It's all about flying

So seriously, I did load these photos about a week and a half ago - when we were in Springfield, OH (just outside Dayton).  Yup, I just checked the book that I list where we've stayed and how we felt about the campground and we were in Springfield June 10 - 20.

Anyway, this post is about flying ~ how better to start it with a photo of a PIG flying, not just any pig mind you it is my pig Babe, that Rick gave me for Christmas many years ago.  I decided that Wendy was a bit odoriferous so they (aka "the kids") got gently put in the washer and dryer, but also hung to dry a bit!  Poor Wendy was certain she was being brutalized and traumatized - I'm certain that my friend Maureen (aka "Moelicious") heard Wendy carrying on all the way back in Whitman, MA.  For those of you who know us well, you know the history and pranks of Pig and Wendy over the years.  Oh the places they've traveled and the antics they've pulled (lead by Wendy, sometimes known as Wendell, depending on her/his whim on any given day.  Oh how Maureen loved the travails of Pig and Wendy over the years.  Maureen was certain that I should have written children's books about their antics.  Great idea, but often times the stunts they pulled were not appropriate for children's books!  So Moelicious, I took the photo above with YOU in mind, and I will, if I remember, bring you an autographed (by the kids of course) 4x 6 glossy when I travel to MA on Wednesday.

So as I mentioned in my previous post I needed Rick to help me with this post ~ and now you see why!  When we were in OH Rick went to the National Museum of the United States Air Force.  As you may know, Rick loves all things that fly ... he has done many air museums in our two and a half years on the road.  He said, however, that this one in Dayton was by far the best he'd been to.  He loved it, he raved for days about how well it was done and the great things he saw.  Unfortunately, I don't share his love of aeronautics - I don't detest it, but I have little interest, so I don't join him on these museum trips.  He took the camera thankfully this time, rather than relying on his phone camera.  Now if I can remember about these photos I've loaded ~ I just can't put off this post any longer and clearly, Rick and I don't seem to be able to sit down together and create this post together!

One of the things that really did impress me about this Museum was about the Berlin Airlift Dog and his parachute.  Below is copied from the Museum's website about this dog (Vittles) and his parachute, as well as his "handler" ....

This parachute was specially made for "Vittles," a dog that flew 131 missions with his owner, 1Lt. Russ Steber, during the Berlin Airlift. Gen. Curtis LeMay named the dog and ordered the parachute made for him. Vittles, a boxer, accumulated around 2,000 flying hours, but never had to use the parachute. His owner, Lt. Steber, did have to bail out of a C-47 over the Soviet zone on one occasion, but Vittles was not with him on that trip. Steber was captured and returned to the West a few days later.

The photo above is the Hanoi Taxi (referenced below). 

Below is the "other" side of the Hanoi Taxi.  I hope you will be able to enlarge the photo above explaining about the Hanoi Taxi - it is well worth the effort.

Below ~ an atom bomb ....

and the Bockscar B~29 that dropped the "Fat Man" atom bomb on Nagasaki

Below are ICBMs (Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles ... nope, I didn't even have to look it up!!)

Below, a mobile ICBM launcher - which launched ICBMs called the "Midget Man", which were smaller versions of those in the photo above.

The next two shots are of the inside of the Museum ... an "overview"

The photo below is (if I have this straight, and it just doesn't work in my head) a control tower from WW11 that was brought to the Museum from England!

And NO you are not imagining what you are seeing below ... a German WW11 plane that was donated to the Museum from Spain.  Isn't it so strange to know that you are seeing something in a National United States Museum but it has a flippin' swastika on it!  Too weird for me I think.

So we will now leave the National Museum of the United States Air Force and travel on to Terre Haute Indiana ~ well we were in the coach on the way to Terre Haute when we were skirting around Indianapolis and I see ahead of us airplanes and pilots seemingly having fun way up high where the birdies fly!  It was a weirdism for me as I'd loaded the Museum photos and knew I was going to be doing a post about flying and flying machines ....  hmmmm

This was the Indianapolis Air Show.  Apparently there were cancellations one day of the show because of the continuing horrific weather here in the "midwest" ~ as I think I mentioned before I don't recall ever seeing such horrific weather, tornado warnings and all .... if it's not pouring with horrible winds and/or hail it is in the mid 90's and so damned humid that I don't step outside!

Okay, enough whining for one post I guess.  

We are now settled into Platte City, MO (don't know the correct pronunciation though!) for ten days.  I will be in NH and MA for five of those days, but we are at what seems to be a very nice campground.  It is further, much further than I'd hoped, outside Kansas City so I have a funny feeling Rick may be very bored while I'm gone.  There is a very nice pool here if he can't bear the thought of putting on riding attire and getting on his bike in this heat!