Museums & factories

The past week or so I saw the Spruce Goose and watched Leatherman tools being made.  All in all not a bad week.

The Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum was a splendid place to visit! 

 Worth the drive to McMinnville, OR!

Where it all started (the Wright Brother's replica)

 I have to start by saying that the Spruce Goose is a really big airplane. Spruce or aluminum or even paper-mache, no matter, it's huge and it did fly!

BIG!

A lot of different airplanes, including WW2 aircraft from the US, Great Britain, Germany & Japan. The first jet fighter even.

A LOT of airplanes!

 

 

If you like aircraft it's worth the stop, they even had a couple of aircraft painted in Coast Guard colors. After a career in Coast Guard aviation I'm partial to CG aircraft.

This was from before my time ('76-'97)

A rotor head I am intimately familiar with, on an earlier helo but the same MRH

I was impressed by the personal stories that were sprinkled throughout the aviation museum. A mannequin in a period uniform of some type with a single page story of a person who wore that uniform.

I really liked the slice of life stories

That was the aviation museum, the space museum was on the other side of the parking lot. Space capsules, rockets, a launch pad, an SR-72 and an X-15!
When I was a kid the X-15 was a big deal.

X-15

SR-71 on the ground

There are a large number of aircraft on display out side. My plan was to see them all after doing the inside, when I finished the rain was coming down in buckets so I didn't see the outside displays.

The Leatherman factory

I've always liked my Leatherman tool, got my first one around '88. When I heard the Leatherman factory gave tours I signed up!
You sign up at their retail store for the Wednesday or Thursday tours. It was interesting seeing the robots & the people & the raw materials. No photos allowed.

The retail store was worth a look if you are a fan of the tools, they have the older tools on display (I wish I could find that one I lost, I saw it on display) and the prototypes.

For what it's worth I had a Leatherman with a broken plier tip. At the store I was offered a new replacement (different model, mine was no longer made) right now or have mine repaired (6 weeks).
I took a new one. 
It does not have the ruler on the side, I did not notice that when I decided on the swap... my mistake.

The "Wingman"

Bitch bitch bitch

I'm still in Washington state, waiting for a family duty & the delivery of a package. It's been some kind of wet! Not warm anymore either, I've been wearing a sweatshirt AND a Gortex raincoat.
(I bought that Gortex raincoat when I started this venture, I thought a good rain coat was not a bad idea. That turned out to be a good decision.)

I am ready to head south, the weather in Quartzsite has been looking good!

The fuel prices are not bad either!

Complaining about the weather has always struck me as silly and I'm aware of that, however ....

It's never stopped me!

Trying to keep a blog current is a lot of work! It's days after I wrote this & I'm still in Washington but I'm on my way south!