Visitors from Nashville - part 2

When there is only so little time one has to pack as much adventure/experience as possible into it. Papa had read somewhere (he reads a lot!) that there was a Mars rover now on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. William loves going to museums. He loves space, science, weather ... and can tell you all about it ... so much like my father ... his great-grandfather. 

Anyway, James thought Wednesday would be a good day to check it out. He checked with Helen and she checked with his teacher because going there meant that he had to miss some school time. Papa also arranged with Sarah so we could take Caleb as well. Ha, all complicated on an official school day. 

We had tickets for 2 pm and it was a 2 hour drive. The traffic on I-95 to D.C. can be a problem but we were lucky. The museum was a treat. So much to see. There were not many people and we felt totally comfortable. We had to wear masks the whole time and the boys were excellent. No complaints. 

This is the Blackbird, the fastest plane. We also saw the Concord, once the fastest passenger plane and told the boys all about it ... how we could hear it in Windsor landing and taking off from Heathrow when we visited there. And that their great-grandfather and Aunt Jane flew twice in it.

We saw the Discovery which had flown to the moon and we were told when asked that it had flown 39 space missions. We learned a lot about the tiles on the outside on it and more. 

Here we are in front of the Mars rover. This is one exactly like the ones that went to Mars but it was used by NASA for trouble shooting when the one on Mars had problems. They would  find a solution to restart the troubled rover remotely.

This plane was most exciting for me. This is a Ju 52 (Junker).  In WWII my father was very young. He was trained to be a pilot and had talked a lot about this plane. He was shot down when he flew a reconnaissance plane in the south of France. I think it was a plane like this.

He was badly injured  and ended up being an underground miner for 13 years after the war and at the end of his life was in a wheelchair and housebound. I made him write his memoirs because I was already in the USA. Here is a translation of that part:

Heinz Herold wrote: Reconnaissance planes had observed large gatherings of ships and the embarkation of troops by the Allies and therefore expected an invasion from the Mediterranean. It can be assumed that the tiny naval units were extremely nervous. So it happened that we were shot at by a German coast guard boat at 7:30 am near Marseille on August 13, 1944, during a flight to check a machine that had just come from Germany, and we were hit immediately. The left engine was on fire. We were only 100 m high and above water. To get out with a parachute we would have had to be at least twice as high. The coast was in sight and so I wanted to do a belly landing on the beach (later we heard that it was mined). To do this, you have to throw off the roof beforehand so that you can get out of the plane. We did that when we flew over the coast. But this also made the air resistance so great that the machine with one motor could no longer hold up and immediately went nose down. With presence of mind I pulled the steering column to my stomach with all my might and probably because of this we didn't hit the ground, which would have been our certain death. At the last moment the machine came into normal position before the impact, but not slipped a meter. I passed out. When I woke up the other three of my crew were nowhere to be seen. I could not get out because I was badly hurt but one of my crew came back and brought me to safety.

I was astonished when I saw the plane how he could have been rescued not being able to use his legs with the plane being so tall. Here it is again looking down from the top level of the museum. William liked to read almost every sign. He is a good reader (fifth grade). Caleb of course is just starting to learn to read.

Papa told the boys that this Boeing plane is one just like the one he came to the USA for the first time.

After two hours we all had "information overload" and decided it was time to get back on the long drive home.

Sarah suggested that it would be best to keep Caleb for the night as long as we had him back home next morning in time for school. No problem. The boys loved the idea of course being happy about any minute being able to play together. 

Bedtime for Caleb. Papa is the best story reader. 

Thursday

It was a school day for all of course. But William had breaks here and there. Got to take advantage of it. Papa went with him in our community so William could ride his bike and get some exercise. Hardly any traffic because it is a gated community and the streets are very wide. Perfect. Made the boy happy.

We were invited to another cousins meet. When it was time to say "good night" it was also "good bye" because most likely we couldn't make a meet possible the next day. One has to always think about the bright sides of things. Better to see for a short time than not at all. Hugs in front of the garage!

On Friday Helen wished for a soft-boiled egg breakfast. In our family (even when Helen was a child) there was always the little game with the upside-down empty shell. 

Papa got beat twice this week by William playing this game.

Helen took this photo of William's "school" place ... just before she packed his things up. It worked well.

Tja, and that was it. So happy that we had this time. Saturday they drove back to Nashville. This time at least it didn't rain the whole way. 

James and I got a view into the virtual school situation. OMG. There are lots of issues. Here just one story: On Wednesday William could not sign on. He could have attended a couple of classes before we needed to leave for the museum. Helen found out later that his middle school account was hacked. Hacked! He is in 5th grade just starting middle school. His school email address was forwarded to an email address in France. Why? So he never got to see the last emails from his teachers ... besides not being able to sign on on Wednesday. I feel for Helen and understand her and William's frustration