Ben and Megan Travel the World

Oklahoma Winery and Lights

We left Beaver Creek and headed into Oklahoma. We stopped overnight at Pecan Creek Winery in Muskogee, OK. It’s about halfway between I-40 and Tulsa. It’s next to a few homes, we pulled into a shared driveway. We had two dogs greet us from the house next door. Luckily, Cody never saw them the entire time we were there!

After setting up, we headed in for a wine tasting. Candy helped us, even though she doesn’t normally work the front. I think she was nervous, and not comfortable with silences, because she kept a verbal stream of consciousness going the entire tasting…which took at least an hour. We were so exhausted, all we wanted to do was go back to the trailer and make dinner. As we were the only ones there, we felt obligated to stay, not to mention wanting to finish the tasting!

Their wines were unique, many were made with tempranillo grapes. I did learn from Candy what “estate” means in a wine name. It means the wine was made with grapes grown onsite. The winery controls the entire process from growing grapes to bottling the wine. She was very knowledgeable, I did appreciate that. We met the Owner, she came in to set up for their craft night that evening. She opened a bottle of a rose she was experimenting with. It was very good – aged in bourbon barrels.

We left the next morning and headed to Anthem Brewery in Oklahoma City. It’s within walking distance to the city, and we were able to stay 2 nights. That seems unusual for Harvest Hosts; most are for only one night.

A park close to us had a Christmas lights display. We enjoyed walking around with Cody.

I need a camera phone that takes better night shots.

They did a show every half hour at the old Union Station train station. It was a narration of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas with a light show. We enjoyed it. I would love to upload a video of it, but it is a premium block on Word Press apparently. So I’ll just share a photo.

Bentonville, AR

The next afternoon we headed to Bentonville, about 20 minutes away. We grabbed lunch at Bentonville Brewery. The burgers were great, as was the beer. It was another beautiful day, so we sat outside. The town has character, and it was nice to walk around it. Reminds me a little of Ghent–art, good food, walkability.

There’s even an art museum: Crystal Bridges Museum sounds like Chrysler Museum. This museum has the Chrysler beat, though. It does have a lot more space to use; Chrysler is wedged in between some busy streets. We didn’t go into the museum; instead, we walked the sculpture path and saw the Frank Lloyd Wright house they had on display.

We chose to park in town and walk through the public trails to get to the museum. That was a good call – they have a nice park along the river. They’ve even built a really nice mountain bike path with stone banked corners! Those were impressive. We saw lots of people enjoying it.

I saw many of these trees with some bark removed to show white underneath – but only at the top. I don’t know what species they are. Ben thought they may be ash trees. I did see a lot of gum trees. Flashbacks to when I was a kid barefoot and stepping on those awful gum balls.

This spider sculpture is called Maman, by Louise Bourgeois. It was my favorite. Louise sees spiders as caring, helpful and hard working, like her mother.

Here’s a shot of the museum. I guess the museum buildings are the crystal bridges. We had imagined there was a town bridge called Crystal Bride. Nope.

Here’s the Frank Lloyd Wright house. It was brought down from New Jersey. It’s current resident likes to curl up outside.

There are tickets to go inside, so we just walked around the outside. I’ve learned that the phone takes pretty good photos to see inside when close to the glass. We were able to see a lot this way.

We walked back into town to the Taproom to watch the rest of the men’s world cup game, the US-Iran game. The US won, making it to the knockout round (surprising me). Because of the settlement with the women’s team, both teams now split any winnings from world cups. When I first read this, I thought – how unfair! The women win cups and the men can barely qualify. What I didn’t realize is how drastic the gap is between prize money for the men and women tournaments. In splitting the money for this win, the women’s team is getting more money than they did when they won the championship in 2019. Wow! So while it sucks that the men’s team then got crushed by the Netherlands, I’m glad they advanced to that round. We won’t make it to Australia/New Zealand for the 2023 games, but maybe if we get to the 2027 cup, we’ll see the first women’s world cup with equal prize money. Who knows!

