Road Trip 2021 - The road home

Having completed what we could on the house it was time to think of the return trip.  Fran wanted to delay a day for a round of golf with her brother and I wanted to delay another day to visit the Carillon.

The Carillon

I got the RV ready while Fran golfed.  The next day we hopped on the bikes for a ride to the Carillon.

John Patterson

The ride through the Hills-n-Dales area is very much park-like with lots of hiking trails.

I blogged the Carillon in detail a few years ago HERE.

But first a correction on that post.  The dog on the carrousel is not Orville Wright’s dog,  Scripio is owned by Deeds and is the mascot during the founding of DELCO.

Scripio

All the rides on the carrousel are related to Dayton's history.

The Pierce Bicycle (no relation) was the first to use shaft drive and full suspension.  Later they made the Pierce-Arrow automobiles.

Pierce Bicycle

New at the Carillon is the Light Tower from NCR’s Old River Park.

Back-in-the-day Fran and I canoed at Old River.  Now to be part of University of Dayton.

The Wright Flyer, the one that actually flew at Kitty Hawk is at the Carillon.  This 1905 Wright Flyer III is considered the world’s first practical airplane, and the only airplane to receive national historic recognition.

There are replicas at the Smithsonian and at the National Air Force Museum in Dayton.  I have blogged the USAF Museum HERE. 

When/if you do visit the USAF Museum, be sure not to miss the only known Wright Brothers Women’s Bicycle.  When I first asked Information Desk where the bicycle was located the response "We're an Air Force Museum, why would we have a bicycle?".  It is now on prominent display in the heritage area.

We’re finally on the road!, we took the central route west on US 40.  Having read “Killers of the Flower Moon” I wanted to visit the Osage Nation. 

The murders of the Osage People for a bit of money is one of the blackest atrocities against Native Americans in the 20th century.

There are videos on YouTube and an upcoming Martin Scorsese movie that will provide more enlightenment.

Bill Hale was edited out of a tribal photo on the wall at the Osage Museum.  I tried as gently as I could to enquire of the docent at the museum of those dark days, and she began to cry.  Memories are still very painful for these people a century later.

After 4 trials Bill Hale was convicted of only one murder, although the BOI (Bureau of Investigation – later to become the FBI) was convinced he was responsible for some 24 murders.

The Osage Nation has well over 100 suspicious deaths during the Reign of Terror.  None of the other deaths have been investigated, let alone prosecuted.

I was asked not to take pictures by a sobbing docent, hence we have only memories of our visit.

But I will show you why the natives were murdered …

money!  Their oil rights.  Getty Oil, Phillips Petroleum and others all made millions on Osage lands.  Phillips Petroleum maintains a large presence there still.  The surface of the reservation is controlled by the US Government, but Osage maintain the rights below the surface.  Making them the only 'underground reservation' in the nation.

We did not stop in the Tribal Capital of Pawhuska (PAW-hus-ka), where more information may have been found.

 

Instead we continued west through the tallgrass prairie.  Didn't see any buffalo.

When we stopped for the night we had these beautiful butterflies visit our site.  They are not swallow tails, know of any other black butterflies?

We made a brief stop at the Bug Ranch in Conway TX to stretch our legs.

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Not really worth the time …

We whipped past the 72 oz. steak at The Big Texan in Amarillo, but did stop at Cadillac Ranch.

There is a vender selling spray paint cans.  We did not buy one as there were quite a few left at the trash cans, where Fran left our mark.

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Passing into New Mexico is Russell's Travel Center.  WOW! now that’s an underrated find.  I did not take a picture of the 50s themed diner, but the FREE museum is just awesome!

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Another day ... and it’s Fran’s birthday!  We did not make it home in time to celebrate.  But I did buy her a Date Shake!

And she could choose her lunch spot, as she drives on the last leg home.

The restaurant at the Golden Acorn was closed. :(

We’re home now and getting settled back into our routine.  We both have books to pick up at the Pacific Beach Library.  We’d like to bike the bay and just check out any changes from our 3 months on the road.
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Road Trip 2021 - Dayton wrap-up

Our time in Dayton has come to an end.  Although not all projects on the house were completed we made good progress.

The bathroom and bedroom are complete!

New vanity, mirror, vinyl flooring 

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Hardwood floors, fresh paint & trim, new bed and curtains

We ran into a delay in the kitchen when Lowes provided gray flooring vice the beige Fran had ordered.  But at least the cabinets have been refinished.

Cabinets done, but need to see the flooring before painting

Oops – we’ll need a new garbage disposer, the arms are missing on this one.  Didn’t anticipate repair, it’ll have to wait till next time. 

But it certainly wasn’t all chores.  The Fraze Pavilion is a short bike ride away.  Where we enjoyed evening concerts.

