Planning a Trip to Dayton - Who Wants To Join Us?

Our next scheduled trip is to the lake house this summer and we need to start gearing up for that as soon as the weather allows us. We might also try to squeeze in a short weekend trip to someplace outside of Vermont to do some much needed shopping but that will be more of a spur of the moment thing. We are, however, planning to make a quick trip out to Dayton in the coming months. This next Dayton trip is finally on our schedule and we are asking around to see if anyone might want to join us.

National Museum of the US Air Force

We're way overdue for a trip to the Dayton area and the National Museum of the US Air Force. Since we were there last, I've been honored on the "Wall of Honor" and missed an official dedication ceremony due to my poor health so we'd really like to see this new "Wall of Honor".

Although we've been wanting to visit Dayton again for years, this particular trip was put on hold over and over due to other commitments using up precious leave time as well as continuing lousy health. We are definitely overdue for heading out that way!

Since the last time we visited the museum in 2009, they have added another new hangar (for a total of four, plus a silo containing missiles, plus an IMAX theatre) so now there is more to see. I know that if we had headed there before this fourth hangar was completed, we would have felt as though we missed something. Now that this new hangar is open, it is time to get serious about planning a short trip out there again.

One of the Wright brothers' bicycle shops.

As I've mentioned in numerous blog entries in the past, my health does not do well with long drives in a car... too taxing on my health... too far between bathrooms (which is related to my health problems)... too bumpy (affecting health problems)... too exhausting... and it can be absolutely miserable if my health is poor. Oh yeah... and I really, really hate driving! Driving is always a last resort for me but especially when we are talking about a 14 hour drive, each way!

Contrary to popular belief, I find airline travel to be extremely taxing on my health (perhaps even more so than travel by car) and absolutely mind-bogglingly frustrating so we often resort to travel by train. I have to say, we both really enjoy traveling by train and if we had more time we would do it much more often. Traveling by train is our plan again for this upcoming trip.

Our current plan is to drive to nearby Albany, New York to hop on the Lakeshore Limited train which will take us to Toledo in northern Ohio. When we arrive in Toledo, we will pick up a rental car and drive the relatively few short hours south to Dayton.

When we arrive in Dayton, it will still be too early to check into our hotel so we will probably get lunch and then visit the Wall of Honor at the Air Force Museum. We'll have a little bit of time to wander around outside and then we will head to our hotel to check in... relax... then do something about dinner.

What remains of the Wright homestead.

We plan to stay in Dayton a few days... enough time to comfortably wander throughout the Air Force Museum, visit Historic Carillon Park, get some delicious BBQ (hello, Old Hickory!), visit a local dairy which gets a daily show of high speed, low altitude F-16s everyday due to its location, and we definitely want to wander the restaurants and bars in the historic Oregon District of Dayton at least one night. I could easily find another dozen things to do if we had more time!

As always, we're looking forward to our time relaxing at the lake this summer but we're also excited about heading back to Dayton!

Anyone care to join us?