"Speedy" Bill Smith's Museum of American Speed at Speedway Motors. Amazing.

When you think of the nation’s great car museums, you probably think of places like Los Angeles or Detroit.  A moderately-populated Midwestern locale like, oh, say, Lincoln, Nebraska probably wouldn’t be at the top of your list.  But if that’s the case, I’m here to tell you, it’s time to update your list.  I just got back from the spectacular Museum of American Speed, and the collection in that three-story building will hold its own against any in the country.

Nebraska Furniture Mart Friends and Family Car Show raises money for the Dream Factory

I lived in Omaha as a kid, and Nebraska Furniture Mart was the place in town to buy furniture.  I remember my parents dragging me through there on occasion to look at couches or whatever.  The diminutive Mrs. B would be scooting through making sure everything was in order.

So big was the Nebraska Furniture Mart that even when my family moved to Kansas City, they still bought new furniture from the Omaha retailer.  And it wasn't just them, either.  Turns out that lots of Kansas Citians took advantage of the deals from the giant store.

Chrysler man Rich Suhr lets go of some of his treasures. We take one last look at his collection during the Lincoln auction

“Leave it to you to make this into a car trip.”

We were in Lincoln, Neb., this weekend to visit some of my wife’s family, so before we took off, I got on the old Googler and searched for a cool car thing to do there. Isn’t that how everyone prepares for travel? Anyway, I’m glad I did, because it took us to Rich Suhr’s house in southeastern rural Lincoln, on the day he was auctioning off a huge collection of 42 old cars and a whole bunch of parts.

Vintage car dealership photos from the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. The mother lode

I'm a real sucker for old car pictures. And nothing captures the feel of old cars more than the places they were sold. I mean, look at the top of this page--the whole blog starts with a picture of my granddad's used car lot from the 1940s.

When you look back at old car dealership photos, you're not just looking at a few cars parked around a building. You're looking at someone's hopes and dreams. You're looking at history before it happened. Someone may have saved their whole life to purchase the thing you're looking at there. Maybe it ended up driving them to their wedding. Maybe someone eventually died in that car.