The Taproom was a decent size dive bar that was blasting 80’s music as we walked in. We were the only ones there besides the bartender and her friends. I mean, it was 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon. They had a great beer selection, and I chose to enjoy the Trash Panda IPA by Lost Forty out of Little Rock. We watched 80’s music videos while being serenaded by the bartender and her friends as they warmed up for that night’s karaoke.

Neither Ben nor I could figure out this sculpture below. There are basketballs glued to the ground around it. But the green penguin gets to look at it day and night. It’s outside a 21c hotel.

We headed to one last brewery on our way home. It’s near a food market, so we figured we could grab food as well. We could have, if only places were open. Luckily, there was a cheese shop open, so we had cheese and crackers with our beer. Very good cheese I might add. After a tasting, we headed back for dinner. Tomorrow we head over to a winery in Oklahoma.

Lost Bridge and Pea Ridge

We stayed at the Lost Bridge campground at Beaver Lake for a few nights. The lake is in the northwest corner of Arkansas, close to the Missouri border. Ben reserved the best spot in the camp, right on the water!! It was beautiful, and we were entertained by the two Corps of Engineers workers who took the boat out every day. True to form for government workers, they took their time putting in the boats and taking them out. It gave Ben something to watch.

It was finally warm enough to sit outside! It’s nice to stay in one spot for a few days after moving each day. Ben read outside while I worked in the morning. The hikes around the campground are a bit much for Cody, but there’s plenty of area for him to walk around. And, after the first night, we were the only ones in the campground. I just let him wander, though we have to watch him. We don’t think he can see far anymore, so he gets lost 30 feet from us.

We spent an afternoon at Pea Ridge Military Park. It’s a small battlefield close to where we stayed. Neither Ben nor I had heard of it before, and it surprises me that Ben hadn’t. Two days of fighting occurred in March of 1862.

It’s a small battlefield, especially relative to Gettysburg and Manassas. The armies were much smaller as well. This display in the welcome center was helpful. It laid out the battlefield and used lights to follow along with the narrator.

They have a driving loop similar to Gettysburg. They added videos online for each stop as an audio tour. Cody came with us to check out a few of the spots.

From the displays, we gather that these battles were not great strategic accomplishments from either side. Several signs mentioned this battle is still studied in training at places such as West Point and the War College. I’m pretty sure it’s to study lessons learned on what not to do as leaders. One general had his troops facing the wrong way when the opposing side came up to them. Yes, cannons and all. Oops. Another came upon a large contingent marching along the road and though outnumbered, chose to fire into the line anyway. I paraphrase Ben as he’s describing it: “eh, what the hell, fire!”

It was a gorgeous day to be outside, and we saw 3 other people in the loop. Winter is not my favorite season, but it’s been great for sight-seeing! This is the Elkhorn Tavern, at the intersection of 3 main roads in this area. Ben would know more about the history and its significance to Pea Ridge. I was enjoying the sunshine and warmth. Both armies wanted this location and access to the roads.

The lake was a great location for shooting close to sunset and sunrise; however, the security lights took away much of the effect. We enjoyed the light for walking around at night though.

We headed to Bentonville the next day. It was nice to stay in one location for 3 nights.

Scott AFB to Ft Leonard Wood

We stayed overnight at both these bases on our way south. Scott is east of St Louis. Scott’s RV park was near a small lakes on base, I’m starting to see a pattern with air force bases. They like having a recreation lake. Scott had a really nice running path close to the RV park. It takes you around one of the runways. Both Ben and I went running. It was pretty foggy still when I was out, so I didn’t get to see much. I liked the tunnel underneath the runway.

Ft. Leonard Wood is an Army base in Missouri, about halfway between St Louis and Springfield. It’s a training facility, possibly a boot camp location, because there were lots of young soldiers walking and running around. We saw a few formations getting ready for something. The gym was nice; that and a trip to the Commissary were all we did here. We stop for a few days at Beaver Lake next, in the Ozarks in northwest Arkansas.

