Sunday, August 17, 2003

On to the farm    This is the barn on the farm in Nebraska that my father came from. He inherited a mechanical genius and developed a real nack for mechanisms there. He also left the farm as soon as he could. We got back there for visits most summers. Despite suffering from bad hay fever, I always enjoyed those trips. On to Oshkosh    We did not allow enough time for Oshkosh .. there is an overwhelming volume of stuff to see and talk about. Need to come back. This was the first time in a long time that I paid any attention to aerobatic shows. The stunts they can do with the competition aircraft are pretty strange. I preferred the formation flying.   The Connie on display brought back strong memories of my first cross country airline flights going back and forth to collage. I would take the TWA non-stop from LAX to Boston. That flight departed LA at midnight, heavily loaded for the 9+ hour flight. The plane would need to fly a long time before it would have gained enough altitude to cross the mountains surrounding LA. It would fly out to sea for many minutes before turning east to meet the first challenge of the transcontinental trip. Under full load, the exhaust flowed from each engine in a luminous sea of flame back over the wing.   The flight would meet the rising sun somewhere near Chicago. Often ice could be seen building up on the wings and prop spinners. 9:55:14 PM    comment []

Vacation 2003: Driving tour of Iowa and adjoining states:  First event .. the Bagley family reunion .. here are the Bagley ten siblings..   8:53:29 PM    comment []