Happy Bday to Me!

We took a family trip (PoPo, E, H, and I) up to see Dad this weekend. We got there late, because I had to do some work in the afternoon. But on the way, that "forced" us to stop at Bingham's Family Restaurant in Lenox, PA. This is a family restaurant serving kind of old-fashioned food (soup and sandwiches, hot open-faced roast beef, pot roast, and so on. It is quite good and can be augmented by anything in the pie case. There are tons of fruit pies, fruit breads, pastries, and more from which to choose.

On Saturday we went to the Glenn Curtis Aviation Museum in Hammondsport, NY. This is a record of Mr. Curtis's early years working on bicycles, motorcycles, airplanes, boats, photography, and more. He was a mechanical genius who developed powered flight right along with the Wright brothers. Like them he started with bicycles and small motorcycles.

The progress during this time (early 1900s) was amazing. Within a period of 5 years the sophistication of motorcycles, cars, and airplanes rose at an astounding rate. While the triumphs (no pun intended) were many, they were accompanied by a good deal of whimsy.

In the end, though, the rather clumsy early attempts became mechanically beautiful.

Then they became mechanically very inventive, predicting the future of rotary engines decades in advance of Mazda.

Then they became very powerful. This V-8 engine drove the bike to 135 miles an hours, at the time a world speed record for anything motor-driven.

The climb in sophistication in aircraft came just as quickly, going from this early airframe,

to this early flying boat (looking more like an airplane),

and on to this within 10-20 years.

Engines underwent the same increase in sophistication, changing from this kind of rudimentary looking engine

to this complicated rotary engine during the same time

We had lunch in Watkins Glen on the way back, then stopped at Hector Falls, on Route 414.

Sunday morning, after a breakfast of birthday waffles and a nice conversation with my family, we all returned to New Jersey. D had made a very nice dinner, accompanied by a good bottle of merlot.

Thanks for the happy 58th!