Tuesday, June 28, 1988
Kent had set the alarm, but we missed it, and woke up at
8:15. Because I was in a hurry, I got up and walked a couple steps before
collapsing in a heap, because my leg was asleep! Hysterical laughing until the
pins and needles started.
We checked out, and drove up the Red Bank Expressway to
I-71, and stopped at a Bob Evans, the number one fast food chain according to
Consumer Reports. Sort of like a McManus. We were seated right away and the
kids got crayons and activity sheets. Kent ordered the Homestead special with
two eggs, sausage patties, home fries, and two huge biscuits with country
gravy, and coffee. I had tomato juice with a sausage and cheese omelette and
home fries, plus two biscuits! Kyle and Erich each had the children’s hotcakes
with sausage, and milk and orange juice.
After getting gas, we headed over to I-75, then worked our
way west to Oxford, to drive around the campus of Kent’s alma mater, Miami
University.
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| Oxford, OH map |
We passed a house he lived in that was behind a greasy spoon, but now Mary Jo’s Cuisine.
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| Kent lived here |
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| Oxford main street |
Stopped at a bookstore to let Kent purchase a t-shirt and hooded sweatshirt with Miami logos. Also stopped to let Erich buy a toothbrush since his turned up missing at Mariemont. We returned to I-75 on back roads past a steel mill and headed north towards Dayton. Exited to OH-4 and found the Wright Patterson AFB Air Force Museum, made up by four large hangars!
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| Air Force Museum brochure |
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| Air Force Museum |
We got cold drinks. Admission was free, and we began our tour with the early years. Learning that the Wright Brothers grew up in Dayton, owned a bicycle shop, and did most of their work here. Thus, Dayton is the home of American aviation. Saw models and renovated airplanes from the very first flown at Kitty Hawk. Saw bits of original canvas, and a mannequin with a clear face into which a film was projected to give the illusion of live talking, as “Orville” welcomed us to the museum. From the Wright Brothers in 1901-1903, to the military in 1909. Then World War I planes with a pictorial history of the war, some transcontinental planes, and World War II planes. Through some galleries including Vietnamese art, winners of the Distinguished Flying Cross, insignia, and air force emblems from around the world. Another hangar full of planes, mostly WWII, including foreign and enemy planes, and the one that dropped the A-bomb on Nagasaki, “Bockscar.” Saw the transition from propeller to jet engine; the Germans were the first with jet engines, but not in time during the war. Also dirigibles, hot air balloons, kamikaze planes, and a few space capsules. Walked into a fighter jet. Kyle and Erich were too pooped to do anymore, so we skipped the Modern Flight gallery in the next hangar. The boys bought pens in the souvenir shop. Outside we saw rockets and more planes, and also saw planes flying overhead, including a pair of F-15s or the like.
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| Rockets |
Apparently there is a shuttle bus to go see more planes! Hangars
across the field had silhouettes of the Wright brothers and their plane. Kyle
and I checked out a few more planes while Kent and Erich went to get the car
and picked us up. We drove up OH-4 to I-70, and stopped for lunch at a Wendy’s.
Kent called in to work, and then we found I-71 and headed north.
It began to get cloudy followed by some rain when we made a
pit stop in Mansfield and called the Ss. Arrived in Rocky River about
18:30 and dinner was on the table! Roast beef, potatoes and carrots, rolls and
salad.
On the road after lunch, we were behind a truck and either
one of it tires de-treaded or it kicked up treads on the road. One hit is
perpendicular to the bumper, and we found it had mangled the brand new RI
license plate, and taken a small chip off the plastic trim under the grille.
Later we were able to do some laundry, and the
second load agitated for over an hour because the timer got stuck!
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