Serene Wandering

May 19th, 2016 marks our second anniversary of moving out of the house, into the trailer and becoming full time RVers.  (Click the following link to read the blog post from that first week  – We made it! We are full time RVers! )  It was a hectic beginning to make the move while I was finishing my last few weeks of teaching kindergarten but we survived it. We left Boise in June, were gone for most of the summer, and then came back to Boise for six weeks for me to actually retire. We took off for real on October 1, 2014.

A lot has happened in the last two years and we feel like we have settled into a nice routine. It hasn’t been totally painless, like the time we had mice – Of Mice and Man but overall we love the lifestyle and plan to keep on going indefinitely.

I asked each of my guys (Randy and Elko) what two things stand out for them as highlights of the last two years.

Elko said the best part for him was having his people with him almost all the time. He really likes family togetherness and wants both of us to go on many walks with him each day. He loves his routine of getting up with mom and then going back to bed with dad until it is time to get up for real.

His other highlight was writing his first blog post about life at Chief Plenty Coups State Park in Montana. That link is here: Guest blogger: Elko  He got good feedback and is beginning to think about writing another.

Randy’s first highlight was going to the Tucson Escapade in February 2015. We went to RV Boot Camp and learned so much, even though we had been RVing for years. Following that, we were able to spend a week with other people who are passionate about this lifestyle while attending seminars and enjoying fellowship. That is where we met Beth with whom we’ve been traveling the last two weeks. In mid-July we’ll be at the 2016 Escapade in Vermont.

Randy also mentioned our volunteer experiences. We had always enjoyed speaking with camp-hosts wherever we saw them and were glad to join their ranks. We remember each of our experiences fondly and were glad we had a chance to give back in that way. During 2015, we spent May at Cove Palisades State Park near Redmond, Oregon, July and August at Farragut State Park near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and September at Chief Plenty Coups State Park near Billings, Montana. We value the friendships we made at each of those parks and look forward to volunteering again in 2017.

One of the things I have always enjoyed was planning travel and I’ve done a ton of that over the last two years.   Am I living my dream or what?  Of course, some people live this way without planning but I enjoy the time I spend studying maps and routes and doing research on campgrounds.  It is a puzzle to figure how to get time with family, meet up with friends and see lots of very cool places!

Goblin Valley was a very cool place! Our blog post from there was: Unique Landscapes

We have a 140 page “to do” document. It is too big to be called a list! I am constantly taking notes about places I read about or hear about or copy from other blogs.  140 pages – I’m not kidding!  We’ve got years ahead of us…

I enjoy the opportunity to learn new things every day and that is such a highlight for me. Almost every small town has a museum to explore. I’ve learned way more about planes and cars than I ever thought I’d want to know! I’ve learned about all kinds of mining, Titan missiles, Indian war bullets and the Crow. I’ve learned about the Women Air Force Service Pilots,  respirators, the Hearst castle and elephant seals. And on and on!

The single most impactful place for me was the Manzanar Japanese Internment Camp near Lone Pine, California.   It was sad and embarrassing and horrible, and yet, the Japanese internees tried to make a life for themselves behind barbed wire.

Being able to visit these places and then share them through the blog helps me explore and learn with a keener eye. Thank you for reading.

 

We have traveled the west far and wide over these last (almost) two years and have chosen destinations for reasons of scenic beauty, available activities, visiting friends or family, weather management, or just stops along the way. This stay in La Pine, Oregon is a first. We routed here for one reason – dinner.

Randy and I first heard of Cowboy Dinner Tree from other campers while in Bend a couple of years ago. The restaurant’s days and hours are limited, their location is remote and you must have reservations so they know how much food to cook.

Many thanks to our friend Beth for playing along (and driving) because, even here in LaPine, we are still 50 miles from the restaurant. It is truly out in the middle of nowhere under a large tree that use to be a “shade and dinner” stop halfway along the cattle drive trail. The small town of Silver Lake is 4 miles away – not close enough for electricity – so all cooking is done over wood or with propane.

 

Dinner begins with a salad course followed by cowboy beans and the best rolls in the world.

The main entree is a 26 – 30 oz .steak, or whole chicken, served with a baked potato.  You must choose your entree when you make reservations. A small dessert follows the main course.

