cars, of course

Ahoy,

I made us reservations to go to the Nethercutt Collection sometime in March. It's somebody's private collection of old cars and other stuffs. It's open to the public and free! The family has over 100 old, vintage cars that are all restored and in working order. They regularly drive them to car shows and win awards still. Isn't that cool? They have all the staff and crew to restore a car in house except for the glass, and 2 other things. Isn't that cool? There is a big building with a bunch of cars and then another building with stuff besides cars, and also cars. The second building requires a reservation to go on the tour. But it's totally worth it, and I highly recommend you do it. 

The second building has a lot of musical pieces. There are a lot of self playing instruments and recorders. There is a piano that recorded Gerschwinn playing Rhapsody in Blue; so it plays on its own a reenactment of the composer playing his famous piece! There is a machine that has 3 violins playing on their own. There is an entire floor of orchestrions. These large boxes that contain all the pieces of a whole orchestra inside as they play themselves. Orchestrions were much more popular in Europe during WWII, and so a lot of the machines they acquired are German made. But in the States, we had silent movies set to the sounds of organs.  

The 3rd largest organ in the world lives here. The tour guide is the curator and musician that plays and maintains all the instruments. He was very enthusiastic about his job. The largest pipe could contain 3 grown men standing inside. Some of the pipes we could see, but a lot of them lived behind curtains in the wall. The guide says sometimes the building just shakes when he plays certain songs. He played a Phantom of the Opera piece for us. 

All in all, a pretty cool outing. None of us were expecting such a stellar end to the tour. It was a pleasant surprise. You should go and check it out yourself. If you're not a huge fan of cars, definitely take the tour.

resoundingly alarmed,
jt