Day 37: Dayton, OH

The only way I can keep track of the days anymore is by looking at the number on the previous blog post!  I’m trying hard not to think about the end of the trip, because I don’t want it to end. It’s fun bouncing from place to place. We’ve packed and unpacked the car so many tomes now, we’ve got that down to a science. We’ve managed to accumulate very little for the 6 weeks, limiting souvenirs to magnets and postcards and just a couple of t-shirts for the boys. We did get a few things from family members, and those blankets from our very cold nights in Shenandoah. The biggest accumulation came from this stop in Vandalia though. We are taking Home a guitar. My aunt bought it long ago, doesn’t play it anymore and wanted to pass it onto the boys. Ben, especially, is thrilled. I think i’ve Found room in the car for it. Tomorrow will tell for sure.

Anyway, enough of that, on to todsy’s Adventures.   Today was all about aviation history. We added yet another National Park site to our list - the National Aviation Heritage Site. It’s actually a compilation of 8 different places in the area significant to the early years of s Latino. We visited 4 of those sights today. The Wright brothers are from Dayton and built the first airplane here. The first airport is here in Dayton, the Wright Flier III is here, and much more. We went to Carillon Park, toured the fascinating museum on Dayton history, including it’s part in aviation. Part of the museum is dedicated to NCR - National Cash Register. There was a really cool display of cash registers and the developing history and technology of NCR, from their first registers to ATMs to self check out technology. Dayton played an interesting roll in the development of the atomic bomb, they build decoding machines in Dayton. Dayton is the birthplace of so many everyday little things we take for granted. There’s a lot of cool history in this tiny little town.

We visited the replica of the Wright brothers bicycle shop. They were extraordinary men. Unbelievable the things they accomplished. Orville Wright was the first person to fly on a heavier than air motorized airplane, and he lived long enough to watch Chuck Yeager break the sound barrier. Crazy.

We went to the first airport, the field where the Wright brothers built their planes and learned to fly and then taught others to fly.

Andcwe speny the afternoon at the Air Force Museum for one of the most spectacular collections of airplanes anywhere. Not just any planes but planes with very historical value. We could have spent many more hours here.

We ended the day with dinner with my Aint Jane and Aint Susan. They are my mom’s older and younger sisters respectively. We had a great evening, had a little celebratory birthday ice cream afterwards. When we parted ways I drove around the neighborhood where my parents lived when I was born, where my grandparents lived, where my aunt lives now. It’s been a dozen years since I was here last, so many things different, some the same. Somehow it orher I found the Park we used to play at, the shopping center where my aunt had a needlework shop for years, right across the street from the airport.

It was another good day. Tomorrow we head to Mammoth Cave Kentucky. Looking forward to another couple of days in a park. Each day now brings us closer and closer to TX.