Hooligans!

I was trying to take a nap this afternoon, when I was woken up by a formation of four T-6's flying low over my house. Determined to catch the culprits, I sped down to Fleming field, where I caught them, no doubt planning more disruptions...

Not that I mind.

T-6G 49-3365
SNJ-4 Bu.51505
RCAF Harvard 20306
I'm not sure which plane this was.

Road Trip Chronicles Vol. 15: Rest Area #64-SSP

I woke up early, perhaps a little too early, as I arrived at the EAA museum about a half hour before it opened. So I took a little nap in my car.

North American F-86 Sabre
Northrop F-89 Scorpion
North American T-6G Texan, previously flown by the Tuskeegee Airmen
Taylor Aerocar
Stits DS-1 Baby Bird, the worlds smallest monoplane (6' 3" wingspan)
Hispano HA-1112 Buchon (Spanish license built Messerschmitt Me-109, with a Rolls Royce Merlin instead of a Daimler Benz DB-605)
Chance Vought F4U-4 Corsair
Grumman J2F-6 Duck, license built by Columbia Aircraft
Bugatti Model 100 Racer
Wittman DFA "Little Bonzo"
Curtiss P-6E Hawk Replica
de Havilland DH-98 Mosquito
Chester Special Jeep
Christen Eagles
Rolls Royce Merlin with the valve cover off
Pitcairn PCA-2 "Miss Champion" autogyro
Culver PQ-14
Lockheed P-38 Lightning painted up as Dick Bong's "Marge"
North American P-64 (the last one left of six built). Basically, a T-6 Texan turned into a single seat fighter
Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IX
Crosby CR-4
Laird Super Solution replica
Rutan VariViggen
de Havilland DHC-1B-2 Chipmunk
Wittman D-12 "Bonzo"
Heinkel-Hirth HeS 8A engine, the type that powered the Heinkel 280, the competitor of the Me-262
Bede BD-5
North American XP-51 Mustang, one of the prototype Mustangs
Interior of a Scaled Composites Voyager replica
"Mechanix Illustrated" Corben Baby Ace
Ryan STA Super Sport
Loving/Wayne WR-1 racer "Love"
Wright Glider replica
When I left Oshkosh, I took a two lane highway West to hit 94, and I stopped at a gas station that had an ERCO Ercoupe mounted on the roof.

Unfortunately, the rest of my trip wasn't very exciting. I drove home without my seatbelt on (the female end broke in the EAA museum parking lot), hit some really heavy rain, and stopped at a thrift store and got Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego for the Mac.

Number Of Days: 13
Total Mileage: approx. 4000
Total Cost: about $400-$450
Number of museums visited: 12, and two gate guards
Number of McChickens and Double Cheeseburgers Consumed: too many

In the end, I think it was definitely worth it, and I cant wait to go on another road trip in the future.

Road Trip Chronicles Vol. 14: Canton-Wisconsin Rest Area #64

So I got up in the morning, and drove to a Dunkin' Donuts just across the street from the Wal*Mart. I got a couple of donuts and a jumbo coffee, and the started trying to find the MAPS museum. I finally found it, but only after passing the road for it two or three times.

According to a guy at the museum, there was a bunch of recent road construction in the area, and some roads got changed, and the museum hadn't fixed the directions on their website yet. Also, the sign for the museum is pretty small.

I was, of course, the first one there in the morning, and I got a personalized tour because I was the only one there. The tour guide I had was awesome. Informative, funny, and I dont want this to sound snobbish, but he didn't bore me with stuff I already knew. It's too bad I couldn't come back about two weeks later, because they were having a big airshow there, and apparently the museum gives free hangar and ramp space to people as long as they can display their airplanes.

