Wright-Patterson AFB [Day 1 Building One]

 I had never been to Wright-Patterson even though we lived about 75 miles from Dayton. Mary had been there two times with school trips, years ago. We finally decided to go while we are still in the area. Now we are going back again next week since one full day was enough to see two of the four huge buildings. I think one full day in each building would be necessary to see everything on display. It is really something to see all of those airplanes. Many of them are historic airplanes. 

Building One has the Wright Brothers and WWII displays. We passed up Building Two and Three because we wanted to be sure we could see the Presidential airplanes (next separate post). We walked two miles in the buildings our first day. Here are a few of the 150 photos I had at the end of the day.

These are in the Early Section, Building One

That is a strange looking balloon on the ceiling with a gondola hanging below it.

There are many large engines on display.Several ar V8 and V12 producing 600 or more horsepower. 

Radial engines replaced the older in-line engines.



These are in the WWII section, Building One

The Japanese Zero we have all heard about. 

Read more about this famous raid at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doolittle_Raid

This B-25 is not a Doolittle plane but exactly like the
ones they flew to Japan from the Carrier.

Read more about the B-24 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_B-24_Liberator

Everyone has heard of the B-7 and this one is quite famous. The Memphis Bell flew 25 missions over Germany and was flown back to the Boeing Plant.  There is a movie and more about it's history at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Belle_(aircraft)

The front gunner was in a poor place with no protection from frontal attacks.
There is another gun turret on the top side.

The B-17 was a large bomber at the time but small compared to modern bombers.

These racks held the load of bombs. The bombardier pulled the arming pins from the bombs after they were airborne. They were stacked vertically and
fell out rapidly one at a time.  

The belly gunner sat in that small rotating bubble on the bottom.
That must have been a wild ride.

The tail gunner had the most dangerous position.
When the enemy attacked from the rear, and he was the first target.

The Buzz Bomb was launched at London later in the war. It was not guided, it was just aimed at England and launched from an elevated sled. It ran out of fuel and just dropped down wherever it was. RAF and US fighters learned how to shoot them down but many still made it to London.

It was also called the Loon. Werner Von Braun and his rocket scientists created this weapon and the famous V2 Rocket. Braun came to the US and designed the Saturn 5 that made it to the moon.

The V2 was the beginning of space rockets.
Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-2_rocket

The first small jet made by Germany but not successful.

This was the first jet fighter made by Germany, RAF and US did not have jet fighters.
Read more at https://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=108

Our very famous B-29 that dropped the Fat Boy atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.
The Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima by the Enola Gay, located at the
Smithsonian in Washington DC.

The first Atomic Bomb dropped by the Enola Gay.

The Military C-46 cargo airplane was basically a DC-3 passenger plane. I flew in a DC-3 from Knoxville to Cincinnati when I was about 8 years old.

Building Four is in the next separate post.

November 2019

This is not the weather we expected to see in November. The low temperature on Wednesday morning was 10 degrees. Our motorhome keeps us very comfortable at 10 degrees so no problem with the cold.The forecast indicates warmer next week so it should melt off soon. We will be headed to Tennessee on December 1st and we want NO MORE SNOW until we are south of Indiana. Both great grandsons are doing fine. We will drive our Jeep from Tennessee back to Indiana for Christmas.

COLD at 10 degrees.

Fall 2019

We are still in the Indiana/Ohio area. We were waiting on our second great grandson's arrival. He came about two weeks earlier than expected, born on September 30. His name is Alexander and his parents are Adam and Sarah.

Fall has started but most trees are still green and some are just brown and dropping leaves. Rising Sun IN has a Navy Bean Festival and we were at Rising Star Casino RV Park, about six blocks to downtown Rising Sun. We had some bean soup. We plan on being in the area until Thanksgiving, heading to Tennessee for December. 

Towing a Motorhome (Not mine but this is the right way)

I saw this while looking at another blog. This video can be found on YouTube. This is what I had been looking for, the right way to tow a motorhome. I hope we never need to do this but now I know the right way.

It would be very easy to cause extensive damage to the front end of the motorhome if the tow driver was not experienced. This technique is called a "wheel lift". Not all wreckers are equipped to do this. If you ever need a tow, specify that they must use the wheel lift method.

This company and driver knows how to do it. I wanted to save this video so I thought it would be a good thing to add to our blog. It is about 45 minutes so rather long but if you are curious, here it is.

Towing the Right Way

Summer 2019

We left Tennessee on May 1st and headed north to Indiana and Ohio. We will be in this area until Thanksgiving IF there is no snow forecast. After that, we will be in Tennessee for December then south to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas for January and February. We will not be work camping in the future. Next summer we hope to be in Michigan and other northern states during the hot months of July and August.

Three things are keeping us here. 

Mary had surgery to repair a large hernia caused by a surgery in 2015. She had that done at Christ Hospital on June 28. She is getting better every day but is restricted to lifting about five pounds for three months. On the same day as her surgery, our first great grandson, Caleb, was born at Good Samaritan Hospital. He is doing fine. We are waiting for our second great grandson, arriving in October. We have been visiting in this area with family and friends while trying to avoid the hot weather.

Caleb 7/28/2019

May 2019, lunch at Frisch's with Cousin George and Patty from Philadelphia

Leaving Tennessee

After six months at Two Rivers Landing RV Resort, we left this morning and arrived at Versailles State Park in Indiana. We will be staying in several parks in the Indiana/Ohio area until November. Next winter we will do more traveling. Our work camper days are over after two winters at Two Rivers Landing.

Spring has arrived and RV's are coming in.

The Crepe Myrtles are growing again after we cut them all off.

John Smith washed our entire motor home yesterday. The pollen in Tennessee is really thick, making our black car look almost yellow. I usually was the motor home myself but decided to pay the expert. The roof was really full of the sticky pollen.

I finally took a photo of Dolly's statue in Sevierville. She grew up not far from town.

We hate to leave these mountain views but we will return.

Just before leaving we talked Don Little, the manager, into a photo.