Day 3 - Tuesday, March 3rd: The National Museum of the United States Air Force and our First Boondockers Welcome Experience

Saturday, March 3rd of 1979 bother Tom and Laura got married. 

March 3rd, 1979

Happy Anniversary Tom and Laura, 47 years of bliss!

Tuesday we left Nate and Lisa's driveway around 07:30 and set a course for The National Museum of the United States Air Force, with a gas stop we arrived a bit before 10AM.  At the museum, parking and admission is free, we were happy about that 😊.

US Air Force Museum

To say the museum is big would be a gross understatement, I took a lot of pictures, way too many to include in this blog, but I will mention some of the things that were cool to me. 

They have generations of the planes that were used by our former presidents, including "Air Force One" used by the JFK administration, and you can go in them, how cool is that. They call it the Presidential Gallery and it includes:

Douglas VC-54C "Sacred Cow" (1944-1947): Used by Franklin D. Roosevelt, featuring a custom elevator for his wheelchair.

Douglas VC-118 "The Independence" (1947-1953): Used by Harry S. Truman.

Lockheed VC-121E "Columbine III" (1954-1961): Used by Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Boeing VC-137C SAM 26000 (1962-1998): The iconic "Air Force One" used by Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. It famously carried JFK's body back from Dallas and hosted LBJ's swearing-in.

Lockheed VC-140B JetStar (1975-1991): Used as a smaller, fast transport for presidents and VIPs.

Gulfstream Aerospace C-20B (1987-2009): Used for transporting officials and sometimes the President. 

JFK's Plane

This was JFK's "Air Force One" it is huge inside. 

Memphis Bell

They have the Memphis Belle, which was one of the first B17s to fly 25 missions and survive. It returned to the USA to raise money for the war effort. In 1943 a B17 statistically had a 15% chance of completing 25 missions.

The bombs painted on the side represent missions and the stars show when it was the lead in its group (yellow) or  for the entire bomb wing (red). 

WASP

June could have been a WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilot), they moved airplanes.

Atlas

Back home we have 12 missile silos that surround the old Plattsburg Air Force Base that housed Atlas missiles. I have toured one of these in Lewis, NY.  In the museum they have an Atlas on display, it represents the version used for the Mercury Space Program.  I did not realize until this visit that the Atlas missile that was in the ground at home was basically the same as what we used to launch John Glenn into space. They took off the nuclear warhead and put on a space capsule....that is the red section on top.

 B2

The museum also has the B52 and B2 bombers..inside...that should give you an idea how vast the museum is. Given our recent conflict with Iran, I wanted to see the B2, it is way bigger than I imagined.  

I was also impressed that they had Soviet MIGs from the MIG-19 through the MIG-29, I guess you can buy them if you have enough Rubles. 

The day we visited there was a high school Robot competition, the place was full of kids; it was good to see them all excited about technology. Apparently it is a big deal in Ohio, they had teams with matching jerseys and we even saw team buses in the parking lot...crazy. 

We did not see the entire museum, we got tired and called it about 16:15, we had been there over 6 hours. I would come again. 

In the morning I had requested a stay at a Boondockers Welcome host only 20 miles from the museum. We have hosted over 100 BW guests back home in VT but we have never stayed at one...so we decided to give it a go. Since we were still winterized, I asked if we could fill with water and they said that would not be a problem. Hot water and showers was on our minds. We arrived around 17:00, it was pouring rain. The parking was not good...it could have been if the host offered to move their truck about 10 feet..but he didn't. We parked on a pretty steep incline and I set out to fill our tank with water. First I forgot to put the drain plug in the hot water heater, then I forgot to close the tank drain, so I had to crawl under the Serenity in the pouring rain. I eventually got it done, but I was soaked. We are on such an incline I almost just left and went to a CB...but decided that they were kind enough to let us park, I should endure it one night. That being said, some people should not offer to be BW hosts if you really don't have a good place to park or at least aren't willing to try to accommodate guests.  I don't want to be ungrateful, but if it had not been for the water, I would have just gone to CB....we love CB. 

Tomorrow we will likely drive to someplace that is more level to take showers and then move on south. My first BW experience gets a failing grade, and I am not sure if there will be another. 

That being said, we had a nice dinner and drinks inside where we were warm and dry.....June's glass is always half full.