Planes, Trains, and Automobiles... (minus the trains) :)

Tuesday morning I left my grandmothers house and drove to Ann Arbor, MI. I know, it is in the complete opposite direction of TN, but I have to hit all 50 states and what better time then the present when I was only a couple hours away? So I knew this was a big college town and I wanted to check out the campus, but it turns out this a HUGE college town that is built up around the University of Michigan. Just like in Gainesville, (except add a few thousand people) the area around the school is hopping and then just a few miles outside the campus it is back to country farms, and wheat fields. Little did I know that I would be visiting the University which has the largest football stadium in the country (for college football that is). I have to hand the credit of informing me of that little gem to Dawn who I was talking to when I arrived. :) I love the fact that I already had this stop on my list and now I get to add this to my list of cool things seen. Maybe someday I will get to see a game there, but until then I will have to be satisfied with just having seen it.

As far as big cities go I would rate Ann Arbor pretty high on my list. There have been quite a few that I have not enjoyed (and we'll hear more about that later), but this one was nice. The traffic and parking were just like any other (blah), but the downtown area, which was in the middle of campus, looked like it would be a ton of fun. It is a good walking city from what I could tell. Things were not dirty or rundown, and I did not see one area that I would not have felt safe walking around in. I spent some time eating lunch and relaxing at a local park named Gallup Park. It was just a couple miles from campus and the weather was perfect. I fed the geese for a while (which your probably not supposed to do, hehe) and then got back on the road.

This is what I saw during my drive...

nothing.

I arrived in Dayton in the evening and was pleasantly surprised with how nice the hotel was. I guess anything would be better then the hostel. :) I tend to stay in the cheapest places I can find which sometimes works against me, but in this case, was suite! (pun intended)

This morning I went to the National Air Force Museum in Dayton. As some of you may know I had aspirations of becoming a pilot for a long time when I was younger. This desire has never really left and I was like a kid in a candy shop at this museum! There were planes so incredibly huge they had to turn it sideways to get it into the hanger. Planes whose wingspan was so large that the wings had landing gear. Just one propeller on one engine of some of the planes were taller then me. But it is not only about the size; there were planes from every era in history represented, planes that were known for their stealth. planes that rescued soldiers from the battlefield and planes that carried presidents.
I went on a special tour where we took a bus over to the active Air Force base that is across the street. There are two extra hangers over there that house some of the presidents planes which you can actually go inside, and a ton of experimental planes (the R&D hanger.) Again ecstatic! President Kennedy's plane was there for us to walk through and I learned something I found very interesting. After his assassination they did not want to transport his casket in the cargo area of the plane. So they cut out a wall in the interior and put the casket in with the passengers. Apparently, Jackie sat next to it during the flight.
There was a cockpit of a plane open for you to sit in which of course I did. I was pushing kids out of the way to get in... no just kidding. There wasn't a line which made me so happy cause I sat in there forever just playing with all the buttons and checking everything out. :)

Trying to give some perspective. This was not the biggest wheel!

notice the wheels on the wings

in heaven

Uh oh, my feet don't reach the pedals. Shoot, back to earth.

Coolest plane ever! The B-2

This is a SMALL portion of the pictures I took. To check the rest out see my facebook page here.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2206004&id=33407719&l=4d908344a8

I spent so much time at this museum I only had about an hour to see the Indianapolis Speedway Museum. This turned out to be just fine because the speedway museum was nothing to get excited about. It was one big room with cars lined up in a few aisles. There was some info on the cars, but for the most part, if you are not a big racing fan I would not suggest seeing this attraction. However, I did go on a short little bus ride around the track and that did give some interesting info on the history of the track.
The city of Indianapolis, in stark contrast to Ann Arbor, was horrible. Sorry to anyone who may take offense, but I have zero desire to ever return. One word describes it pretty well... scary. Thank God I was there during daylight hours. It may have actually been worse then my experience in Delaware (you have to go way back for that story: 7/20/10).

The speedway was nicknamed "The Brickyard" because at one time the whole thing was paved with bricks. In fact, the bricks are still there. They're just covered with asphalt.

 I know I said no more long posts, but this was mostly pictures ;) Off to the Creation Museum tomorrow. Can't wait.