Ruth was a little upset with me for 2 reasons after our visit to this car and plane museum in Hood River. First, I didn’t pay enough attention to its exhibit on female flyers, and then I failed to mention it during my first blog about this excellent museum. As a result, I decided to complete a 2nd essay on it today.
While there Ruth repeatedly asked me if had seen the exhibit about Amelia Earhart, which I had not paid attention to. Then I failed to pay enough heed to it after being directed to it. Amelia vanished on her global circumnavigation in 1937, and it’s still being talked about even though she was declared legally dead 2 years after disappearing. Then there are a host of other female pilots who have gained notoriety since then, some of whom Ruth knew or at least learned about in other museums about aviation. She appreciated the fact that this museum restores aircraft engines and keeps vintage airplanes flying. She and the other members of our family especially liked the big-wheel bicycles on display.
I was enamored by the electric cars, like the 1914 Detroit Electric vehicle that is on prominent display as are this museum’s impressive display of gliders. There are at least 20 of them in its collection. I was also interested in the first toilet on an airplane, the antique siren in the men’s room, and the fact that in 1904 there were more electric than gas cars in New York City and that most of the drivers in this city were women. License plates during this era when wagons were more common than cars were made of leather, and Oregon led in the production of them.
I was genuinely interested in the story about the Abernathy brothers too. They drove a Brush Runabout from New York City to Oklahoma City when one of them was only 9 years old. They drove a distance of more than 2,500 miles, and the Brush they chose, the only one still in existence, is on permanent display in this museum. They became so famous for this feat that a book was written about them.
There were several videos available to watch while we toured this museum. My favorite was about the aviation pioneer Wright Brothers, and the display about them also featured one of their wind tunnel designs and a bicycle like the one that they sold in their shop in Ohio.
Hank
ps All of the photos used on the first essay were from our photo library. The ones used today are of actual cars and planes in WAAAM.
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