Up, Up and Away & Six States of Separation– 26/05/10 & 27/05/10

Up, Up and Away - 26/05/10

We left DC this morning and drove out to Dulles airport, where the Steven Udvar-Hazy centre of the National Air and Space Museum is located.
The centre is a very large hanger with a slightly smaller one tacked on.
The collection of aircraft (and spacecraft) in this building is just staggering. There must be more than a hundred planes in here and they’re only half the collection.
Among many other craft on display, there’s the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Also an SR-71 Blackbird, a Concorde and the Space Shuttle Enterprise.

For me, the Enola Gay was a highlight, because I had previously seen the Bockscar, the other B-29 that dropped the other atomic bomb on Nagasaki. These aircraft have an aura.
The SR-71 Blackbird is simply one of the most bad-ass planes ever built.
And I’ve always wanted to see a Space Shuttle.
But there were so many other aircraft of every shape and size. It’s an aviation geek’s dream come true.
I felt bad about dragging Pia all over the place all day but she had a ball too.
Between us we took 350 pictures.

At the end of the day, we found a really nice campground off I 66 and enjoyed dinner at a local Cracker Barrel. (Thanks Jim and Debbie).

Six States of Separation – 27/05/10

We left the campground this morning with the intention of driving up to New York City. But the closer we got the more we didn’t feel like going. We were both reluctant to return to a big city when we’ve spent so much time in big cities recently. And, of course, New York’s as big as it gets.

We had a lead on a motel in Elizabeth, New Jersey. But when we got there and saw the neighbourhood, we turned around and drove straight the hell out of there. It looked like a pit and the drug-addled sexworker plying her trade right outside the motel put us off a bit too.

Plan B was an RV park in Jersey City who wanted $60 a night, just to park and sleep in our own van. And everywhere else we’d seen was charging extra for parking on top of their room rates. We tooled around New Jersey a bit and saw Manhattan across the river, with the Empire State Building in the distance.

But at the end of the day, our hearts weren’t in it. For myself, I only wanted to see the Statue of Liberty. But it wasn’t to be. Everywhere we looked it was filthy and squalid and packed with people with dead eyes. So we fled.

We drove straight out of New York City on I 80 and turned north. In the evening we pulled up at an overpriced motel in the small town of Montecello in upstate New York, a couple hours south of Syracuse. It felt good to be driving through the beautiful countryside again. I guess we’re just not city people. Who knew?

Over the course of today, we started in Virginia and drove through West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and finished up in New York.
Six states in one day is a new record for us.

Vought F-4U Corsair

5th Wheel 40-foot caravan towed by semi prime mover with quad runner riding piggyback. Seen in upstate New York.

Space Shuttle Enterprise

Ultralight from Operation Migration. This was the real one that inspired the movie Fly Away Home.

Victim's-eye view of a P-40 Kitty Hawk.

B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay

Us with Enola Gay

Concorde

Breakfast at the campsite

SR-71 Blackbird. Still the fastest jet-powered aircraft ever made.