The Gem City of Dayton Ohio

Day 12: Dayton Ohio and the Douglas Family

After a fun time in Cincinnati and a Mets victory (1 of the 12 wins they've had since the all-star break) we hopped in the Prius and headed toward Huber Heights, OH where out friends house is.

On the drive we hit 60k miles! Needless to say we gave the Prius a good rest when we got home!

The drive was only about an hour and change from Cincinnati.

Cincinnati

After arriving at our friend Christina's house, we went to the National Museum of the United States Air Force and toured her place of employment.

The Museum is located on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Wright-Patterson AFB is "one of the largest, most diverse, and organizationally complex bases in the Air Force"^[7] with a long history of flight test spanning from the Wright Brothers into the Space Age. (Wikipedia) Rumor has it that the Area 51 aliens are hidden here at Wright-Patt, but Christina denied to comment on this issue. 

Christina is a manuscript curator at the museum and we got to take an exclusive look at some of the artifacts behind the scenes. A few things we were instructed NOT to do: 1) Touch the artifacts. 2) Lick the artifacts. That's right, LICK the artifacts! Definitely raised a few eyebrows.

Arms used for the mannequins and a wing from the early 1900's

The Curators Office! 

Planes engines to the left and a REAL BOMB on the right!

Engine Alley! 

DON'T TOUCH THE ARTIFACTS!

After our behind the scenes tour we went to the actual museum across the Air Force base. We went on to Air Force One.  This was the aircraft that brought President Kennedy's coffin back to DC from Dallas. The crew was not comfortable with having the President's coffin in the cargo bay of the plane so they carved out a section in the rear of the plane to fit it.

They had some really cool planes at the Museum.

The plane that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki

B-2 Stealth Bomber

SR-71

Trans Continental Ballistic Missiles and the Warheads that are inside them.

After our private and personalized tour (no alien sightings) we headed back to the Douglas house to rest up and get ready for dinner in Dayton.

We went to a nice Thai restaurant in Dayton called Thai 9. I had some spicy noodles and Di tried a garlic peppers trio with steak, chicken and shrimp! We totally forgot to take pictures!  

When dinner was over, we headed back to drink and play Phase 10! What a perfect way to end our road trip! 

Next Stop: NJ

Last Game...

Day 11: Reds vs Mets at Great American Ballpark!

Great American Ballpark

The Reds have a great history. They say they were the First Professional Baseball team dating from 1869. They have won 5 world series in total. The "Big Red Machine" as they were called in the 70's won 2 world series. Reds greats Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Tony Perez and manager Sparky Anderson were the foundations of the 70's powerhouse.

Great American Ballpark was opened in 2003 replacing the multi purpose Riverfront Stadium which housed the Reds and Cincinnati Bengals from 1970 to 2002. The original address of Great American Ball Park was 100 Main Street. However, after the death of former pitcher and longtime broadcaster Joe Nuxhall in 2007, the address was changed to 100 Joe Nuxhall Way. A sign bearing Nuxhall's traditional signoff phrase “rounding third and heading for home” is located on the third base side exterior of the park.

The game was fun. Our seats were 8 rows behind the middle of the Mets dugout and we were on the jumbo-tron before each right handed batter.  It was so cool.  Randy's friend Dan even caught us on SNY back home cheering for Ike Davis' home run.

The Mets finally showed up to play in Cincinnati on the last day they'll see the Reds in 2012.  Ike and Jason Bay (shocking) each had home runs. 

 Matt Harvey looked great pitching into the 7th inning.

Francisco was awful letting 3 runs in the 9th inning and giving us mild heart attacks but luckily Rauch come in and got the last out.  Put it in the books.  Mets 8 Reds 4.

Gary and Ron

Our hotel was across the river in Newport, Kentucky and they have a shuttle that goes right into Cincinnati.  For only $1 we got dropped off at the ballpark gate.  So nice and easy.

As we end our ballpark tour we have had such an amazing journey. 4000+ miles and 69 hours of driving! 9 ballparks and the DCI Championships at Lucas Oil Stadium in 2 weeks.  What a trip!

A- Home

B - Pittsburgh

C - Canton, OH

D - Detroit

E - Battle Creek, MI (hotel)

F - Milwaukee

G - Minneapolis

H - Indianapolis

I - Chicago White Sox

J - Chicago Cubs

K - Kansas City

L - St. Louis

M - Cincinnati

N - Huber Heights (home of our friends the Douglass')

O - Home

The Gateway Arch

Summer has finally returned the past few days. 90+ degrees and some humidity. Most of our roadtrip has been 70-80's with little to no humidity. Kansas City was 50 degrees by the time we left the Royals game! So the warm weather was welcome!

We had another long drive ahead of us today. About 5 hours, but really 6 since we returned to Eastern Standard Time and lost an hour. Before we said goodbye to St. Louis, we had to make a stop at the Gateway Arch!

From the parking lot we could see the Edward Jones Dome, where the St. Louis Rams play!

Some pictures from the parking lot and park leading up to the Arch.

From a distance this National Monument is impressive, but up close it was incredible! What a way to welcome people to the west!

At 630 feet, it is the tallest man-made monument in the United States, Missouri's tallest accessible building, and the largest architectural structure designed as a weighted or flattened catenary arch. <--Wikipedia

We didn't go to the top since we would have had to go through security check points and were on a time constraint! So we jumped in to the Prius and headed east on I-70 toward Cincinnati!

Gateway Arch and Prius

After 3000+ miles and 10+ days, we encountered our first real traffic. I-70/I-55 is a 4 lane interstate, 2 lanes each way. The left lanes were blocked off on each side for "construction." We came to a screeching halt and had stop and go for about 5 miles. It took about 40 minutes though! The real kicker is there was no activity! No trucks, no police, no big machines! Just orange cones blocking off the lanes... Annoying. Luckily NJ has prepared us well for these scenarios and the audio books from Aunt Cathy make the time pass effortlessly.

We had to drive back towards Indianapolis then head south-east on I-74 toward Cincinnati!

The hotel we are staying at for the evening is actually in Newport Kentucky!

Newport is directly directly south of Cincinnati across the Ohio River.

Our hotel is right on the river and there is a bus stop AKA the  T.A.N.K (Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky) that provides Reds game day transportation to Great American BallPark. 

On to the game!