Flying!

"I feel so dumb!" I said to Andy at the end of our travel day.

"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Well, after trying all day to read everything, I feel like I know less than when we started. There is just so much to learn!"

Early this morning Leisa and Ryan, the rangers at the Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center in downtown Dayton, Ohio, visited with us about patents, the Wright Brothers and education in general. I listened with admiration, wishing I could remember all the facts about the talented Wright Brothers as inventors and businessmen.

Then, in the Wright Cycle Company on South William Street, Kim told us more about the legendary developers of the first airplane. The fourth shop seemed such a practical place to run a business. The fifth shop across the street had been purchased by Henry Ford, dismantled and moved to Greenfield Village in Michigan. It surprised Andy and me that today any interested buyer could purchase a house in the neighborhood for $1.00 with the promise to stay for five years and fix up the property. Undoubtedly, the Wright Brothers would have been amazed at how things change.

Finally, we spent the rest of the day at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, site of the annual Air Force Marathon. I don't know how many people registered to run the race, but I saw #10,589 leave the finish area. Three middle aged people crossed that same finish at 4 p.m. when Andy and I were heading toward the car. We felt as though we had run a Marathon as we left the seven museum buildings. It had to be more than a few miles of strolling through incredible displays of the history of flight. It only confirmed how much I didn't know about history, aeronautics and famous Americans in general. I found myself wishing I could just absorb it all at once and frustrated with my own slow rate of learning and educational shortcomings. But tomorrow is another day, and I'll keep on trying.