Downs, IL

We arrived at Amy’s Sunday morning. Downs is in central Illinois, close to Bloomington. We saw Amy in May, but we haven’t seen Emma and Ethan since August 2020. It was good to hang out with them all for a few days. Amy has two dogs, Leah and Olive. Leah didn’t like it when Cody got attention, but other than that, they did well together. They basically did this the entire time when they weren’t outside or eating:

I should clarify that the above photo was taken when only Ben and I were home. Otherwise, they were in a lap of whoever sat on the couch. =)

Ethan did a competition in NJ over the weekend, and Emma was still at school in Chicago – IMSA (Illinois Math and Science Academy), so we relaxed with Amy until Ethan got home from school Monday night. Ethan competed in a Deka event. He showed us all ten exercises he had to perform. It has little running, so not like a Spartan or Tuff Mudder, but focuses on functional fitness.

Emma got home Tuesday afternoon. Ethan is in Civil Air Patrol, and he got promoted Tuesday night. We all attended the ceremony. It was very quick, once it got going. Lucky for that, since it was pretty cold and they held it outside.

We somewhat paid our keep. We helped Amy at both Orange Leaf and Mathnasium. She had “tall tasks” for us at Mathnasium, so we changed light bulbs and ceiling tiles. We helped her close Orange Leaf in exchange for some very yummy frozen yogurt. I cleaned her dryer vent because it had been a while. Amy’s gym was very nice in letting me join her for the fitness classes this week, and they were really fun!

Wednesday was gorgeous. We went for a run in a local park and I sat outside enjoying the sunshine. With Cody hanging out, it almost felt like home on our deck!

Wednesday was also Emma’s roommate’s birthday. Brooklyn turned 18 and had a very busy day planned – including a dentist appointment! (That’s brutal, mom. Who else would schedule a dentist appointment on your 18th birthday?) She came over that night for some brownies, a serenade, and the 2-part finale of Bachelor Paradise. Yes, Ben and I were subjected to the Bachelor. We drank every time someone cried, so we started to enjoy it very quickly in. =)

We sang Happy Birthday to Brooklyn while Ethan played his tuba and I played piano on a phone app. Yeah, all out! Ben participated from afar, so he could get this awesome photo.

Thanksgiving was pretty laid back. Emma and Ethan had a busy schedule, but we lounged around all day. We cooked – Amy did most of it – but I did the hard part of crescent rolls and cranberry sauce (yes, can of course!). We ate and watched some movies.

We left Friday around lunchtime. We watched the tree decorating in the morning which was very entertaining. I had a heart-stopping moment when my camera fell out off the couch and smashed onto the floor! It rolled out of my camera bag while I was getting tripod stuff out. I can’t believe it, the camera is fine! It landed straight on the lens and cracked the filter. The lens is even fine! I don’t see any scratches on the test shots. So to anyone that has an expensive camera (or even a mid-range camera like me), ALWAYS have a filter on it. Not only will it do it’s filtering job and prevent scratches on the lens, it could potentially save the lens from a 2-foot fall. All to get this shot below. I’m giving you both attempts to show the futile attempts to get Cody positioned. He likes the photo-bombing position.

No, I didn’t make it before the timer. Cody!

Cody preferred Amy’s dogs’ bed to his own, so of course we bought him one. It also fits better in truck, and we don’t have to play musical dog beds anymore between the truck and the trailer. He still can’t manage to get his entire body on the bed, but you can see that relief that Leah didn’t come with him. 😉

We are headed south to Scott AFB outside Saint Louis.

Havendell Farm

We next stayed on a farm in Pittsboro, IN. It’s a horse-riding farm, and they sold baked goods as well. The horses did not like Cody. They were very protective of their field and followed him around the perimeter. One bared his teeth when Cody got too close to the fence.

It was really cold here, the coldest day and night we’ve had yet. Wind chill for the area was down to -5! We bundled up both in and out of the trailer and had some hot chocolate for the walk.

I have several photos from our travels of Cody and Ben looking in opposite directions. It’s funny to me, I don’t know why.

Our trailer is rated extended weather, but that doesn’t include how cold it was that night. The furnace ran almost non-stop since the RV isn’t insulated that well. Boondocking in the winter is challenging! If it’s not propane, it’s the battery running out or the generator needing more fuel. Not once have we been able to get through a night without changing something out. We try to run our battery overnight to be considerate of hosts and our neighbors. The longest we’ve made it is 5am. Last night, the battery only lasted to around 2am, and Ben kept the generator running until 11.

