The Ray Adventures: Out and about in Dayton, Ohio

Dayton is bigger than I thought, over 800,000 people in the metropolitan area, home to Wright-Patterson AFB, the largest AFB in the U.S. It's mission is research, development, flight training and intelligence. The base is so large we keep getting lost, we can't leave breadcrumbs because we kept going the wrong way, ending up in dead-ends or going in a circle. It is home to the Wright Brothers and (who knew?) 4-H.

Saturday, April 18th, A beautiful day, maybe spring is springing in the mid-west, with highs in the 70's we blinded Daytonians with our white legs. The sun feels so good. We drove to the downtown area, the base is about 10 miles NE of WPAFB. We tried to visit the Visitor Center, closed, looks like we're on our own. The downtown area was pretty quiet except for the Riverscape Area, volunteers were completing clean up of the various parks in Dayton and were being treated with lunch. I thought it might be a Volkswalk at first, walkers heading toward the canopied area along the river. We walked around a bit before searching out a place for lunch. We happened upon Brixx Ice House, a restaurant and bar housed in a historic building. Since Luci was with us, we sat outside, it was very pleasant. While we were there a guy came in with his Eskimo dog which made her go nuts. Went back to Fam Camp to enjoy the rest of the day. Our neighbors, Ed and Gail are from the area, having recently sold their large home and waiting to hit the road. About the time they left their home Gail was diagnosed with cancer, her fourth bout, so they need to stay in the area until her chemo is finished and she gets a clean bill of health. Their little dog, Tootsie, a little cairn terrier like Dorothy's dog, wanted to get to know Luci but was a little overwhelmed with her energy and size. I made a salad for dinner then we watched the movie Gone Girl. It was a bit "naughty" in places, but I enjoyed it as much as the book. We tried to rent a DVD in Indy but couldn't get it to play. The technicians in Decatur discovered the player wasn't connected.

Sunday, April 19th, Mother Nature played a dirty trick on us, yesterday was so beautiful, today-well not so much. A cool, wet and windy day, no shorts for us! We worked on our itinerary, since nothing is planned after Dayton. I did a little laundry, mostly just hunkered down (again). I decided to go to the Commissary to pick up something for dinner, hmmmmm, they locked the door as I walked up. Seems they close at 5 on Sunday. Being very resourceful, we went out to dinner. Since the weather was so nasty we wanted to stick close to the base. We found a family restaurant amongst a slew of fast food chains, in your typical base neighborhood. Well the nicest thing I can say, it was a waste of calories. Our tummies were full that's all that counted. Gary picked up "Fury" at Red Box only to discover when we got back to the coach that our player is not Blue-Ray.

Monday, April 20th, A very, very windy day. There are many advantages to staying in Fam Camps, however reveille is not one of them. Our plan today is to go to the National Museum of the Air Force, we just got an earlier start than we'd planned. On CBS Sunday Morning there was a segment on the last 2 surviving members of the Doolittle Raiders receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor on April 15th, then donating them to the AF museum on Sunday. Col. James Doolittle and his 80 Raiders in April of 1942 launched attacks on Japan that led to the ending of the war, all of the men volunteered for the mission. It was interesting to read that some of their training was in Pendleton, Oregon because it's location on a hill is with strong winds were similar to taking off an aircraft carrier. The museum has close to 500 planes in four buildings. A segment to the Early Years of Aircraft, WWII, Korean, Southeast Asia, The Cold War and Presidential Aircraft and Research and development in a separate building on base. The old style airplane hangers look like large quonset huts housing the planes. The first building was devoted to the early years and WWII, the second, Korea and SE Asia, the third the Cold War. The last building was on base, half was research and development and the other half the Presidential airplanes. We were able to go through four of the AF1's. Roosevelt's had an elevator and a special width chair that enabled him to go down the aisle. Truman used the plane next for a short while, then the next AF1 was built just a little larger. Following Truman, Eisenhower used it for a short while too, but since blood was bad between Truman and Eisenhower, Eisenhower wanted his own plane. The next AF1 was Kennedy's and Johnson's. We stood in the same spot where Johnson took the oath of office standing beside Jackie. Originally the casket was going to be put down below but Jackie insisted be in the same area as her. They had to made adjustments by sawing part of a wall to get it in. The last one we were able to see was used by the Bush's and Clinton. Reagan's AF1 is in his presidential library in Simi Valley, Ca.

