Tag Archives: Museum

Got the Hanger Before the Plane

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The title is my questionable attempt to make an aeronautical version of that saying about getting the cart before the horse. I started on a trip yesterday that is aimed at having me at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, for the 115th anniversary of the Wright brother’s first flight on Monday. In anticipation of that, I recently revisited some Wright related sites in nearby Dayton, Ohio. This was actually the main reason I was in Dayton when I made the Carillon Historical Park visit that yielded last week’s Christmas themed post. There’s been a bit of a squabble between Ohio and North Carolina over where this flying business got started, but my title is not a reference to that. I’m just acknowledging the fact that this blog post about the Wright brothers in Dayton is going up before my trip journal entries about the brothers in North Carolina. Dayton was the Wright brothers’ home and there are quite a few locations associated with them. Probably the most important single location tied to the Wrights and their development of human flight is Huffman Prairie Flying Field where a replica of their 1905 airplane hangar stands. A placard in the hangar is here.

Official input to the squabble included North Carolina putting “First in Flight” on their license plates in 1982 and Ohio following with “Birthplace of Aviation” in 1997. In theory, the argument officially came to an end in 2003 when the U.S. Congress recognized Ohio as “the birthplace of aviation” while acknowledging that the first flights occurred in North Carolina. The text associated with that recognition is here. It’s easy and maybe somewhat natural to think that Ohio got the nod because the Wrights lived there but that the actual “birthing” happened in NC. The fact is that the brothers did a lot more than live in Ohio. Tremendous amounts of research and experimentation occurred in Dayton both before and after the trips to NC, and almost all of it that took place after December 17, 1903, took place at this field near what is now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Both of those slogans are correct. The first flight — actually the first four flights — happened in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina; Aviation was born in Dayton, Ohio.

The reason for the Wrights’ trips to North Carolina was the strong and steady winds there. They had proven that their machine could fly, but further development was required. The brothers naturally wanted to avoid the time and money consuming trips to the coast but Ohio winds are weak and fickle. They might lay out as much as 240 feet of rail only to be forced to move it when the wind shifted. The catapult near the hangar is a replica of the one they used to shorten takeoff distance to 60 feet with less need for a headwind. The brothers improved on the machine they flew in NC and eventually learned to control the craft to the point of flying around the perimeter of the field. Their flight path is kept mowed and may be walked.

Not far from Huffman Prairie Flying Field, a Wright Brothers Memorial stands atop a hill that bears their name. The area containing the field is included in the view from the overlook behind the monument. There is a small museum and interpretative center across the road from the monument.

What I think is one of the coolest sculptures around stands in the median of Main Street in downtown Dayton. Called “Flyover”, it is a full scale representation of that first flight in Kitty Hawk. The sculpture’s length matches the 120 feet covered by that first flight. Each of the flight’s 12 seconds is marked by a set of wings showing the craft’s climb and descent. It’s really eye-opening to walk the length of the sculpture and realize just how short that first giant hop for mankind was. Another full scale sculpture stand just a few blocks away, on Monument Street. The plane depicted is the 1905 Wright Flyer III in which the Wright brothers improved their design and skills at Huffman Prairie. The real thing shows up in a couple of paragraphs.

The Wright Brothers National Museum is inside Carillon Historical Park. It’s been there since the park opened in 1950 but just received the “National” designation in August. More Wright brothers artifacts are displayed here than anywhere else. The bicycle in the second picture is one of five Wright brand bicycles known to exist and one of two on display in this building. The Wrights eventually built a wind tunnel and other devices for more accurate measurements, but some of their earliest testing involved mounting variously shaped surfaces on the horizontal wheel then peddling into the wind to see how they reacted. This may not be the most famous camera in the world but it is responsible for taking one of the most famous photographs in the world. Orville set up the camera before climbing aboard the flyer, Wilbur handed off the bulb so he could help steady the craft during takeoff,  and John T. Daniels pressed that bulb at the right time to head off the “pictures or it didn’t happen” crowd back in Dayton.

