Come Fly With Me

Today was a full, exciting, yet sobering, day. We got up early with three of us to shower and dress. We drove to a nearby IHOP for a fortifying breakfast because it was going to be one long day of touring. We timed it just right and got seated before the motorcylists and church goers arrived. We wanted to be at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Center when it opened. Above is a photo of the museum. We were impressed with the quality of this relatively new museum.
The Karasek luck continues to run golden. As we entered the museum, there was a sign saying that Buzz Aldrin, the 2nd astronaut to walk on the moon, would be at the museum to sign his children's book, "Reaching for the Moon." With him was Lonnie Jones Schorer, the author of "Kids To Space: A Space Traveler's Guide," with a publishing date of today. Upon seeing the sign, I walked right into the book store and bought both books, so I would be prepared when they arrived.

I was so excited I couldn't stand it. I never buy anything at the beginning of a day of touring. Who wants to carry stuff around all day? But I broke my own rule by spontaneously acting upon our arrival. Mel just shook his head but he knows me too well to object.

Once the books were bought, we went to the Observation Deck (the oval structure on the tall pedestal in the picture at the beginning of this post). Basically, we could see the control towers at Dulles Airport with planes landing from left and right, always lovely to be looking down on the rest of the world (kind of like our old condo). When we descended from the tower, an IMAX movie, The Fighter Pilot, was starting so we purchased tickets to see that adventure. IMAX movies are always so much fun with breath taking views.

Then, we got down to the business of looking at planes. Brian always astounds us with his knowledge of aircraft. When he was a little boy, he loved to read factual books. He was never too much into fiction. What I missed was that he was retaining all of that information. There were guides in the museum to tell visitors about the aircraft. We didn't need to go on those tours. We had Brian. It amazed us as we would read the one paragraph explanations of what we were viewing, then Brian would add in what was happening in history at the time or where the aircraft was on a historic timeline or what battle it had been used in. Yikes! A regular walkng encyclopedia.

Finally, it was time for Buzz Aldrin, who was set up in the Space area of the museum. There was a long line, but we slip right to the front because we had already purchased the books. The line was for those who were buying the books before seeing Buzz.

What a gentleman! He is a vibrant, cordial man, whose manner belies his 76 years. Not knowing if we would be able to actually see him to sign the book, I circled around to the signing table and stood back to get some photos of him, while Mel and Brian got into the line. He spotted me and stopped everything so that I could get a good photo of him. I will post that photo in a future blog. Then, we realized that we didn't have to wait in the line because we already had the book. So we marched right up to the front and had the books signed by Ms. Schorer and by Buzz. We got to shake his hand and recognizing me, he said, "Do you want to take some pictures together?" Can you believe that? He was so gracious and aware that we would be thrilled to have our picture taken with him.

After we walked away, I asked Brian, if he remembered the photo of Buzz Aldrin, on the moon and saluting the American flag. He did. Because Brian was born on Flag Day in 1972, I had decorated his room with a flag motif that included that infamous picture of man on the moon. Maybe, I vaccinated him that way, considering his interests and work today.

The photo above is the best of the shots that Mel took. This is one for the history books, at least our history book. Brian recalled that when he and the twins were younger that they got to meet Gregory "Pappy" Boyinton, World War II Marine flying ace in the Pacific theater. Black Sheep Squadron was a hit television show at the time, but there here was the real Pappy Boyington, right in front of the boys. We were at the EAA Fly-In at Oshkosh, WI, an annual trek for our family. I bought Boyington's book and the boys stood in line to have him sign it. Shortly, after that adventure, Pappy Boyington died at age76. Brian still has the book and probably has that memorized, too.

Please note the shirt that Brian has on. It is one from his collection of NASA tee shirts that he just happened to wear today. As for the books that Buzz Aldrin signed, they will be winging their way to Ryan and Daniel, our future astronauts, as Buzz intended in writing the book. Buzz is promoting space travel for ordinary people and serves as Chairman of the National Space Society.

So, we finished the Space exhibition and continued our trek through what is basically one huge hangar. Above is a photo of the museum's latest aquisition, the Virgin Airline's experimental GlobalFlyer. The GlobalFlyer was designed by Burt Rutan (of the Voyager fame), financed by Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Airlines, and flown by Stephen Fosset for a record breaking longest flight by a single engined jet plane in February, 2006.

Anyone remember Magellan's cicumnavigation of the globe that took two years. In February/March of 2005, the GlobalFlyer, piloted by Stephen Fosset, flew a non-stop solo trip around the world. It took Fosset 4 days. Now, it has been retired to the museum and arrived just two weeks ago. It was sitting in a lonely corner with no identification but Brian was able to inform us of its feats.

As we continued up and down the aisles of the museum viewing incredible historical aircraft, we turned a corner and there it was, the Enola Gay. We did not know that this historic B29 Superfortress bomber was in the museum. It is just sitting with other aircraft surrounding it. Nothing particularly impressive about it. But when we realized what we were seeing an eeriness set upon all of us. All of our giddiness about Buzz Aldrin quickly quieted as we stood in awe of this aircraft. As Mel said, "This is creepy." I looked around me and there were several Japanese tourists surrounding us. How ironic! No one was saying anything, just standing awestruck and understanding that this was more than a gigantic airplane.

For those of you who may not know, the Enola Gay was the bomber, piloted by then Col. Paul Tibbets, that carried "Little Boy," the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare, and dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 5, 1945, a turning point that brought about the end to World War II. There is much controversey surrounding that decision and today we are living in a world that any little country wanting one has the capacity to build one. But it is very hard to second guess the decision given the circumstances of the time. We do live in a dangerous world, thus our love of Disney World, a place to forget about danger for a little while.

We still had much to see and were not ready to go when they announced that the museum was closing at 5:30 p.m. We left the museum fully satisfied and happy with our day. The traffic back to Maryland was quite light so we drove to Laurel, MD, just north of our campsite, and had dinner at a 50's style diner, The Silver Diner. We had traditional American fare, hamburgers, fries and chocolate shakes. Yummy!

We had been very careful not to listen to news or see TV's as we had taped the Indy 500. When we returned to the RV, we started the tape to watch the big race. It was such a great race and had the best finish in years with Sam Hornish, Jr. surpassing Marco Andretti in the final sprint of the race. How exciting! We all were briefly cheering for the Andretti team, hoping their Indy curse would be broken. But great driving is great driving and Hornish earned the win.

We were very tired campers, as the day ended. But we will always remember this Memorial Day.