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| Model of Wright Brothers' Glider |
8/12/13. We started the morning of Day 2 off by driving into Dayton to visit
the Aviation Heritage National Historic Park. We started out at the
Dunbar-Wright Visitor’s Center which has a wonderful array of interactive
exhibits about the Wright Brothers and how they developed the engineering of
flight. This was as good as any modern science museum. They also had displays
and information about Paul Lawrence Dunbar, one of America’s greatest poets, as
well as writer of novels, short stories, & song lyrics.
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| Song Lyrics of Paul Lawrence Dunbar |
He is considered
one of the most important figures in American and African-American History. It
was unusual to group these men together in one site, who were of the same time
period and knew each other, but I guess the idea was to highlight the
creativity of the Ohio area. We also got a bonus stamp for the Charles Young
Buffalo Soldier’s National Monument which is a brand new park unit close by that hasn't officially opened yet.
After we explored all the exhibits, the park ranger gave us
a tour of the building next door which is the original building in which
Orville and Wilbur Wright had their bicycle shop. This was where they worked
our many engineering problems and developed inventions, such as a gas powered
engine that they later used in their airplanes. It was also a fascinating look
into life during that time period.
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| Examples of what life was like at the turn of the century in the grocery store in the Wright Brothers' neighborhood |
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| Wright Brothers' Bicycle Shop - workshop in the back |
We left the visitor’s center which was in a strange section
of the city – all the stores were well kept but empty - and drove to the Dunbar
House where the family had lived. We were not able to visit the inside since it
was closed for a tour, but we did get our passport stamped and got to see the
house and neighborhood. We then hit the road again, headed west.
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| Dunbar House |
We spent the rest of the day driving through endless miles
of Indiana and Illinois farmland. I've never been so sick of corn and soybean
fields – as far as you could see in places. For a break, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel just to have fun in the store. We stocked up on good old fashioned car games and Catherine lost her sunglasses (you'll have to ask her how...)
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| Treats from Cracker Barrel :-) |
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| The Old Courthouse |
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| View of Arch from downtown |
After playing too many rounds of MadLibs, we finally hit St. Louis at 4:30 were we had planned another stop. The famous Arch was visible from quite a distance and made
it easy to find our way to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. We parked
downtown and walked to the old courthouse which had closed early, to our
disappointment. The view from the courthouse to the Arch and river were quite
impressive. We walked down to the Arch and stopped in the Visitor’s Center to
get our stamps (including the Lewis and Clark Historic Trail) and we picked up
a couple of books, including one about Eero Saarinen that Catherine read aloud
while we drove west again. The Arch was more impressive than either of us
expected and a true testament to the creativity of Saarinen. I also want to
give a shout out to the homeless people on the courthouse steps who helped guide
us down to the pathway to the Arch. We would have been lost without them!
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| Jefferson National Expansion Memorial |
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| Reflection of the Old Couthouse in Modern Building |
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| View of the Arch from the park |
We hit the road around 5:45 again (we pushed our
watches/clocks back an hour for the time zone change). For dinner we stopped at
a St. Louis Bread Company – otherwise known as Panera anywhere else.
We enjoyed
taking a short break before heading west again into Missouri. What a relief to
be done with the farms. Missouri is rugged, hilly, and forested. Absolutely
beautiful. Everything is so green and interesting since the land is constantly
changing. It was invigorating and gave us the energy to finish the day’s
driving to Springfield, MO. We were right on our planned schedule – except that
I hadn't counted on the time change that helped us gain an hour.
More tomorrow....
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