The atmosphere is old time cowboy and drinks are served in large mason jars. It was totally a delightful experience – one we would all repeat. We could tell who the experienced diners were because they brought tupperware along to collect their leftovers from every serving. We have enough steak left over for at least two meals!

The cost you ask? $30 per meal – “no credit cards, no debit cards, no kidding” – and worth every penny and mile to get there. Their advertising is all word of mouth (I’m doing my part) and business is brisk.

Today we move 30 miles to Tumalo State Park west of Bend. That will be our last of four stops with fellow full-timer Beth and it has been a blast to travel together. In addition to this memorable dinner and seeing sites in Reno, Carson City, Virginia City and Lava Beds National Monument, we have enjoyed hanging out, watching some very old James Bond movies and playing card games. Getting together again somewhere along the way will definitely be on our radar.

After Tumalo, Beth is headed toward her volunteer lighthouse gig on the Oregon coast and we are staying in Oregon to have a family get together in Sumpter.  Life on the road is a joy and we are blessed.

“Peaceably if you possibly can, forcibly if you must.” Those were the words spoken by an Indian agent tasking the US Army with gathering sixty Modoc warriors and their families and taking them back to their assigned reservation.

The Modoc leader, Captain Jack, refused to go and the Modoc Indian War began in the fall of 1872.  He, his warriors, and their families retreated into jagged, defensible volcanic formations.   They used caves for homes and built rock walls to further defend the stronghold.

The Army’s contingent was 1000 troops strong yet the warriors withstood their minor and major assaults for six months, until April 1873.  The Modocs only surrendered when their water source to Tule Lake was severed. This area has since been called Captain Jack’s Stronghold.

General E.R.S. Canby was killed in battle with the Modocs, the only general ever killed in an Indian War. This cross, accusing the Modocs of murder,  is a replica of one erected in the years after his death.   The adjoining placard talks about the differing perspectives on the Canby’s death: the perceived murder vs. the attempt to stay and live in one’s home.

Today, Captain Jack’s Stronghold is part of the Lava Beds National Monument in northeastern California.

The area is vast and over 800 lava tube caves have been found within the 46,000 acre park. Two dozen caves are open for public exploration.   Beth, Randy and I decided to see a few for ourselves.

Our first stop was at the visitor center for information and a permit. The ranger quizzed us on previous cave experiences and determined she should clean our cameras and Beth’s and Randy’s boots – mine were new since our last cave exploration.   Beth and Randy had to walk around in stocking feet for a little while.

The rangers are hoping to avoid visitors contaminating the local bats with White-Nose Syndrome.  This disease has been killing bats in eastern caves at an alarming rate since 2006. Only within the last month was the first case of White Nose Syndrome confirmed west of the rockies.  A bat was found with the disease near North Bend, Washington, many miles from the last most western case in Nebraska.

Once cleared, we explored several caves. The Mushpot cave near the visitor center had a ladder entrance and then a nice easy trail with lighting available.

Some caves required climbing down into them and walking on uneven surfaces. Some had different offshoots to explore – or not.

The Golden Dome Cave has a type of bacteria that appears to glitter like gold when exposed to light.

The caves are rated as easy, moderate and difficult due to the terrain, the elevation change and the height of the tube as you pass through the cave.

We explored two easy and three moderate  caves. We declined the chance to crawl around and squeeze through low openings! Maybe another day….not!

We recently drove to Virginia City and spent some time exploring the old boom town. Virginia City was “the richest place on earth” for 20 years after the country’s largest silver deposit was discovered in the Comstock Lode in 1859.  Virginia City’s population reached 25,000 residents and had a variety of saloons, restaurants and even an opera house hosting all the great performers of the day.

 

Virginia City had shops, hotels, churches and schools.

 

We toured the Fourth Ward School during our visit.  Built for 1000 students in 1876, the school eventually had a student body of 150 in its last class of 1936 – mirroring the decline of the once booming town. (Current year round population of Virginia City is about 1000 people.) The school sat empty for 50 years until restoration efforts began in 1986.

We enjoyed touring the old school and trying, and failing, to pass the teacher’s exam from 1877!

