6/28 - Mackinaw City to DeTour Village

We dragged our feet until our 11:00 am check-out time this morning so as not to arrive too much before check-in time (1:00 pm) at our destination only 67 miles away.  If we had known there was no one in the campground (other than the camp hosts) we would not have been concerned about check-in time.


On our way out of Mackinaw City I was able to get a shot of the place Jim really wanted to eat. Too bad we never made it over there.  Surely this is would be a worthy rival for the world-famous Hillbilly Hot Dogs establishment photographed a few days ago in Ohio by traveling friends.

Wienerlicious in Mackinaw City

We crossed into the U.P. at the northern end of the Mighty Mac (the bridge's nickname, in case I forgot to mention it).

Northbound toll both, entering the Upper Peninsula

The 90-minute drive to our next campground was very pleasant.  What's not to like about driving back roads in the U.P. where one rarely passes another vehicle?   Our lovely tiny campground (14 sites) is quite a change from the one we just left which, although our site was blessed with great privacy, had sites numbering in the hundreds.  This place will have a few more people for the July 4th weekend (including one right next to us, unfortunately blocking our side view) but I doubt it could ever feel crowded.  We chose this place because there's very little chance of July 4th noise. The campground doesn't allow fireworks which we really appreciate.

We're hidden in the middle of spacious Paradise Point Campground 

View of the St. Mary's River from the back of our site

Midway through the afternoon we decided we should visit DeTour Village's one-and-only grocery store.  Of course it's the one-and-only.....there are only 325 permanent residents to keep it going in the off-season.  This must be a really tough place in which to make a living.

DeTour Village's IGA grocery store

As you can see, there is a "For Sale" sign prominently placed at the entry.  We asked the clerk about it and were told the owners are getting old and want to retire. $150K for a fully stocked grocery store doesn't sound too bad but we wouldn't take it as a gift. We passed an abundance of properties with "for sale" signs out front, so the already low customer base appears to be dwindling.  Besides, the store wasn't all that well stocked.....it was missing items we consider to be necessities.  We'll have to tough it out till we get to the Soo in a week.  People have to drive 60 miles to the Soo to get all the things they can't find in DeTour.

Freighters passing on the St. Mary's River

The St. Mary's River is right behind our site so we get a good view of the passing freighters. This river is the route ships take from Lake Superior down to Lake Huron. From there they either go southeast to Detroit and points beyond (Lake Erie and Lake Ontario) or southwest through the Straits of Mackinac and down Lake Michigan to Milwaukee, Chicago and the industrial area around Gary, IN.  The land in the background is Lime Island (U.S.) on the left and St. Joseph's Island (Canada) on the right. The line dividing the U.S. and Canada does some serious wandering around islands on its trip down the river, taking some strange jogs that gave land to one country that would have made more sense going to the other.  Probably there were fights over territory before it all got settled. 

Being so close to Canada our phone service has switched over. I'm not sure why it's switched since the bigger towns we should be getting service from are on the U.S. side. Fortunately, our new Verizon plan gives us the same deal for both countries so we don't have to worry about which towers we're using like we did the last two years when we were really close to the border.

Jim finally gets a chance to fish

The forecast is for rain, possibly heavy, for tonight and tomorrow.  It kindly held off until Jim was able to do a little fishing which he's been eagerly anticipating for weeks. It wasn't worth getting the boats out and set up today because of the rain so we're looking forward to doing that on Friday after the rain passes. 

Heavy overcast wreaks havoc with wifi and phone service so we don't know if we'll be able to watch our usual Netflix programs tonight. If not, we'll have to tough it out with our Kindles. What did we ever do without all these electronics?

6/27 - Mackinac Island

The weather turned out to be perfect....blue skies and temperature in the upper 60's.  We took the campground's free shuttle to the ferry, got in the obligatory lines and finally made it to the island 1 1/2 hours later. The line to get on the ferry was very long so only 20 minutes of that time was the actual ferry ride.

Star Line's Hydro-Jet Ferry

The downtown shoreline greeting visitors

We were warned to sign in at the carriage rides right away which was good advice.  Even doing it as soon as we got off the ferry, we still had another 1 1/2 hours to wait.  We had an exploratory walk around the downtown area with its very attractive houses and shops, many with outstanding gardens and pots of flowers.  Knowing we wouldn't be able to fit a real lunch into our schedule, we found a little hot dog place and ate on a bench.  It was a great place to watch everything going on......people, dogs, bicycles, horses and carriages (there were lots of all of them).  

