This week included April Fool’s Day, and while we didn’t indulge in pranks or absurdity, our kids and grandkids did! One great dessert they made was “Dirt Dessert”, with chocolate pudding and crushed Oreos. Peter even pretends surprise to find a gummy worm in his dirt!
Last week the grandkids’ school had a dinner/fundraiser. We went and had a good time… and got to sit with Kevin and Becky and Alan and Rachel. They had tons of auction items in addition to a nice dinner.
We made a little trip to Bennet, Nebraska, a very small town south and east of Lincoln. We were there to check out some stuff at a store run by a landscape firm we are hoping to do business with. It looks like their store is the biggest draw of the town. I was hoping to take a picture of a little church, and as we headed that way, an Edsel met us coming the other way. I don’t know enough about Edsels to know what year this car was, but I’m guessing between 1957 and 1960. [Because those were the only years Edsel was produced.] Bennet is a very small town, with a few nice looking buildings, but even at the slow speed limit a drive through town is about 45 seconds.
Strategic Air Command Museum
We forgot to take the license plates off the motorhome when we sold it, and when I mentioned that to Mike, the new owner, he nicely agreed to meet us halfway between our homes to return them. The really nice thing was, he chose the SAC museum as the meeting spot. I love that place, and it’s been a while since we’ve been there. So we got our plates first thing in the morning, then spent a while in the awesome museum. I’ve written about the museum before (twice, actually, here and here.) Knowing this, I really tried hard to not take pictures of all the same stuff. The hard part is my favorites are still here!
So you get almost identical pictures of the amazing SR71, which dominates the entry. No details, however. Read the previous blogs for more info.
One display actually new since we’ve been there is this mockup of a potential moon habitat. It seems NASA asked different companies to present mockups of a habitat to let astronauts spend a couple weeks on the moon. Dynetics built this habitat, and did not win the contract… but won a spot in this museum.
Pictured below is the whole of the living area, as viewed from different angles. Not much space to live in… and this is from a guy who lived in an RV for years!
One part of the museum that I find fascinating is about Jimmy Doolittle’s raid on Japan with the B25 Mitchel bombers. So you can read more details in the previous blogs, or be happy with this summary…
Japanese citizens had been told by their Emperor that the island was invincible. No harm could come to their country. Americans wanted to squash that myth in World War II. They did the impossible, seemingly, by launching 16 Mitchel bombers, designed for land operations, from an aircraft carrier. The plan was to launch 400 miles from the mainland of Japan, bomb strategic spots, then fly on to China and donate the planes to the Chinese resisting Japanese takeover. They were spotted 800 miles out, and had to launch then. This meant they had insufficient fuel to make it to safety in China. All the planes accomplished their target assignments, but most then ran out of fuel and were ditched in the ocean within sight of China, or in Japanese occupied China. One plane made it to Russia. Several crew members were prisoners of war for the duration. Dolittle was afraid he’d be court marshaled because he lost all the aircraft… instead he was considered a hero in America because he did what all thought was impossible… bombing mainland Japan. It is said this caused doubt in the Japanese people about what they had always been taught about their Emperor.
Here you can see the U2 spy plane, in black, and the B36 “Peacemaker”, (taking up much of the background, but hard to see with all the other planes in the way.) Again, I talked about them in the previous blogs.
Here is a little about the “Wasp Major” engine… an amazingly complex engine. The cutaway portions let you see some of the incredible sophistication of this amazing engine.
This last picture expresses our feelings about selling our motorhome. Take good care of it, Mike and Jen!
Ok, in the title I hinted at some sourdough…
Our new friend Mike, who bought our motorhome, is a sourdough baker. He promised Cherryl some of his starter, along with instructions. She has now made two gorgeous, delicious loaves of wonderful sourdough bread. It was hard to keep starter in the motorhome, and now this is exciting to think we can have this great bread often!
What? No more Romance of the Open Road? Well, for two years in Japan I worked as an “emergency teacher” (glorified substitute) for a chain of English conversation schools. As fun as it was to live in different cities in a foreign country, I too eventually wanted to settle down and live somewhere with an oven. So I get that, at least.