Words really cannot describe the world’s largest model train display – Miniatur Wunderland, located in Hamburg Germany. Although the exhibit features over 800 trains pulling over 10,000 railway cars, which is impressive in and of itself, Miniatur Wunderland is much more then a model train display. It is in fact a virtual world in and of itself representing scenes throughout the world.

Check out this video which last approximately 5 minutes and be impressed. Be very impressed!

I’ve been in many themed restaurants over the years. In fact one of the best as far as having “stuff” hanging everywhere is Joe’s Crab Shack where you will find an amazing assortment of things to look at. However, I believe a restaurant I visited on my recent trip to Ohio tops them all for how far an eatery will go in it’s theming.

Quaker Steak & Lube (obviously coined after the Quaker State & Lube oil change stores) is a motor sports themed restaurant famous for their chicken wings available in a wide variety of sauces but also serving up steaks, chicken, and ribs. They have about 30 locations situated in several states back east including Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Florida to name a few. I had the pleasure of visiting the Columbus Ohio location and while there ate about 25 wings in various varieties, my favorite being the “Golden Garlic.”

Now allow me to focus on what was the highlight of my dining experience – the memorabilia. Not only did Quaker Steak & Lube have motor sports memorabilia all over the place such as hubcaps, old gas pumps, signs and the like, they had actual cars on lifts, hanging from the ceiling and even mounted on the walls. Don’t believe the last statement? Let the following pictures convince you.

No you’re not seeing things – that is a dragster hanging upside down

A hanging sprint car

Jeff Gordon’s # 24

An old Yamaha motorcycle

Old Triumph motorcycle

A mini motorcycle

This is a drivable car, indicated by small puddle of oil leaking under motor

This old Vette sat directly above our table

No I did not tilt the camera – that is an old Vette mounted on the wall. Crazy!

If you love cars and bikes and are ever back east, make sure you find a Quaker Steak & Lube an pay them a visit. Not only do they have great food but you will be treated to a very unique dining experience.

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I love telling this story. A couple of years ago, me and my wife (well actually it was mostly me) got a wild hair and decided to buy our son, who was 18 at the time, his first car – a 1968 Ford Mustang. That ended up being a decision I’d regret but that is another story I won’t tell hear and now. What is interesting about the purchase of this vehicle is that I ended up buying two classic Mustangs on the same day and the second one was by accident. Allow me to explain.

We had located the 68 Mustang on eBay. A fellow up in Prescott, Arizona was selling the vehicle, a classic that he and his father had worked to restore to the condition it was currently in. Since Prescott is so close to where I live (45 minute drive), I arranged to see the car before the eBay auction ended.

She was a pretty candy apple red and although not perfect, she had character. There was still quite a few things to do bring her to a state of completeness but all minor things such as replacing the gas cap, replacing some window and door handles, installing a new headliner, that sort of stuff. I figured she would be a great fix up project for my son while at the same time serving as a good and cool running car.

Therefore I arranged to buy the car outside of the eBay auction. So the owner ended the auction and me and Andrew, my son, drove up to Prescott to pick up our new acquisition.

At the same time, I was watching a 1967 Mustang which was also on eBay. This car was absolutely beautiful, an unmolested original that had been finely detailed by its current owner. This car was located in Tucson so I had not seen it but by the many pictures that were posted, you could tell that it was near show car material. It did have a starting price ($10,000) that exceeded what I wanted to pay for my son’s car which is why we decided on the one in Prescott.

When we returned from picking up the 68, I ran to my computer simply out of curiosity to see if the auction had ended for the 67 and if so, what it sold for. As I mentioned before, it had a starting price of $10,000 with no reserve, uncommon for a car that was worth over $20,000. There was 30 minutes left on the auction and no one had bid on it. Now I felt for sure there had to be a number of people watching this beauty and at the last minute a bidding war would take place, driving the cost up towards where it should be.

With 30 seconds left and no bidders, I thought, “What the hell,” and put in a bid for $10,000. I then waited for the bidding war to begin. What would the next person bid and then the next person after them? I was done. I placed a bid just for fun, kind of like when the lottery gets so large that you just have to buy a ticket. Who knows if you will win or not. I surely wasn’t planning to go any higher.

8 seconds left and no contesters to my bid. 5 seconds, then 3 and then the words, “You have won this item!” I was shocked. I had just bought two classic Mustangs in one day and one for half of what it was actually worth. I didn’t mean to buy the second one. It was a complete accident, well almost. I yelled out to Irma (my wife), “I just bought another Mustang!” She was already not too happy about the first one. I couldn’t even imagine what she thought about this “accidental” purchase.

I then started to think that maybe there was something wrong with the second one. Maybe the motor doesn’t run right or there is something wrong with the body or it doesn’t have matching parts. I printed all the pictures and descriptions to take with me to Tucson so if there was anything that wasn’t as described in the auction, I could pull out.

Irma and I made the trip to Tucson to pick up the car, hopefully. We arrived at a broker who sells things for people on eBay. The car wasn’t there. I thought maybe the guy had second thoughts. I know I would have. The broker said the car was everything that was described and more and that I was stealing it from him. My excitement grew and anticipation at the same time because the car was not there. We waited and waited and waited some more. The broker finally got a hold of the car’s owner on the phone and he assured him he was on the way. Finally I could hear the “lug lug lug” of a Ford muscle car V8. There she was, just as beautiful as the eBay pictures had depicted. The owner somewhat reluctantly took my cash payment and handed over the keys.

I was going to hold on to the car till after Christmas as I bought it sometime in November of 2005, and then sell it for a profit. However, I fell in love and still have her today. Here is how she looked the day I bought her.

There is a bunch more photos on my Flickr Account in which if you view them you will see how I stole this car at $10,000. When I called Hagerty to insure the classic, they valued her at $21,500

Lesson to be learned here is that when selling something on eBay of value, don’t be afraid to set a reserve price. It won’t scare people away. Also if you are interested in getting a bargain on eBay as I did, keep an eye out for people who neglect to set reserve prices. Believe me, I do and to date have not come across another car such as this that did not have a reserve price. Makes me think that this 67 was a blessing from God.

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