With many college degrees between us, and successful business and teaching backgrounds, Beth, Randy and I could not pass the teacher’s exam – even collectively!

We took a trolley tour around the city, ate lunch in an old saloon and watched a gunfight re-enactment.

 

We visited the Delta Saloon and saw the Suicide Table – so named because several men chose to end their lives because of great financial loss at this Faro Table. Ripley’s Believe it Or Not once did a feature on the Suicide Table.

 

We also saw the Old Globe, commissioned by one of the town’s richest founders, James Fair at a price of $450 in 1880. It is now valued at more than $100,000. One of the interesting notes about this globe is that it shows a completed Atlantic Cable, financed by one of Fair’s  mining partners, James Mackay – only the cable wasn’t completed until 1886. He must have had confidence in his partner – and why not? They were some of the richest men anywhere after their mining pursuits.

We visited Virginia City in early May and some of the venues had not opened for the season but we still had more options than we had time for.  Another visit is likely in our future.

Our home for the week was the Sparks Marina RV Park.  Good Sam RV Club rates RV parks across the country and this resort has a 10/10/10 rating – the highest possible. The resort has nice amenities and is kept spotless. There is astroturf for grass around the park so it stays green despite the harsh seasons.

The only downsides we experienced was that the sites are quite close together and they are quite restrictive on where dogs can do their business.

However, they absolutely win the prize for the best dog parks ever! They are visually appealing, even to the people who come hang out with the dogs, and Elko loved going to all three of the parks. The smells were a smorgasbord for a black boy with big nose!

We had days of rain when we connected with our friend Beth here in Reno so we looked for indoor pursuits.  We found some interesting places!

On Friday evening we went onto the University of Nevada campus to visit the Fleischmann Planetarium. It has been over five years since Randy and I have been on this campus but that previous visit remains imprinted on our minds – another Friday night in November, 2010 when BSU lost a most heartbreaking football game. Fortunately, this trip to campus was only interesting and not heartbreaking!

We watched a program about the Nevada sky and star constellations. We do not see any of those pictures when we look at the night sky!

We learned about Mercury passing between the Earth and the sun this week – something that only happens 13 times a century.  (We were able to view it on Monday as telescopes were set up at the Marina.)

We also saw a presentation called the Dark Side of the Moon, a computer graphics show on the planetarium ceiling coordinated to Pink Floyd music – including the signature piece. Some of the graphics were very cool but 45 minutes of it was about 40 minutes too long.

We enjoyed looking at the Rand McNally “Blue Marble.” This 6 foot 3 inch diameter relief globe is thought to be the most accurate representation of the earth’s surface ever made.

The next day we drove to Carson City and enjoyed a British Pub lunch at Firkin and Fox. Think Fish and Chips, Cottage Pie and Chicken Pot Pie!

We also visited the Nevada State Museum held in the former Carson City Mint building.

The mint was needed because Nevada miners were getting so much gold and silver that it was inefficient to ship the ore to other places for minting. The Carson City Mint had a brief tenure, from 1870 – 1893, but still produced coins valued over $48 million. There is a viewable vault on premises with nearly all the CC marked coins ever produced in the Carson City Mint.

We learned that the United States went back and forth between a silver or gold based monetary system based on which political party was in control. Democrats generally favored a silver standard and Republicans favored gold.

Nevada, The Silver State, produced so much silver in the 1870s that France and Germany withdrew silver from circulation.  The Comstock Lode, the mine responsible for much of that silver, gave another gift to the world of mining.

Comstock engineer, Philip Diedesheimer, developed the “square set stope” reinforcement technique in 1860 to keep miners safe and allow for deeper penetration into mountains. This technology is still widely used today.

The USS Nevada was outfitted with a complete silver service courtesy of the state of Nevada.  It was the only battleship able to get underway during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The USS Nevada has a sad end, however, when the Navy eventually assigned it to be a target ship in bomb experiments. After being hit by the first atomic bomb it remained afloat but was heavily damaged and radioactive. The Nevada was decommissioned and sunk during naval gunfire practice in 1948.

The state of Nevada was very instrumental in bomb experimentation beginning in January 1951. One hundred and twenty six atmospheric tests were conducted before being discontinued in 1962 – many considered to be social events.

