Plane Crazy

Today, we were up and at 'em quite early. Mel set the alarm for 6:30 a.m. so that we could get Brian to Dulles Airport for his travel back to Chicago. By 7:15 a.m., we were on the road. We had no idea what holiday traffic would be and found that we were virtually alone. We had Brian to the airport by 8 a.m.
We had plans to visit our friend, Pam, in Arlington, VA, just 25 minutes from the airport. But it was way to early to begin visiting so it was back to the RV. Mel is still suffering from his head cold and confessed that he was exhausted. So I ordered him back to bed for rest, but then I ended up falling asleep, too. I suddenly awoke at noon, feeling panicked that we had missed our visit with Pam. So, I called her to explain what had happened and she was understanding and forgiving. We made plans to meet later in the week.
Mel awoke quite out of sorts so I knew he was feeling really bad. We agreed that we just needed to rest so we just lounged around for awhile. Then, our friend, Jimmy, called and we chatted with him, Vince, and Ed, who were at the Blue Angel restaurant for lunch. It is always good to talk to friends from home. I called Michelle, who was in Lake Geneva for the weekend. I enjoyed catching up on the family activities and miss them all terribly.
Then, we decided that we had to stop being sloths and get ourselves into gear and go out for dinner. It was hot as blazes as we left the RV. They said it was 91 in the shade but 101 in the sun. We were in the sun and in a hot car. We sought cool shelter at a sports bar, The Green Turtle, in honor of the UM mascot, the terrapin. The service was quick; the food good and we were satisfied. We returned to the RV ASAP to get into the airconditioning again.
So not too much excitement today. So, I am posting additional pictures from the Air and Space museum visit yesterday. Two great airships are shown in the photo above. The beautiful silver aircraft is the the Pan Am Clipper Flying Cloud. The second is the Air France's Concorde.
The Pan Am Clipper is emblazoned in my memory as my father used to take me to Lindbergh Airport in St. Louis, so we could watch this beauty take off. It was all so romantic to watch from the chain link fence surrounding the airfield as passengers would walk from the small red brick terminal, cross the tarmac and ascend the metal staircase into the sparkling ship. I never thought that I would someday get to go on such a vehicle. Going to the airport to watch planes take off was such fun. I feel sorry that my grandchildren will never have the freedom that we and our children had of just going to the airport for fun. Now, traveling by plane is such a hassle thanks to hijackings and 9/11. Tell me that we are freer today than yesterday.
I never got to ride in the Concorde. Now I never will as they have been grounded, but they, too, were a romantic flying concept, another beautiful plane.

Here is another sample of passenger aviation, the Boeing 707. It was huge at its time. Who knew that planes would get bigger and bigger but not necessarily more comfortable.

Here is another bit of space history, the Space Shuttle Enterprise. This aircraft was built as a test vehicle for NASA. It was meant to be a launch vehicle for the orbiter that would be launched from the space shuttle into space.

As promised here is the photo of Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon. This the photo where Dr. Aldrin stopped everything and posed so I could take his picture. A nice man!
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