2010 Dayton Hamvention and Ohio Trip

Back in October of last year I got an Southwest Airlines email advertising deals.  At that time I knew I was going to retire by the end of 2009, so I booked a flight to Ohio for the 2010 Ham Radio Convention in Dayton Ohio.  Carol's sister lives about 32 miles from Dayton so I can visit her and have a place to stay to boot.  I flew into the Columbus airport on May 5 and Carol's sister Pat picked me up.  The convention is Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May 14, 15, 16th, so I had about a week to do stuff with her before the convention.  The weather here has been rain and high humidity just about every day.  It rains just part of the day and then is just humid the rest. During the week I had time to do some projects for her like organizing her garage and fixing up her yard.

One of the real neat things to do around here is to visit the National Air force Museum in Dayton Ohio.  Pat and I spent one day there and did not have enough time to see it all so I planned another day later in the week to see more.

Here is one of the most famous astronauts of all time!

A real UFO!

You have to sign up for a tour of the Presidential Hangers which display some of the past Presidential Air Force One Planes.  When I went back to the museum a few days later, I was able to get on the first tour of the day.  We were bussed over to a special hanger where I was able to tour the plane the President Kennedy,Johnson, and Nixon used.  There were some experimental airplanes there as well. It was very interesting and well done. 

They even had one of the planes that dropped the second bomb on Japan that ended world war II.  The most amazing part of all of this is that is was completely free of any charge, even parking was free.  Something I was not used to being from California where nothing is free!

The plane that dropped the bomb on Japan.