One of the well-flowered houses

The island allows no motor vehicle traffic except for a few emergency vehicles, an ambulance and fire truck being the most important. Everything that comes onto the island is delivered by horse-drawn flatbed wagons.  We watched cases of booze being rolled down a ramp from the wagon to the basement of the purchasing establishment. It brought to mind the days of the 1800's before trucks took over.

Rolling cases of booze from wagon to basement

The carriage ride around the island was in two parts.  The first section was in a carriage drawn by two draft horses. The driver gave a running commentary on what we were seeing as she skillfully guided the carriage through streets jammed with bicycles and pedestrians going every which way and other horse-drawn carriages going the opposite direction.  I'm sure the horses are well aware of where they're supposed to turn but passing on-coming carriages with mere inches to spare looked nerve-wracking.  

The Grand Hotel's fancy carriage with well dressed horses

We drove by the Grand Hotel, and grand it really is.  It has grown to 393 rooms over the years and, according to our guide, makes changes and adds more things every year.  It sounds like an incredibly snooty place, charging fees to see any part of it (like $10 to view the gardens).  No one is allowed to wear cut-offs or tank tops (which is nice), and the required after-six attire is coats and ties for men, dresses or pant-suits for women.  No need to wonder if we considered going for dinner.

The Grand Hotel in all its glory

The hotel used to house its own horses on site but a few years ago built a beautiful big stables further away.  I can't remember for certain what the tour guide said, but I think it had something to do with the smell. Imagine that.  We got a glimpse of the new stables and could have gone through them but opted out of the extra walking required.


After getting out at a complex which included the ever-present gift shops and other places to spend money, we got the second carriage of the day.  It was a much larger, 35-passenger job pulled by three very large draft horses. They were all big but the prize-winner was a gorgeous paint, 18 1/2 hands high which is quite unusual.  He knew he was beautiful, too....very proud of himself.  

Our team of three with Chase (the big paint) having a laugh

The second carriage took us through the woods and hills of the Mackinac State Park to Arch Rock.  It's a limestone arch at one edge of the island which is nearing the end of its life.  The tour guide said it changes noticeably every year as it continues to disintegrate. Our stop at the rock was very brief, literally only 5 minutes.  Everyone was duly warned but two passengers never reappeared so, after 3 extra minutes, were left behind to find their own way back. We wondered how long it would take them to get another ride because all the carriages were filled before leaving the previous stop.  Dumb move.

Arch Rock overlooking Lake Huron

We left the carriage at Fort Mackinac which looks out over the Straits and Lake Huron. This is where the fort at Michilimackinac on the south shore of the Straits was moved to in 1781 because it was a less vulnerable location. It's a lovely place and must have been a choice assignment for anyone lucky enough to be stationed there.  The fort was in use until 1895 when the army finally closed it down.  

Fort Mackinac with corner of barracks and officers' quarters across the parade grounds

While at the fort we learned the meaning of the word Michilimackinac.  Michili means "great" and mackinac means "turtle."  There's a legend about why the Indians named the island Great Turtle but I'm not going to go into it, mainly because I can't remember enough of the story to retell it. :-D

Fort Mackinac at top of hill with long walkway leading to town

Instead of walking up a whole lot of steps to get to our third carriage to ride back to the center of town, we decided to walk down the long hill and enjoy the view.  We also got to see a lot more horses and carriages and people and bicycles.  We were told earlier that it was extremely crowded today because....aren't we lucky....Tuesdays are the busiest days. Add to that the fact that yesterday's lousy weather probably caused people to wait another day before visiting and it made for a whole lot more tourists than we've seen in one place in a long time.  

Doud's Market, 1884 - America's oldest grocery store, and sidewalk packed with people

Chippewa Hotel with nary a spot to park a bike

We were able to catch a ferry back to the mainland with a minimal wait, and our campground's return shuttle was waiting for us and dozens of our fellow campers when we arrived.  Mackinac Island is really beautiful and well worth seeing.  It was a lovely day. And now we're exhausted.


Tomorrow we move 67 miles to DeTour Village on the Saint Mary's River near where it enters Lake Huron.  We'll be there a week with the plan being to do a lot of relaxing, fishing and kayaking.  However, the weather forecast is looking ominous so there may be more reading than boating being done.

6/26 - Mackinaw City, Day 2

The weather forecast was right......rain all day, sometimes heavy but more often drizzly so we didn't get drenched getting in and out of places.  We found a good deal on new rain jackets after deciding our 13-year-old jackets were rapidly failing (Jim's was leaking).