Tuesday, April 21st, We missed reveille this morning, just a little slow getting going. We headed out to the Wright Memorial on the hill overlooking Huffman Prairie, the sight of Orville and Wilbur's field and barn that they tested their planes. It is true the first flight was at Kitty Hawk North Carolina but previous to that they had short flights on Huffman Field. In 1903 Orville flew the first power-driven machine, he flew 120 feet in 12 seconds, later Wilbur flew 852 feet in 59 seconds. They had to quit because the stiff winds flipped the "plane" damaging it. Back to the drawing board in Dayton. The Wright brothers were quite the inventors, in high school they developed a printing press so their pastor father could print the Sunday bulletins. They went on to own a bicycle shop building a better bicycle, all the while researching flying. In 1905 Orville flew the latest flying machine, staying in the air 39 minutes before running out of fuel. And the rest is history. After lunch at the Brixx Ice house(when we're in Dayton we always eat at the Brixx) we went to the Wright Brother's Visitor Center and the Wright Cycle Company. Of course no visit to Dayton would be complete with out a visit to the cemetery, this being the Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum located on the highest point in Dayton. In the 1840's the 40 acres were chosen for the hilltop views and rolling hills. Today there are over 200 acres in one of the oldest garden cemeteries in the US. Gary commented he would hate to be a pall bearer, some of the areas are very steep. Notable people buried there include the Wright Brothers, poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and Erma Bombeck. We searched and searched for her gravestone. Turns out it is just a 29,000 lb rock. Dog and boy is notable because after the boys burial the dog sat at the grave for days, people started bringing food. To this day, people leave toys and trinkets at the gravesite.

Wednesday, April 22nd, While in Rockport, Texas we became friends with Chef Betty, an Ohio native, who owned Coldwater Café in Tipp City only about 10 miles north of Dayton. Gail, our chum in Rockport suggested we try it out. Her son now runs the restaurant after working with her for several years. We didn't know what to expect, a café to us suggests just a little restaurant that serves good old home cooking. Not even close. Wow! Finely decorated, even the ladies room was nice. I had the hummus, veggie pita with a cup of mushroom/sherry soup and Gary had the Rueben. We lived it up and had the chocolate mousse cake made in house. Delish, if you're ever in Tipp City be sure to stop at the Coldwater Café. Thanks Gail for the suggestion.

Thursday, April 23rd, Our day started very early, the alarm went off at 5:45, we are taking the coach to Freightliner for the 16,000 mile service. We had to be there at 7:00, then we dropped Luci off at Pet Smart for our drive down to Cincinnati, about 60 miles south, to tour Paul Brown Stadium, home of the Cincinnati Bengals.We got there about 9:00, since the Pro Shop didn't open until 10:00 we killed time geo cacheing. We walked around the stadium on a cool windy day. I have to say this was the most enlightening tour we've ever had. The rest of our tour group were staff and residents of a special needs group home. The seven level stadium, built in 2,000 holds 67,000 people. There was major construction going on, they were replacing the jumbo trons, and the other scoreboards. We visited all the usual places, the press box, the club suites, locker room and the field. This was the first time there were players on the field, they reported on Monday, this is the cool part. One of the players took a moment to come down to the end zone to hug a man with downs syndrome. I felt tears well up. I asked Amy, our tour guide, who the player was. Giovani Bernard, a young running back. The stadium is owned by Harris County, the Brown family, owners of the Bengals, are the tenants. We rode back up to the Pro Shop in the freight elevator, a first. We walked several long blocks downtown for lunch at the Jefferson Social Club, Gary had a huge taco salad and I had by far the best taco's ever, carnitas with pickled onions. Yum,yum, yum! After eating too much we walked down to the Riverfront, a new project that is revitalizing the area between Paul Brown Stadium and The Great American Ball Park, better known as Reds Stadium. The bridge crossing the Ohio River from Cincinnati to Covington Kentucky was finished in 1867 and was the prototype for the Brooklyn Bridge. We decided to walk to Kentucky, what a cool bridge! Then we walked back to Ohio, boy what a hike, then we had to walk back up to the stadium parking lot for the car. We got out of Cincinnati before rush hour, getting back to Centerville, stopping at Costco for gas and "stuff" before picking up Luci. We got back to Freightliner about 5:00 to pick up the coach, they weren't quite done, we ended up sitting in the parking lot until 7:00 then back to the base to set up, finally having dinner about 8:00, a long day.

Friday, April 24th, Moving day, we are headed to a park in rural Ohio just north of I70. It's only about 170 miles so we took our time getting our act together leaving about noon. When I said rural, I had no idea how rural. About 50 miles from the border of West (by God) Virginia, we left the freeway driving north into hill country. It seemed like we drove forever on a narrow, curvy road to Rocky Point Resort, besides a RV park, they have cabins and stables, hosting a rodeo in the summer. We are supposed to be here until Monday but it's a little remote for our liking.
Enjoy the pic's

TTFN

Gary and Pam