Wapakoneta, Ohio

Wapakoneta Court House

Stopped a few days in Wapakoneta, OH.  We stayed in a Coast to Coast campground, one of our membership campground parks.  

It's 'Wapak' to the locals.  Enjoyed this city.   It was really clean, lots of old houses, really old cemeteries and a great biking trail west of town at Grand Lake.  

The inside of the court house can compare to a lot of the state capitols we've toured over the years.  In fact, nicer than some.  This partial stained glass window was particularly fine and notice the interior:

The security guard must have been bored because he did a really good job of telling us all about the building.  Turns out that when it was built, there was a huge attic.  Without raising the roof, they were able to insert two extra floors into that space.  There is still attic room above the add-ons where the air conditioners are located.  

Originally, this Lady Liberty statue was on the very top of
the dome.  But the copper had badly worn off, and not much remained of her.  It was the grade school children to the rescue, who donated many thousands of pennies to be used for the refurbishment of the statue.  This is it (The one on the right):

The campground had a brand-spanking-new 18 hole mini-golf course.  Had all the flags, new carpet, stone barriers and water traps and fountain.  Interestingly, it had indents on some of the greens, and they used a different texture and sand colored carpet as sand traps and a really rough green carpet for the rough. 

There were many fine old houses like in the picture.  And an old firehouse.  A horse drawn fire cart was displayed on the lawn.  It was built in 1860.

One item of note, this was the hometown of Dudley Nichols.  He was the screenwriter for productions like "Stagecoach", "The Bells of St Mary's", and "For Whom The Bell Tolls".  Read about it here:

Heat/Cool Plant

adjacent to the court house was this funny structure.  It provides the heat and cooling for the court house.  Here's a picture of the original boiler going in and the remodel one in 2012:

The security guard gave us directions to a cafe he recommended.  It used a wood fired oven to cook the orders.  I ordered a bison burger, Eloise ordered the reuben.  We split them up.  They were both great but E says she preferred the bison.  It was really huge and delicious.

Bison burger at J. Maries

A nice paved, level bike/hiking trail was near.   Neat covered bridge over the trail in the background.  There were several along the way, in fact the name of the trail was Covered Bridge Trail.   First time we wore our helmets was on this trip.  E said hers hurt some, but I was okay.  Wasn't nearly as hot under it as I'd feared.  We've been lugging them around for years.  According to the gps we did 5.8 miles with 1 hour 31 minutes of moving time and 51:38 minutes of stopped time, looking for all the geocaches.  We ended the trip with 12 finds and 3 we didn't.  There were a few others that we skipped due to the fact that they were in really tall weeds. 

We spent some memorable days here in Wapak.  Only thing lacking was an opportunity to square dance!

Next up: Somewhere northeast of here.

Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH

Gary meets Bob Hope at USO Program

This guy looks petty good for a dead guy.  No, silly, Bob Hope.  Actually a poster in the Air Force museum.  

We were two days visiting the enormous facility.  There is no charge for entry, but watch out for the trinket and food prices!  

When we approached the doors we saw the sign that said no knives or food or drink.  Well, I carry a pocket knife, so Eloise waited for me to go all the way back to the car to drop the knife.  It was a large parking lot, and we were way back.  I caught up to Eloise, went thru the doors and we ran into an usher who said we cannot take our water bottles into the museum.  Huh.  Yep.  Back to the car with the bottles.  (We noted the "no drink" sign, but figured it was only for commercial drinks...not water.)

We've been at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio for 6 days.  We're staying in the base RV park.  It's really nice.  It has two rows of pull-thru w/50 amp, water, and sewer, and one row with just water and 50 amp,  no sewer.  Nice restrooms too, but we don't use the parks' very often, much preferring our own facilities.

Pretty Remarkable Quilt

Hope the text here is legible, it's really pretty interesting.

Eloise w/RF101

RF101C Data

 The aircraft above was the type that my squadron in Thailand consisted of.  It was impressive, because it flew over North Vietnam, usually without fighter escort, to take pictures to tell where to bomb next.  They were unarmed and at the mercy of the Surface to Air Missile emplacements by Charley.  They were a daring bunch of pilots.  At the time I was something like Radar O'Reilly as the Orderly Room clerk.  Or, personal lacky to all!  Some of you know the very sad story about me and one of the pilots.  Not going there in the blog, but if you ask sometime I'll tell the story.

We also had some of these, but they were relics even in 1967/68 when I was there:

A-1E



The B-36 is just my favorite aircraft.  It didn't play a role in any war, but it was just fantastic.

B-36

B-36

B-36

  It had 6 turbo props, facing rearward, and it had double jet pods on each wing for occasional boost too!  It was a forerunner for in-flight refueling.  Can you see the jet getting fuel from the B-36 wing tip in the photo?

Check out this main landing tire that was on the early model of the B-36.  Read the text about just how heavy and huge it was, compared to the later photo of the tires in later models:

"normal" landing gear

Some of you vets will remember the Jolly Green chopper..

 It played a really big part in Southeast Asia, saved lots of lives.

Here's a pretty plane.  

XB-70 Valkyrie

Some of the patrons were taking rides in the different simulators.  I can't say whether there was a charge for the ride or not:

JFK's Air Force 1

It's a truly amazing place, and it houses so many aircraft, some of them really, really huge like the B-52, the B-2, and the B-1:

On the inside of the C-124 we find this:

 
 And this:

I didn't see a privacy curtain, it was just on the wall as we walked by.  I sort of gave it a good look, but I think I would need some instructions....

Okay, I've got more pictures of really neat planes, and some rockets, but that's enough museum for one blog.  

Near to the Air Force base was the area that the Wright brothers used to refine their aircraft.  The flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina proved they had something that could go in a straight line for 59 seconds.  What they needed to do was to be able to make turns and stay aloft.  That is what they accomplished  when they returned to Dayton.  

They used a pasture for their experiments.  The owner gave them permission, but only if they didn't bother his cows and horses.

Notice the catapult.  A team of horses raised a 1600 pound counter weight to give the airplane a takeoff

This is a description of how it worked.

 Eloise and I have remarked how we were schooled in the Kitty Hawk event but had very little information beyond that as to how the brothers progressed.  Well, now we have the "rest of the story".  I personally think the Kitty Hawk thing is overblown compared to what they accomplished here at the Dayton pasture.

Ultimately they began a flying school and trained both the military and civilians.  We were shocked to learn that they charged the lordly sum (in those days) of $750 to learn to fly an airplane.

 












The last photo will be one describing a flight when Orville's father was on the plane, exclaming "Higher, Orville, Higher!! I don't know if you can read the sign but it says this was the only time Orville and Wilbur ever flew together.  Their father had made them promise not to both fly, guess he wanted to have at least one son left when they were finished.  It was also the only time their father ever flew. 

Wilbur Wright and his father

 We leave Dayton heading north....somewhere.