Flying Saucers and NFL Pigskins

(2024 Heartland Ep 9)

As our travels across the north shore of Lake Superior came to a close, we made a brief overnight trip across the US-Canada border to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.   There, we purchased gas and groceries because they were much less expensive than in Canada.

We returned to Canada and continued across the top of Lake Huron, the second largest of the great lakes. 

Some Great Lakes geography (see map): 

Lake Superior, at 21 feet higher elevation, flows into Lake Huron via the St Mary’s River at Sault Ste. Marie.   Lake Huron and Lake Michigan are the same level connected by the five-mile-wide Straits of Mackinac.  Some consider the two lakes to be a single lake. 

Lake Huron flows south into Lake Erie via the St. Clair River near Detroit.  Lake Erie empties into Lake Ontario via the Niagara River, and Lake Ontario continues on to the Atlantic Ocean via the St Lawrence River.

Back to the USA!

We cut our Lake Huron tour in half by taking a ferry across Lake Huron to Tobermory, Ontario.  At nearby Wiarton, we hiked to Bruce’s Cave burrowed underneath the Niagara Escarpment. The escarpment runs from Wisconsin to New York and is the same formation associated with Niagara Falls.

Our escarpment hike included hiking through narrow passages and rock scrambling amidst interesting rock layers

We drove south to Port Huron, Michigan and Ohio. It was about a week before our second planned week on staff at Cedarbrook Camp of Ohio, so we decided to visit the Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio. 

Our Ada, Ohio chicken ambassadors laid multicolored eggs

Eggs and Footballs in Ada

Halfway to Dayton, we spent the night at a Harvest Host location in Ada, Ohio.  Our host’s home was located a mile out of town, surrounded by soybean and corn fields.   The owner had several laying hens, and we purchased a dozen multicolored farm fresh eggs that we enjoyed for breakfast over the next several mornings. 

The colorful eggs tasted the same to us.

Eggs aside, Ada has the interesting distinction of having a Wilson Sporting Goods factory where every leather official-size NFL football has been handcrafted since 1955.

Super Bowl footballs on display, including one from Super Bowl XXXIX

We toured the busy football manufacturing plant, watching large pieces of leather being cut into four-piece football-shaped stacks.  The stacks are sewn together with a special liner. An inflatable bladder is then inserted into each ball before it is stitched, and various lettering and logos are applied.  Each football includes an RFID chip used to track the ball’s location during NFL games.   

National Museum of the US Air Force

From Ada, we traveled to Dayton, Ohio where we spent two days touring the amazing National Museum of the US Air Force.

Two days are hardly enough to walk through the museum that is housed in four large hangars on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.  Hundreds of planes, helicopters, drones, missiles, a space shuttle mockup and more are displayed.

One hangar is dedicated to the history of air flight from the Wright Brothers to WWII

The museum is divided into four main sections – history of flight from the Wright Brothers to WWII, Korea and Vietnam, the Cold War era and the modern Air Force. 

WWII bombers including the B-17 Memphis Belle and a B-25 Mitchell

For more than 60 years, the B-52 Stratofortress has been the backbone of the US strategic bomber force; a B-52 cockpit is filled with levers and instruments

Several airplanes used by US presidents were on display, including the customized Boeing 707 that was in service when Lyndon Johnson was sworn into office following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

Next Week

We spend our second week on staff at Cedarbrook Camp of Ohio, about an hour east of Cleveland.