I have to admit, last week I cheated. I used to write these emails on Monday morning and then send them right away, but it became too difficult to stay consistent. It’s been a while now, where I have a pretty good flow of checking three automotive museums and writing all of this on Sunday.

Writing this on Sunday gives me a little more time to update everything and allows me to schedule the email at the exact same time every week. Unless, of course, I forget to actually schedule, which does happen on occasion.

Last week though, I went on the road early Sunday morning to drive to Troy, Missouri to deliver my 1932 Roadster to its new owner just in time for me to turn around and drive to Mobile, Alabama to pick up my dream truck Monday morning and then head back home towards Atlanta.

There was no time to write this email, so I actually wrote it on Friday. I spent all day at Miles Through Time Automotive Museum, so I had no time on Saturday, which left Friday as the day to predict the future.

This was a risky move. Coordinating the delivery of one car and the picking up of another with 24 hours of driving and no way of knowing anything would for sure happen, was a risk I needed to take.

Fortunately, the buyer was happy with the Roadster, and I was able to collect the cash required to purchase my 1956 Ford F100 and, because I left so early on Sunday, I was able to see the truck in Mobile by 10 am the next day.

Usually, a 56 F100 “big window” is way out of my price range, or it’s a complete project I can’t just enjoy. The truck I got, I could afford since I had just sold my Roadster, but it’s not perfect, but it’s close to just being a reliable driver.

In the end, I did buy the truck and was back home by 8 pm on Monday. Although the truck seemed to run really well, the brakes felt unsafe, which means I have to get them fixed before I can really enjoy the truck. Along with the brakes, I’m hoping to install power steering, AC and hopefully update the wheels as soon as I can.

Everything else I plan to do with the truck can be done over time as I save more money, but I can drive it and enjoy it now. The 56 F100 had a lasting impression on me that has lasted over 27 years. 

My grandpa’s 59 Cadillac is sentimental and led to the creation of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum, but it was the 1956 Ford F100 that changed my psychology and is probably responsible for why I even care so much about my grandpa’s car.

Here is my original 56 F100 project that never got finished when I was younger.

Here is my new one next to my Pop’s 59 Cadillac.

Next to my Pop’s Cadillac, you see just a little bit of a green car, which is a LaSalle that is temporarily on display in the museum. If you want to see a bunch of Cadillac’s and LaSalle’s I suggest visiting the Cadillac-LaSalle Club Museum.

The building is styled from a 1948 Cadillac dealership, which makes it really cool. This museum is also just one of the many at the Gilmore Campus, so visiting the Cadillac-LaSalle Club Museum will also give you access to all the others at Gilmore. 

While Gilmore is North America’s largest automotive museum, the LeMay Collections at Marymount is the largest in the northwest. There are over 1,500 vehicles! I’ve never been to this museum, but I hope I can come up with an excuse to visit sooner rather than later.

The Frontier Auto Museum isn’t quite as big as the other two, but it reminds me a lot of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum. The museum is heavily themed and styled from the 50s. There is even a coffee shop and relics store affiliated with the museum. This is another museum I haven’t been able to personally visit yet, but I’m very intrigued to visit.

I’m super glad I didn’t have to tell you this week, that I was just kidding about selling my car and buying my dream truck. Sometimes, you just have to put things out there with the intention that it will work out.

That’s one of the main reasons I talk so much about the future plans for Miles Through Time Automotive Museum. It is hard to fathom how we are going to be able to afford to do it, but where there is a will there is a way. 

Gilmore took time to become what it is today. Even the AACA Museum started in a much smaller facility than what they have today, which is three floors and very impressive.

Use the Automotive Museum Guide to discover a museum you really want to visit, and make that one of your goals this year. 

If you want to see more, visit the Weekly 3.

Plan your next trip, discover your new favorite, or find the nearest museum

 Sean Mathis
Creator of Automotive Museum Guide
Founder of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum

P.S. Make sure you follow AMG on Facebook and join the FB Group to see what’s going on at all the museums.

Welcome to 2026! I’m on the road again already and have been since Sunday. Unfortunately, on this trip there is no time for automotive museums, which happens. I’d love to have the time to visit automotive museums every time I go somewhere, but it just isn’t always possible.

I live in the Atlanta metro, and I’m taking a 1932 Ford Roadster to Troy, Missouri. Then straight south to Mobile, Alabama to pick up a 1956 F100 for myself. 

I started Miles Through Time Automotive Museum because of how sentimental I was about my grandpa’s 1959 Cadillac. My sentimental attachment to vehicles started with a 1956 F100 my dad bought to be my first vehicle.

