On the Aviation Trail

I read in the Dispatch a few weeks back that the National Parks Service (or someone) had created an Aviation trail around Dayton and western Ohio, to celebrate and encourage learning about the big impact this little part of the country has had on aviation (Wright brothers, Neil Armstrong to start...) AND, if you got your little card stamped at seven of the places, you could get a free teddy bear (a Willbear, get it?). In the interest of comparing the effects of Honda Pilot and Honda Odyssey third row seating on motion sickness in nine year olds, I borrowed an Odyssey from work and Saturday morning we were off... after loading up the Odyssey with DVDs for the rear entertainment system.

Our first stop was the Wright-Dunbar center to get our passport and first stamp:

where they also had a parachute museum:

 Alas, the ejection seat was non-functional:

Across the small plaza was the Wright Cycle shop, a copy of the shop where Orville and Wilbur built and repaired bikes:

1900 era toolkit:

(Kate is much more willing to be in pictures than the boys)

We walked to Paul Dunbar's house for stamp #2 (sorry, no pictures), then back to the van to drive to Woodland cemetery for a picture/stamp #3:

From there, we stopped into Oakwood to meet my brother and nephews for lunch (NOT at Cici's, sorry kids), and then headed to the Air Force museum for stamp #4:

(the kids were big into saluting here).

Inside the AF museum was the aviation hall of fame, and stamp #5:

My expertly planned route was quite efficient, leading us to Huffman Prairie and stamp #6 and our bears... except the ranger there told us we needed seven stamps. Dang. So we had to backtrack to Oakwood again for a picture of their house:

and then more backtracking to our starting point at Wright/Dunbar to pick up our bears. Done!

Test results: we were on the road from 8:00am to 4:30, and Henry found the third row of the Odyssey much more comfortable and less nausea inducing than the Pilot. 80% of the family thinks we should make a trade!