Saturday, June 6, 2015 - National Museum US Air Force, Dayton, OH

We finally made it to Dayton to visit the National Museum of the United States Air Force.  The place was huge!  Our plan was to spend most of the day here, but we quickly found it would not allow us to adequately explore everything (yet another great site that will be on our "revisit someday" list).

I really like the nose art found on WWII planes.

I'm standing in front of a Maverick laser guided air to ground missile. It's possible I worked on the seeker in this unit during my time at Rockwell.

After visiting the Titan II ICBM missile facilities out west, I have more of an appreciation for the relative size of nuclear warheads.  The two atomic bombs dropped during WWII were drastically different, but both yielded the equivalent of roughly 20,000 pounds of TNT.  Each Titan missile warhead yielded 9,000,000 pounds of TNT - let's pray they will never be used!

"Miss Behavin' " was on the nose of a British Tornado.  I think the plane was a little clunky or maybe even ugly, but I appreciated their efforts with the artwork.

The nose-on aspect of the SR-71 is one of my favorites, but am I the only one who is reminded of a duck? 

While most aircraft, and especially jet aircraft, look pretty fast, I think the F-16 looks like the Lamborghini of the jet world.  If I had the chance to fly in anything, I think this would be my choice!

We were pretty well tuckered out, but the Boonshaft Discovery Center was on the way home, so we made a quick stop.  It was another kid-oriented museum, so we were able to breeze through most of the displays without collapsing. 

Friday, June 5, 2015

We had a busy day ahead, which was a little unusual considering we knew nothing about Greenville, OH before it became a convenient stopping point to visit Dayton, OH.  We started with the KitchenAid Experience.  It was large, considering it only carried KitchenAid appliances.  I actually found it to be pretty interesting.  There was a cooking section where they presumably demonstrated how to best use all of the kitchen gadgets.

Downstairs, there was a mini-museum with KitchenAid appliances through the years.  The gold plated, one-millionth stand mixer was on display.  At the factory tour, we learned they are now nearing their three millionth mixer.

I could not see much difference between the mixer from the 1940's and Joani's current mixer.  I guess they figure "why mess with perfection?"

Apparently, they have somewhere in the neighborhood of 74 different color options available.  White was still the biggest seller, followed by the gray (they had a fancy name that I have forgotten, but it was just gray to me).

Downtown had a very nice feel and a lot of interesting architecture that kept us busy until the factory tour.

There was enough time before the factory tour for lunch, so we tried a true mid-west treat - the loose meat sandwich.  I had no idea I would be confronted by the totally gross "gum-wall" on the way inside.  It was a good thing the sandwich was so tasty!

Maid-Rite is iconic, but for me, the attraction is the price (the sandwich is so-so).  Either way, the line was long and the phone orders were pouring in.

I couldn't believe the gum wall didn't make David turn and run (he almost did).  What a trooper.

Cameras were not allowed on the factory tour and the outside just looked like a big factory, so there were no inside pictures to commemorate our visit.

Afterward, we headed to Bear's Mill.  It was on the National Register of Historic Places and was certainly worth the visit.  It was very picture worthy and we were allowed to just explore all four floors of the working mill on our own.  It was not evident in the pictures, but the cottonwood trees had exploded and the white fluff floating on the breeze sometimes made it look like it was snowing.

We headed back to the coach to rescue Sam from his boredom and maybe take an afternoon siesta.  We were no longer acclimated to the heat and humidity and it was taking a toll on our stamina.  It was the first Friday of the month, which meant street music in downtown Greenville, OH.  We could have practically walked from the fairgrounds, but it had not cooled enough for that kind of foolishness.  We drove and had no problem with close parking - I love it when a city is so accommodating! 

The sign said "Darke Co. Model Railroad Club, Welcome," and pointed to the little door next to the Rethlake Dance Studio.  Once upstairs, I saw quite an impressive layout.  I wish I knew how many total feet of track they had.  I can only say I do not believe I have seen more in a single location.  They told me it takes 10 guys to really manage all of the trains and routes when everything is in operation (I was told that there are, unfortunately, only eight members in the club.)  There was another room in the back with the entire layout schematic on one wall with lights representing switch positions and train locations.  Clearly, these guys were having fun with their hobby.