Our first stop was the McGulpin Point Lighthouse which was the predecessor of the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse we saw yesterday.  McGulpin Point is to the west of the bridge so it's overlooking the Lake Michigan side of the Straits.  

McGulpin Point Lighthouse looking rather dreary in the drizzle.

It's a very nice little lighthouse with cozy quarters for the lighthouse keeper's family. I didn't count the bedrooms while we were there but I think there were three...possibly four.  The keeper's family consisted of nine children so the number of bedrooms was important.  After 21 years of marriage, his wife died from childbirth complications with their tenth child (who also died) so the poor man was left on his own with nine kids. Fortunately, he had a couple of older daughters who were able to help out. The children needed to be able to get to school in the winter so he would move the family into Mackinaw City during the winter months and he'd walk three miles to the lighthouse to tend to it. With the lakes iced over in winter there probably wasn't much need to see to the light on a daily basis.  We were told this area is in a weather shadow so it ONLY gets about 90 inches of snow a year, unlike the 140 or more inches at Gaylord 50 miles away.  

Mackinac Bridge Museum and Mama Mia's Pizza on the right (yesterday when the weather was better).

After the lighthouse we went back into Mackinaw City to see the Mackinac Bridge Museum which is located on the second floor of Mama Mia's Pizza.  (Of course we had to have their pizza for lunch and it was excellent.)  Our reason for going to the museum, besides seeing it, was to donate several items I'd found among the pictures and clippings left by Jim's grandmother.  We met Fay Stilwell, daughter-in-law of the late founder of the museum and Mama Mia's, and gave her Grandma Smith's card showing that she'd crossed the bridge on its opening day along with three late 1950's-era postcards of the bridge and an old newspaper clipping about the last of the handmade wooden Mackinaw boats.  Fay was delighted to have the items and immediately put them on display in one of the glass cabinets.  

On display in museum - Mayme Smith's opening day card.

We've never known why Jim's grandparents were there that day, but after reading the schedule of events for the bridge opening we came to the conclusion that they must have driven down from the Soo just to witness history being made.  Grandma Smith was born in the Soo so she had traveled back and forth via the ferry her whole life (59 years at that point).  Waiting for the ferry and getting across took at least two hours so finally having a bridge to join upper and lower Michigan was a huge deal.

J.C. Stilwell, an ironworker on the bridge, started the museum over his pizza place in 1979 with memorabilia donated by lots of people. In 2005 the place caught fire and burned to the ground. With an outpouring of support, the restaurant and museum were rebuilt and lots more donations came in. Without the donated items there would be no museum. The story of how the bridge was built is fascinating.

Fortunately, tomorrow's weather is supposed to be good as it's our last chance to see Mackinac Island. We have tickets to take the ferry over and do the tours so we're going regardless of what the weather does.

6/25 - Dayton to Mackinaw City

Only one interesting thing happened on Thursday.  At 6:00 a.m. we were rudely awakened to a crash of breaking glass and china. Gwen had somehow managed to knock a glass, a coffee mug and Lovie's china bowl off the kitchen counter so broken pieces of all of them were flung far and wide. There's nothing like cleaning up a mess and vacuuming at that time of day, then trying (unsuccessfully) to get back to sleep.  In her defense, Gwen has never broken anything in her 5 1/2 years of traveling so she's been forgiven.  Lovie was very suspicious of her replacement bowl and just about wouldn't eat out of it.  We told her it was the new bowl or nothing so she finally managed to eat her dinner, but she's still leery of the bowl four days later. 

The rest of the day consisted of laundry and groceries plus a quick drive through the larger Area B section of Wright-Pat which we hadn't previously seen.  Much of it appeared to be WWII era so it's quite possible we saw the building my father worked in.

I-75 north of Dayton, going through storms

The drive to Birch Run, Michigan, on Friday was very stressful.....heavy traffic, very heavy rain for two hours, and terrible roads once we crossed from Ohio into Michigan. We spent the night in a very nice campground in Birch Run which is between Flint and Saginaw. Since we were just five miles south of Frankenmuth we decided to go there for dinner. (Although reviews of the restaurant looked good, the service was underwhelming and I won't be giving it a good review.)  Frankenmuth is a lovely town, nicknamed Little Bavaria.  It was settled by Germans in 1845 and is nearly 50% German today. It was built to look like a Bavarian town and its focus is on Christmas so it has lots of Christmas shops.

