Wheels Through Time, have you heard of it?
Maybe you’ve seen it on the History Channel. If you’re like us on the other hand you’d never heard of this place or the popular show on History.
It just so happens we came across this place by accident. We wanted to take a trip to the North Carolina Blue Ridge mountains and see some sites which took us through Maggie Valley. As we entered the little mountain town we came across a vintage car show, so being the car guy that I am we pulled over to have a look.
We weren’t outside for more than 15 minutes and it started to rain on us and I felt bad for all the cars, especially the convertibles. The car show was small but behind the car show and off to the side I spotted a pretty large warehouse style building. Torie had looked the place up and saw that it looked like a motorcycle museum. Since it was raining we decided to go inside and check it out.
As soon as we walked towards the front of the building Dale (the owner) came riding a vintage motorcycle out the front door with a dog on the back of it. The bike was old and I was surprised to see it was able to run, but seeing the dog on the back was pretty awesome.
The ride was over as soon as we got to the front door and the dog that had been on the back of a moving motorcycle returned to his bed at the front door inside of a vintage sidecar. There was a cool bench outside the front door as well that we utilized for a photo opt. Dale also meet us at the door and was very pleasant and kind especially towards our two little ones.
When you first walk inside it pretty much just looks like a little gift shop. Once you purchase your tickets which were $12 for adults and $6 for kids, seniors were $10 you can then enter the museum.
If this place was a government funded museum in Washington DC I would have been impressed. To find out this was Dale’s private collection was astonishing. I found my jaw dragged on the floor of the entire building.
Instantly you get his with the wow factor. Two stories of motorcycle, cars and vintage memorabilia. There is so much to see you can easily spend hours there which is refreshing knowing you just spent at least $12 on yourself to get in.
There is staff scattered all over the museum eager to tell you stories and answer any questions might (and probably will have). Dale himself even walks around and interacts with all the visitors.
It looked like a lot of the old bikes and cars actually ran. As we walked around we could hear different motors being started and ran for crowds of people. We even had one of the staff members tell us we could get on one of the bikes so we could take a photo.
The whole time we walked through the museum I thought how impressive it was and how much I wanted to bring my dad back when he comes to visit. My dad is a hard core biker guy that would definitely be impressed by what I was seeing.
Give them a call (828) 926-6266 before you make the trip just to make sure they are open. It looks like they close down for the winter and are only open between April and November, Thursday through Monday 9-5.
Wheels Through Time is located in Maggie Valley on 62 Vintage Lane.
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