Small town America and a world class air museum.

Main Street U.S.A. Well, actually it is 3rd Street, McMinville, OR.

We are unexpectedly living aboard Sadie again for a couple of days. Patrick's varsity boys' basketball team (Perrydale H.S.) is in the league playoffs. They had a game last night, but it was in McMinnville, OR, about 50 miles from home. Yesterday morning, I said to Jill, "Here's a crazy idea. Let's repack the coach and go to McMinnville for Pat's game." After hesitating for a little while, she said, "OK. Let's go!"

So,we left home about 2:00 PM and arrived in McMinnville at the Olde Stone Village RV park a little before 4:00. If that seems a little slow to you for a trip of 50 miles, I hasten to point out that it was Friday afternoon on a sunny weekend in February, and the road to McMinnville is also the road to the beach! On top of that, you may not know about Dundee.

Dundee is a small town along highway U.S. 99. It isn't big, but it has a stop light and the highway is a narrow two lanes. A few years ago, wine making became a big new industry in the Willamette Valley. Consequently, Dundee has grown in popularity. There are a number of wine tasting rooms in the vicinity. Bottom line: traffic is always stop and go in Dundee, and when it goes, it goes at the speed of a teenager sent out to mow the lawn.

Olde Stone Village RV park is very nice, and the price is very reasonable. We got all set up and drove on in to McMinville H.S. in time for the game. Things went pretty well for about a quarter and a half, but then St. Paul's Buckeroos, who average about a head taller than the Perrydale Pirates, pulled away. At halftime, they led by nine. Perrydale made a run at the end of the third quarter and got back within seven points, after dropping behind by as many as 16. They made another run late in the fourth quarter, but it was too little too late. Pat was proud of his team. They played hard and their sportsmanship made St. Paul look a little shabby by comparison.

Today got off to a sunny start and actually got to be quite warm by midday. We decided to visit the Evergreen Air Museum, which is right next door to the Olde Stone Village. What an amazing collection of aviation history. The central attraction is Howard Hughes's Spruce Goose. This wooden, amphibious, cargo plane is enormous, boasting the longest wingspread of any aircraft in history. It is truly spectacular with its 8 (count 'em) 8 3,000 horsepower engines. It only flew once, and that for about 30 seconds. By that time, technology had passed it by, WWII ended and the old bird was relegated to the ranks of an aviation curiosity. Still it is a marvelous achievement.

Photo courtesy of Google Photos
Here is a photo of the Spruce Goose
And another. Note the size of the other planes in comparison!
Here is the tail section.
This is a Lockheed F80 shooting star from immediately
post WWII, which was used for a trainer for a couple of decades.
And what appears to be a WWII era Navy bird.
The museum has lots of military hardware, including some tanks.

Of course, the museum contains much more than the Spruce Goose. It is, in fact, the best air museum I have seen (I have not been to the Smithsonian). There are planes spanning the history of flight from a model of the Wright Flier to jet fighters used in Iraq and everything in between. I was thrilled by the number of WWII warbirds on display, and today there were several WWII veteran pilots available to answer questions. We spoke to one gentleman who flew the same model torpedoe plane as George H. W. Bush. He was about as modest as anyone I have ever met. He said, "We were just a bunch of kids. We thought it was fun!" In my estimation, this is a world class air museum (and we didn't even go in the space museum section!) and would make a good vacation destination, especially when they have added the planned water park, complete with a water tube that will pass through the fuselage of a Boeing 747!

Following our visit to the museum, we returned to Sadie and took Pogo out to take care of her business. Then we decided to go out to lunch, something we rarely do when we are RVing. We chose the Golden Valley Brewery and Restaurant. The restaurant section is quite reminiscent of the kellers I visited in Bavaria a couple of decades back. The food, was not, although it was quite good. I don't remember seeing quesadillas on the menu in Munich! Jill had a bock lager with her lunch, and I chose a porter. Both were quite respectable.

After lunch we had a nice stroll along the main drag and looked in shop windows. We had an encounter with a street magician, and finally found ourselves in an ice cream shop, where we succumbed to temptation.

Jill had an encounter with Ben Franklin!

I texted Patrick and we agreed to meet for the next game in the playoffs this evening. Jill and I met Pat and Katie at the gym and were treated to a very exciting contest between St. Paul and the undefeated league leader, Country Christian H.S. St. Paul came out on top, which was a mixed blessing for Pat. On the one hand, he would have liked to see St. Paul go down after they beat him last evening, and on the other he is glad to know that Country Christian H.S. is NOT invincible.