Yesterday's drive to Mackinaw City was much easier although the roads were still in bad shape.  Lots of road construction going on so they're trying to improve things but they've got so much to fix it will probably never get done.  The campground we're in is gigantic but arranged in a way that doesn't make it feel crowded, at least for the non-lakefront sites.  The ones along Lake Huron are very crowded but they've got the lake view so they have to endure being squeezed in.  We couldn't get one of those so have a spacious site quite a lengthy walk from the shore. 

When we arrived my phone (which we rely on for everything) started rebooting every 90 seconds. We found a Verizon store about 15 miles away in Cheboygan and were told the battery was causing the problems. They said off-brand batteries would destroy a phone within a year and I've been using an off-brand for 18 months so that may be right. The store would have had to order a new battery ($50) so there was no way to find out if the phone would work with a new one.  The phone is almost four years old so it's time to replace it anyway.  The worst thing about the timing was that I had no opportunity to do any research on phones so took what they had and crossed my fingers. So far, so good.

Here's the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse which operated from 1892 until the bridge opened in 1957.  It's just to the east of the bridge in the same complex as the visitor center and Colonial Michilimackinac.  The visitor center is built right under the south end of the bridge which is quite noisy.

Today we went to Colonial Michilimackinac  (pronounced MISH-il-a-MACK-inaw) which is the reconstructed fort and fur-trading village from the late 1600's to mid 1700's. Extensive archaeological work has been going on there for decades since there was nothing visible left from the fort. When the British decided Mackinac Island was a safer site for a fort in 1781, they dismantled the original fort and moved the buildings to the island. What they couldn't move they burned so it couldn't be used by any enemies.

Looking out the fort's gate to the Straits of Mackinac.

For those who might wonder about the difference in spelling between the town of Mackinaw City and the other sites which are spelled Mackinac......they're all pronounced Mackinaw.  The explanation I read was that the French started out spelling it Mackinac and, when the English named the town of Mackinaw City, they spelled it like it was pronounced.  This doesn't make sense, though, because all French names ending in AC are pronounced AC, not AW (as in Cadillac and Cognac). Either a linguistic mystery or whoever came up with that explanation needs to try again.

One of our lunch companions.

We ate our lunch at a picnic table overlooking the water.  It came equipped with gulls for entertainment.  This fellow was very demanding and did his best to chase off the competition.  One of the competitors pooped on my leg which was propped up on the bench.  Better my jeans-covered leg than my head.  This was a first for me.  I feel like I've been admitted to a select group which included my father who, while holding forth about an undoubtedly important subject while on the deck of a ship, was hit on the forehead by gull poop.  Nothing takes the steam out of holding forth better than being pooped on.

The Mackinac Bridge (nicknamed Mighty Mac) going over the Straits of Mackinac to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. (People from the U.P. are Yoopers, in case anyone's wondering.) Mighty Mac is the longest suspension bridge in the Western hemisphere, around five miles from shore to shore with the central suspension span at 8,614 feet. For a long time it was the longest suspension bridge in the world but there are now several longer ones, most of them in China. It was built between 1954 and 1957, finished on time and within budget. Jim's grandparents crossed the bridge the first day it was open to the public.

It was a gorgeous day and the rain in the forecast didn't materialize.  It's supposed to arrive later this evening and hang around until tomorrow night so we'll have to find indoor things to do tomorrow.

6/21 - Hawthorn Hill and Carillon Historical Park

On the way to our tour of Hawthorn Hill, we got a nice view of the Dayton skyline.  When you see a city from this distance there's no way to know what's at street level.  Most of what we drove through later was terribly dilapidated, but the southern area of the city from the University of Dayton out through the suburb of Oakwood is beautiful. 

This was a city at the forefront of industry in the 1800's and 1900's. It has a great history of invention and innovation. Besides aviation, there was a lot going on here in the auto industry with ten auto manufacturers here at one time.  One of the most important things going on here now is the Air Force's research and development at Wright-Patterson.

Carillon Historical Park has a multitude of displays of every part of Dayton's history.  The park along with the carillon were given to the city by one of its famous philanthropist citizens who had the carillon built after she heard one in Europe.  The rest of the park has so much in it we weren't able to cover more than a very small amount.

National Cash Register (NCR) was a very big deal in Dayton which explains the extensive collection of hundreds of cash registers on display.  There are several rooms full of them. Most are exceptionally beautiful.  NCR had been here for 125 years and was a major employer when it moved to Atlanta in 2009, a huge blow to the economy of both Dayton and Ohio.

