This is a trip into a model train lovers' paradise. Ten trains are running simultaneously. There are trains circling above, trains chugging and rumbling at waist level, and down below the main display, more trains puffing through an underground station that was part of the original 1949 layout that used to be set up in downtown New York City.
There are dozens of buttons to push, Dad can even wear an engineer's hat, and he shouldn't forget to check out the fantastic scenery that has been created on the model train boards. The details are wonderful.
Dad might also salivate at the collection of old locomotives, train cars and cabooses.
The tour takes about 45 minutes to an hour and includes a video about the history of Lionel.
Gibson Guitars and the Rock n Soul Museum
145 Lt. George W. Lee Avenue, Memphis, TN 38103
(901) 543-0800, www.gibson.com
Rock 'n' Soul Museum
191 Beale Street, Suite 100
Plaza of the FedExForum, Memphis, TN 38103
(901) 205-2533, www.memphisrocknsoul.org
For dads who have dreamed of music, especially rock ‘n’ roll and soul, Memphis is "The Holy Ground of American Music." Beale Street is where most of the action took place. And in Memphis, the Gibson guitar factory just off Beale Street, near Sun Studios, where Elvis recorded his first song, is one of American music's holiest shrines.
For more than a hundred years, musical instruments have been made here: Guitars, banjos, mandolins, and dobros, all made six days a week. This is also the factory where electric guitars are made. (Gibson acoustic guitars are hand-crafted in Montana.)
Dad can watch the manufacture of these stringed instruments, from plank to pluck. Wood comes into the factory. It is inspected for moisture and then cut into blanks. From this point virtually every step of the instrument creation process is done by hand.
This insures that every Gibson is unique. Every rim is hand sanded and every neck is hand rolled. Each instrument is an individual work of art that takes four to six weeks to complete.
Right next door is the Smithsonian Institution's Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum. It is part of the National History Museum. This museum dedicated to music created by Americans is filled with artifacts, instruments, pictures, interviews and of course the sounds and melodies of America's musical past.
Sun Studios is down the street and Graceland is about 8 miles away.
Fly a WWII fighter
Fighter Command, 177 Skyview Lane, Front Royal, VA 22630
(540) 635-2203, www.giftflight.com/
These WWII fighter adventures are offered around the country by different individuals. Search on the Internet and in local newspapers to find a crew that will take Dad into the sky.
Fighter Command out of Winchester, Virginia, is one of these outfits. Here, Dad will fly in a WWII T-6 that was the training plane for P-51 pilots. The P-51 only had one seat, so once young pilots WERE STRAPPED into on of these fighters, they were on your own. Therefore, the military astutely decided that pilots would train in a two-seater like a T-6 before being sent off on their own.
The T-6 looks a bit like a Jap Zero or a Dessault Dive Bomber. And up close, it is impressive and bigger than Dad might have seen in Tora Tora Tora and other WWII movies.
Flights range from a half-hour to an hour. Dad will ride in the back seat of the plane and will be given the "stick" and allow to actually fly the plane for most of the flight.
If there is time, and Dad wants that experience, the instructor, Mark Hutchins, will maneuver through several air acrobatic moves, like loops and rolls. When Dad is hanging upside down at the top of a loop or in the middle of a roll, he gets a new perspective on life.
Video cameras mounted in the cockpit and on the tail of the fighter record this adventure, so Dad can come away with more than only memories.
The look on Dad's face after this adventure will make it worth every penny. As they say in the commercial ... fulfilling a childhood dream ... priceless.
Cattle Drive
768 Twin Creek Road, Lander, WY 82520
(307) 335-7485, www.twincreekranch.com
others recommended ranches:
www.davidranch.com/
Since the days of City Slickers, going on a cattle drive has been a fantasy in which dads can indulge. Even though the movie made the whole experience seem simple, A real cattle drive lasts six to eight hours a day. So Dad will log some saddle time. It may take a couple of uncomfortable days for him to acclimate to the saddle. But once the horse breaks Father in, the adventures begin.
This is the real cowboy experience. Dad will ride and live like a cowboy. No matter what the season, the ranch experience means real, hard work. Fences always need mendin', cattle need movin' and stray cows and calves hidin’ in the trees and sagebrush need to be brought back into the herd.
Charles Leocha is nationally-recognized expert on saving money and the publisher of Tripso. He is also the Boston-based author of "SkiSnowboard America & Canada." or . Want to sound off about one of his columns? Try visiting .