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Moving day was mostly uneventful.  It was 202.5 miles (74,526.9 total) from Charlotte, MI to Greenville, OH.  On one of the secondary roads, the heavily loaded truck below pulled out in front of us and managed to get up to maybe 45 mph about 10 minutes later.  The real problem was that the truck was carrying the most foul smelling load.  My guess was fresh hog manure.  The smell nearly made our eyes water as I tried to maintain an adequate distance behind him (yes, the vent was set on recirculate).  Fortunately, he headed in another direction after 10 or 20 miles and the air in the coach cleared after another 10 minutes with the dash A/C on high.
   

We stopped in Greenville because it was really the closest viable option to visit the U.S. Air Force museum in Dayton, OH ($70/night at the Dayton KOA did not appeal to us).  We found that Greenville had a lot of small-town charm, so it was good that we planned on three nights (two full days) to explore the area.  Joani made reservations for the KitchenAid Factory Tour for the following day.

We were camped at the Great Darke County Fair.  They claimed to have more than 600 sites (200 with full hook-ups), but the squirrelly arrangement had us technically occupying two sites.  One coach parked sideways to provide him easy access to utilities which put him across four or five sites.  There were so few campers that they were not concerned with how we parked.

We fit nicely under a large maple tree providing us with a lot of shade. Sam was thrilled to have acres and acres to explore, including the very nice smelling horse barns.

The mare's name was Bean; the filly was named I Dream of Beany.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - Lancing, MI

The chassis inspection at the Spartan service center in Charlotte, MI turned up a few things that demanded attention.  The suspension air springs needed to be replaced due to "weather checking".  I knew the checking was there - it was there when we bought the coach more than seven years ago.  I figured we had pushed our luck far enough and we sure did not want to have one fail driving down the road.  They also found an oil seal leaking that ruined the left rear brakes.  New brakes were pricey, but on a 32,000-pound vehicle you can't ignore something that important, so they were added to the work order. It was going to take all day, so we decided to visit Lansing rather than sit in the waiting room.

This was our second visit to Lansing, but our first tour of the Michigan Capitol (two years ago we had not decided, as a goal, to visit every state capitol building).  Our first impression was not great (see the last picture below), but I think the inside more than made up for any initial disappointment.  The "over the top" architectural detail and dramatic lighting in the four-story rotunda made us say "wow"!

From the third floor balcony, I tried to capture the view above to the dome and below to the glass floor, as well as the level of detail in the architecture gracing even the upper floors.

I'm sure the capitol's exterior will impress visitors when its facelift is complete, but we will just have to see it another time.

We arrived back in Charlotte just before the coach was finished. Chris, the service manager, could not finalize our tab without the technician's hours, so he asked if we could take care of it in the morning.  I thought it should be free if he could not account for the labor, but he didn't see it that way.  We were in no hurry, so we spent another free night at Camp Spartan.

Monday, June 1, 2015

Moving day was pretty uneventful which is always a good thing.  It was only 86.4 miles (74,324.4 total) from Howe, IN, to Charlotte, MI, so we took our time.  Given the condition of the Michigan highways, I chose to keep it under 60 mph on the freeway.

We noticed some improvements were in the works at Camp Spartan. Several new campsites were paved, some of the older sites were leveled and repaved and they had built a big open pavilion in the center of the camp to provide some shade for outdoor activities.

I checked in at the service desk to get things rolling, but I was told it would have to wait until Tuesday.  The plan was to have the engine serviced (air, oil, fuel, coolant and hydraulic filters) and the 44 point chassis inspection. Needless to say, the inspection was sure to find more work we would need - more on that later.

After Sam enjoyed a nice long walk, we settled in for the evening.

 It was fun to see a fellow camper out walking their bird.