June 22, 2022 - Transit to Ohio

I got up early this morning, drove out to the airport, and hopped into the RV.  Destination:  Dayton, Ohio.  Home of the National Museum of the Air Force.  I've been there twice:  25 years ago and then 15 years ago.  It's time to see it again.

Weather was just about perfect.  It will be about a two and a half hour flight.

Here I am heading west, just the north of Baltimore city.
   
Passing by Cumberland airport with the city at top.
   

Looking down at the three towns of Luke and Westernport of Maryland, and Piedmont of West Virginia.  The North Branch of the Potomac River runs through the towns.  Westernport was named because it was the westernmost navigable port on the Potomac River    The big smokestack is from the paper mill, originally founded by William Luke with his sons in 1888 as the Piedmont Pulp and Paper Company.  As you might imagine the paper mill had a huge impact on the local economy.   As of December 2017, the Luke mill had about 700 employees.  On April 30, 2019, the paper mills owner, Verso,  announced the closing of the Luke paper mill by June 30, 2019, due to various economic factors.  Importation was one of the reasons cited.    The Tri-Towns community – consisting of Piedmont in West Virginia, with Luke and Westernport in Maryland – was projected to become devastated by the closure.

There is an asphalt airstrip just north of the towns but it is closed.

We drove through this area on our way to Deep Creek Lake a few years ago.
   
Looking down at Garrett County airport (2G4), just to the northeast of Deep Creek Lake, Maryland.
   
Looking back at a nice picture of the entire Deep Creek Lake.
   
A secluded private strip -- not on the chart -- on the top of a mountain.
   
Another private airfield:  Valley Point.
   
Approaching Morgantown -- home of West Virginia.University.  Morgantown Municipal Airport is at lower left.
   

A closer look at Morgantown.  That's the Monongahela River running left to right.

Milan Puskar Stadium -- home of the Mountaineers -- is just left of center.

 
   
The obligatory shot of the Ohio River looking south.   I'm heading due east.  That's New Martinsville below.
   
And looking north.  As I cross the Ohio River, I leave West Virginia and enter Ohio.  I still have a ways to go.  Dayton is in the southwest corner of Ohio.
   
The sky was pretty as I passed through this area.  Photos of clouds almost never capture the experience, however.
   
Passing over an interesting river which I think is the Little Muskingum.  Never heard of it.  It's a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 65 miles long.
   
Passing to the south of Rickenbacker International Airport, on the south side of Columbus.  It's named after the famous World War One flying ace and Columbus native Eddie Rickenbacker, of course.
   
On downwind at my destination, Greene County Airport (I19).  I have landed here once before, in the old Citabria, back in 2007, when Bruce and I last visited the Air Force Museum.  Link.
   
Greene County is on the southeast side of Dayton, and south of Wright Patterson Air Force Base where the Air Force Museum is located.
 
I was amazed at all the red-shirted staffers were working at the FBO.  They were all young people, perhaps interns working for the summer?  Very friendly.
   
The plane is tied down and secured for the night.  A thunderstorm did come through later in the afternoon.
   

I had tried to reserve a rental car yesterday and was surprised to find none were available.  I almost cancelled the trip.  But in the end I just decided to Uber to the museum, then the motel, then back to the airport in the morning.  The Uber rates were much higher than I expected, and totalled about 75% as much as a rental car would have.  Plus, without the rental car, I didn't have the option of visiting some other places in Dayton that I would have liked to seen.  Oh well, live and learn.

I did arrive at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force around noon.
   
I spent the next five hours touring the museum until it closed at 5PM.
   
The museum is huge.  You know the giant hangar housing the Udvar-Hazy Smithsonian Air and Space Museum?  The Air Force Museum has FOUR such hangars!
   
 
   
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