Unfortunately, I never got to actually drive that truck and have been wanting another one because of it for 27 years. The truck I’m getting is far from perfect, and I did have to sell my Roadster to buy it, but now the process of making my forever truck my truck begins.

I find it fascinating to realize how much a piece of machinery can mean to someone. Whether it be myself as an example, a visitor reminiscing about a car on display in the museum or someone having an emotional experience while donating their beloved vehicle to the museum.

I honestly do not care how much some of these cars are worth. Everything is worth what someone is willing to pay when it matches up with what someone is willing to accept to sell. None of that matters unless the vehicle is actually sold.

The story and the history behind the car is way more important to me.  It is possible for me not to even be that big of a fan of a specific car, but then the owner’s passion can change my perspective. 

That’s a powerful thing and something museums have the ability to do. They can share and create passion for all kinds of things in the automotive world. No one is going to be passionate about something they’ve never been introduced to. How could they? 

Automotive museums can help fill in the gaps. As well as car shows, meet-ups, automotive TV shows, video games with cars, and passionate owners who share their stories every chance they get.  I know a few of these types of people and they are my favorite.

The first three automotive museums I want to share with you in 2026 are museums I have not updated for about 4 years. That gives you an idea of how many museums I am constantly updating in the Automotive Museum Guide.

Motorama Auto Museum is huge. You’re going to see over 500 vehicles at this museum both inside and outside. This is a seasonal museum though, so put in on your calendar to visit between May and October.

Route 66 Hall of Fame Museum is a free museum you can visit that dives deep into the history and lore of Route 66, which is arguably the most famous road in the world.

The Seaba Station Motorcycle Museum is another free museum you can visit, although donations are appreciated. This museum is in the old Seaba Station that was built in 1921, so the 100+ year-old building is just about as fascinating as the motorcycles on display.

I hope you have a wonderful 2026 and have an opportunity to visit a bunch of automotive museums. If you have an opportunity to get involved with your local museum, I highly recommend it. Docents can make all the difference for visitors and the museum.

Plan your next trip, discover your new favorite, or find the nearest museum

 Sean Mathis
Creator of Automotive Museum Guide
Founder of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum

P.S. Make sure you follow AMG on Facebook and join the FB Group to see what’s going on at all the museums.

Well, this is it for 2025. This email is the 233rd I’ve sent, which is about four and a half years of trying to maintain automotivemuseumguide.com so it doesn’t become so inaccurate that it doesn’t serve its purpose.

Featuring at least three automotive museums each week keeps me organized to keep the Automotive Museum Guide constantly updated. Sharing the updated museums with you made sense, and adding a little bit from my personal perspective in the automotive museum world seemed like it might be interesting for some. I’m aware that some do not want to hear from me. 😉

Ultimately, if I can keep automotivemuseumguide.com as current as possible and draw traffic back to the website, then it makes sense for me to keep doing this. I do apologize for how annoying the Google Ads can sometimes be, but the revenue generated from those does cover the expense of the domain, hosting, and maintenance of the website.

Ideally, at some point, there will be very specific advertisers listed in the Automotive Museum Guide, so I can remove the Google Ads, but I’m not there yet. If you ever need any advice on how to create a ton of free work for yourself, I’m your guy.

To be fair, I do believe automotivemuseumguide.com will only continue to grow, and help more visitors find automotive museums to visit. I also believe in the potential of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum to become one of the long-lasting great museums. 

Yes, getting paid anything would be nice, helpful even, but that’s not why I do all of this. I’m coming up on a decade of trying to turn a one-car museum into something worthy of having a 100,000 square foot forever home. I believe we’re close.

St. Charles Motorcycle Museum has just started their journey. Andy Koczwara is the man behind this museum, art gallery, event space and bar. This is a unique adaptation of what a museum can be, and I hope I can see it in person soon.  

Idle Ridge Car Museum is another story. This museum was slated to open over the summer, but so far it has yet to open. It was the late James Feneis’ wish to transform his collection into a museum, but as I’ve seen way too many times now, it’s not always that easy.

The Kansas City Automotive Museum opened in 2014, three years before Miles Through Time Automotive Museum. The museum was created by a group of car enthusiasts in the Kansas City area and had success opening a 10,000 sqft museum.

Eleven years later, they are ready to build a brand-new facility 4 times the size of the current one. The renderings look amazing, and I really hope we get to see them in their new home in the near future.

I hope you’ve had a great 2025. I’m excited to see what 2026 brings. Visit as many of these museums as you can.

Plan your next trip, discover your new favorite, or find the nearest museum

 Sean Mathis
Creator of Automotive Museum Guide
Founder of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum

P.S. Make sure you follow AMG on Facebook and join the FB Group to see what’s going on at all the museums.

