National Museum of the United States Airforce and How We Plan

Dayton, OH

Mileage: 625 

National Museum of the United States Airforce

As we travel we try to find places that interest each of us.  Today's stop was Kenny's choice to put in the plan.  The National Museum of the United States Airforce is a series of connected hangars that house military aircraft dating back to WWI.  Each major war of the 20th and 21st centuries has aircraft represented.  The final hangar includes several Air Force Ones.  We spent about 2 hours and walked about a mile.  Kenny could easily have spent a day.  We were greeted in the atrium and given the option to donate (we did and received a map), the museum is free to enter.  We were then given a basic "lay of the land" and we were on our way.  

We both enjoyed seeing the amazing transformation of aviation over the last 130 years or so.  We marveled at the courage of early aviators who basically shot guns from open aircraft.   Were sobered by Bockscar which dropped an atomic bomb on Japan.  We were amazed at the insides of the Presidential planes that we walked through.  We saw the plane that David supports the weapons systems on, part of the Berlin Wall, a promotion ceremony, and a few rockets.

Overall we enjoyed the time we spent there and both agree it is a place we will come back to when we have more time.

How We Plan

Kenny and I frequently get the question, "How do you plan your trips?"  The answer is really multilayered.  This trip for example encompasses several things: 

1) National Parks - if all goes well this trip will include several National Parks (Badlands, Theodore Roosevelt, Wind Caves (although right now the elevator is not working), Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Saguaro, White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns, Guadalupe Mountains).

2) Laura Ingalls Wilder Sites - I was a huge LIW fan growing up and read everything I could find by and about her.  Several of our stops are driven by the travels of the Ingalls and Wilder families.  

3) Other cool stuff we want to see along the way.  We watch a lot of Youtube (our children mock us).  As we watch we gather info on cool places to stay and things to do.  If a route takes us somewhere close then we see if we can fit it in on a trip.

4) Most importantly, PEOPLE.  We try to see folks we haven't seen in a while, and folks we would like to see more of.  RVing gives us the opportunity to travel for long periods and so incorporate friends and family into our journey.

We then start plotting our route.  We us a trip planning tool called RV Trip Wizard.  It has features that allow us to put in the size of our Jayco Greyhawk 29MV which is 32 feet long (nowhere with hairpin turns) and 11'8" high (no low underpasses or trees).  The program allows us to set distances we like to travel (no more that 250 miles if we can help it).  It also includes campgrounds, gas stations, and points of interest. This program generated the map that I shared in the first entry of our blog.  Currently we have three active maps: the trip we are on, our trip to Florida over the winter, and the beginning of a trip to Michigan/Wisconsin next summer.

After the destinations are plotted we then go back in to check to make sure we aren't going too near big cities.  This trip would have taken us very near Chicago if we hadn't pushed the route further west.  And then we start searching for places to stay each night.  We use a variety of apps for this.   We like Harvest Hosts which are wineries, breweries, and museums which allow RVs to park overnight in exchange for patronage of the business or a small donation.  We can go about 4 days before we need to empty our holding tanks and fill-up with more fresh water.  Therefore, every 3rd or 3th day we need to stay in a campground or find a dump station along the way.  For both Harvest Hosts and campgrounds we have to then book reservations.  This can take on a life of its own.  Every state has different rules for when you can book, many private campgrounds you have to call, and KOA and National Parks have web sites. Kenny will then go through the route to drop in fueling locations.  Especially when we are towing the truck we need big gas stations or ones that have pumps that are parallel to the road which means we spend a lot of time on Google maps.   The process usually takes multiple devices at the same time. And after ALL of that we remain flexible because things ALWAYS change.

If you read this far here is a picture of Comet and me at the dog park this afternoon.  After trying to convince him he was doing it wrong we went back to the rig.