Of course, many would say Lincoln was more than twice the president, which isn't to say that if I got to West Branch, Iowa, I wouldn't stop to see the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, hoover.archives.gov, (319) 643-5301. I've managed to hit nearly half a dozen presidential museums in the last year or two and like that sort of thing. The site includes our 31st president's birthplace cottage and final resting place, along with a replica of the Oval Office.

Speaking of old bones, the State Historical Museum of Iowa in Des Moines -- www.iowahistory.org, (515) 281-5111 -- has a new exhibit that includes the skeleton of the Hebior Mammoth, discovered near Kenosha in 1994. And here's another one in Iowa that people have been urging me to see for some years now, the Bily Clocks Museum and Antonin Dvorak Exhibit in Spillville, in northeast Iowa, which houses a collection of clocks hand-carved by the Bily brothers, Joseph and Frank, over a 45-year period. Visit www.bilyclocks.org, or call (563) 562-3569.

Dvorak didn't do clocks; he just lived upstairs in 1893.

I have never been to North Dakota, or to South Dakota, for that matter, but the other night I watched the movie "Fargo" again. Still, I didn't know until I saw the North Dakota travel guide that Fargo is the home of not just one, but two, baseball museums -- the Roger Maris Museum and the Maury Wills Museum.

The first -- www.rogermarismuseum.com, (701) 282-2222 -- honors the Fargo native who broke Babe Ruth's home run record with 61 dingers in 1961, while the other -- www.maurywills.com/museum.htm, (701) 235-6161 -- highlights the life and career of one of the thievingest base stealers in baseball history, to use a word that will make my spell check's head spin.

Wills was not from Fargo but is a part-time color commentator for the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks. Last fall, I stopped at the Bob Feller Museum in little Van Meter, Iowa -- www.bobfellermuseum.org, (866) 996-2806 -- and two years ago made sure to see the Boston/Milwaukee/ Atlanta Braves Museum while in Atlanta. You can't go wrong with a baseball museum.

Maybe your summer travels will take you to Paradise. If that happens to mean the one in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and not some exotic island in the Pacific, then by all means take in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum and nearby Whitefish Point Lighthouse, both in Paradise, www.paradisemichigan.org, (906) 492-3219.

Whitefish Point was one of the first beacons to guide mariners heading onto treacherous Lake Superior, which reminds me that 2005 is the 30th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The Shipwreck Museum -- www.shipwreckmuseum.com, (800) 635-1742 - - has the bell from the Fitz along with a number of related exhibits; just try to get the song out of your head after seeing all that.

If ships that didn't sink are more up your alley, a couple with hometown ties would welcome your visit.

Last spring in Muskegon, I visited the SS Milwaukee Clipper National Historic Landmark and Museum -- www.milwaukeeclipper.com, (231) 755-0990 -- which is one of the first sights that will greet passengers arriving from Milwaukee on the new high-speed ferry. And if that sort of thing floats your boat, then wander up the eastern shore of Lake Michigan to Manistee and the SS City of Milwaukee, the 350-foot steamship built in 1930 that is also a national historic landmark and, now, a museum of travel gone by. Visit www.carferry.com, or call (231) 723-3587.

In October, before it closes for the year, the City of Milwaukee is a popular "ghost ship" haunted house, even though no ax murderer ever got loose in there.

The Spam Museum, by the way, is in Austin, Minn., where the Hormel folks have been making mystery meat and other products for many years. The museum -- www.spam.com, (800) 588-7726 -- tells the story of Spam's heroic role in World War II (some soldiers who served, and were served, Spam might disagree) and includes a re- creation of the Monty Python diner where Spam, and mostly Spam, was served.

And as long as you are in Minnesota, perhaps a visit to historic Northfield, just south of the Twin Cities, would be in order.

The Northfield Historical Museum -- www.northfieldhistory.org, (507) 645-9268 -- includes a great exhibit on the bank robbery committed there by Jesse James and his gang in 1876. It didn't go well, if you remember your history; Jesse and brother Frank got away, but the rest of the gang didn't make it out of town, which folks in Northfield think of as their just deserts.

You may be thinking, what, are there no worthy museums in Wisconsin? I'm getting there.

But on the way you might want to stop at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum -- www.rain.org/~karpeles/dulfrm.html -- which boasts one of the world's largest private holdings of important documents and manuscripts. There are rotating exhibits of 26 documents at a time, on a variety of subjects; I've been meaning to get there for the last couple of years, and this might just be the time.

All right, now we're home. As you come across the bridge from Duluth to Superior consider the "A World of Accordions Museum" I wrote about last summer -- www.accordionworld.org, (715) 395-2787. Accordion to my column, it's Helmi Harrington's one-of-a-kind collection of squeezeboxes and related items, along with accordion archives, accordion performance space, accordion repair, even a wall of accordion humor.

What's the difference between an accordion and an onion? People cry when they chop up an onion. Here, though, no one laughs at the accordion.

From the annoying billboards that dot the state, you might think American Indians are building only casinos. But in an effort to preserve traditional culture that was in place before bingo and blackjack came along, some Indian museums have been developed as well.

One good one is the Arvid E. Miller Memorial Library of the Mohican Nation near Bowler -- (715) 793-4270 -- which shows how the once-eastern tribe found its way to Wisconsin.

The Oneida Nation Museum at Oneida, outside Green Bay, is another good one, (920) 869-2768. And the Menominee Logging Camp and Museum at Keshena -- www.menominee.nsn.us, (715) 799-3757 -- contains one of the largest collections of logging artifacts anywhere, from a furnished bunkhouse, cook shanty and other facilities to the tools and conveyances used to get timber from the woods to the mills.

Other good places to see that major chapter of Wisconsin history include the Holt & Balcolm Logging Camp -- www.holt- balcomloggingcamp.com, (715) 276-7769 -- near Lakewood in Oconto County, which is said to be the oldest logging camp in North America and which has the added attraction of being located within the grounds of a fine golf course, and the Logging Museum Complex at Pioneer Park in Rhinelander. If they try to tell you that the Hodag is real, and they will, don't believe them.

On the other hand, you can believe what you see at the Beth Israel Synagogue/Portage County Historical Museum in Stevens Point - - www.pchswi.org, (715) 344-4423 -- which departs from the typical collection by offering a display hall of Jewish heritage, artifacts and traditions in the area.