Thursday, May 17, 2007

Back to the Future

I landed as the sun was setting last night in my hometown of Hamilton, OH. I have to admit it was kind of an emotional moment on the last few miles of my approach to come back to the place where my aviation fantasy was born, sitting next to my bicycle on the grass watching the planes land and take off from what was then called the Hogan Airport (right). The little Hamilton airport has been upograded to become the Butler County Regional Airport, complete with its own ILS approach (which was out of service when I arrived.) It still has its small-town character. But as Sen. Zell Miller said about the road that ran in front of his house in the north Georgia mountains, any road can take you to the rest of the world. And so it is with runways.


Hamilton hasn't changed much since those days back in the late 50's and early 60's, except that a lot of the heavy industry that was the economic engine in the post-war era has since vanished. Men and women now carry their lunch pails to jobs in Cincinnati and Dayton, up or down the I-75 corridor.


That's a shot of downtown Hamilton looking east across the new High Street Bridge across the Great Miami River. The building on the right is the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. In the center is the old Butler County Courthouse, around which is the Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings (it used to be three times a week). And on the left is what used to be the Hamilton City Municipal Building, which was just recently dedicated as a new museum. The daughter of author Robert McCloskey, (Make Way for Ducklings, Blueberries for Sal, Homer, etc.) a native Hamiltonian, was on hand for the commemoration.

My mother was waiting inside the terminal building when I walked in. Her warm smile and welcoming hug made me feel right at home. She has been closely following my every day's progress on her old TIME maps, carefully drawing lines with colored magic markers from point to point, seeing what I'm flying over and paying special attention to the terrain. What can I say - she's my Mother!!! Thank goodness she has a washing machine and lots of soap! I have ten days of laundry to do before I leave for the rest of my trip!

To get here by Wednesday night meant flying nearly 16 hours over the past two days (1743.6nm), from Reno to Ogden, UT and on to Rapid City, SD, and then to Cedar Rapids, IA for a fuel stop enroute to Hamilton. Strong northwesterly winds pushed me along at speeds up to 160 knots on the legs southeast from Rapid City.

1 comment:

Debbie Garris said...

Sounds like you are having a wonderful time. You have a lot more guts than I do. I just fall off horses. Your mom sounds great -- mine would have had a stroke. Take care.