Sunday morning we three coaches left Newport in a loose convoy heading North on Hwy 101 through the fog and mist hoping for a better clime at our destination. Some miles later we came upon HWY-18 taking us away from the coastal fogs and soon had us breaking into real sunshine, hooray! At the Evergreen Aviation facilities we came to the Olde Stone Village RV Park which turned out to be a beautiful campground with all modern facilities amid lush landscaping. They even had a special shuttle to the Museum from the park or for the hardier souls; there was a short walking path as well.
That afternoon the “girls” went off to the farmers markets for groceries while the “guys” fiddled with the coaches. Enjoying the beautiful weather, we set up the picnic tables and enjoyed a wonderful dinner prepared by the ladies. Fran made her pork tenderloin with Chimichurri sauce and Caribbean rice, Miss Kitty brought a delicious zucchini casserole, and we finished off Dianne’s Italian Cream Cake. We lingered over some dessert Muscat and talked until dusk, when several pesky mosquitoes chased us all back to the coaches for the night.
Tuesday we were off to the Museum
where we were suitably impressed with the super high quality of the facility itself as well as the many aircraft on display. The western building featured mostly early aircraft from the Wright Flyer through WWI fighters to WWII piston engine aircraft and then to many of the American and Russian fighter jets from Korea to the present day.
where we were suitably impressed with the super high quality of the facility itself as well as the many aircraft on display. The western building featured mostly early aircraft from the Wright Flyer through WWI fighters to WWII piston engine aircraft and then to many of the American and Russian fighter jets from Korea to the present day.
Of course these were all eclipsed by the gargantuan Hughes HK-1 (Spruce Goose) Flying Boat which was shoe-horned into the hanger-like building which had been especially designed for it. After oohing and aahing sufficiently in the western building we went off to lunch before visiting the matching eastern building.
The eastern building contained the more modern space age missiles and aircraft featuring the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, which is touted to be the world’s fastest jet-powered aircraft at more than 2200 mph. It is awesomely beautiful in its own brutal way. There were numerous rocket powered missiles including an original German V-2 rocket and an infamous “Buzz-bomb” that each wreaked so much havoc on England in the later years of WWII.
Featured were many panels that told the history of rocket and missile flight both in the U. S. as well as in Russia. I was especially impressed by the fairness and completeness of these histories which did not attempt to belittle the accomplishments of the Russian rocketeers. The Russian teams were miles ahead of their American counterparts in the mid fifties when we were trying so desperately to catch up with the Russian “Sputnik” and suffered numerous embarrassing failures all open for the world to see before the Titan rocket delivered our men to the Moon and established American superiority in space. There was also a display of a Titan Nuclear Missile partly in its silo with the control room on a floor below ground level and then the bottom level with the outlets of the rocket motors and supporting structure.
Nestled between these two buildings is the IMAX Theater with continuous showings of aviation films. Further to the west is Evergreen’s latest addition; a water sports feature with a real 747 aircraft on the roof where kids (and maybe a few crazy adults) will be lifted into the nose of the 747 in an elevator and then start their slide down through the building through many twists and turns and ending in a splash pool. Some fun! There is also a plan to build a hotel adjacent to the museum as well.
Another evening gourmet meal of pasta and meat sauce, Beau’s famous antipasto salad, garlic toast and blueberry cobbler and ice cream on our shared picnic table in the gorgeous weather topped off the visit for the Wolfes and Speeds. We had a little excitement in the space across the street when an ambulance pulled up and transported a lady to the hospital after she fell and injured herself. Fran and I stayed over an extra day and did some exploring around McMinnville on our own before packing up and heading to the Portland area on Wednesday morning.
So much for now ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Bye!
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