My Trip to Ohio
by Brian McNeil

My vacation started at 4:15PM on Friday July 4, 2003 when I boarded Amtrak’s westbound Lake Shore Limited train 449 in Pittsfield. After being stopped three times for freight traffic and going through the states of Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, I arrived in Cleveland at around 4:30AM. When I got to my dad’s house in Cortland, I took a short snooze. 

After resting from the long train trip we went to an antique tractor and engine show/swap meet near Ashtabula. There we saw tractors of different sizes and shapes mainly from John Deer. We also saw many antique gas powered engines. At the swap meet I purchased a miniature replica of the officer Navy Seal badge. The Navy officer Seal Badge is a badge that when an officer graduates from Seal/UDT training they receive this badge that has an eagle, anchor, rifle, and a trident.  The enlisted version is exactly the same but it is silver rather than gold. Seal/Udt stands for sea air and land/underwater demolitions team. I purchased it because I’m trying to collect all of the Navy badges. 

Monday we went clothes shopping near Youngstown. The store was a discount department store call Value City I got a pair of pants. Then we went to Casual Male Big and Tall, a store that specializes in big and tall men I got a couple pairs of shorts, a pit pocket, some dress shirts and a Big Dogs T-shirt. My Dad got some Hawaiian style shirts. While at the store it started to rain.

Tuesday and Wednesday we went to Dayton to the Wright Patterson Air force Base, which is named for Wilbur Wright and Lieutenant Frank Patterson. At the Base we visited the U S Air Force Museum and National Aviation Hall of Fame. The museum displays aircraft, helicopters and weaponry from the Wright Brothers era to present day. Some of the aircraft were bombers, fighters, cargo, and spy planes from the US, Canada, Germany, Italy, and other countries. 

Some of the weaponry that was displayed was guns from the planes. Also on display were bombs like the Hydrogen and the Atom bombs. The Atomic bomb on display known as Fat Man that was a replica of the one that was dropped on Nagasaki Japan on August 9, 1945. The bomb was displayed near the B-29 Super fortress bomber that dropped it. After the Drop the Army Air Corps named it Bockscar, in honor of the regular command pilot Fred Bock.

On Wednesday we went to the active part of the base and saw the Presidential and experimental aircraft displays. The Presidential aircraft that was displayed was Franklin D. Roosevelt Sacred Cow that had an elevator in it. Later Harry S. Truman used it. While he was flying in the plane he signed the National Security Act in 1947. Which is now known as the birth of the United States Air Force as it is today? Dwight David Eisenhower, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon used the other aircraft on display. The experimental aircraft were the X-70 Valkarye bomber, X-29, the prototype Blackbird, and other aircraft.

Thursday we went to Sharon Pennsylvania and went to the world’s largest shoe store. This store had all types of footwear and accessories. The strange thing is that they only had the right foot shoe, boot, sneaker, or sandal out on the floor. The main reason I think is that a lot of customers are right footed like me. People who are right footed use their right leg more than their left. I don’t think it is for security reasons. There are too many employees in the store to steal any thing.

Friday we went to see The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen staring Sean Connery. I thought the movie was excellent. My dad kept nodding off so he did see much of the movie. The movie was like the Mystery Men, Sean Connery played Allan Quartermane. Other characters in the movie were Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus. His submarine in this movie was larger than in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Mrs. Mina Murry, a vampire, and an Invisible man are other characters in the movie. One Character was called M who was also the bad guy. Other characters were Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a Secret Service agent, and Dorian Grey. The plot of the Movie is a Group bad guys disguised as Nazi soldiers in WWI era German tanks in 1899 started wrecking havoc across Western Europe. The league was created to stop the destruction. I liked the movie because it had action, swordplay, a submarine, characters from modern day horror films, and fiction books. One thing I thought was out of the time era of the movie was a Rolls Royce. I think everybody liked the movie. 

On Saturday we went to Cumberland Maryland. In route we crossed the famous Mason Dixon Line, which is named after Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon who were English astronomers. It was used to separate slave states from Free states during the American Civil War April 2, 1861 to April 9, 1865. Today the Mason Dixon Line is used as the border of northern states and southern states and the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and parts of West Virginia. 

Later in the day we went on a scenic steam train ride in a caboose belonging to the Western Maryland Railroad.  We saw many trees, went though a tunnel and ended in the college community of Frostburg home of Frostburg State University. We also saw Amtrak’s Capital Limited Train that goes from Chicago to Washington D.C. This train has sight seeing lounge cars. While driving home in my dad’s car we were caught in a hailstorm. 

My dad lives near the Youngstown Warren Regional Airport. One of the airport tenants is the Youngstown Air Force Reserve Base. While in flight I saw three Lockheed H130-H Hercules cargo aircraft. The Hercules can carry soldiers, heavy cargo of supplies and/or food. During the War on Iraq it transported the wounded and who were killed in action. One of the wounded was Private First Class Jessica Lynch. Private First Class Jessica Lynch was a member of the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company. That took a wrong turn and was ambushed. She was captured and became a prisoner of war. Later Al-Rehaief a brave Iranian risked his life and his families to tell American forces that Lynch was at the hospital for which the United States government granted him and his family political asylum in the US. In a Special Forces mission at night they raided the hospital and rescued her. She was transported to the US after she received early medical treatment at Landstahl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Today after treatment at Walter Reed Army Hospital near Washington D.C. she went home. For her bravery she was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and the Prisoner of War medals.

The Marine Corps uses the Hercules for airborne refueling and transportation. Fat Albert Airlines is the only Marine Corps Hercules permanently assigned to a Navy squadron known as the Blue Angels. Some Hercules are modified as weather watchers, gun ships, special warfare, and search and rescue missions for the Coast Guard. They can deliver cargo or troops to anywhere in the world, no matter what the condition of the landing area is.

Sunday around 4:00AM I boarded the eastbound Lake Shore Limited train 448 and arrived back home in Pittsfield around 2:30PM. This was my vacation that I wished was longer. 
 

Additional information can be found on the following web pages:

United States Air Force Museum
http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum

Western Maryland Scenic Railroad
http://www.wmsr.com/

United states Navy Blue Angels
http://www.navy.com/jsp/explore/comunity/blueangels/index.jsp?cid=28&pid=2

Youngstown Warren Regional Airport
http://www.yngwrnair.com/home.html

Youngstown Air force Reserve Base
http://www.afreserve.com/bases.asp?id=68

Amtrak
http://www.amtrak.com/

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
http://www.lxgmovie.com/

The Centennial of Flight
http://www.centennialofflight.gov/index.cfm

Lockheed H-130 Hercules
http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/factfile/aircraft/air-c130.html

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