Nevada also had the first female candidate to run for the United States Senate. Reno’s Anne Martin ran in 1918 saying “….Even if I should not win, it will never seem so strange when a woman tries it.”  She lost, but garnered a respectable number of votes and paved the way as she intended.

We visited Reno’s  National Automobile Museum, considered one of the five best auto museums in the United States. The museum contains 175 autos from the Harrah Collection – of Hotel and Casino fame. When the Holiday Inn chain bought the Harrah hotels, they did not want the auto collection and a separate foundation was formed to own and display the cars. At the time of the donation, 1989,  the IRS determined it to be the single most valuable donation ever made in the United States. The collection is considered priceless as many of the cars are irreplaceable.   The Museum currently has  225 cars, most from the original collection but others that were donated by celebrities and others.

Many of the cars are one of a kind vehicles including this orange 1937 Airomobile. This prototype was driven 45,000 miles across country at speeds up to 80 mph in an attempt to generate funding for mass production. The vehicle was a success but funding wasn’t forthcoming because of the Great Depression.

The 1938 Phantom Corsair, shown above, was designed and built by Rust Heinz who died shortly thereafter. Even though the family declined to pursue the car into production, the Corsair still wins auto awards as one of the best ever designed.

There are way too many cars to mention more than a few but here is a sampling!

The First Model Cadillac

 

 

 

Beth and I had fun posing in costume in the only car you are allowed to touch, a Ford Model T.

The next few days…no rain in sight.  Outside we go!

We are camping in nature for a change and loving it! As I write this blog post, I am watching two cottontail bunnies playing just a few feet from my window. (Later I saw two adults and two baby bunnies!)

Elko and Randy are in their afternoon relaxation positions on the other side of the trailer so of no concern to the bunnies.

 

We are in Rye Patch State Recreation Area, which was just a place on the map before yesterday. We knew it was somewhat desolate but figured two days in Winnemucca would be enough and this was a stop between there and our next destination of Sparks, Nevada. We’ve spent so much time in RV parks the last many months that we were trying to get back to nature. Ideally, we would have a nice balance between RV parks and rural campgrounds but the planner (me) is still working on letting go of those RV hookups!

But let me go back in time as I don’t mean to disparage Winnemucca. We stayed in a very interesting RV park that is just a couple years old and is landscaped almost all in rock.

Yet, it was neat and tidy and worked. The utilities were built such that they are year round viable and the developers planted lots and lots of trees. We had great weather for our two days there so heat on the rocks wasn’t a problem. Hopefully those trees will grow tall and strong and provide lots of shade for future summer campers!

This facility is also prepared to provide a massive amount of bunkhouse accommodations for miners in the area. There were about 350 separate air-conditioned bunkhouse rooms, three per building. There are bath house buildings on each row as well. It seemed that very few rooms were occupied so we assume the mining industry in the area is in a lull, but this place is ready.

We took one drive and hike in Water Canyon on BLM land east of Winnemucca. We saw some nearby snow, some wild flowers and enjoyed being outside in the hills.

 

We had only a 50 mile trip down the road to Rye Patch and were on our way by 10:30 a.m. An earlier conversation with the ranger made us aware that there was exactly ONE campsite in this very large park with electricity (a camp-host site not currently being used) and it could not be reserved. We were hoping to get that site but Randy made sure our batteries were in good shape and that we had water available in the trailer just in case we didn’t.

We arrived to find three other camper groups in the entire multiple campground park so Randy was able to back right into our target site. As we had been told, the electric box was locked and no ranger was on duty until our second day. We had to rough it for one night but it was no problem. We cooked outside and had a campfire – two things we don’t do very often.

We collect and then burn the identifying papers that we used to just put through a shredder. The fire continued when some neighbors gave us their firewood as they were heading home to California and couldn’t take their firewood with them.

We’ve taken several hikes around the area and even though Rye Patch isn’t the prettiest place we’ve ever been, it has been a joy to be here.

We will definitely come back when we pass this way again, even if we don’t get the one and only electric site in the park.

In addition to the cottontails I mentioned earlier, we have seen a few jack-rabbits and lots of lizards. Randy saw a snake but, fortunately, I did not. And what of the wild turkeys for dinner?