The story of how this display happened is almost as cool as the display itself. In the 1940s, when Colonel Edward Deeds was putting this park together, he had a chat with his good friend Orville Wright about making a replica of the first Wright Flyer. Orville had a better idea. Why not rebuild the real Wright Flyer III? This was the first truly practical flyer and the brothers considered it their most important aircraft. It had served its builders well in their 1905 developments at Huffman Prairie, then had been shipped to Kitty Hawk for U.S. Army trials in 1908. Following the trials it had been more or less abandoned although there were some pieces in various locations around the country. Orville knew where those pieces were and of course he knew everything there was to know about the original plane. What followed has been called “The first pilot’s last project”. Not only did Orville contribute to rebuilding the airplane, it was his idea to display it in a sort of pit so that visitors could get good views of the whole thing. It is believed that approximately 85% of the original machine was recovered and 60% to 80% was used in the reconstruction. Many of the original pieces that were not made part of the plane were used in making replacements. Some of these are displayed nearby. A placard with the plane’s specifications stands by one of its wings. 

Carillon Christmas

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For the fourth time, the giant bell tower that gives Dayton’s Carillon Historical Park its name has been turned into a tree of light rising 200 feet above the park. The tree is quite visible from I-75, and I’ve seen it every year as I drove through the city, but this is the first time I’ve stopped for a closer look. The 20,000 bulb tree is merely the biggest feature of a month long celebration involving the entire park.

I obviously knew about the big tree but I encountered the rest of the party more or less by accident. I entered the park to enjoy some of its historical aspects and took a few pictures during regular hours. Regular hours means before 5:00 PM when the park normally closes.

I finished up my daytime stroll a little after 4:00 and headed to Carillon Brewing for some ale made the old fashioned way and one of the biggest mettwursts I’ve ever seen. When I entered the brewery, the crowd was sparse. When I left, the place was completely full with a line at the door. The parking lot, which had been nearly empty at 4:30, was packed an hour later. Sunset was at 5:14. The Christmas related activities begin and all the lights go on at 5:00. I took the picture at the start of this article just before I reentered the park roughly half an hour after sunset.

During my daytime walkabout, I’d noticed smoke coming from the kitchen behind the bakery, and paused to visit with the lady stirring up gingerbread cookie batter. I now stopped in to wash down one of the  cookies baked in the wood heated brick oven with cider heated over an open fire.

Every building, bridge, and other structure in the park was decorated for the occasion. A small train took passengers, including me, on a tour of the large open and decorated area behind the buildings. This tiny engine pulled over a dozen passengers, more than half of whom were full sized adults, through the arches and past the trees without even a hint of struggle. I was impressed.

Other activities included a puppet show, Christmas cards being printed on a 1930s era press, a place to write and mail letters to Santa Claus, and a place to talk to the jolly gent in person. I paused inside the main building to warm up and listen to these talented carolers before leaving the park.

I snapped the first of these three pictures when I arrived at the park around 2:30. The second one was taken about a quarter hour after sunset at 5:38. I didn’t actually see it, but my understanding is that those 20,000 white lights came on at approximately 5:00. The sun had been gone a long time when I took the third picture about 7:15. The carillon rang out Christmas songs throughout the evening. It had been completed in 1942 and the first official concert took place on Easter Sunday of that year. That was not, however, the first time the bells were heard. Although work remained, construction of the carillon was nearly complete by the winter of 1941 and Dayton was treated to an impromptu concert on Christmas Eve 1941; Just 17 days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

A Carillon Christmas continues through December 30. 5:00 to 9:00 Sun-Thu, 5:00 to 10:00 Fri-Sat.

National Veterans Memorial and Museum

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Ohio has a new museum. The National Veterans Memorial and Museum opened on October 27. I visited on November 30 and confess to being drawn more by the building than anything else. Pictures I’d seen made the circular structure look both beautiful and unusual. I was also intrigued by what might be inside. I’d skimmed pieces of the Museum’s website and noted what I thought was a slogan. “A national museum where veterans, not war, come first,” turned out to be the headline of a CNN report on the museum rather than a slogan. Before I read the report and while I thought the phrase a slogan, I wondered just how much could veterans be separated from war?.

Before I went inside to answer my question, I explored a bit of the museum’s exterior. The Allied Works Architecture designed building sits on the banks of the Scioto River near downtown Columbus. Despite its nearness to the city’s tallest buildings, it is surrounded by open space nicely landscaped by OLIN. Columbus has done a nice job of keeping the river banks open and green. Directly across the river from the museum is the field where I watched fireworks in July. The Rooftop Sanctuary is accessed by a ramp curving along the side of the building and offering views of the city and river. After soaking up the views from the top, I headed back down the ramp to the main entrance.