Uncle Kracker was a one-hit-wonder with ‘Follow Me’, but put on a fun show doing all of his lesser known songs.

Gladys Knight was there, without her Pips.  She looked and sounded great. but I like her early Motown work much better.

My favorite was TUSK the ultimate Fleetwood Mac tribute band.  The gal was taller than Stevie Nix, but had the look, moves and voice down.  They were great!

The Fraze closed the summer season with DISCO!  That sure got the folks up and dancing.

But there are several other music venues in the area.  The Green, The Rose and The Levitt Pavilion come to mind.  St. Leonard’s is a retirement community that also provides entertainment.  We went there to enjoy The King’s English.  A group of friends that formed in the 60s at the University of Dayton.  And still play 60’s music, mostly for us old folks.

St. Leonard’s provides the snacks, although the wine was $5

St Leonard’s also offers the use of their pool and exercise rooms to the public.  

RiverScape Park along the Miami River hosts many events.  For our last night out we enjoyed the Big Band sounds of the Bob Gray Orchestra.

The little gal singing packs a huge beautiful voice.  She’s retired Air Force and has sung the National Anthem at many events including the Cincinnati Reds.

The gas company provided a day of entertainment relocating the meter in the basement to the exterior.

The connection to the main had to be located and a new line run.

The final result was a clean connection and a new meter with a shutoff valve.  A nice touch, but the house is poured concrete.  At least the exterior walls will not burn.

When the Fraze music season is over the surrounding Lincoln Park is used for other events.  We took the advice of Chapter3Travels, where Laura recommends a late start to popular events.  And indeed the annual Bacon Fest is less crowded in the afternoon.

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We’re in the city of Kettering, which holds it’s annual block party at the Fraze.  The music is provided by the Kettering Civic Band.

With FREE hotdogs and chips.

Her red bag is probably half full of hotdogs … I know we brought 8 home.  :)

Over Memorial Day weekend the Fraze is host to Kettering's ‘Holiday at Home’ with an ‘Air Cooled’ car show, the first day.  Lots of VW bugs.

And VW ‘kit cars’

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I’ve often thought a VW Thing would be a perfect San Felipe beach cruiser. 

The ultimate VW nerd had a lot of fun with this rig.

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And an invitation only classics was held the next day.  Just WOW!

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And my favorite, which is always a truck - a 1955 Chevy, I even like the color.

On Memorial Day there is the Holiday at Home parade in Kettering.

Fairmont High has a huge presence here, I can sit on the porch and listen to their Marching Firebirds band practices.

The classic fire trucks were on display prior to the parade at the Carillon, I missed the chance to visit them.

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I had a chance to buy a Nash Metropolitan in the late 1960s.  This one looks great, but it must be a lot of work to keep it in parade show quality.

Hogs with Dogs!  I can’t say I’ve seen this before.  Must have been a couple dozen Harley Davidson cycles with puppies riding along!  All the dogs wore sun glasses.

The Wright Brothers made bicycles in Dayton and bicycles of all types were part of the parade.

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Fran attended Alter High School, her alma mater has certainly grown since she graduated.

Brown and Gold ... The San Diego Padres colors

The Shriners are present at most parades.  But the little cars were missing here, think some are now getting too old for those and riding scooters instead.

Or 18-wheelers

There was only one Jeep TJ in the Jeep Club.  We must have a classic!  Chuck if you read this you have one, too!

I did take the RV out a couple times, both times was to the dump station!  I used the local $5 indoor station in the past, but not much further is the outdoor Beaver Creek facility.

Nice outdoor facility

And it doesn’t feel like I’m in a hot stinky pota-potty.

Indoor stinky facility

We ate at Marion’s Piazza 4 times with leftovers for breakfast.  There’s six now in the RV freezer to ease our withdrawal symptoms on the way home.  I'd bring back more if they could fit.

The heat index was over 100 for the first 10 days of our stay.  This little bunny stayed under the RV enjoying the cool drippings from the A/C.

I’ll leave with this sweet thought, Ester Price!  I’m not a huge chocolate lover, but I do make an exception for Ester Price.  Glad I rode the bike there, or I might have blown my budget.

On my bike ride back form Ester Price I stopped for the third time at Massaman Thai Cuisine.  A new Thai restaurant just off the bike path in Kettering.  

Pad Lad Na

It’s so good I may give up Marion’s Pizza … NAH!

And a few more Dayton Fun Facts:
1.  Charles Kettering in 1915 invented the automobile starter motor.  Along with his partner, Edward Deeds founded Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co. (DELCO).

2.  William Shoyer invented the aluminum baseball bat in 1924.  

3.  Ermal Fraze invented the pop-top can in 1959.

4.  Huffy Bicycles was founded in Dayton.