There are four semi-wild turkeys wandering around the campground and instead of being dinner, they come for dinner! It is very apparent they have been fed by campers because they walk right into the campsite to see what is available.  They weren’t  even concerned about Elko laying in our midst – nor was Elko concerned about them. We didn’t share our meal with the turkeys because the ranger board specifically asks you not to, but we saw others doing so.

It reminds me of feeding the ducks pretty much year around in our backyard in Boise. It made me happy to see ducks walking around on the snow. They were our guests and I never considered having them for dinner either!

We are back in Boise and have enjoyed spending time with grandson Archer and his parents! During our video chats this winter Archer was calling me “Beema.” I had never really connected with “grandma” so I liked that Archer came up with his own name for me. Now that we are here, I am definitely Beema and, a couple of times, Archer has called Randy – “Beema-Man.” I really loved that because over the years Randy has enjoyed it just a little too much when I was called “Mrs. Randy.” Now he is Beema -Man. Although, to be honest, Archer is calling us both Beema most of the time. We’ll see how that evolves!

We are enjoying being back in our Riverside RV spot by the Greenbelt (paved walking path) and the Boise River.

The temperatures are unseasonably warm and the river is very high. It has been very nice for hanging out!

Randy had his follow-up tests (after his issues last fall) and the scan and exam were squeaky clean! (Praise! Praise!) Elko had his geriatric vet check and all of his results were fine as well. (Another praise!)

Unfortunately the truck didn’t fare as well. We had the oil changed in Fresno and the mechanic there had spotted diesel and oil leaks. Sure enough, both leaks were found again and the minor repairs are scheduled. The truck will also be getting new brakes and tires. Oh well, better the truck than Randy or Elko!

I’ve been able to do things that are more fun – like lunch with my friends Theresa and Jacque and going to choir practice. It is always nice to be back in Boise.   Except for a week in Cabo, we’ll be here, down by the river, until the end of April.

 

We have spent the last week in Vancouver celebrating my parents’ birthdays.  Dad turned 80 on Tuesday and mom was 78 on Wednesday. We were glad to share the time and celebrations with them.

On Saturday mom went to the Washington Democratic Caucus.  We were interested in the process and the results.  Her precinct had to move outside because there were so many people  but there was no drama in their large vote for Bernie Sanders.  Their precinct mirrored the state.

On Tuesday, we traveled along Historic Route 30, the beautiful route into the Columbia Gorge.  We stopped at Vista House, so named because of the beautiful vistas viewable from the site.

Traveling a little further along we saw this goat enjoying a rest on top of the cabin.  We aren’t sure how it got there but it didn’t look distressed.

We continued on to our destination,  Multnomah Falls.  These are the second tallest, continuously running falls in the United States.

We met and enjoyed lunch, the first birthday celebration, at the Multnomah Falls Restaurant with cousins Marilyn and Lynn from Rock Springs and aunt Rosalee who lives in Hood River. We hadn’t known Marillyn and Lynn were coming to the area this week so it was a nice surprise.

On Wednesday, we went to the Rhinelander Restaurant in Portland and celebrated the birthdays with cousins Connie, Michael, and Charlie and his girlfriend, Lisa. Mom and dad have enjoyed the Rhinelander Restaurant since our family lived in Portland in the late 1960s. A good time and good German food, was had by all.  Good German beer was had by some.

The beginning of the week was miserably wet and cold and  we had the misfortune of finding a substantial leak in our trailer. Actually, it is a good thing we found the leak but it took Randy most of one day to find it, temporarily fix it, and then get everything dried out with the blow dryer. Things happen when we live in so many different climates and go rocking and rolling down the road!

Its a good thing we have Handy Randy.

Later in the week the weather was sunny and warm and mom and I enjoyed some top down time in her BMW Roadster. This car used to be Randy’s and we both enjoyed driving the car a bit.

One day mom and I went to the Clark County Historical Museum and enjoyed seeing the exhibits about Native American beading and basket weaving. There was also a very moving art exhibit done by descendents of those who survived the Sand Creek Massacre  152 years ago in Colorado.

