Leaving the horse and bourbon country behind, we headed for Ohio. Kentucky is one well manicured territory. The lawns are huge, often an acre or more, and all of them are mowed, even those with single wide mobiles. If there isn’t any landscaping, the gigantic lawns are still freshly mowed and there isn‘t any junk laying around. Farmland covers the hillsides and valleys. Most of the small towns look prosperous enough. As we crossed the border into Ohio, we were right in the middle of industry and office buildings and it continued all the way to Dayton. We stayed in a KOA a little out of town, probably the nicest one we have seen.
May 30
We followed the Wright brothers around Dayton today. When we were in Kitty Hawk, we decided Dayton was a must see and we were right. Our first stop was the Wright Cycle Shop. The shop that is now a museum and part of the National Park system. It was actually the fourth shop they had. An excellent 30 minute film spent a couple minutes on their childhood to illustrate how they were infatuated with the idea of flight early on and then moved to their teen years. Rather than finishing high school, Orville started his own printing press and was in business before he was 18. Wilber had finished high school and was planning to attend Yale but stayed back to care for his ailing mother becoming Orville‘s partner. Along with the printing press business, they opened a lucrative bicycle shop producing their own Van Cleve Bicycles and had a full bicycle repair shop. What they later accomplished without formal education was nothing short of amazing. They had brilliant scientific minds and the focus and determination needed to accomplish what no one else was able to do. In ten years time they went from experimenting with gliders in Kitty Hawk to having an aircraft business and flight school with all the patents necessary! After their successful flight in 1903 in Kitty Hawk, they returned to Dayton to continue their quest for flight. They realized they needed to be secretive until they had patents in hand. They worked in their bicycle shop with the shades drawn. They moved their flight experiments out to Huffman Prairie farm and by 1908 they had mastered control of the plane. It was not without accidents. One in particular where Orville was injured and the was plane ruined really brought the insight they needed. With the plane in pieces they started over rather than trying to improve what they already had. With new calculations they had the answers they were looking for. I don’t understand how they taught themselves the engineering and math through calculus that was needed. Through the years they had to build machines, tools, motors, a catapult, hangers and of course the planes. Amazing minds! At our first stop we saw the bike shop with tools and machinery they made and the printing presses with the print shop set up. They had some of the original printing on display.
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| National Park Museum - The Aviation Trail Orville and Wilber Wright |
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| This is the fourth cycle shop the Wright brothers owned, now part of the museum and open to the public. |
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| The Wright Brothers could have walked through the door and started working in their shop. The original tools were all in place ready to go. |
Our second stop was the Wright Brothers Aviation Center at the Carillon Historical Park. We could have spent all day right here but decided to focus on Orville and Wilber. The centerpieces is the 1905 Wright Flier III. It was restored under Orville’s direction just before he passed away in 1948. We also saw one of the 4 original bikes, the sewing machine they used to sew the muslin wing coverings, the light weight aluminum motor they made, and the drafting table they sat at for hours on end. A park ranger took us on a guided walk through the marvelous displays.
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| One of the 4 original bicycles still around today made by Wilber and Orville. What they learned making bicycles played a huge part in their work in aviation. |
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| This is the original camera used to take the famous shot of the first flight in Kitty Hawk |
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| Their Original Sewing Machine and Drafting Table The propeller they made was so accurate it is still used today. |
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| The Original 1905 Restored Wright Flier III |
In the central Carillon building we walked through a new display commemorating Wilber Wright’s life. They are celebrating the 100 years since his death this year with many activities going on throughout the year. He died at 45 from typhoid fever leaving his brother to carry on. By this time they had flown all over Europe and the US giving demonstrations, opened their manufacturing plant with the patents necessary, and had their own flight school (you couldn’t by a plane without going through their flight school). Within a few years, Orville sold everything. It was just too difficult to carry on without the help and companionship of his brother. Wilber’s death must have been devastating to Orville after all they had been through and the closeness they had. He continued to use his amazing mind inventing and imagining. He died at 76 in 1948. What amazing things he saw in the world of flight. He lived to see Chuck Yeager break the sound barrier in a jet! Huffman Prairie Flying Field has been saved as part Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. We finished off the day with a quick stop to see a replica of the hanger and catapult. Just standing there on the field where the Wright Brothers worked and flew was pretty amazing. Lots of history right here. Kitty Hawk alone doesn’t begin to tell the whole story by any means!
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| The Catapult and Hanger at Huffman Prairie Flying Field History was made right here. |
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| A quote from one of the brothers. |
Carillon Historical Park has a large number of historical buildings that have been moved here spread over acres and acres. A day probably wouldn’t do it justice. We did spend a little time in the main building. The exhibits were centered on industry of Dayton. There have been more patents here per capita than anywhere else in the US. We had lunch at Culp’s Café. In 1930‘s, the Culps opened a cafeteria that served as many as 5,000 customers in a day. It closed in 1960. The restaurant has a 1950’s diner look with some of the same good home cooking.
May 31
Our drive north continued today up through Ohio to Lansing, Michigan with farmland they whole way. We are using this as a base to go to Detroit to see The Henry Ford (museum) and the repurposing store from Cash and Cari show on HGTV. She isn’t filming right now but the store is open. She does estate sales on TV with some of the items going to her store. Then we are going in the opposite direction to visit New Era where Mom was born.
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