I got a few shots of the farm at sunrise. We left earlier than usual to get to Amy’s. We’re done with being in a trailer in the cold, but we’re also excited to see her.

We saw this on the way to Amy’s:

and it raised so many questions. We talked about it for a good half hour. I checked the Google and couldn’t find another Bart system besides the one in San Francisco. So why is a car being transported by truck through Indiana? How is that the most efficient mode of transportation? Why not attach it to a train? Or better yet, why not assemble them closer to SF? I found this in article which made me cringe: “While individual parts and some processes are taking place all over the world — from doors made in China to seats made in Indiana, car body shell assembly in Mexico, car body compression testing in Canada, and final assembly in New York State.” SF, I thought you were ahead of the curve in sustainability – how is this responsible sourcing?

We’re at Amy’s through Thanksgiving, then we head south to find warmer weather. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Wright Patterson Part 2

I take up where I left off in the museum, heading toward the modern era. As you can see, paint jobs are not as interesting. But sleek airfoil designs. This first craft is a Bird of Prey, used to study stealth strategies. It was named after the Klingon warship. This was declassified in early 2000’s as the technology became standard practice. The continuous shell design reduces the ability of radar to detect the craft.

Below it is the F22 Raptor. Their exhibit details some of the strategies the design increases its stealth. Radar systems today can pick up reflections from a pilot’s helmet, so the canopy is coated with a film to reflect radar waves (This is what their display says. I’m not sure it’s entirely correct. Radar detects a ship, aircraft, etc. when waves bounce back. I think the film is anti-reflective and, like the paint, absorbs those radar waves instead.) The paint and an interior weapons bay reduce visibility. It’s basically a gray shell moving as quietly through the air as a plane can.

At this point, I took a break. We needed propane, and I learned you can refill tanks. I thought they needed to be special tanks, but any tank you typically exchange can be refilled and it’s cheaper. Who knew! (not us). Some U-Hauls have refill stations, so I took a bottle over to the one near the museum. Super easy; we’ll do that from now on. On the way back, I took a photo outside the museum.

This is their R&D section. They showcase some aircraft that never made it to production. They also had a mockup of a space shuttle. They offer a tour of the shuttle, so they didn’t have much information written on displays. It did show some of the interior spaces and a sample payload.

Bell designed and tested a VSTOL (Vertical Short Take-off and Landing) aircraft in the 50’s and 60’s, the XV-3 Textron. In essence, it’s a combo helicopter and plane. It takes off and lands like a helicopter, but the rotors can rotate 90 degrees and it travels more like an airplane. The Osprey is the aircraft today that does this.

Canada tested the VZ-9AV Avrocar shown below. It was also designed for vertical takeoff and landing; however, this design was too unstable to control during flight. Love the flying saucer design though!

We’re getting better at remembering to take photos of us at these places, so here you go. I look exhausted. I relaxed in the truck after this until Ben was finished.

The morning was clear enough to get some photos, but I didn’t think to get out my camera for our walk. It was too cold to go back for it, so I used my phone instead. Here’s the fam camp.

They had a lake with a boat ramp. Cody and I walked down to it. I bet it’s a nice place to watch the airplanes take off from the closest runways. I do wish now I had gone to get the camera. Oh well. =)

We packed up and headed out mid-morning. Our next stop – a farm in Indiana.

Wright-Patterson Part 1

We spent two nights at Wright-Patterson AFB, and I took so many photos at the museum, it needs two posts. The drive from McConnelsville was uneventful – finally! The spot at the fam camp was a pull-through, so set up was easy. The camp was mostly full: many transients like us, but there were a few that must be stationed here for a bit of time. They were prepped for winter.

We met our two neighbors from the first night. One was on their way to MN to visit family. The other was on their way to help cut Christmas trees somewhere (we didn’t get the place). They had just come from helping at a harvest festival in Michigan. It seemed like they went from place to place volunteering/working odd jobs. He was retired Navy. They also had a 14 year old pup – she was in the truck when I walked Cody in the morning. They were immediately drawn to him…a sure sign they’re good people. =)

Cody has found his way to the couch. I now get the glare demanding I move every night when he’s ready to take my place.