A combined Cherokee and Arapahoe village was settled on the banks of Sand Creek, where they had been instructed to reside after treaty negotiations. Also as instructed, the village was flying both the United States flag and the white flag of surrender. The Colorado Territorial Militia, angered by rogue attacks by other Cherokee bands, took horrible vengeance on women, children and old men of the village while the younger men were away hunting buffalo.

The soldiers mutilated the bodies and proudly displayed them as they were cheered through Denver.  Two officers refused to allow their men to participate in the raid and later testified against the commanding officer, Colonel Chivington. It is a sad tale.    Sand Creek National Historical Site is now in our plans when we are next in Colorado.

On a cheerier note, a food exhibit told us that Vancouver had once been the Prune Capital of the World and that Burgerville, a southern Washington and Oregon hamburger chain, began here in 1961. The privately held company has 40 restaurants and uses fresh, local and sustainable food sources.

So the next day we went for lunch! Papa Murphy’s Pizza also has headquarters in Vancouver, but we’ve had their pizzas many times.

 

We all went to the Pearson Air Museum on Fort Vancouver. We’ve seen a lot of airplanes in the last couple of months but we still learned a few new things!

As WWI began observation balloons and planes were used to see enemy encampments and movement. Originally, when opposing observation planes met in the air, they just waved to each other. As war progressed, they began to shoot at each other with hand guns. Eventually guns were mounted on the planes, and the age of fighter pilots began.

This is a replica of a 1914 French Voisin, the first airplane ever built specifically to be a bomber.

When the United States entered WWI, German planes were dominant in the skies. The allies needed a steady supply of airplanes. The pacific northwest had large stands of aviation quality sitka spruce but the local loggers were on strike due to unsafe working conditions and long hours. The US Army Aviation Corps created and managed the Spruce Production Division. US Army soldiers worked beside loggers and saw mill operators. The mill produced enough wood to build 300 airplanes a day. Two thirds of the lumber was shipped to the allies for their planes. The Spruce Production Division supplied sitka spruce for the allies for 15 months and discontinued the day after the war ended.
Pearson Airfield was the unexpected ending point of the Russian long distance flight in 1937. Three Russian aviators flew 63 hours, 17 minutes from Moscow, over the pole, intending to land in San Francisco. Oil pressure problems necessitated them landing in Pearson Airfield. They were treated as heroes by those living in the vicinity including the Commanding Officer of Fort Vancouver, General George C. Marshall.

Our last visit in the area was to Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. There is an audio tour that introduces you to the habitat and the inhabitants as you drive. We saw many, many birds in the wetlands.

We also saw many turtles and nutrias in the slough. Nutrias are water rodents that originated in South America. They were brought here as part of the fur trade and are now considered an invasive species. They were kind of cute in the water – until you see that rodent tail!  Yuck!

We are 90 minutes from Boise as I post this blog.  We are looking forward to spending most of a month at “home.”

We left Ashland mid morning and followed recommendations from friends and parents to stop for lunch at the Seven Feathers Casino on I-5. The parking lot was big and the buffet more appealing than the truck stop or fast food we usually eat on travel days (whatever parking lot is bigger). We were too early for the buffet but, with free casino players cards, we could each get 3 tacos for $1.99 and $5 in free slot play.  The tacos were fine but we were totally befuddled trying to make the slot machines work!   We eventually learned you have to put in  $1  to get the free slots started!  After about 10 minutes Randy had $8.70 and I had  $0.20  to cash in.  It was a bargain lunch!

We  settled in for an easy trip north on I-5, crossing to Highway 99 into McMinnville. It seemed like an easy route and neither of us double checked the GPS until we ended up at a ferry crossing – at least there was a place to turn around!

We had to backtrack east, go north, and then south.  We arrived an hour after we should have. We usually travel with a map in my lap –  the learning experience was that now we will ALWAYS travel with a map in my lap.

Why are we in McMinnville? The Spruce Goose is here – along with many other flying machines! We have driven by the Evergreen Aviation Museum a few times but felt this needed to be a dedicated stop. We have spent two days totally dedicated to the museum.

Our independent RV park is connected by a walkway to the large museum campus. Being so close meant that each day, when I had had enough of flying machines, I walked home and Randy stayed until they closed.

