jedibuttercup

Wasn't sure I was going to have a good day out. Woke up to a blood sugar of 400. Sigh. Took my insulin. Had breakfast with my soccer team, the New Boys veterans (which I was only half right. they are mostly from Jamaica but are US veterans, this team is out of MN)

I first went to the The Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center and plaza area It is in a neat old section of the city. It's oddly enough run by the National Park Service (and is free) and I got there just in time to join the ranger on the tour of the next door building which is the last remaining Wright Brothers' cycle shop. (Henry Ford took most of their stuff to his museum in MI) There was only one bike of theirs in there.

The whole downstairs of the center was their story from being printers/would be newspaper men (they gave out a freebie paper duplicated from theirs. I have yet to really look at it) talked about their bishop father and their sister Katharine (who now has a historical mystery series based on her which wasn't half bad)

Turns out Orville was friends with Paul Laurence Dunbar, a poet laureate who is first generation post enslavement (both parents were slaves). He helped Paul set up a paper for the Black community (which failed) and to get his book of poems printed. Paul sold them from the elevator car he was the operator for (which I'm surprised that they allowed him to). He became insanely popular, You might know a few lines of his if you don't think you know him.

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—

There is also a parachute museum in here too. I did not know that people (including some early daring women) parachuted out of hot air balloons.

Froom there I tried to go to lunch. Two roads were closed, my GPS knew one was but not the other and kept circling me back so I gave up and thought 'i'll get something on my way to the air force museum.' Turns out that was closer than I thought with zero fast food (or any food) in between. Guess I'll be over paying for museum food (10$ hot dog/bottle of water)


So it's been forever since I've been to Wright Patterson: the national museum of the air force . I was meant to go two years ago to the steampunk ball...only I ended up in the hospital with cancer. Sigh.

Let me say this up front: if you're in Dayton, see this (unless you hate planes). It's free. It's enormous. And right now the AF is giving Trump the biggest middle finger. They are not following the party line to remove women from military records (ditto people of color). Hell they're doubling down on it. I have never seen this much women's history in a general museum before.

If I lived closer I'd come more often. There is too much to see. WAY too much. I would love to read all the placards etc (Yes I wanted to be Edalyn Clawthorne, I'm Lilith. Sigh) If I was closer I'd come and see just one section until I saw it all and then move on.

You begin in the beginning with Orville and Wilbur again and some of the European balloonists and gliders. What struck me as unmeasurably sad was in less than a decade we went from taking our first flights to dog fighting over Europe (and their big WWI display)

This gives way to WWII which is a huge, incredibly packed area. Again they have not hidden the Tuskeegee airmen (and there was an all Black all female group as well but my brain has lost their names) they did big write ups on flight nurses (who also flew supplies which is also what the all black team was doing) but since they flew supplies they couldn't use the Red Cross symbol meaning anyone could/would shoot at them.

Now my sugar is dropping so I go for that bad food.

From there it's Korea then Viet Nam. I'm now on a mission. I must find the SR-71 Blackbird. I know she's in here. (I found her). I went to their small space collection and stared at rockets. I've been here for hours now. My feet are mad. My knee is suing for divorce.

And then it hits me. I did NOT see a P-51 Mustang in the WWII section. That is my favorite plane (yes I have a favorite). WHERE? WHY? I found docents. They told me the where. The why was it's so big in the WWII area that I just plain missed my baby.

I also love nose art (even if a lot of it is rather sexist) and bomber jacket art. They had plenty. I had fun.

And I was reminded of how Arakawa named most of the main characters after WWII planes

I now have all the books for the holidays for dad, though there is no repeats for the most part (a few exceptions) between all these museums. I should have bought the one about Charlie Taylor, the first airplane mechanic (dad was one in the air force, sort of, doing electronics) There was the books by the former high ranking AF guy who is on all the alien shows (and they were signed!) I got myself fly girls about those early pilots, one on the waves and codebreaking, Katharine Wright's bio and one on all the body snatching that went on in OH in the 1700 and 1800s.

It's now 4 pm and I want to hit the mall. I now remember why I don't go to Ross any more. their plus size collection was like 6 shirts. They did have a Halloween thing I wanted not at a price I wanted to pay. Went to Macy's, took 3 steps in the room spun and I started sweating and shaking. Well fuck. My sugar is cratering. I had to go to the hotel (which luckily is directly across from Macy's)

After I stablized and had some tea I picked dinner. That Blue Juicy Crab place had bad reviews but there is Hook and Reels on the opposite side of the mall doing the exact same thing and now I want seafood. I got and get Joe's Crab Shack vibes. Anyone remember that chain? I think it's gone entirely. I got the crab/shrimp boil which was good but also reminded me why I don't go for this much. It's messy, the shellfish gets cold by the time you crack your way through it and it's overpriced (this was cheaper than Red Lobster's offerings though)

But a half pound of shrimp and half pound of crab really equals about 8 little shrimp and a meatball sized bit of crab. I was hungry when I left so I said let's go get some DQ. There with DQ is Skyline Chili (I don't get them in east OH just near Cinci) I'm like okay lets get another chili dog while I'm here getting my pumpkin pie blizzard. Good call because with my sugar fucking about I'm feeling hungry again as I type this. I'd be looking for late n ight taco bell otherwise.

So sugar aside, another good day