Middlebury, Indiana

Maggie and I met Mom, Dad and Donna on the Ohio turnpike September 10th
for our family trip. We stayed at the Blue Heron service center, or as we like to
call it, "the land of the midnight sun". The pole lights are very bright in the RV
overnight parking area, even with thick curtains on the trailer. When Mom made the
Middlebury campground reservations, the sites she requested were already taken
for a "plumbers convention", so she settled for two that were side by side. As
we pulled in on Sunday there were a couple of people setting up a welcoming
tent near the entrance, so we asked about the convention. It turns out that a couple
of the local Telephone Pioneers chapters were meeting there, and the folks who
made the arrangements had a last name of....Plummer. Dad and Donna, being
members of this organization, introduced themselves and were welcome to attend
the campfire, although due to our schedule they never got a chance.

	Sites #1 & #2 at the Elkhart KOA.

Our castle, living in the lap of luxury!

During the six days we were there we ate at the Essen Haus, and Village Inn restaurants.
On Tuesday we went to Shipshewanna for a full day at the flea market where we loaded up
the back of Dad's truck with bargains. Wednesday we went shopping around the area and
took a tour of the Pilgrim travel trailer factory. The fifth-wheel trailers they were making were
huge and luxurious, so Donna promised to buy us a couple for next years trip!

	The barber shop downtown.

Thursday morning started out overcast and with an 8-10 m.p.h. wind. So of course this
was the day we planned to go to Muncie and visit the Academy of Model Aeronautics
museum and flying field. The drive took nearly 3 hours, but everyone seemed to enjoy
it once we walked into the museum.

A fraction of the aircraft on display at the museum.

They were hosting an exhibit of Wright Brothers memorabilia.

I tried flying the Wright Flyer simulator. Oh, my aching back!

Flight simulator programs for the computer are very popular, and teach you the basics
of flying without damaging any aircraft (or people). They had four PCs loaded so that
you could give it a try. It's a great way to introduce the family to your hobby.

Mom flying the RC helicopter simulator, with many "hard" landings.

Donna tested another display before flying the computer program. Too bad she couldn't figure out how to land safely upside-down.

A NASA exhibit featured a couple of planes used in their testing programs.

An exhibit on loan from NASA. They used an RC aircraft to fly and drop a model of the lifting body concept.

This display in the museum represents a hobby shop of the 40's and 50's. So many kits, so little time!

After the museum we drove out back to the 1,000 acre (!) flying field with four runways,
each for a different flying style. During contest time these would be packed with people,
planes and vehicles, but today only about a half dozen of us were using the field. We drove
to a paved runway because my club field was all grass. I had always hand-launched the
electric airplane; the tiny wheels don't work very well in grass. In spite of the blustery
weather I managed two takeoffs and landings with no damage. Next time I plan to bring
the fuel models and spend a couple of hours.

For me, flying off a paved runway at AMA headquarters was a dream come true.

On Friday Middlebury started a town celebration, so we went downtown to a park where
some of the locals had set up booths to sell decorations, furniture, food (LOTS!), and
crafts. On the other side of the road some of the RV manufacturers had parked their display
rigs so that you could walk through one right into another. The Middlebury/Elkhart area is
the biggest RV manufacturing part of the country. After dinner at the Village Inn we went back
to the campground for an ice cream social, followed by a movie in the rec-hall. Maggie, Donna
and I stayed to watch Spiderman II. Then it was walking to the trailers to finish packing.
We left the campground Saturday morning, and decided that we'd stop for lunch, then continue
home. We turned off the Pennsylvania turnpike at Breezewood and told Mom, Dad and Donna
that we'd get together in a couple of weeks and start planning next year's trip.