There are a number of aircraft outdoors where we walked with Elko after hours.  This USA C-9 was in service from 1975 – 2011 to transport vice presidents and other high level personnel for presidential administrations from Ford to Obama.

Of course, the celebrity flying machine is Howard Hughes’ Flying Boat – The Spruce Goose – too big to fit in one picture.

The picture below shows part of the cargo section.

This, the largest flying machine ever made, was developed as a transport vessel for men and materials during WWII.  It was intended to fly over German submarine infested waters where they made shipping dangerous. Eighteen million federal dollars given to the project included a mandate that no rationed materials (metals) be used. Nor could personnel already being utilized in the war effort be involved with building the vessel. Hughes developed his own engineers and brought in furniture makers from North Carolina to work with the wood, his chosen building material.  Hughes put in $7,000,000 of his own money and managed every minute detail of construction.

The name the Spruce Goose was detested by Howard Hughes and isn’t even accurate.  His Flying Boat was made mostly of birch, layered together and glued. Seven tons of small nails were used during construction and then taken out when the glue had set. The glue seams are stronger than the wood.

The Flying Boat was completed in 1947 and flew only one time, in a surprise demonstration with Howard Hughes as pilot. It flew a little over a mile at the height of 70 feet. After Hughes’ death, the Flying Boat had several owners (including Walt Disney), eventually coming to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville. To get here the flying boat was taken apart and shipped by barge in still large, but manageable components. After arriving in McMinnville in 1993, it was reassembled and made available for viewing in 2001.

 

The wingspan of the Flying Boat is longer than a football field and the tail is as tall as an eight story building. Hundreds of beach balls were used to fill empty spaces in the hull and floats to assist with buoyancy. Instead of wing walking on the wings, men could walk in the wings.

The hangar holding Hughes’ Flying Boat is massive and holds many other flying machines as well. Imagine our surprise when one of the first planes we looked at was donated to the museum by someone we know!

This Quickie 2 was built, flown and donated by Greg Kelsay and Amos Garrison from Boise. We know Greg but didn’t know about this plane.

We were able to go inside a B-17 ”Flying Fortress” and learn about the 10 men crews. The phrase “the full nine yards” harkens back to the 9 yard lengths of shells for gunners on B-17s.   Randy posed as a waist gunner.

Over the course of WWII, 33 percent of B-17s failed to return from their bombing runs. We learned about the crew of the Memphis Belle who beat the odds and returned from 25 bombing runs – and met the threshold for going home.  We watched the 1944 government documentary on the Memphis Belle one night, and the 1990 Hollywood version the next.

We also learned about Lt. Charlie Brown who piloted the severely  damaged Flying Fortress “Ye Olde Pub” as it limped back to base after a bombing run with an injured crew. The B-17 encountered a Messerschmidt bf-109 and miraculously, the German pilot did not finish them off, but only escorted them out of German airspace. The two pilots met 45 years later and became good friends. “A Higher Call” by Adam Makos is based on this event and I already have the audiobook ready for our next long travel day (Vancouver to Boise next Friday).

Did you think early pilots wore the goggles and white scarves just to look handsome to the ladies? Not so. Castor oil was the lubricant used in early airplanes and pilots needed to keep their eyes and nose clear of the spray. Infusing castor oil spray was bad news when you couldn’t get to a bathroom easily.

There are so many airplanes and so many stories and all this was just part of one of the buildings!  There is an IMAX theater showing three movies. (I saw two films and Randy saw all three.) There is an Air and Space Building which took a another whole day to explore!

This display shows Soviet Union and US space program timelines right across from each other.  You can see the successes, setbacks and competing goals which eventually merged into cooperation.

We learned about  Wernher von Braun, the Rocket Man. Interested in space as a young man, Von Braun’s V-2 Rocket technology was used in the first ballistic missiles for Nazi Germany.  At the end of the war he surrendered to US soldiers and eventually worked for the US Space Program. His Titan and Saturn rockets sent satellites, astronauts and Space Lab into space.

There are many other space exhibits including simulators that let you try to land the space shuttle Discovery and the Apollo Lunar Module!

One building we did not explore was Evergreen Wings and Waves – a water park where you get to slide right out of the plane!  Maybe next time…