When the subject is military veterans, avoiding war references is impossible. The museum does not push details of our various wars, but those wars are major markers in our historic timeline. The focus is on people. One of the displays encountered early on talks about taking the oath that separates a person’s civilian existence from the military one. An oath signed by Alexander Hamilton in 1778 is featured in the display on evolving oaths.

There are several interactive exhibits in the museum and here’s one I found a little troubling. The touchscreen allows a slider to be moved from 1950, when the U.S. military was present in 74 countries, to 2018, when that number is 154. The Peace Corp is currently active in 65 countries.

There are several videos as well. Some are “on demand” while others, like this one about coming home, run continuously. The first picture is a screenshot showing a celebration at the end of World War II. The second is a much more recent scene of soldiers returning from the middle east. In between are images of many other homecomings including Vietnam where a soldier tells of leaving his uniform in an airport restroom to avoid “greetings” from protesters. A friend of mine tells an identical story. As we continue to get involved in wars even less popular and more poorly justified, we have at least learned to distinguish those promoting war from those caught up in it. I am not a veteran myself and have no homecoming experience of my own. Of the two veterans closest to me, I missed out on my Dad getting home from World War II but I was there when my son got home from Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Many of the stories presented at the museum involve the struggles and accomplishments of veterans after their discharge. Some, like Tammy Duckworth and John McCain, are well known but there are plenty of unknowns who overcame just as much and made equally valuable contributions to society.

I was somewhat conflicted about this museum from the moment I first heard of it. Part of that was due to the obvious difficulty in celebrating the warrior without celebrating the war. That has been handled fairly well. Another part came from questioning the appropriateness of spending large amounts of money on the building when so many of the people it sets out to honor are in need of shelter, food, counseling, and more. The museum does promote various veteran organizations and its conference rooms and Rooftop Sanctuary will no doubt host many discussions and gatherings, but whether or not that was the best use of the money remains a valid question. I’m also not entirely comfortable with this sign on the wall of the museum’s third level. There’s not a whole lot there other than some space for contemplation, and I’m sure it’s tough to organize anything related to the military without someone bringing up the lives that have been lost, but many Americans seem to have a really tough time distinguishing between Memorial Day and Veterans Day and this probably won’t help.

I began this post by noting that it was primarily the stunning building that attracted me. I think I like it even more after seeing it in person. The building and grounds are a beautiful addition to downtown Columbus. The museum may also turn out to be a beautiful addition to the lives of veterans. Time will tell.

Our Terminal Returns

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Back in July of 2016 much of the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal shut down for a major renovation of the 85 year old building. On the building’s lower level, the Children’s Museum stayed open through most — but not all — of the work and some traveling exhibits were presented, but the rest of the building was essentially closed while $228 million in renovations took place. That ended yesterday when the building officially opened to the public. In the days preceding the grand opening, some special receptions and other sneak peeks occurred. A biggie was Friday’s Members Only Preview which is when these photos were taken.

The renovation of the building is more or less complete but reestablishing the museum displays and other features is still in progress. The technically open Natural History Museum is just a skeleton of what it once was and will eventually be again. But it’s a really nice skeleton! Dinosaur Hall, the main display in the museum space currently, is brand new which is one reason it gets a jump on the return of some older exhibits. A crowd favorite, the artificial limestone cave, is scheduled to return in the spring.

Next stop was Holiday Junction where the Duke Energy Holiday Trains are in operation. The last photo is of a 1904 Carlisle & Fitch street car. The Cincinnati company introduced toy electric trains to the world in 1896.

Although the Cincinnati History Museum will not actually be open until April, there is a connection to its Public Landing area from Holiday Junction. Before the closing, a painter sat on top of that scaffolding perpetually engaged in completing the sign for my hotel. He’s apparently been given some time off during the renovation but I expect him to be back at work when the museum officially opens. Scheuman’s Bierhalle is a new addition that recognizes Cincinnati’s big time brewing history and fits in with the current resurgence of brewing in the city and across the nation.

Two traveling exhibits are currently active at the museum center and I was presented with a 2-for-1 offer when I registered for the preview. One I was rather anxious to see but the other hadn’t really stoked my interest. This, Chocolate, is “the other”. I guess I expected a bunch of frilly boxes and bonbon praising placards. What I got was the interesting history of this product of the cacao tree as it spread from Central America to the world and went from being the drink of kings to an affordable, though sometimes guilty, pleasure for everyone. I was pleasantly surprised though I should have realized that you never know what you’re gonna get with a room of chocolate.