North American AT-6 Texan
Beech C-45 Expeditor
McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and a Grumman F-14B Tomcat. My guide said that although they got the F-14 for free, they had to give the Navy back the gun, ejection seats, and the engines, which cost them $10,000 to have a private firm come and remove. Why? Not because they needed the parts (the F-14 is being retired anyways), but because they didn't want terrorists stealing it. My guides response to this? "Bullshit. There are easier ways to disable a plane."
Ling-Tecmo-Vought A-7 Corsair II
North American L-17 Navion. Fun fact: this plane was assigned to the WA ANG. Not the Washington state Air National Guard, but the Washington D.C. Air National Guard. For a short while after WWII, D.C. had it's own ANG unit.
Grumman S-2 Tracker
Polish MiG-17. What makes a Polish MiG-17 a Polish MiG-17?....A drag chute for Poland's small runways. (You all thought I was gonna pull out a joke, didn't ya?)
Stinson V77 Reliant
Cessna O-2 Skymaster. This plane is a Vietnam veteran, and had a number ot patched bullet holes.
Martin Glider. Not Glenn L. Martin, af the Martin aircraft company fame, but some guy in Ohio who built his own glider. Both the Wright Borthers and Henry Ford came to visit him, and Henry Ford gave him a free Model T because he thought the guy should have something more than a horse to launch his glider.
North American T-28 Trojan
North American F-100 Super Sabre
Douglas A-24, army version of the SBD Dauntless. This A-24 was used after the war by a major movie studio as a wind machine. They cut off the tail, and then would move the plane to a set, run up the engine and create sandstorms or whatever was needed.
Martin B-26 Marauder, the oldest one in existence. This is one of three marauders recovered from the "Million Dollar Valley" in Canada, where three Marauders got lost and bellt landed in the valley, and were left unrecovered until the 1970's.
Marauder wing outside waiting to be restored
Fairchild PT-19
Fiberglass TBM Avenger
There's parts for two P-39 Airacobras here
Boneyard: C-47, F-101, F-102, F-105, F11F, and some Hiller Helicopter
Akron Air Dock. This is where Goodyear hangared the gigantic USS Akron airship. And this thing was HUGE.
After the museum, I headed north, and took a bit of a detour to Lake Erie. It was beeeautiful!
When I was at Lake Erie, I tried to call my brother. I don't know what Happened, but apparently I left a really long message of my walking around on his machine
I don't know why, but I think this picture is really cool. I would have loved to drive along Lake Erie some more, as the scenery was really pretty, but the speed limit was only 35 m.p.h., and I was already behind schedule.
Nuke plant in the NW corner of Ohio. I drove past another plant in Illinois, and it was really cool to see some of the details like the cooling water coming out of the side of the tower.

I drove throught this really deserted stretch of Northern Indiana, and saw a bunch of amish buggies on the road. The funniest though was when I saw and heard an amish guy doing gardening, and yelling at his wife in the doorway in a stereotypical amish accent. After amish country, I took about a one mile detour and crossed into Michigan just so I could say i had been there. And then, I tried to take the scenic route and see Lake Michigan, but the road I was on was really creeping me out for some reason, so I got back on the interstate as soon as I could. And then it was time for more driving in Chicago. It would have been waaay easier to just take the toll roads, but I really didn't feel like paying another $12. Bad call. It was dark out, there were tons of semis out, and there were road closures and detours all over the place. Plus, I couldn't believe how bad the traffic was at 10 at night. I was really afraid that I would make a wrong turn and get lost somewhere. But I made it through alright, and stopped at one of the best restaurants I've ever eaten at in Skokie.

The Full Moon, open 24hrs. I figured that if it was as busy as it was at 11p.m., it had to be good. I was right. I had a Jumbo Greek Burger, a ton of fries, chicken noodel soup and coffee for about seven bucks, and it was delicious. If for some reason you're ever in the area, I highly reccommend it.

And then I had a bit of a drive north to my final stop of the night. I intended on stopping at a Wal*Mart in Oshkosh, but I ended up at Rest Area #64, about 30 miles south of Oshkosh.