September 25, 2012

09/17/2012

We are now at the Bass Lake Famcamp on Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH.

We had a very easy run up from Elizabethtown on Saturday, making good time through Louisville and Cincinnati even with all the weekend traffic.  The Air Force Marathon was being held on the base when we arrived so we had to pull into a shopping center parking lot and wait for the road into the gate to open.

Yesterday we visited the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.  This is actually our second time at the museum but since they have added several more displays and aircraft I wanted to see it again.

 General Chappie James

We began our tour at the outside display area so that we could pay our respects to C-141C/66-0177, the Hanoi Taxi.  This old gal was the last C-141 to fly before being parked here at the museum.

As a young SSgt, I was stationed at Clark AB, Philippines I from February 1972 to February 1975 with the 604th Military Airlift Support Squadron, working on C-141's and C-5's.  During Operation Homecoming, the repatriation of our POW's in Vietnam, we prepared the C-141's for their missions to Hanoi.  I was fortunate to have been selected to be on the block-in crew when 66-0177 came back to Clark from Hanoi.  That day is etched in my memory forever and will never forget witnessing Rear Admiral (Ret) Jeremiah Denton's remarks when he got off the airplane.  I still get chills up my spine thinking about it.

Also on the grounds of the museum is Memorial Park.  Joyce and I walked around this beautiful area for over an hour admiring the beautiful monuments.  There is a new one that will be dedicated this Friday, Professional Loadmaster's Association monument.

Air Force Medal Of Honor Recipients Memorial.

Our next stop was at the Wilbur and Orville Wright Memorial which is part of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.  The park is actually five sites; the Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center, The Wright Cycle Company, the Wright Brothers Aviation Center, the Huffman Prairie Flying Field and the Paul Laurence Dunbar State Memorial.  We hope to see them all before leaving the Dayton area.

 At the visitor's center we saw a movie told the story of Wilbur and Orville building and flying of the Wright Flyer III, the first "practical airplane".

09/18/2012

Happy Birthday to the United States Air Force!  Sixty-five years ago today, our Air Force was formed as a separate branch of the military on 18 September 1947 by The National Security Act of 1947.

Yesterday was a "chores" day for us.  Laundry done-Check, Commissary shopping-Check, etc.  Also, Joyce's Nook finally went belly up so we went to Barnes & Noble and got her a new Nook Color.  Sweet!

Since B & N wanted big bucks for their Nook covers, Joyce bought some fabric at Joann's and made her own for about $6.  Very nice!

09/19/2012

Yesterday was a shopping day for us.  Now, believe me, I never got the shopping gene that most women have so you won't ever see me wondering around J.C. Penney's just looking.  However, sometimes a guy has to do what a guy has to do.  Oh, I did get three pairs of pants.

09/20/2012

Joyce and I visited the Wright Cycle Company yesterday. This area of Dayton is where Orivlle and Wilbur lived and worked in the early 1900's at their printing and bicycle businesses.

The black fence is where Cycle Shop #3 used to stand.  It's now in Michigan.

The shop were the Wright's designed and built their Wright Glider and the first Wright Flyer was bought by Henry Ford and is now at his Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI.

Also, the visitor center has several displays chronicling the life of poet and author, Paul Laurence Dunbar.

09/21/2012

Had supper with with Dave Bell last evening.  Dave and I served together in the 7th MAS and 60th AW at Travis.  It is always fun to see friends from the "good old days".

We also attended the dedication of the Loadmaster Memorial.  We saw several guys we hadn't seen in may years.  Anyone remember these names: Bob Cosegrove, Ray Snedegar, Arnie Suvatne, Joe Brown and Mark Raymond?

Bob Cosegrove, Dave Bell, Mark Raymond, Joe Brown, Joyce, Me, Arnie Suvatne and Ray Snedegar

 This guy is owned by a loadmaster in Dayton.

 Ray Snedegar was a crew member on this airplane.

09/25/2012

On the 22nd we hooked up, jumped on I-70 east, headed to Donegal, PA for one night.  Traffic was surprisingly light with not too many construction area since it was a Saturday.

After getting a good nights rest, about 8:30 AM there was a knock on the door.  There stood Bill Baker a loadmaster who served in the 7th MAS at Travis.  I hadn't seen him is well over twenty years!  We had a good, but way to short visit with him and his wife Pam.

We are now at the Artillery Ridge Campground in Gettysburg, PA.  More on our time here later.