I had rather high expectations for the Guitar exhibit but I was pleasantly surprised again. The history of the instrument was presented and there were several interactive displays on some of its technical aspects. There were also plenty of examples of its current role as the face of rock and roll and a popular symbol of music in general. Of course, one such example is the first generation Les Paul in the third picture and it’s not alone. There’s more Les here. I could fill much more than one panel with pictures from this exhibit but I’ll stop with two more. One is this industrial grade Rostov Stella from the USSR that I’ve never seen before. The other is an all in one rock star kit that I (and just about every dreamer of a certain age) have seen plenty of. By the way, that 43 foot Flying V in the first picture is the Guinness certified largest playable guitar in the world.

After the two traveling exhibits, I took part in two tours. The first was through the space where the Holocaust and Humanity Center will be moving in January. Despite its current location being only about five miles from my home and on my radar for some time, I’ve yet to visit the Center. Seems like something I ought to do before they start carrying stuff out. In the last picture, we’re getting a peek at a corner of a mural that wraps around the entire room and will be unveiled at the Center’s reopening on January 27, the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

As I waited for my Rotunda Tour, I snapped a picture of another tour group as the crossed the walkway high above the floor. The pictures of the murals were taken from about where that group is standing. This tour was somewhat abbreviated from Rotunda Tours I’ve taken in the past since some areas, like the offices, are not quite ready. Those areas will eventually be added back into the tours but even without them the tour is certainly worthwhile for the views of cleaned and repaired features and inside information passed on by the guide.

The Winold Reiss murals in the half dome had been cleaned at least once before; The two in the hallway behind it: never. Our guide mentioned that she always thought the brown suit in the mural on the south side was one of the most unattractive she’d ever seen. Now, all cleaned up, it looks pretty good. She then pointed out some small figures in the background of the mural on the other wall. I’d never noticed them at all before and I guess they were nearly impossible to see before the cleaning. I believe she said there were a total of seven. I had no trouble finding the four in this section. I’d also never seen the Pierre Bourdelle murals in the dining room before. The twenty-two canvas murals have been in storage since the late 1980s and have just been cleaned and restored. I guess I’ve probably never seen the actual floor of the dining room either. When this was an operating terminal, a serpentine counter filled the room. The counter was gone when the museums moved in and the area where it once stood was three inches lower than the room’s terrazzo floor. The depression was filled with concrete and the whole thing covered with carpet. Now green terrazzo marks where the counter once stood.

The terminal looks fantastic. This was no hurried patch job. Much of the building was more or less disassembled then put back together. Huge steel beams and other major components were replaced. The next several months, as the museums populate their areas, the Holocaust and Humanity Center moves in, the Historical Society Library returns, and the theater reopens with the latest digital technology, are going to be exciting. After the tours, I relaxed in the rotunda for a bit preparing myself for what I planned on being a cold but quick walk to the car. It wasn’t very quick.

The biggest surprise of the day waited outside. I clearly had not been paying enough attention to plans for the reopening. A projection mapping display, the technology used in the city’s Lumenocity and Blink events, covered the front of the terminal. This was the sixth and final show leading up to Saturday’s official reopening. Each night featured a different theme in a fifteen minute loop. Tonight’s theme was “Thanks Cincy!” Every scene in the loop was incredible but I’ve held myself to the “Thank You” display and two of my favorites. I guess I was most impressed with the 3D aspects of the display. The perfect shadowing made the moving dinosaur skeletons appear to be several feet in front of the terminal. The moving satellite in the Saturn scene also appears to be some distance from the building. The walk to my car was about twenty minutes longer than I’d planned but I’ve got absolutely no complaints.

Trip Peek #76
Trip #52
Blues, Books, & Battles

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This picture is from my 2007 Blues, Books, & Battles trip. It was, as indicated by the title, a three parter. The blues part was a Patrick Sweany show at The Purple Fiddle in Thomas, West Virginia. I got there on the rather scenic US-50. Following a night in Thomas, I headed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the book part. The target was a promotional event for a new book, The Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate, from Michael Wallis and Michael Williamson. I’ve met Wallis several times before and since but this was my first and only time meeting Williamson. Although I enjoyed that and wandering through the Heinz History Center, the real highlight was meeting Brian Butko and Bernie Queneau for the first time. I did not charge into battle for part three; I visited the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial where lots of military history is on display. Of particular interest and the reason for my visit, was a section devoted to the 78th Infantry Division. That’s the unit my dad was with in World War II.

