The morning sun on the last day of this trip

The last goal that I had on this trip was to visit The National Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. I had been told that this was an excellent museum and it did not disappoint. Actually, it is so massive that it has now been added to my bucket list as a place to revisit. I did spend several hours "breezing" through the 6 hangers but really did not do the museum justice. I would guess that there are at least several hundred aircraft along with a number of displays depicting important historical events including The Berlin Airlifts and The Holocaust. There is a full size mock up of a space shuttle, The Memphis Belle and The Air Force One that carried President Kennedy's body back to Washington after the assassination. The museum chronicles every aspect of aircraft from the Wright Brothers to the military aircraft of today.No doubt, I will return to Dayton sometime soon.
I am home now, having done 400 miles today. This was the 9th year that Cherif and I have done a trip and we are already planning on another next year. He is a great travel companion and has become a good friend.
I will leave you with these images from The Air Force Museum:

One whole section is dedicated to rockets

Planes from every era

Depiction of a dog fight

oops!

Include are uniforms of flyers from every era

This is a real aircraft, Air Force One. Gives an idea how massive this place is

Display dedicated to the concentration camps and The Holocaust.

Early wind tunnel

Stealth


  

Land of Lincoln

Of all the places that I wanted to revisit on this trip, Springfield Il. was tops on the list. The last time that we were here we breezed through and I wanted to take the opportunity to explore it all again. There were a couple of disappointments though. The BEST museum that I visited 9 years ago was Bill Shea's Rte 66 Garage and Museum. Bill Shea was an older gentleman and a veteran of WWII and one of the displays in the museum were the boots that he wore on D-Day on the beaches of Normandy. Unfortunately, Bill passed away and the garage was sold so it is no more. The other was Abraham Lincoln's office. That is closed for renovations and so was off the list.

What we did get to do is visit the Lincoln Museum in Springfield. Now I am a big Civil War Buff and a fan of Abe Lincoln so I just love this stuff. Cherif I think, humors me some....LOL
Anyway, the museum takes up the better part of a city block and is broken up into Lincoln's early years, his time in Springfield and of course his time as President and The Civil War. Even tough most of it was familiar to me, I still spent a lot of time looking at all of the exhibits and displays. It is quite a tribute to one of our greatest Presidents and a very difficult time for our nation.

Abe and Mary a'courting

At The White House

Abe taught himself to read and write when his family lived in a log cabin in Kentucky

At one time Abe was a partner in a general store-it failed!

Me and the Lincolns

Abe ponders The Emancipation Proclamation

John Wilkes Booth skulking at Ford's Theatre moments before the assassination

Of course the depiction of slavery is an important part of the history of Lincoln

Lincoln meets with his cabinet

Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debate in the Presidential campaign.

After the museum, we walked a few blocks to see the Lincoln home. Lincoln lived in this house for 17 years before being elected to The Presidency. Springfield has done a great job of preserving not only his home but a whole block as it was in the 1850's. It is authentic down to the boardwalk sidewalks and unpaved road. You almost feel as if you have gone back in time.

The Lincoln home in Springfield

Missed getting to see the law office

There are plenty of statues of Lincoln in Springfield

The Old Statehouse where Lincoln served his first public office

My last Lincoln visit was to his burial site in Oakwood Cemetery. It is most impressive.

It is said that if you rub Abe's nose you will have luck. It is well rubbed.

Lincoln and Mary and all but one of their boys are buried here. Robert is buried in Arlington.

My last stop today was the combat air Museum at The Springfield Airport. This little museum houses aircraft and artifacts from the Korean War and WWII

 

Tomorrow I will head east for Dayton and a visit to The National Air Force Museum.  I will be alone for the rest of my trip as Cherif headed north for home in Michigan. I cannot say enough how much I appreciate there annual trips with him. He is a delightful companion and a good friend.

Revisiting An Old Trip

I had forgotten how amazed I was at leaving Santa Fe last time I was there. The trip down the mountains offers some fantastic vistas into the valleys below. Amazing beauty.
When we hit the bottom though, the temperature dropped 20degrees and we found ourselves in the thickest fog. In a way it was a blessing though as the sunrise was brutally bright and directly in our eyes.
Now, the last time that we traveled Route 66, we were bound and determined to ride as much of the old road as possible. This time, not so much so. We are actually traveling mostly on the "new road" and dropping off for the things that we want to visit or in some cases, revisit. In that vein, we stopped at some cool auto museums, (one where all of the cars were for sale, like paying admission to shop) some good old diners and an aircraft museum that actually has a Russian MIG on display at it's entrance. We saw The Cadillac Ranch, where there are 12 Caddys buried nose first in the desert, in passing too. I guess somebody calls it art. of course, there are always Harley Dealers to stop at too.
Today we got stopped short of our goal by the most incredible storms. We could see them, there were two cloud formations, off in the distance. Thankfully we were smart enough to stop and just made our hotel when the clouds came together and it poured. Five minutes after we checked in, the power went off for over two hours. So, we are in Joplin Mo. tonight. Tomorrow we hope to make it to Springfield Il. where we will stay for two nights and explore all of the Abraham Lincoln stuff that is there.

Always good places to eat

Russian MIG

Lots of great Cars to see

Riding into the sun can be tough but the sunrise was beautiful

'63 Split Window Coupe, not a lot of them around

Harley Dealers!!!

Whatever it takes to get people off the highway

Half way point between Chicago and Santa Monica

Basket Case

Always lots of old gas stations

You never know what you will see. An Edsel backhoe!