Jack and Carol's Epic Journey: On to the Mississippi

In our last blog we were staying in a Walmart parking lot near Dayton, OH and planned to see some of the Wright Brothers historic sites before heading on down the road. As it turned out, we ended up spending a second night in that Walmart parking lot (a great campsite by the way), due to having a problem with our Verizon MiFi, our hotspot that keeps us connected to the internet and allows us to publish this blog. We spent Monday morning in the Verizon store, a bustling place that reminded us of Apple Stores: lots of competent geeks pitching their wares and helping customers with their various problems. Our personal geek was very good and determined that, yes indeed, our device wasn't working any longer. He tried a new part but that didn't work either so we decided to upgrade to the newest model. This took a while so it was now early afternoon. We decided to proceed on to see some Wright Brothers stuff.

Our Verizon MiFi after many years of excellent service could no longer give us 4G speed.

Who can live in the dark ages with 1X speeds?

We plugged in the address for the National Historic Site called Prairie Huffman Field Interpretive Center, the spot where the brothers got really good at flying their plane and perfected it. Interestingly, our GPS directions took us onto the Air Force base and the nice gentlemen guarding the gate said we couldn't come in and turned us around. We managed to get someone on the phone and they directed us to the entrance, which was very difficult to find and not at all well marked. It was a nice visitor's center, however, with a good movie and informative exhibits. The most exciting thing was finding out that Tom Hanks and HBO are now working on a Wright Brothers miniseries! Ever since we visited Kitty Hawk almost 20 years ago and read some good books about the Wright Brothers and their incredible accomplishments against all odds, they have been our heroes. Talk about stick-to-it-iveness! We've been lamenting the fact that there's really no good movies about them and wishing that Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg would pick it up as a story and do it justice. Ever since the new book by David McCullough, The Wright Brothers, came out last year (New York Times #1 bestseller--read it!), Carol predicted that this would finally be the impetus for a good movie or miniseries and sure enough, it looks like it will happen. Can't wait to see this one!!!

Carol before we entered this National Park (uh..Interpretive Center)

The grounds surrounding the Huffman Field center are on a tall bluff overlooking the actual 80-acre Huffman Prairie field where the first real flying (long flights, circles, figure eights) took place. Near the center is a big monument to the brothers. The fact that the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is here in Dayton is due to them--this is where aviation as a science really began. The brothers were AMAZING men and it was good to be reminded of how much our modern world owes them.

The Wright Brothers Monument

Up close with the monument.

By the time we had our fill of adulation of the Wright Brothers, it was late and we decided to go back to the Walmart and spend another night and get an early start on Tuesday morning. The early start, however, was not to be--to make a long story short, our brand-new MiFi device wouldn't charge properly. It said it was charging but didn't. Something wrong with the battery apparently. So Tuesday morning we headed back over to the Verizon store and were first in line at the 10 am opening. Our geek (female this time) quickly established that we were telling the truth--it absolutely would not charge--and changed it out for another one that appears to work. Yay!

Finally back on the road and heading for the western border of Illinois. We planned to stay at a campsite on the banks of the Mississippi on the Great River Road scenic byway. We had a smooth trip--took about 6.5 hrs driving time but we stopped a few times. Gas was cheap, under $2/gal. We decided to stop at a rest stop every 50 or 60 miles to stretch our legs on this trip, so we did that. Hit one very bad rest stop in Greensburg, Indiana--looked very run down, not mowed or maintained, and when we got to the door to the restroom buildings, there was a handmade sign (looked like a child's scrawl in crayon!) saying "Sorry. Restrooms not working." The doors were locked. (These are the times when we're very grateful for the toilet in our Roadtrek.) We were very sorry for some of the people we saw from a distance, especially older folks who didn't walk very well, making their way slowly to the door only to find that no restrooms were available! Once we got into Illinois, that situation changed drastically. They have some of the nicest rest areas we've ever seen! Paved walking trails, beautiful blooming flowers, one even with a lake and fountain. Good job, Illinois!

The rest stops in Illinois are the best we have seen. A well manicured path with trees and flowers invite you to take a meditative walk before getting back into your vehicle.

We gained an hour when we passed into the Central Time Zone, and arrived at the campsite about 6 pm CT. This campsite, named Fisherman's Corner, is run by our bitter enemies, the Corps of Engineers (enemies because they've been trying for years and years to flood our Virginia mountain home by damming the river that runs through our property)--but it's a great campsite. Right on the river and we discovered that our National Park senior card gets us half price here, so only $10/night. We have electricity at the site and a nice bathroom/shower nearby. We decided to stay 3 nights and catch up on some of our work, bill paying, relaxing, etc.

Had a great night's sleep and got up Wed. morning and took a walk on the bike path by the river. Just below the campsite is a lock/dam combo and we climbed onto the dam to explore it. Some folks were fishing. The campsite host says they catch mostly catfish and some white bass off the dam. We were hoping to see a ship or barge go through the lock but nothing much happening this morning. We'll try again later. We did see a pair of swans--maybe tundra swans, but we didn't take our binoculars with us so not sure. Looks like a good birdwatching spot. Tomorrow we're going to do a little driving around and see Buffalo Bill Cody's homeplace.