I worked in the morning until we headed over to the AF Museum. It’s official name is the National Museum of the US Air Force. That is the largest museum I’ve ever seen–maybe the Louvre could contend. I’d say indoor square footage, the NMUAF has the it beat. It has 4 huge hangar-type buildings full of airplanes. I walked my typical museum pace–about 2 miles and hour–and I didn’t get to everything in the 4 hours I spent there. Ben even had to quicken up his pace. Dad – you would need to spend a week here. There is so much information everywhere!

I’ve been to quite a few military museums with aircraft, but I realized while I was here that they have been mostly Navy or Marine Corps. I don’t know much about Air Force history. This museum seemed to be a repository of all information they’ve collected. It was chronological for the most part (they stuck a V-22 Osprey in the Cold War Era…it was placed into service in the 2000’s. My guess is they wanted to display it and didn’t have a better exhibit place for it). Here are some exhibits I found interesting.

First, I learned that the Wright brothers were from Ohio (another fact not completely true – Orville was born in Dayton; Wilbur was born in Indiana. I know because we passed his birthplace on the way to Amy’s. I’m sure he grew up in Dayton). I always assumed they grew up in North Carolina. So why the Outer Banks, so far from Dayton? They went to Kitty Hawk to get the wind conditions they needed: regular breezes and soft sandy landings. They owned a bicycle shop before they started designing and testing aircraft.

I was drawn to the wind tunnels they had displayed. The intricate woodwork was impressive. This one could generate winds up to 453 mph.

I loved the paint job on this plane, the Fokker D. VII. It was a German plane used in WWI and was extremely effective against the Allies. The Red Baron himself flew the prototype and recommended it be placed into production. This model represents the design of a specific plane flown by a squadron leader. Ignore my fingers in the shot – the lights are great for reading but horribly located for photos. It was the only shot I could get that showed the colors.

They had an interesting video interview with some of the workers who do the restoration, sheet metal repair, and painting work. I’m impressed with their work. There were so many colorful aircraft on display, and they replicated the designs of actual craft. You don’t see this variety anymore – they are all painted with the purpose of reducing visibility. That makes complete sense, just not as entertaining.

Go Wheeler! =) And yes, you see “Army” there in an Air Force museum. I mean, the Air Force didn’t exist in WWI and WWII, which begs the question how does an Air Force museum have exhibits for these eras? You’ll have to ask them. Sure, sure, these were all precursors to the development of the Air Force. Sorry, I digress…

This was a rotary wing kite used by Germans in WWII as an observation platform for submarines. It was towed with a steel cable by a surfaced sub by a steel cable A lookout kept contact with the sub via telephone. There were only 200 of these made, and this is one of a few left. And yes – they have so many aircraft, the ceiling is full too – 4 hangars worth!

They have the original Memphis Belle here.

The C-124 Globemaster behemoth. It reminds me of a C-130. It can carry 200 passengers or cargo like tanks and guns. It was used by the Air Force in Korea.

My favorite plane artwork! More to come next post.

McConnelsville, OH

We were definitely the only ones at Kooser State Park that night. Ben said there had been other reservations shown on their website, but I guess they chose not to come.

I let Cody wander on our morning walk – he loves the snow.

It looked like a pretty park. There was a trail nearby, but we didn’t take the opportunity to check it out. After the day we had yesterday, we didn’t want to get started too late.

From Kooser State Park, we headed to Old Bridge Brewery in McConnelsville, OH. We passed Jesse Owens State Park on the way. It is a very large park – thousands of acres. He grew up in Cleveland and went to Ohio State.

McConnelsville is a small river town along the Muskingum River. Google calls it a village. Sure, I guess. The brewery is right in the middle of town (“village”), and I was nervous about us navigating into the parking lot. Luckily, the place was pretty quiet when we arrived around 3. The host moved one car for us, so we could park in the designated spot. I think they prefer we take up only 2 parking spots, but we ended up taking 4 for our steps and slide out. Well, technically 5 when you count the truck parked. They didn’t seem to mind, and the parking lot never got really busy. The brewery is in the background in the photo below.