Big automotive museums get a lot of press, and rightfully so; they’re big, and that’s impressive. Many museums exceed 100,000 square feet in size, and a few are even larger.

I can see how easy it would be to fill a larger building with automotive history. I went from a 7,500 square foot building to a 30,000 square foot museum in just a few years at Miles Through Time Automotive Museum.

My goal for MTT is a 100,000 square foot building, which is not a 100,000 square foot museum. About 25,000sqft would be taken up by Vintage Garage Antiques, which is what I created to help support the nonprofit museum and act as a giant gift shop.

About 30,000sqft will be vehicle storage for the museum, which we don’t currently have. This will allow the museum to rotate donated vehicles in and out of the museum, and have a place to work on them. Plus, we could do a guided storage tour add-on, which would be pretty cool.

That only leaves about 45,000sqft for the museum itself and a dedicated library/event space. In reality, the museum itself wouldn’t be that much larger, but the additional space for everything else is what will ensure the museum can operate better. 

Of course, if I had access to a 200,000sqft building, I could still fill it, but at what point does it become too big? Sometimes, bigger isn’t necessary.

Clifford’s Mini Auto Museum isn’t a huge museum. You may have guessed that by the name of the museum. This museum is the size of an old gas station, and that is exactly what it was, when William Clifford purchased it in 1982.

William didn’t purchase the building to create a museum. His plan was actually to demolish it to add additional parking for his funeral home business next door. Fortunately, his account advised him of an alternative option, which led William to start storing his vintage cars and other memorabilia in the old station. William passed away in 2006, but his family still keeps the museum open for visitors.

The Midwest Microcar Museum is a different kind of small. The museum’s building definitely doesn’t have to be huge to fit a bunch of microcars on display. In fact, this museum’s building isn’t huge, and it’s very unassuming, but it is historic and charming. 

I find microcars fascinating. One of these days, I’ll get a Messerschmitt for Miles Through Time. I keep seeing them at other museums, and I just think they are cool.

One more small museum for you isn’t actually that small. The Columbus Collective Museums is a collective of five museums that are all together. The Lunch Box Museum, the Hatcher Family Cola Museum, the Tom Hutson Peanut Museum, the Georgia Radio Museum & Hall of Fame, and the Car Museum.

Allen M. Woodall, Jr. is the man who started all of these museums. I’ve had the privilege of visiting and meeting Allen and his granddaughter, Kaitlynn, who runs the museums now. 

The car museum isn’t huge, but there are some neat cars on display, including an original Tesla Roadster, which almost seems out of place. (I did offer to take it to Miles Through Time for them) The car collection, combined with the artifacts, history and various collections in the other museums definitely makes this museum worthy of visiting.

Plan your next trip, discover your new favorite, or find the nearest museum

 Sean Mathis
Creator of Automotive Museum Guide
Founder of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum

P.S. Make sure you follow AMG on Facebook and join the FB Group to see what’s going on at all the museums.

One thing I’ve learned from creating my own “car museum” is that it doesn’t take long to run out of space. I started Miles Through Time Automotive Museum in 2017 with only one car I inherited from my grandpa.

The building I was given the opportunity to create the museum in, was about 7,500 square feet. Once you remove the square footage for the entrance, office, and lounge area, 7,500 wasn’t very big. I believe the most cars I was ever able to fit in the museum was about 30, and they were shoved in tight.

Within the first year of being open, I was able to pretty much fill the building with cars. Over the next two years, I struggled with space, until I was able to move to a larger location.

The move wasn’t what you’d expect. We didn’t move 30 cars to the new location and keep growing. We pretty much started over from scratch, but this time with about 7 cars. 

However, just like the first time, additional vehicles were added very quickly to the museum. Within months of opening the new location in May 2020 (not ideal), we had enough vehicles to make the museum look full.

Within 15 months, the opportunity presented itself to expand the museum again, and we desperately needed the extra space. The additional space didn’t quite double the size of the museum, but it was close.

By the time the new expansion was opened to the public (known as gallery 3), we had enough vehicles on display that it looked completely full. Another 15 months went by of gradually rearranging vehicles to fit more, and we expanded into gallery 4, which, again, almost doubled the size of the entire museum.

This was a big expansion that took a few months to fill in, but eventually it did and today, space is again a big issue. Despite being 4 times larger than when the museum first opened, we need more space. 

Hence, the reason we have grand plans for a much larger facility capable of housing the current collection with growth for more. You can see a glimpse into the vision HERE. Of course, nothing is possible without financial assistance at this point.

