Day 664: Nicodemus NHS

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Ben

Today we drove east to Nicodemus, Kansas, the oldest African American-founded community west of the Mississippi and the site of Nicodemus National Historic Site:

The town, once with a population of 700, was decimated by the great depression and today has a population of about 30. The park service leases the township hall and uses it as a visitor center:

The town has a fascinating history and we enjoyed learning the story of post-Civil War African American migration and settlement.

The kids completed the Junior Ranger workbooks and received their badges:

On our way out of town, we drove by three original buildings, the hotel, a church, and the old school:

Continuing east and north, we reached the town of Crete, Nebraska, where we spent a couple hours visiting with my college friend Steve and his wife Ann. It was so much fun to catch up of the last twenty years and tour their lovely home. Unfortunately, we have no photographs from our visit.

Tonight we’re overnighting at the Walmart of Crete, Nebraska. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 663: Dust in the Wind, by Kansas

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Ben

This morning the weather was great, so I went for a morning flight here at Snowflake outside of Denver:

This was my 50th post-training flight:

My last flight was in Escalante, Utah about a month ago, so today’s goal was to reset the “last flight date” counter to zero. I took off a little past three hours after sunrise, so the air was plenty bumpy. I just did one lap and came in to land:

We said goodbye to Roger and Pat (thanks for hosting us!) and drove east into what I usually think of as the boring half of the country. We’re now firmly east of the Rockies for the first time in nearly two years:

Trish continues to make jewelry for her online jewelry store:

We are overnighting at the Walmart of Colby, Kansas. Our last Walmart overnight was in January! See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 662: Visiting the Rocky Mountain Airshow

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Ben

This morning we said goodbye to the O family in Denver, where we’ve been parked since Shavuos. It’s been a lot of fun catching up, as we haven’t been here since 2011:

The kids will miss the family dog, Radar:

It was a tight fit getting out of the driveway:

We drove east to the Snowflake PPG flying site, where we stayed a few nights before Shavuos. We dropped off the RV and drove just a few miles down the road to the Rocky Mountain Airshow. The first performance was by local PPG pilots Nathan and Chris:

Several vintage warbirds flew by, including this NA-50:

And this T-6:

Doug Jardine, flying his Sbach 342:

Matt Younkin, performing impressive maneuvers in his Twin Beech passenger plane:

The Air Force Honor Guard did a demonstration:

The highlight of the snow was the USAF Thunderbirds, flying the F-16 Falcon:

The Calypso maneuver:

Crossover Break maneuver:

Delta Wing formation:

Delta Burst maneuver:

Bomb Burst maneuver:

At the bottom of the Bomb Burst, all four planes cross each other’s paths at 90 degree angles:

The afternoon program had Bob Carlton flying his Subsonix:

We saw several flybys by this World War II era B-25 Mitchell. Named “Maid in the Shade”, it is one of only a few dozen still flying:

Flyby with bomb bay doors open:

Beech Staggerwing:

The last performer we saw was Don Nelson flying his Sukhoi 26:

Traffic in and out of the airshow was considerable, but it was worth the wait. We’ve been trying to get the kids to an airshow since the beginning of the trip, so I’m glad we were finally able to do it.

Day 660: Biking and Skating

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Ben

Today, Trish and the kids went back to the local skate park:

Meanwhile, I went for a nice ride to the Aurora Reservoir and back. On the way back, I stopped and watched the R/C planes flying at Cherry Creek Reservoir:

Trish posted more jewelry to her online jewelry store:

Good Shabbos from Denver!

Day 659: Skate Park and Gap Filling Foam

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Ben

Today we visited a local skate park. M received some great scootering tips from another boy at the park:

While the kids and Trish were doing homeschool, I was finishing up mouse-proofing the RV. There’s no way to seal up the basement level, as the slides actuate into and out of the basement, so those holes can’t be plugged up. What I’m trying to do is isolate the basement level from the living level in the RV. This mostly involved filling gaps around water and sewer lines that come up from the basement behind cabinets. In some cases, the holes were much larger than they needed to be:

The vent pipe went through a huge hole in the wall behind the kitchen cabinets, so I cut out a large piece of scrap wood, glued it to the wall, and filled in the remaining gaps with foam:

We will see what happens, hopefully the mice will get bored and leave instead of hanging out in the walls now that we’ve locked them out of our house.