Barry & Joyce

September 16, 2012

09/10/2012

On Friday the 7th we said goodbye to Gary and Lynn and headed toward the Camp Carlson RV Park near Fort Knox, KY.  On the way down Joyce called the park and and found out there was no room for us so we went to "Plan B".  We are now at the Elizabethtown Crossroads RV Park in Elizabethtown, KY.

We had some very nasty weather move into this area but fortunately most of the thunderstorms missed us.  We did get a lot of lightening and thunder but not near what was forecasted.


On Saturday we did a "Parade of Homes" to around the Elizabethtown area.  There are some beautiful homes being built here and are very affordable.

On Saturday evening we went to Jeff Hard's house for a barbecue.  Jeff was a member of the 86th Military Airlift Squadron at Travis AFB, CA while I was there.  He and his wife Darcy had invited several of their friends and the put out a delicious rib supper.

This part of Kentucky is "Bourbon Country" and Bardstown, KY is the "Bourbon Capital of the World".  There are several distilleries to choose from in the area so on Sunday we visited our first, the Heaven Hill Distillery.  Heaven Hill produces several premium bourbons including Evan Williams Single Barrel and Elijah Craig.

 Rack Houses

Our first order of business was to take their trolly tour of Bardstown.  Paul, our tour guide, gave us a lot of information about the town including old homes, museums and of course, bourbon history.

After the trolly tour we took a tour of the distillery which included a movie about the history of bourbon and how it's made.  Michelle, our tour guide the took us across the street to one of Heaven Hill's rack houses where the bourbon is aged.

09/11/2012

Yesterday we made another trip to the Bardstown area, specifically to Loretto and the Makers Mark Distillery, the purveyors of Makers Mark and Maker's 46 which I believe are some of the finest bourbons made.

Our tour here consisted of a walk around the beautiful distillery grounds, a walk through the distilling and fermenting rooms, viewing the printing shop and then the bottling line.  Also included the tour was of course tasting the bourbons, my favorite part.

In the gift shop we bought a small bottle of Makers Mark and then Joyce dipped it in the distilleries signature sealing wax.  Also, we signed up to be Makers Mark Ambassadors.  Our names will be placed on a keg of bourbon and in approximately seven years we'll be notified that that keg is going to be bottled.  We can return to the distillery and get a bottle of that bourbon.  How cool is that!

This printing press is over 100 years old.  Makers makes all of their labels on it even today.

 Notice the shutters.  The cutouts are the shape of their bottles.

 Joyce did a good job on the dip.

After leaving Loretto we had a picnic lunch in Bardstown and then toured the Civil War Museum.  This museum is reputed to have the largest collection of war memorabilia that any other collection in the country.  I don't know about that but I can say the collection is very impressive.

 One of Claudia's descendents is Judge Roy Bean, The Hanging Judge

09/13/2012

Yesterday we toured the Jim Beam Distillery.  This was a self-guided tour that covered several outside displays, a rack house and the visitors center.  If your headed to Kentucky in the future, the distillery will be starting a guided tour in October.

Jim Beam produces not only several flavors of Jim Beam bourbon but some very high-end, small-batch whiskey's as well, including Knob Creek, Basil Hayden, Baker's and Booker's.  At the end of the tour you have the opportunity to taste two of their bourbon's.  My choices were Booker's, a 128 proof whiskey that was the dream of Booker Noe who was the Master Distiller for many years.  This bourbon, although very strong, was smooth as silk.  I then tried their Devil's Cut, a 90 proof bourbon.  I didn't especially like this one neat but could see it mixed with something in a cocktail.

Joyce tried the Basil Hayden and their Red Stag Cinnamon flavored bourbon.  She really liked the Red Stag but the Basil Hayden was a little too much for her.

 Booker Noe and his dog Sallie.

After lunch we toured the rest of Bardstown Civil War Museum.  This part of the museum focuses on World War I through Vietnam with more of the Civil War thrown in as well.

 The Old Talbot Tavern and Inn.  Built cira. 1790.

09/15/2012

On Friday my good friend Ron Bretherick and his wife Debbie drove down from their home near Indianapolis for a visit.  I served with Ron in the 602nd Organizational Maintenance Squadron at Travis AFB in 1966.  The last time I saw Ron was 33 years ago at Loring AFB, ME when the C-5 he was flying on had to divert there with an engine problem.  I was in maintenance then and since I was the only crew chief that knew anything about the C-5, job control asked me to meet the airplane.

During Ron's stay at Loring, we talked about flight engineering and why he cross-trained.  He convinced me to look into the career field and possibly cross-training as well.  I did and the rest is history.

Thanks Ron and Debbie for driving all that way and for the great visit.
More later.

Barry & Joyce