Touring Ohio!

Our first day of this motorcade [yesterday] was a very long and busy one. Our group of 50 was picked up at 8:30 and taken by bus to the Kitchen Aid factory in Greenville, OH, for a tour about 30 minutes from our campground. It's a huge place and yet all they make there are stand mixers, attachments and accessories. I was expecting washers, dryers, dishwashers, ovens and that type of appliance but apparently they are made elsewhere. It was a very detailed tour, maybe a little too detailed for my taste. In other words, too much information [kind of like this blog, you say?]. We saw some of the original products they made and also their millionth stand mixer to come off the line which was gold plated! After you work there 25 years you get to select whatever model of stand mixer you want. Our tour guide has one year to go and informed us she wants the copper model. I told her I'd take the gold plated one...LOL.

After the tour, we drove into town to the Kitchen Aid Experience where we all made our own apple dumplings from scratch. While all 50 of those were baking, we walked down the block to a cafe for a huge Italian lunch, then returned to eat our hot out of the oven apple dumplings with ice cream! Most of us were too full from lunch but several of us managed to stuff them down. I ate everything but my crust even though that's my favorite part! It was delicious! We all spent time shopping in the store and they really made a killing that day. Did you know they offer a 20% discount if you have an AAA card? I bought a mini food chopper, tea kettle, ice cream scooper and cook book. I don't have a stand mixer but now I wish I did...

Next we hung out at a beautiful park while waiting for the Garst Museum to open. They aren't open on Mondays but made an exception for our group which was nice. The Garst Museum collections feature photos and artifacts about Annie Oakley. It was really one of the nicer museums I've seen in awhile. It also featured  Lowell Thomas, best remembered as a radio news commentator on the CBS Radio Network plus a lot of pioneer artifacts. I'm sure glad we were born as late as we were after seeing the beauty shop appliances [the perm machine looked like torture] and dental tools. We have come a long way since those days. There was also a beautiful collection of hand stitched quilts which all of us ladies drooled over...

Friends of Annie Oakley [our group]



Entrance to the park

After the museum, we returned to our RVs for an evening of relaxation since we'd be getting up early again today to visit the Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport in Miamisburg, OH, for a ride on a replica of the 1911 Wright Brothers airplane! We also rode in a 1916 Model T around the airport. It was well worth getting up for, what a thrill!!! You are completely in the open air, although we did have goggles and headsets so we could hear our very friendly pilot, Don. Even though it was a short flight [taking off at one end of the runway and landing at the end of the same runway], it was so exciting! We each received a numbered certificate, complete with a toothpick [to check for bugs in our teeth, lol] stating we were a Wright "B" Flyer and honorary aviator. It also means we are now members of the Wright B Flyer Inc. non profit organization which includes voting rights. It just so happens their annual meeting and spaghetti feed was tonight! How is that for timing? I was of the few [out of 26] ladies in our group that went up in the plane but most all of the guys did it. It was an absolute blast!



Kris, after his flight.



Shannon's certificate, received after her flight.
She hasn't cleaned the bugs out of her teeth yet!

Here's a short video of Kris getting ready to take flight.

Some also visited the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB today. Kris and I headed to Skyline Chili for some Cincinnati Chili which Kris has been wanting for a long time. It was my first experience eating it and I have to say it was delicious. Picture a plate of spaghetti with a layer of chili on it, then beans, piled high [and I mean HIGH] with cheese and onions on top! If you aren't familiar, this recipe calls for cinnamon and unsweetened chocolate in it! For the original recipe go to http://cooks.com/ and search for "skyline chili".

It was a beautiful 80F sunny day today here today. Tomorrow we are leaving for our second stop in Ohio: Van Buren, where we'll be for three nights and have several factory tours lined up. More on that later...

Night all.