A couple weeks back, I drove across Wisconsin, en route from my cousin's wedding in southeastern Minnesota (ancestral home of the Martin clan) to my SO's family vacation cabin on the Door Peninsula in Wisconsin.
My parents abandoned Minnesota for Northern California when I was six, so my memories of mosquito swarms, May snowstorms, and rusty quarterpanels aren't particularly vivid. I'd assumed that I'd be seeing nothing but late-model Buicks in my Wisconsonian travels. Not so!
What a find! A beater '51 Plymouth sedan with an IHC Milwaukee Foundry sticker on the bumper!
This fine machine was providing some vintage ambiance to Milty-Wilty's Diner, located on State Highway 21 in Wautoma. With a name like Milty-Wilty's and an old Plymouth setting on four flats, we had no choice but to stop.
Good move, too, because David Lynch appears to have designed Milty-Wilty's decor; check out this plywood sign, beckoning kids to the "play area" in back! My first impression was that I was suffering from Grain Belt Beer and cheese curd-induced hallucinations, but it was all gloriously real.
Later on, at an art gallery near Sturgeon Bay, I caught sight of this '50 Chevrolet in the bushes. The Eau Claire dealership emblem just beckons to be photographed.
At this point, the old Chevy serves mostly as a yellowjacket breeding facility. I spoke to the property's owner, and he said that they'd discovered the Chevy hidden in the weeds. They cleared enough of the undergrowth that visiting artists could see the car and be inspired by its lines. I'm pretty sure that a LeMons team with a hundred bucks could make this car their own!