Our tour of Hawthorn Hill left from Carillon Park. The only way to see it is via one of the tours which is given only on Saturdays and Wednesdays. There's no fence or gate on the property so anyone could drive up here if they knew where it was, but there's no place to park and the doors are locked so there wouldn't be much point.

The entrance to Hawthorn Hill, the mansion built by the Wrights in 1912-1914.  The front and back mirror one another and which one is which is debatable. The driveway comes up on the side away from the street so it's generally considered that this is the back.  

The Wrights were unpretentious people so, while the house is elegant, it is not over-done. It has only five bedrooms, one for each of family member plus one guest room. Wilbur died of typhoid in 1912 before ground was broken for the house, although they already had the land purchased and the house plans drawn up.  Wilbur's bedroom became a second guest room.  

They needed a bigger house than the one they'd lived in for 30 years on Hawthorn Road because so many people kept coming to visit them.  In those days the hosts were expected to provide lodging for visitors and their old house just wouldn't do with its lack of electricity and running water and only three bedrooms.  The new house was named Hawthorn Hill because of the 84 hawthorn trees around it, not in honor of their previous house.

Orville died of a heart attack in 1948 at age 77.  He had said he didn't want the house turned into a monument to him, that the family was to take what they wanted from the house and sell the rest.  The day the house was put on the market it was purchased by his friend and chairman of NCR who turned it into a corporate guest house. Photos were taken of all the rooms two weeks after Orville's death so there's a record by which the house is now being restored to its 1948 condition by Dayton History.

Orville's library was the only room not renovated by NCR. The wall-covering is gold damask fabric which Orville wanted so that it could be removed, washed and put back up. It's hard to imagine that removing and reinstalling fabric would be easier or less expensive than painting.

The tour was well worth taking and we learned a lot of incidental things from our guide. The Wrights moved to Oakwood because they wanted to be out in the country. They were fortunate to have bought their 17 acres of land prior to the 1913 flood which devastated downtown Dayton.  After the flood many people moved to the hills south of town to get to higher ground so Oakwood became very popular.  It's a really beautiful suburb and appears to have very expensive real estate.

Our guide also explained that Dayton's present-day high crime problem is caused by being a major hub for the Mexican drug cartels with I-75 and I-70 crossing here. Not what a city wants to be known for.

Probably no more blog entries until Saturday or Sunday.  Tomorrow is laundry, groceries, getting propane again since we've accidentally run out.  Didn't think about how much propane the generator would use when we had it running the air conditioning while we were loading the RV.  The only outlet we can run power from at the house is just 20 amps and it won't run the AC and fridge so the generator is the only option.

Friday we plan to get as far as Birch Run, Michigan (between Flint and Saginaw) and Saturday we'll be in Mackinaw City. I don't plan on posting again until then unless something really interesting happens.

6/19 and 6/20 - More Air Force Museum and Wright Brothers

Yesterday morning we went to Huffman Prairie which is at the southwest edge of Wright-Patterson AFB.  It's actually on the base's property but the fence protecting the base has been placed so the public has access to the site which is managed by the National Park Service.  

It's the last remaining piece of prairie in the area.  The reason it was never developed is that it's in the flood plain of the appropriately named Mad River and can sometimes be a bit swampy.  The Wrights didn't have problems with water but there were so many holes it was like a prairie dog village. The man who owned the field allowed them to use it for flying at no cost as long as they moved his cows and horses out of the way.

A monument to Wilbur and Orville is on top of a bluff overlooking Huffman Prairie but the field isn't visible in the summer when trees block the view.  

What is clearly visible from the top of the bluff is the AFB with its runways.  It stretches off to the east of Dayton so there are no big buildings in sight.

After an underwhelming lunch at a Chinese buffet (which is still causing Jim problems more than 24 hours later), we returned to the Air Force Museum to finish seeing the WWII exhibit and the outdoor planes.

The outdoor exhibit has some rather funny looking planes.  These two remind me of cartoon characters with their bulbous noses.  A storm was blowing towards us so we didn't spend as much time looking at these as I would have liked.  We did manage to get into the museum before the rain let loose.

I'm not going to overwhelm you with more plane photos but there are three worth adding. The "Strawberry Bitch" (above) is a good example of the creative names the crews gave their planes.

An OA-10 Catalina, a crazy looking plane with another catchy name...SNAFU Snatchers.

Almost everyone has heard of a Messerschmitt, so here it is.  Looks like a tiny mad hornet.


We finally got through with the museum 15 minutes before it closed.  Once again we both were overwhelmed with the amount of information but we thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless.


