The Mud Dragons and I (i.e., me) continued the Wild Things Tour when we made our first stop on Friday at the Ft Wayne Zoo.
This was our family's zoo for 10 years when we lived in Indiana while I was on the faculty at Manchester University, and my children report core memories at this zoo.
This is a medium-sized zoo, and I was able to see pretty much everything as I strolled around for about 1.5 hours.
The endangered animal carousel was always a big hit with the junior Mud Dragons.
The next stop on our tour was in Dayton, OH, at the National Museum of the USAF. It was AMAZING!
This museum covers the entire history of air force military flight. The exhibits are housed in four huge hangars and include a vast array of aircraft and space vehicles from pre-WWI through modern times. I was able to see many planes that I've known well from reading and documentaries, but never had a chance to see in person, until now!
This is what you see when you enter the hanger for WWI - and when I saw it, a laughed in spite of myself. If was a moment of joy. It was amazing!
The history of early flight was also included.
The Sopwith Camel
German Fokker DR1 triplane
British Spitfire
The actual Memphis Belle - the B-17 heavy bomber flown by the first crew in WWII to complete their 25 missions in order to cycle back home.
A German Me109 front-line fighter.
P-51D - the long-range fighter that could escort bomber groups all the way to their targets, and helped change the course of the air war in Europe.
This is the B-29 that dropped an A-bomb on Nagasaki
German Me262 jet fighter - could possibly have changed the course of the war if it had been introduced earlier.
Huey used in Vietnam
Mercury space capsule
Gemini space capsule
Apollo space capsule
These two need no introduction - haha.
This was a great day.
Stay tuned for more adventures.
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