with  donations from the Heinz family to honor their parents.  the chapel is non-denominational, and depicts historical American figures in the stained glass panels.  See the video of the […]