Mammoth Cave Wildlife Museum, Cave City, Kentucky

You don't have to travel to Africa, India, or a big city zoo to see some of the rarest animals on the face of the earth. Since 1969 the MAMMOTH CAVE WILDLIFE MUSEUM features some of the greatest animals ever. The museum has nearly 14,000 square feet of exhibit area containing rare and exotic animals such as tigers, lions, bears, leopards (including the Snow Leopard - one of the rarest cats in the world), deer, sheep, ox, and much more. It is Kentucky's first and largest outstanding wildlife museum. The museum doesn't stop at the big animals; they also have a huge selection of marine life, insects, birds, and many more creatures.

Military Memorial Museum, Crossville, Tennessee

The Military Memorial Museum was founded in 2002 by Robert and Nita Boring. The museum has grown through donations from local veterans and military buffs across the country and from around the world. It is housed in the old courthouse, which had caught on fire while still used as a courthouse. This fire weakened the flooring upstairs, so it is now used as a storage area and not open to the public. There are a couple of veterans who volunteer in the museum and give a small tour to visitors. The museum is supported by a board of directors and a cadre of volunteers.

The collection covers military history and artifacts from the Civil War to the present conflicts. The museum is centrally located across from the historic Cumberland County Courthouse landmark. 

Cumberland Homesteads & Tower Museum, Crossville, Tennessee

Crossville, Tennessee is a small city midway between Knoxville and Nashville, north of Chattanooga. People lived in the area for many years and in the years leading up to the 1929 depression found thousands of unemployed miners, textile mill workers, and farmers.

The Cumberland Homesteads project emerged from the New Deal era begun with the election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 when the country was in the grip of the Great Depression. President Roosevelt called a special session of Congress to enact a series of measures to deal directly with the severity of the economic decline that was affecting the lives of millions of people. The unemployed people of this area applied for one of the proposed 250 Homesteads to be constructed and purchased by the selected Homesteaders who had to meet rigid requirements of “high character, ability, honesty, and willingness to work and cooperate with the government in this planned community.”

The Cumberland Homesteads Museum is dedicated to their history.

Homesteads Tower

Andy Griffith Museum, Mt. Airy, North Carolina

During our stay at Lake Myers in Mocksville, I discovered the Andy Griffith Museum in Mt. Airy, about an hours drive north of where we were staying. We love watching Andy Griffith, mostly when he was the sheriff of Mayberry with Barnie, Aunt Bea and Opie. In fact, we still watch the shows that run on some of the channels. It's not a huge museum; it does not take a long time to go through it. There are two levels - the upper part deals with the history of Mayberry and touches a little on when Andy Griffith played Matlock. The downstairs tells a little about Barnie's girlfriend, Thelma Lou (Betty Lynn) along with an exhibit about a set of Siamese Twins that lived in Mt. Airy.

N.C. Transportation Museum, Spencer, North Carolina

The North Carolina Transportation Museum is located on the site of what was once Southern Railway's Spencer Shops, the largest steam locomotive repair facility in the southeast. This 60-acre site features an authentic train depot, antique and vintage automobiles, locomotives and railcars from the heyday of railroading, aviation exhibits, and North America's largest remaining roundhouse. They offer seasonal train rides, guided tours for scheduled groups, specialty tours offered seasonally, and events throughout the year.