Just About as Far East as You Can Go

 

After Cleveland, we headed to Dayton, Ohio to explore the history of aviation, starting with the surprise discovery of the bicycle shop that started Orville and Wilbur Wright on their road to flight. 

Next, we spent a few hours in the Air Force Museum. Sam wore his F-16 Hawaiian shirt, which seemed to match the exhibits. 

There were aircraft from all eras and included the Memphis Belle, a space shuttle, the Bockscar plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, and Air Force One, which carried the body of President Kennedy home from Dallas. It was sobering to walk through that one.

They had experimental aircraft. 

And a few fun things, too.

Sam's last visit here was as a young boy, after which his Mama took them to Spaghetti Warehouse to eat. We continued that tradition!

Driving across Pennsylvania, we detoured through Punxsutawney, home of the famous groundhog. 

It's a bucolic small town with other interesting residents, and we even saw the real groundhog, who lives in a burrow at the library. Funny story: just like in the Groundhog Day movie, we found ourselves returning to the same groundhog gift shop three times!

Next, we unexpectedly met up with Sam's driving buddy and I experienced four hours in a big rig on a real run. That truck is big, and I was glad to let Sam drive.

Also in the same area of Montgomery, New York, we found the old headquarters of one of the first motorcycle TV shows, Orange County Choppers. We hear the star, Paul Sr., moved to Florida a few years ago. 

We had just seen one of their builds, the Air Force bike, at the Air Force Museum. 

Unfortunately, since we wanted to deliver the car within a week, we just didn't have enough days to visit all of my Greenough family on Long Island. We hope to remedy that some time in the future. 

We continued to follow the path of spring blooms as we headed northeast. I'm really enjoying all the colors we don't see much in the desert. 

Our road trip ended in Westerly, Rhode Island where we were enthusiastically greeted by Kathie and Bill, and treated to as much seafood as we could enjoy. Which was a lot.

Bill showed us around his longtime home town, where he has worked and contributed to renovation of many parks and golf, maritime and military installations. 

We enjoyed hanging out with them where they graciously shared their home.

We also visited Sam's cousin George Allen in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where Sam's Mama grew up.

This is where Sam picked up a load at Gorton's Seafood in his semi-truck in 1999, the last time he saw George. 

We visited the Paper House in Rockport, which Sam visited as a boy. You can see the rolled up newspapers that make up the walls and furniture of almost the entire little home.

Finally, we connected with Fran and Brent in Mystic, Connecticut. Sam and Fran got to know each other when they both worked in the motorcycle industry, selling motorcycle parts. Facebook has kept us in touch, and we really enjoyed getting to know them in person.

Mystic was a fun little town, too.

That's it for today, folks. Next stop, New York City on an Amtrak train!