This morning I called the base's expert on its buildings to find out if the one I was born in still exists.  It does and here it is.

Built in 1942, Patterson Field Annex was the base hospital during the war and probably for many years thereafter until the new hospital took its place.  It is now used for the offices of the base chaplain and Air Force Marathon among other things. I was born here in the middle of the night....my father dropped my mother off and went home (11 miles away) and back to bed. That didn't set too well with my mother.

We also found the apartment building that was my first home (Nov 1944 to Sept 1945). It's still a handsome building and in surprisingly good repair considering the run-down condition of the neighborhood. During WWII there must have been quite a housing problem with the influx of military personnel.  It's normal to house colonels on base so the fact that my parents lived 11 miles away is an indication the base had a housing shortage.

Two very handsome brick apartment buildings from the WWII era, not far from where we lived.

Leaving the area we turned a corner and ran right into a gaggle of police stopping a car with 2 or 3 young men.  We were immediately penned in by a cameraman's vehicle and two more cops so we couldn't get away.  Fortunately no one got violent and we were able to escape after about ten minutes. Most of west Dayton looks like it consisted of attractive middle-class homes at one time but they've all gone to pot now with no one keeping up either the houses or the yards. It's definitely not a good place to wander around.

Today's Wrights' sights were at the Wright Cycling Company complex which is between their 4th and 5th bicycle shop locations.  More towards the edge of west Dayton, it's still not a good area but the street where the visitor center is located is nice.  The neighborhood must have been a choice one when the Wrights lived there over 100 years ago; the houses are still very attractive. This is one of the five Park Service Wright Brothers facilities in the area and it focuses more on their printing and bicycle-building than on their aviation activities.


The Wrights' house was given to Henry Ford for his museum outside Detroit. A park ranger told us the next door house burned down a few years after the Wrights' house was moved so it may be a good thing it left town.  The houses are only two feet apart so it's quite possible the Wrights' house would have also burned.

The banner commemorating the mega-celebration put on by the City of Dayton to honor their most famous citizens 108 years ago this week.


Tomorrow we have tickets to tour Hawthorn Hill, the estate the Wrights built after their aviation career became financially successful.

  

6/18 - Air Force Museum, Day 2

We spent the day in the Air Force Museum again, this time getting through the Cold War, Missile, Space and Presidential Galleries. The museum is overwhelming with its countless planes and objects and the excellent presentations. It's a truly fascinating place but it left our heads spinning.  


I'll hit just a few of the highlights because I doubt anyone is interested in seeing lots of pictures of aircraft from the last 100 years.  

I got a passing shot of three of the museum's four hangars as we drove to the entrance.

Entrance to the Cold War Gallery.  The big tail on the left with 22220 on it goes almost to the top of the hangar.  It appears to be a good 50 feet high.

Plane with its skin removed so all the innards are visible. Every inch has been used.

It's hard to imagine either building these planes or working on them. Good ground crews are so vital to the functioning of the planes that the crew chief's name is often painted on a plane along with the pilot's name.

One of the most unusual planes, the Ryan X-13 Verti-Jet in landing position.  It took off vertically with its nose up, transitioned to horizontal flight, then landed vertically by going backwards to the ground. It was developed in the mid-50's, proved the concept worked, but was discontinued in 1958 because of limited operational potential and lack of funding. The yellow wall provides both its landing site and trailer.

The Presidential Gallery has at least six planes used by presidents from FDR to Clinton. The one above was Kennedy's Air Force One, the plane on which his body was returned to DC after his assassination.

FDR's plane, nicknamed the "Sacred Cow", is one of the most interesting because of how the inside was designed.  The passageways are very narrow but they could all accommodate his wheelchair.  There wasn't an inch to spare all the way through and moving from the wheelchair into a seat must have been challenging.

Replica of FDR's wheelchair and chair lift into his plane.

The biggest problem for FDR when flying was getting on and off planes without a public spectacle being made of his inability to walk.  He was always very conscious of keeping his disability hidden as much as possible.  A chair lift was designed so he could easily get in and out of the plane with a minimum of fuss.

An F-16 Thunderbird (lower right with red-edged tail) next to a huge air transport plane. 

One of the most amazing things about the museum is how many planes they have and how they've been fit into the hangars like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.  They're all over the ceilings and walls and floor with all sorts of other things in between (like nuclear bombs). It's so well done nothing looks over-crowded, but looking at the whole picture it's difficult to figure out how they got all the planes into place.