We tried the beer after dinner. They leaned toward lighter beers, and their selection didn’t have much flavor. Not terrible beer, but nothing we really enjoyed or would want to go back for. We had an early night, read a bit and turned in. The battery got us to about 4:30am before it ran out of juice. This is an estimate based on what I imagine is when the furnace stops working. I woke up around 5:30 too cold to sleep. We started the generator to run the furnace and charge the battery. Part of our trial and error – we’re finding that we need to run the generator at least an hour in the evening so the battery will get us through the night. We’ll try that at our next harvest host stop.

I took Cody on a walk to check out the area. There’s a nice little neighborhood just east of us. I was hoping to get some sunrise photos at the bridge, but the morning was overcast. We checked it out a little later. The Old Bridge isn’t used much – they have a newer one up the river which had more traffic. It was a nice walk though.

We packed up and headed on to Wright-Patterson. We were ready to get to shore power and the base amenities!

The Next 2.5 Hours, Zack Snyder Style

When 2.5 hours of driving turns into an 8 hour adventure. We begin after a restful morning at Hershey Winery: watching the sunrise, walking Cody, doing a vacation-style workout, with some work interspersed.

All was going as planned…until…the truck didn’t start. Battery is dead. No problem, we have USAA. We called, the guy arrived within 20 minutes and the truck started right up! Great, let’s get going. Crap, we need the truck key to unlock the back where the gear is. We thought ahead to bring the spare set of keys, but of course we can’t find them. So, we waited 20 minutes before turning off the truck – that should have been time enough to charge the battery.

Nope! Totally dead, again. So we asked the guy at the winery, maybe we could get a quick start again like last time.

Nope! Tried several times, even letting it charge for 5 minutes. No problem, call USAA again. Longer wait this time, of course. Same guy, we could see the head shake in his eyes. Started up right away again, so we drove to the nearest mechanic to replace the battery.

Side note – the roadside assistance guy used a JNC0660 – Jump-N-Carry to start our truck. Twice it started right up. The nice man’s car? Got nothing from it. The assistance guy said he’s had it 4 years, uses it several times a day, and only needs to charge it once a week. Yes, we will be ordering one.

Ok, now that the intermission is over, we’re all set to hook up the trailer and get going to the next place. Leaving at noon became leaving around 3:30, but that still gets us in by 6. No problem.

Nope! So the storm we would have missed was in full swing by the time we got going. It stuck and accumulated, so driving became slow very quickly. We took our time, stayed with the trucks, like everyone else. Construction added some more time. Even Cody is exhausted, and all he does is sleep.

It’s at least moving until…we see signs for an “incident” ahead and the dreaded dark red on Google maps. We stop for gas because we need it, and make it ok to the pump. By this time, everything is snowy and slushy. We held our breath at the stoplight, but the truck did us proud this time – no issues pulling the trailer through the snow. We’re at a crossroads – do we continue down 76 and deal with the traffic?

Nope! Google shows us another way, and we choose to take it since it’s quicker and does look like it’s a more direct route to the state park we’re staying at for the night. So…we go left. And into windy back roads for 40+ miles. At night. In the snow. Yep, not a great choice Google, Ben and Megan. If you’re familiar with western PA around the turnpike, there aren’t many exits. So once we were on these roads, we were committed to this route.

At one point, I started to think I would find out what would happen if the truck couldn’t pull the trailer up the hill. Would we just sit there unmoving, or would we roll backward? The lowest speed up a hill with the gas pedal floored was 23. The truck did great, and I can say that now that it’s over. But at the time, I could just see us waiting for USAA yet again, blocking a road until we figured out a solution.

So yes, we saw the ETA shift from 5:50 to 6:30, all the way to past 8pm. Nerves frazzled, we finally get to the state park. Unsure where the entrance road really is – everything is covered and there are no tracks! – I just go for it and turn left. Luckily, we stay on pavement. We continue up the road, past the closed office, and follow signs to the campground.

The road is untouched – no tracks from other cars. Luckily, the PA state parks email you the site number, so we know where to go. Honestly, at this point, we would have pulled into any free spot and called it ours. And we would have had our choice – completely empty! No one in sight. That’s the one perk about camping in cold weather. We made it, all settled in.