Headed home

We got up this morning and headed home. Usually when we turn towards Texas, we pretty much just head home and today was no exception.
We stopped for a short tour of the General Patton Museum in Kentucky but that was about it. We did stop for lunch today - that is something we have not done in a few days!
We decided that instead of heading down interstate from Nashville that we would take the Natchez Trace. It is not particulatily fast but it is easy and we had the time.
We stopped tonight in Tupelo, Mississippi. We will head to Vicksburg to pick up Aunt Dot tomorrow and head home Sunday morning. This may be the final post as I cannot get internet at Aunt Dots.
Thanks for following us.
Ron and Sandy

Air Force Museum

Pictures:

Ron looking up at all the planes hanging from the ceiling.

Ron's favorite - SR-71.

The Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio was a close tie with the Henry Ford Museum. The museum is divided into 6 sections: Early history, World War I and II, The Korean War, Vietnam, the Cold War, and Space. Ron is notorious for reading everything written. This is good as long as you have unlimited time - but if you have only seven and a half hours, that could be a problem.

We spent the first six hours in the first two sections so we had to race through the rest. We didn't even make it to the last part. That was really frustrating to Ron. I tried to get him to stay another night so he could see the rest....oh yes there was more than what was in that building. They had the president's planes and a refurbishing hanger that they give tours through so you can see the planes being restored. Oh well, maybe next time. Maybe some of you guys could plan a "guys night out" and make that night last several days.

Well, we stopped for the night near Louisville, KY.

Henry Ford Museum day 2

Pictures:

Ron at entrance - ready to go!

Sandy in front of Edisons factory.

Ron in schoolhouse.

Today we returned to the Henry Ford Museum to tour the Village. Ford built this village in the 1920s. There were Model Ts riding around everywhere. There was a section devoted to Thomas Edison and his work. They had moved Edison's factorys, workshops, etc to this place. It was amazing to see. Many of his inventions were housed there.

There was a section where Ford had moved in houses to form a residential part of the village. The homes of George Washington Carver, Robert Frost, Daniel Webster and many more had been moved there. We attended a lesson at the school house and Ron correctly answered a question. The question was - name 4 states with capitals named after presidents. Can you answer that?

There is a working farm and the men were cutting and bundling hay. I'm glad I don't have to do that for a living. The women were cooking over an open fire. Thank goodness for fast food and modern kitchens. We watched people blow glass, make pottery, weave cloth and all the things people had to do. Finally we cried "uncle" and left before closing time --- not much before.

We have stopped at Dayton, Ohio for the evening.

Henry Ford Museum

Pictures:

Ron with really big train; of course, a mustang; really big wrenches; Sandy with locomotive (How would you like to depend on this one to get you where you are going?)

Today we attempted to see everything in the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, Michigan. You noticed I said "attempted". The museum is in a building that covers 12 acres. It is packed with exhibits of everything you can think of. They had everything from clock collections, trains, excellent historical exhibits, huge and I repeat huge machinery, farm implements, furniture, and of course a car or two. If you can imagine walking through a catalogue of everything anyone could possibly want - it was there. They finally turned the lights off and ran Ron out. I was beginning to think I was going to have to send the search and rescure after him. We were there from 9:30 to 5:00 with one 15 minute snack stop for lunch at 3:00.

Ron had to put it into fast gear at that time because we had just seen about 1/2 of the exhibits and had less than 2 hours to go. It is hard for him to pass up anything without reading "the whole thing".

One of my favorite parts was the special exhibit "Discovering the Civil War". This was a traveling exhibit from the National Archives. They had taken actual documents from their archives and showed how they fit into the history of the war. With my interest in genealogy research I was fascianted how they could link one document with another and tell a story from it.

Tomorrow we go back to see the next part of the museum - The Village. I am not sure what will be there but if it is anything like what we saw today, we are in for a treat.

We know we are so very fortunate that God has blessed us so that we can take trips like this.

Back in the USA

We left Niagara this morning and headed to Detroit, Michigan. We decided to go across Ontario instead of along the southern edge of Lake Erie. We traveled about 4 hours across and arrived at the border. We saw Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Lake Ontario. We entered the US at Port Huron. It took about an hour to get across the bridge that led into the US.

Finally we were home (USA) and headed to Detroit, Michigan. We are staying here for two nights because they have the Henry Ford Museum and we will probably be there from dawn to dusk --- well actually from opening to closing.

I will have to say that it was a good feeling to have our phones and our GPS back in use. I did not realize how dependent I had become on them.

Niagara Falls Day 2

Now how else would you start your birthday except breakfast at IHOP? That is how we started our day. Then we headed down to the river for our tour. We boarded the double decker red bus and were on our way to the first stop --- Journey under the falls. We went down an elevator and through a tunnel and ended up under the falls. We all wore raincoats because it was like a hurricane force rain and wind. Amazing power coming down those falls.

Next we boarded the bus for our next stop - the one I was most nervous about - the cable car across the whirlpool section of the river. The Niagara makes a 90 degree turn and creates a whirlpool in the river. The cable car goes across the river -200 above it. Those who know me know heights are not my thing - but I made it and actually could look over the side.

After a tour through the area we arrived at the Maid of the Mist boat ride. The boat carries you up close and personal to the falls. You definately get wet!

When we got back to the room we both crashed for a while before we headed out to part 2 of our day. After supper we headed back down along with about a million others to the falls for the fireworks. Ron thought it was great that they arranged all that for my birthday!

We had a great day!!!!

Niagara Falls

This morning we had about an hour and a half to drive to Buffalo. Ron was especially interested in going to a museum there because they had a Peace Medal given by George Washington. Sure enough it was there! He had accomplished his goal and was ready to go home!

However we have a few more things to do.
We headed to Niagara Falls - the Canadian side. Everything was going great until our GPS would not find anything out of the states. We were on our own. Now if it had been like Lockhart, it would have been simple to navigate around but ,,,well,, imagine a cross between Main Street Disney and 6th street Austin on a special event day! It was a zoo. But we persevered and made it. The falls are amazing. We can see why they are such a tourist attraction. Tomorrow we will do all of the adventures that come with the area.

The pictures are Ron with the Peace Medal and Niagara at night!