Wright Brothers National Museum

While we were at Carillon Park with Kenzie and Lukey, we spent some time at the Wright Brothers National Museum.  This museum is actually a part of the walk through Carillon Park.  It is on one side of the park up on hillside.  

Typically, the flow of visitors walks up the main thoroughfare to the Transportation Center, then crosses a bridge to the hillside, then works their way through a few other Carillon Park historical items on their way through the Wright Brothers National Museum.  Once you get through the Wright Brothers National Museum, you then have close access to where you started.  We arrived right when the park opened so the "crowd" was just ahead of us.  In an effort to separate ourselves from the crowd, we chose to run through the park backwards by starting with the Wright Brothers National Museum.  

There really was no "crowd" on this day because it was so unbearably hot and humid.  Everyone was indoors or at pools, I suspect.  But, what little bit of a crowd there was, we preferred to keep our distance to give us some breathing room and time to talk about each of the items at the museum without bothering those around us.  Since we chose this backwards route through the park and since attendance was very low due to the heat, we were mostly alone through most of this historic park.  That was great!

They have an actual Wright B Flyer III on display in one of the buildings.  There was a docent in this building and she politely asked if we needed some help in understanding what we were looking at.  When she asked where we were from, Sheila informed her we're from Vermont and then mentioned that I am retired Air Force and was stationed at Wright-Patterson base for a long time decades ago.  I added that I worked in Research & Development back then and left it at that.  The docent's eyes opened wider and her eyebrows lifted, then said, "OH...  he could probably teach me a few things!"  

She thought for a minute or two in silence.  I think she decided to take a different tact than she does with most visitors and rather than informing us about all the technical aspects of the Wright B Flyer, she told a story about the personal life of the brothers that I had not heard previously.  The funny thing is that neither one of us can remember this story today!  

What I do remember is that her story was so personal that, as she was telling it, I began to wonder whether she was a descendant of the brothers and whether I had actually met her decades ago.  A few times each year, I was at one ceremony or another in close contact with the Wright descendants.  

Unfortunately, our ages have gotten the best of us and neither Sheila nor I can remember this story!  If I happen to awaken in the middle of the night one night remembering this story, I'll revisit this blog entry and retell the story here.  

This might be my favorite photo from this latest visit to this museum.  When I shot this photo, I had to crouch in the blazing hot sun when we were actively trying to avoid the sun.  You know how when you visit a beach on a very hot day and the sand is too hot to walk on without shoes or sandals?  That is how the sun was on this day.  We actively walked from the shade of a tree to the next shady spot as quickly as possible on the shortest route.  Crouching in front of this bench in the sun on this day left me fighting passing out.  It was so bright that I couldn't see a thing on my LCD screen on the back of the camera.  The longer I stayed in the sun, the more sparklies I saw in my vision!  So, I shot this photo blindly and then quickly moved to the closest shade.  I remember that when I stood up to get out of the sun, I almost fell over again and I couldn't see a thing.  Still, I really like this photo!

On the positive side, due to the intense heat and high humidity, the park was almost completely empty for our visit.  We had no crowds pushing us away from where we wanted to be.  It is really nice visiting places like this on quiet days.