Kit and Carol on the Road

This 1920's airliner flew across the US. The passengers got out at night and boarded sleeper trains for the night legs. The second photo is just the nose of the Spruce Goose compared to some regular sized planes.

A highlight of the trip was a visit to the Spruce Goose Museum (it actually has another name but I never remember it) . We were invited as guests a couple years ago when we rented a View out of McMinneville. We took a rain check, and this trip it was not only raining but pouring. The parking lot was an inland sea. Anyway we got in free as "members" so it was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon. We went on a guided tour which is always a good way to go when they are offered--better than reading all those signs. I even learned some things about the Wright Bros flyer --even though we've been to a special Wright exhibit at the Smithsonian--and to the National Historic Park in North Carolina. Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose is pretty awesome--it is not made of spruce but birch. They were not allowed to use metal because of the war effort. It was to be a flying ship for troop transport but never finished after it's first short flight. I was more impressed with the B17 which men actually flew in during WWII. It was a flying tin can. We also saw an old airliner that made today's crowded planes look palatial. I'll add a few photos. I learned how technologically backward I am. I was wearing my NASA hat and one of the docents (as in man much older than I) pulled out his cell phone and showed me a slide show of his trip to the Kennedy Space Center and another space center in Alabama.