My wife and I took last week off and hit the open road. First stop was to see our good friend from the Thunder Over Michigan Bob Vance and his family at Ann Arbor, Michigan. Then it was on to the Air Zoo at Kalamazoo.
I had not been to the Zoo since the new building was built. Other then it being really dark in the museum I thought it was pretty good. I talked my wife into going for a ride with me in the simulator, did not realize the crazy thing actually goes inverted! I almost lost my glasses off my head and my wife was a little sick at lunch from the loop and turns I made.
More photos from the Air Zoo can be seen here
http://www.airic.ca/html/airzoo.html
While we were driving to the timeshare at Sheridan, Illinois we came across this crashed C-45 dedicated to the agricultural crash of the 1980s. Now if I can only find the directions for Mike’s locator.
This is where the trip fell apart. Our timeshare was the worst we had ever seen, so bad we gave back the keys and went looking for a hotel and made new plans. Our original plan saw our good friends James and Tina Church join us for a few days at the timeshare and we would visit Henning, Paul Keppler, Oshkosh and Courtesy Aircraft. After two nights near Chicago we headed to Huntington, Indiana to be with James and Tina.
A F-84 from Ft. Wayne.
In the middle of the week we headed to Danville, Illinois to visit Mike VadeBonCoeur and his Midwest Aero Restorations. It was truly amazing to see two Mustangs being restored along with all the other aircraft at Danville. Mike was an excellent host and gave us the royal tour.
More photos from Danville can be seen here
http://www.airic.ca/html/midwestaero.html
From Danville we headed to Rantoul, Illinois to visit the Chanute Air Museum. Lots of interesting aircraft and exhibits.
More photos from Chanute can be seen here
http://www.airic.ca/html/chanute.html
Two days later we headed down to the National Museum of the USAF at Dayton, Ohio stopping first at Wapakoneta to see a F-5D Skylancer.
The USAF Museum was a treat as my wife and I had not been there in many years.
We were ale to catch the last bus to the Presidential and R&D hangar.
More photos from the museum can be seen here
http://www.airic.ca/html/usafm.html
The next day we said out goodbyes to James and Tina and headed east to Pennsylvania. Passing through Ohio we stopped in at Mansfield Airport but it was pretty quiet, just a few C-130s on the ramp. I contemplated visiting MAPS and should have stopped in to see Jim Bates but we were getting tired and just wanted to check into a hotel early. Lost somewhere around the Ohio/Pensylvania border we came across this Huey Cobra. Should have taken coordinates for Mike’s locator but I was tired after a long day.
Last stop on the trip was an early Sunday morning visit to Air Heritage at Beaver Falls. No one was around but we had the run of the ramp.
More photos here
http://www.airic.ca/html/airheritage.html
An added bonus was a pole mounted F-86 and two Fougas
Now it is back to work and dream about our next vacation.
Eric & Bernadette
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The air resounds from the Rolls-Royce roar!
To an enemy the warning is dire: here only eagles soar,
and the last thing he'll see is a mirrored Spitfire!
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Whats up with that BT-9 display at the USAFM? 