Trip Peeks are short articles published when my world is too busy or too boring for a current events piece to be completed in time for the Sunday posting. In addition to a photo thumbnail from a completed road trip, each Peek includes a brief description of that photo plus links to the full sized photo and the associated trip journal.

Only Rock and Roll

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In getting in position for my personalized three ring rock and roll circus, I passed through a town whose name has a rock and roll connection even if it’s actually just a stand-in for the place Credence Clearwater Revival made infamous. The circus starts with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Friday, then The Tubes on Saturday. On Monday, Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul will be in ring #3, and I predict a little Lincoln Highway and other stuff in between.

This entry is to let blog only subscribers now about the trip and to provide a place for comments. The journal is here.

The Mighty Qin… and Friends

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I can’t really explain how the word Qin got turned into China, but it did. Some oriental linguistic transformations, such as Peking to Beijiing, are fairly recent but Qin has been China for a very long time. During a period actually called the Warring States Period, Qin was merely one of the states that warred. But it was better at it than most. In 221 BCE, under the leadership of Ying Zheng, Qin conquered the last of those other states to unify Qin/China. Although the Qin Dynasty was short lived (221-206 BCE) it gave the world its most populous country, biggest wall, and most mind boggling tomb.

Construction of that tomb, a 38 square mile complex clearly deserving of the name necropolis, began before China’s unification. Ying Zheng launched the project in 246 BCE after becoming ruler of Qin following his father’s death. He was thirteen. One of the best known of the many astounding aspects of the site is the army of nearly 8,000 life sized terracotta figures populating it. Ten of those figures are among the 120 items currently on display at the Cincinnati Art Museum. The chariot in the opening photograph is a replica of one found at the burial site. It is on display near the museum entrance separate from the actual exhibit.

The majority of items in the exhibit are much smaller than those soldiers and some predate the Qin dynasty  Many of the smallest are jewelry or other decorative items. A lot of the mid-sized items are more practical. The earthenware mask, believed to have been used by an exorcist, dates from 4000-3000 BCE. The metal cladding in the second picture was used to join construction timbers. The Chinese have long used ceramic tile for roofs and other construction needs. Both items in the third picture are tiles used in water supply systems.

This was the third time I’ve been able to gaze upon some of the twenty-two century old figures. The first was in 1980 at the Field Museum in Chicago; The second just two years later at the 1982 Knoxville World’s Fair. In Chicago, six soldiers and two horses were part of a large “Great Bronze Age of China” exhibit. In Knoxville, two soldiers and a horse accompanied a tiny piece of the Great Wall in China’s first World’s Fair exhibit since 1904. Both were remarkable in that the figures had been discovered just a few years prior in 1976. I find the fact that they were forgotten for more than two millennia as extraordinary as the fact that they existed at all.

The terracotta army contains a broad range of ranks and duties and every member is unique in some way. This exhibit includes a representative sample ranging from general to stable hand with foot soldiers, a couple of archers, and a charioteer. The cavalryman in the first photo does look like the one whose thumb was broken off in Philadelphia last December by some jerk from Delaware, but it’s not. That set of figures has returned to China. The Cincinnati exhibit was organized by the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts where it had been displayed until mid-March. Those and other details are found in a press release here.

Terracotta Army: Legacy of the First Emperor of China runs through August 12.

There is another traveling exhibit at the Cincinnati Art Museum currently. It’s one I failed to do any homework on at all and I regret that — maybe. The main part of the exhibit is called The Visitors which is described as a “multi-channel video installation”. It’s the work of Ragnar Kjartansson. His Scenes from Western Culture is also on display. It’s possible to find descriptions of both of these works elsewhere but this is the only place to get a description of how I experienced them. Lucky you.

Ragnar Kjartansson’s name was on the entrance to a fairly large room that often holds traveling exhibits with several large video screens on the walls of the approaching hallway. I’d seen the name when visiting the museum website but I hadn’t been interested enough to do any reading and I really had no idea what to expect. I scanned a blurb on the wall about short movies that set a mood rather than telling a story before watching a couple kissing on a dock by a boat and a group of kids playing almost sedately in a park. A screen with a fire burning in what looked like the foundation of a house triggered a memory. I’d recently seen a similarly framed image of a cabin ablaze and realized it must have been on the museum’s website. The blurb next to the screen mentioned a 32 minute running time. I needed to kill some time and the cabin, if that’s what it was, had completely collapsed so maybe it was near the end. I sat down across from the screen to see if it would cycle to the remembered image of a cabin.

