Scattered Thoughts . . .

During our recent visit to the US Air Force Museum, Kenzie and Lukey were able to participate in a few space activities.  The Air Force has always been an integral part of the US Space Program and that is abundantly visible at the US Air Force Museum.  The museum has rockets used for launching space missions, the progression of space capsules, space suits, launch pads, simulators, as well as artifacts from different missions including artifacts collected from the moon,  Kenzie and Lukey had an opportunity to get up close and personal with a real space suit and to step into one of these big, heavy suits.  They didn't get to actually wear the suit but they were able to step into the suit from behind.   In the photo below, we have Mission Specialist Mackenzie and Mission Specialist Lukas on a tethered space walk.  They are captured floating in space while completing their mission to repair a solar array while at the ISS...  Earth is 254 miles beneat...

While we were in Dayton with our two oldest grandchildren back in June, we visited Young's Dairy in Yellow Springs.  Most of this long Amtrak journey had been a learning experience of science, technology, history and zoos but we wanted to fit in some recreation too so we put aside an afternoon to visit Young's Dairy. This farm has grown significantly since I had lived in Dayton but it still has the same general vibe...  you know it is a farm but there are quite a few things to do.  Of course, it is a dairy so there is homemade ice cream too.   You'd think that the ice cream would have hit the spot on a day that was in the triple digits with humidity close to 100% but, by the time we were ready for some ice cream, we were completely drenched in sweat.  Sitting in the air conditioned creamery while completely soaked with clothes sticking to us was quite uncomfortable!  By this time, the sky had opened up with heavy rain and a passing thunderstorm so sitt...

As I wrote in a previous blog entry, our short trip from our hotel to Cincinnati Union Terminal in the middle of the night was uneventful...  and very quiet.  Catching this train in the middle of the night was a piece of cake.  It was still about 90° outside in the middle of the night but it was nice and quiet with absolutely no logistical problems.   The only remarkable event on this night was that we had to check our large rolling luggage...  four pieces in total.  There were four of us and we had packed for a two week trip anticipating sweaty clothes everyday so we had quite a bit to pack.  We each had a rolling piece of luggage and a small carry-on bag.  Fortunately, we planned for this possibility (needing to check our big luggage) so had already put everything we might need on the train in our carry-on bags so this was a painless change of plans.   We had already planned for this because we knew that these new Viewliner II tra...