AMARILLO — When Jack Sisemore opened a Chevron station in 1963 and later added motorhome rentals followed by an RV dealership, little did he know he would soon be operating an RV museum.
It all began when in 1986 he came across a 1946 Kit Road Ranger that he bought, restored, and displayed along with a 1946 Ford.
“People loved it,” said Trent Sisemore, Jack’s son who worked every day with his father for the last 44 years. “We thought there would be some interest in old RVs.”
Father and son began collecting old RVs and about 10 years ago, they displayed some at the dealership for customers waiting for service to entertain themselves.
It was the beginning of the Jack Sisemore Traveland RV Museum, that now draws upwards of 150 people a day.
To get a free meal at Amarillo’s famous The Big Texan Steak Ranch, you have to finish a 72-ounce steak, but to get free admission to the museum, you just have to walk through the door.
Most RVs include items appropriate to the vintage of each, including coffee cans, Coleman stoves, kitchen utensils and games that Jack Sisemore collected.
The Sisemores have about 40 restored RVs and switch them out from time to time to display between 20 and 25 at a time.
Read the full article from the San Antonio Express-News.
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My wife and I stopped and visited Jack’s museum in the spring of ’17. It was a wonderful trip back in time to see the RVs of yesteryear. The museum is well kept and everyone we encountered was pleasant and helpful.
As Mr Blackwell (above) points out, the parking lot is cramped and crowded so find a place to park your RV for the night and then spend an hour or two checking out the displays. There are motorcycles (old and new), vintage and antique camping equipment, antique camping trailers, and they do a good job of explaining all the exhibits.
The tour is self guided though we did have the pleasure of encountering Jack himself and bending his ear for some time that afternoon. We highly recommend taking the opportunity to look back at where the RV industry came from.
My wife and I passed through Amarillo 2 years ago and happened to see an advertisement for this RV museum. We were traveling in our RV, a 25 foot Itasca, and we went to check the place out. We got on the lot but we were asked to park the rig on the street because there wasn’t parking available on the lot for RVs. We drove out in the street and discovered that parking on the street would have lead to our rig being towed off by the city. Now I think I know how this guy got some of his RVs for his museum!!
My wife and I stay in Amarillo a day or 2 on our way down to AZ and parts unknown. My wife found out about this museum and we never knew it was there. Good call. We will stop this winter.