Presidential Hanger/Research & Development Hanger

May 27, 2012 Sunday

We discovered a little known gem of a museum at Wright Patterson AFB, the Presidential Hanger and Research & Development Hanger thanks to a fellow camper. The Presidential Hanger houses past U.S. Presidents' aircrafts--Air Force One.  You could walk through about five of the planes and see how they were adapted to the various Presidents. If you have a military or retired DOD civilian ID card, you can drive directly on base to this museum. If not, it is on a first come, first served basis by signing up for one of the four daily tours at the main Air Force Museum. 

The research planes were very interesting as were the stories behind each one. You could get up right close to each plane---no crowds like in the larger museum.

From the Museum, we headed on to Indiana and stayed the night at Caboose Lake Campground just off the highway.  Nothing to recommend, but they did have electricity and water...

National Air Force Museum, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH

May 26, 2012, Saturday

We left Shirley and Ed around 10 and spent from 11am to 5 pm roaming the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force and watching two IMax movies, "Hubble" and "Fighter Pilots". We walked our feet off!

Because Mel has his Retired DOD Civilian ID card, we were able to spend the night at Famcamp on base. All going well except for the fact our refrigerator isn't cooling properly. Ugh. We received a few tips from fellow travelers, which we will give a try as soon as we spot the next RV center. On to Elgin, IL tomorrow to visit another dear high school friend, Marilou Cerveny Haworth and her husband Les.

West Chester, OH

May 25, 2012
Friday

Arrived in West Chester, Ohio to visit with my dear high school and college friend, Shirley Clancy (notice I didn't say "old friend")and "formerly red headed" husband Ed. We were treated to a wonderful Italian dinner and more deserts than we had ordered at a nearby restaurant. Many old memories and laughs were shared.

Thanks to their Grandson Jake for catching one of those moments.

Jake was impressed with our Roadtrek and I'm pretty sure he would have come along with us had we offered.

Getting a Start

May 24, 2012
Thursday

Finally on the road...California here we come. First stop, Costco for a few things we absolutely needed and lunch of course. On the road by 1:30 pm. A call from friends Karen and Tom gave us a recommendation for our first night's stay. We arrived at Barkcamp State Park in Ohio 325 miles later at 7:30 pm. Nice, quiet park. Thanks for the tip, K & T.

I haven't figured out yet how to use my new ipad to post to the blog and we don't always have internet connection for the laptop, so I may not be posting as frequently as I'd like. Just hoping I can keep up with at least a few of our interesting adventures. I'm off on a good start. Now to figure out how to pretty up this blog!