I checked email and Facebook and verified that City View Tavern, where I planned to eat, was open. The fire was still going pretty good within the outline of the building, so I decided to go on into the main room. Even bigger screens lined those walls with little activity on any of them. I studied each of them briefly then went back to the hallway to check on the “fire”. The flames didn’t hold my attention very long this time and I soon decided to walk on through the main room and exit. A couple of the screens were now dark but the others showed the same motionless scenes as before. As I paused near one of the screens, a man appeared and walked toward the camera. The screen went black when he presumably switched it off. I waited long enough for the same thing to happen to another screen. The pause gave me time to rethink things and realize that I still had time to kill and doing it here was probably my best option. I returned to my seat near the fire video.

I now noticed a blurb on the side if the door away from the “fire”. I learned that the installation inside, The Visitors, involved musicians, in different rooms of a mansion, playing and singing a song. The fire in the video didn’t seem to be progressing much, so, when I heard voices singing on the other side of the doorway, I went in and, for the first time, considered that Ragnar Kjartansson might not be a full on con-artist.

All the screens were lit and all the rooms occupied: a cello, a couple of grand pianos, an accordion, a banjo, several guitars. The show — I mean installation — had become interesting. Though the music wasn’t gripping, it was quite pleasant. It swelled and softened. In some of the mellowest spots, the drummer sipped a beer. After a while I noticed the bare shoulders of a young woman lying in the bed one of the guitarist sat on. The run time was given as 64 minutes, and, as far as I know, she didn’t move for the entire shoot. If so, that’s almost as impressive as her roommate contributing to the performance guided only by earphones.

The museum is free and so is this. I’m really thinking of returning to watch the whole thing in the proper sequence now that I know what’s going on. Through some belated homework, I learned that Ragnar’s the guy in the bathtub. A quite remarkable selfie.

The Visitors and Scenes from Western Culture run through June 17.

Welcome Back Belle

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This week the Memphis Belle came home to a place she’d never been before. And the Belle has been a lot of places. She was born in Seattle, Washington, on July 2, 1942. She flew to England in September and completed her first bombing mission over Europe in November. By May of 1943, she had completed her 25th mission and was sent “home”. She then toured the United States promoting War Bonds. After the war, she spent a little time in an Oklahoma airplane graveyard then a lot of time at various locations in Memphis, Tennessee. Since 2005 she’s been undergoing major restoration in Dayton, Ohio, and on Wednesday she was moved to the National Museum of the US Air Force. On Thursday, the exhibit was officially opened to the general public. That’s me.

I arrived about an hour before the scheduled ceremony and was happy to see that traffic was not as bad as I had feared. There were plenty of people there, though. By the time I made it through the line and security, only about a third of that one hour wait remained.

My first view of the restored airplane was somewhat obscured by some of those people who had been in line in front of me. I got a reasonably clear view by heading to the back where the media risers were.

The Memphis Belle is often referred to as the first B-17 to complete 25 bombing missions but that honor actually belongs to Hell’s Angels which accomplished the feat about a week before the Belle. But the Memphis Belle was the first to return to the States. It seems likely the the romance behind the name had a lot to do with the selection. Memphis, Tennessee, was the home town of Margaret Polk who was the fiance of Robert Morgan, the plane’s pilot. Although Margaret broke off the engagement before the war ended, I don’t doubt that it helped sell more than a few war bonds.

At war’s end, the Belle was designated surplus. In 1946, the city of Memphis bought her for $350 from an airplane graveyard near Altus, Oklahoma. They didn’t spend much more on her for a long time. She was initially parked outside at the Memphis Municipal Airport. In 1950, she was moved to the National Guard Armory and placed — still outside — on a concrete pedestal. In 1987, helped along by some noise from Air Force people, a covered pavilion was built for the plane on Memphis’ Mud Island. It was here I first saw her in 1990 and it seems like I should have some pictures around but a Friday afternoon search came up empty. The plane was moved to a Navy hangar in Millington in 2002 where the deterioration was reined in and restoration begun before the 2005 move to Dayton.