Miles Through Time Automotive Museum is not unique in this sense. I’m not actually aware of a museum that couldn’t use more space. The Classic Car Museum of St. Augustine is about the same size as Miles Through Time.

I’ve been able to visit this museum and meet Sydney, the man behind the museum. The museum is packed with beautiful cars, and I have no doubt that if there was more room, Sydney would be able to fill it.

Marconi Automotive Museum is another museum I’ve had the privilege of visiting. I did not get a chance to meet Dick Marconi, who passed away in 2024, but his son John is extremely passionate about continuing on the legacy.

They host a lot of charity events in this museum, which definitely dips into space for cars and they have some beautiful ones. John can tell you the story behind every single one of them, which is what I appreciate.

The Northeast Classic Car Museum is the largest car museum in the northeast. They have over 200 vehicles in an 89,000 square foot, repurposed factory building. I have not had the privilege of visiting this museum yet, but I would imagine, despite their size, they still have space issues.

There are a lot of additional expenses with getting big. Although it would be nice to just add on a new wing, most of the time it just isn’t practical. I suppose space constraints help balance out vehicles throughout all the museums. 

When a museum doesn’t have the room for vehicles anymore, it creates an opportunity for them to go to other museums, like Miles Through Time, or they go to auction to help fund other museum projects, which also allows the vehicles to go back into the public domain where, hopefully they will be used, shared and enjoyed.

In the end, we are just the temporary caretakers of everything. We will be long gone, and a new generation will step into the role of caretakers. Part of a museum’s job is ensuring those future caretakers exist. 

Car shows, cruise-ins, meet-ups, automotive TV shows, family, role models all play their part in ensuring future generations care.

Make sure your friends and family know about the Automotive Museum Guide so it is easy for them to find all of these important places to visit.

Plan your next trip, discover your new favorite, or find the nearest museum

 Sean Mathis
Creator of Automotive Museum Guide
Founder of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum

P.S. Make sure you follow AMG on Facebook and join the FB Group to see what’s going on at all the museums.

I have driven across the USA a few times, and each time I set out to visit as many automotive museums as I possibly could. I planned ahead, using the Automotive Museum Guide, and had a bunch of museums to visit.

Then the reality of time constraints became abundantly obvious.  Technically, I could visit about 50 automotive museums between California and Georgia without going too far out of my way. 

If the goal was to take a picture of the building and keep moving, there would be no problem. However, once you start actually visiting each museum and spending anywhere from 30 minutes to hours at each location, time quickly disappears.

The time spent at each museum is only one aspect. You also have to account for how long it takes to get to the next museum, which in itself isn’t that big of a deal. The big wrench in the plan is always going to be museum open hours.

Each time I’ve driven across the country, I inevitably had to drive right by museums I couldn’t visit because they weren’t open.  I was either in the area on a day the museum wasn’t open or the time I was in the area was too late or too early.

I definitely have limited time when I travel, and although I’d love to visit as many museums as possible, I just don’t have the time and even the ones I do stop at, are often rushed so I can get back on the road.

If you have an RV and unlimited time, this would be the way to visit all the automotive museums. I wouldn’t be surprised if you spent an entire year trying to stop at every museum. Perhaps, one day I will try.

While most automotive museums have set hours, there are some that operate by appointment only. These are the museums that are between museums with regular hours and “museums” or private collections that open occasionally for special events or groups.

The Remlinger Classic Car Museum was founded by Jim Remlinger. This is Jim’s private collection, but he has made it viewable to the public as long as they schedule an appointment to visit.  You’ll see some drag cars, muscle cars and limited editions.

JWJ Cycle Museum is another museum you can only visit by appointment. Brothers Jack and Warren started this museum and have amassed a good-sized collection of vintage bikes that they’ve made accessible to see if you make an appointment to visit.

Halderman Museum Barn is a special museum dedicated to the life of Gale Halderman who was the one responsible for the design of the original Mustang in 1965. Much of the museum is Gale’s personal collection, which pays tribute to the Mustang. This museum is open to the public, but you have to make an appointment to visit.

Make sure you always reach out directly to the automotive museum you’d like to visit if there is any concern about when they will be open, how much admission is, or what is currently on display.

I do my best to keep the guide up to date, and this email each week is how I manage it, the best I can. The guide is just meant to make it easy for you to find the automotive museums. Once you find where you’re going, it’s best to go directly to the source.

Plan your next trip, discover your new favorite, or find the nearest museum

 Sean Mathis
Creator of Automotive Museum Guide
Founder of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum

P.S. Make sure you follow AMG on Facebook and join the FB Group to see what’s going on at all the museums.