Dayton National Aviation Heritage Area

With this most recent Thanksgiving road trip I have now reached 150 National Park Sites! In 2011 alone I have visited 65 sites!!! The only months I didn’t take a trip were February, March and August. What a freakin incredible (and exhausting) year. I love that I've gone to son many and look forward to many more but frankly at this point I find that a lot of places are blending together. I frequently find myself racking my brain to think of specific details of a trip. Thank goodness I take so many pictures.

Anyway, this Thanksgiving weekend I decided to head back to Ohio which I had just recently visited this past January. There were only a few more sites left for me to check out and I thought it would be a nice relaxing trip (which it actually was). I woke up on Black Friday and headed out at 5:00am. My first stop was in Cleveland, Ohio. The David Berger National Memorial is located on the grounds of the Mandel Jewish Community Center of Cleveland and I had been there last year but had not managed to find the dang memorial! This site honors the memory of David Berger, an American citizen who was one of 11 Israeli athletes killed at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany Looking for redemption, I headed back in the bright light of day and lo and behold it is right across the entrance to the community center. I was looking for the tell tale brown NPS sign but this was just a small plaque. I was so happy to finally locate this memorial. I really like this picture of the sun shining through.

By the time I drove over to Dayton, OH it was 58 degrees and sunny. My first stop was the Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center and Wright Memorial. The center has exhibits focused on the Wright brothers' development of the world's first practical airplane at Huffman Prairie in 1904 and 1905, their flying school starting in 1910, and the accomplishments of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Outside, overlooking the Huffman Prairie is the Wright Memorial. The monument was dedicated on August 19, 1940, Orville's 69th birthday. After getting a nice bird’s eye view of the field I decided to drive down and check it out and it was so cool! It is located on the grounds of the Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

After flying in Kitty Hawk, the Wright Brothers came back to Dayton to learn how to actually control a plane. On this 84-acre patch of rough pasture outside Dayton, the Wright brothers learned to control and maneuver their powered machine and taught themselves to fly during 1904 and 1905. They chose this field because its location along a rail line from Dayton provided them with easy access. Not only did they do hundreds of test flights but they also started the first flying school and many moments in aviation history were tested out on this field. Here's a waiver they used. There are several interpretive signs scattered about. I like this one because it shows how they had to share the pasture with cows. There are also replicas of their 1905 hanger and launching catapultI had a grand time walking around the field enjoying the gorgeous weather until I strayed too far and came across signs warning of a firing range. Oops.

I really loved this field because it’s pretty much how the Wright Brothers left it (minus the livestock). When you hear planes overhead, it’s amazing to realize that they owe their existence to this little prairie and two brilliant men.