A formal unveiling had taken place the night before for the family of crew members and other VIPs. Today’s ceremony consisted of just a couple of short speeches and a symbolic ribbon cutting. I did not have much of a view of the ribbon cutting although it didn’t really matter. The participants’ names had been announced but I could not have put a single name with a face. The ribbon cutting was the signal to remove the ropes that had blocked the plane and the many displays around it. It quickly became apparent that this was not going the be a good time to leisurely read placards and study pictures.

It was, however, a good time to visit the new building that opened last year. On the way I paused to snap a picture of the B-2 and a man walking a few steps behind me caught up with me. “It won’t show up”, he said. I was too slow to get it but must have looked sufficiently quizzical for him to spare me the embarrassment of asking a truly dumb question. “Too stealthy”, he explained.

The closest thing to a space shuttle at the museum sits at the entrance to the new building. It is one of three NASA Crew Compartment Trainers. This is CCT-1 which was used in training more than 300 shuttle bound astronauts. Mock structures surround it so that it appears to be part of an actual shuttle.

A good portion of the new building is used to display the presidential aircraft that used to be in a building actually on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base with a bus ride and additional security check required. I’ve seen them before but that didn’t keep me from walking through all of them again. Since I recently visited Ike’s birthplace, I picked his Columbine III to represent the exhibit and to show 1950s state-of-the-art audiovisual gear.

Weather had cancelled yesterday’s planned landing of other World War II vintage aircraft. Earlier, as I stood in that long line getting in, it was announced that they would be landing at 11:00 today. I misjudged the time but did get outside just in time to see the first B-17 approach the field through an opening in the trees. I caught the second one overhead, and thought I’d positioned myself for a better view of the landing but found out I’d positioned myself to pretty much miss seeing it at all. I had read that three B-17s were to be flying about this weekend , but I only saw the two. There were, as advertised, several P-51 Mustangs (3rd picture) in the air.

One reason I nearly missed the landings completely was that I tried to make sure there was nothing I needed to go back inside for. The decision was reinforced by seeing the line outside. It was just about as long as it had been when I arrived and now the museum was nearly full. I promised myself I’d return before long to read the placards and headed to my car.

Trip Peek #71
Trip #6
Bikes & Stuff

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This picture is from my 2002 Bikes & Stuff day trip. It shows the target of the trip which was the Bicycle Museum of America in New Bremen, Ohio. I made a few interesting stops along the way with the most interesting to me personally being a funeral home in Centerville, Ohio. My g-g-g-great grandfather, Benjamin Robbins, was a co-founder of the town and the funeral home is built around the stone house he constructed in the early 1800s. I’d stopped by the house before but this time was different. As I approached the building taking pictures, a door opened and I was invited inside.

Trip Peeks are short articles published when my world is too busy or too boring for a current events piece to be completed in time for the Sunday posting. In addition to a photo thumbnail from a completed road trip, each Peek includes a brief description of that photo plus links to the full sized photo and the associated trip journal.

Trip Peek #69
Trip #91
Motorcycle Cannonball Plus

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This picture is from my 2010 Motorcycle Cannonball Plus trip. The full name of the event it was centered on was the “Pre-1916 Motorcycle Cannonball Endurance Run”. It was the first of what has become an  established biennial event. Subsequent runs have involved motorcycles of various vintages but all have been rather aged. The 2018 event is for pre-1929 motorcycles and will run from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon. The bikes will start rolling September 8.

In 2010 the run’s closest approach to Cincinnati was Cherohala Skyway near Chattanooga, Tennessee. I got there in time to see many of the ancient two-wheelers pass by, then headed onto their end of day stop at Coker Tire. The picture was taken the next morning as the riders set out on the next leg. Once the first groups were on their way, I drove south to Little River Canyon then back the check out Ruby Falls. I spent the night in Chattanooga and had a wonderful time at the city’s aquarium the next day.after breakfast at Aretha Frankenstein’s. This was my first visit to the quirky restaurant which became an instant favorite. I made it to Nashville in time for a show at the Bluebird Cafe then stopped at a couple of car museums the next day as I headed home sort of on the Dixie Highway.

Trip Peeks are short articles published when my world is too busy or too boring for a current events piece to be completed in time for the Sunday posting. In addition to a photo thumbnail from a completed road trip, each Peek includes a brief description of that photo plus links to the full sized photo and the associated trip journal.