Summer of 21 - #2 - Lakeside Landing & Southern Museum of Flight

April 19th, 2021

We arrived at Lakeside Landing RV Park, Cropwell, Alabama yesterday.  Here's some pictures of the campground from our short walk around.

View from the motorhome to the right

and the left

We didn't pay for a lakeside spot as we're only here a few days but they are quite nice.  We could spend some time in one of these sites.

Interesting tree trunk

Piers

Picnic Area

Boat Ramp

Nice house on the opposite bank

Bryan heading back to Lily

View from our door/window

April 20th, 2021 - Part 1 - Southern Museum of Flight

There is a lot to see around here but we decided not to go to Talledega and the museum there as it is the big race this weekend and we know it will be busy over there with race fans. Talledega is one of the tracks Bryan would like to go and park in the infield at and we probably should have done that this year but with the uncertainty over Covid it can wait. 

Instead we went to the Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham, Alabama.

Pansies in the flower bed, reminded me of Dad. One of his favourite flowers, together with Roses.

A-7 Corsair II outside entrance

We paid our entrance fee and were introduced to a docent there who had been in the Air Force.  He & Bryan immediately got into a conversation about the Air Force, where they had been stationed and life in general.  Those of you who are military can relate I'm sure. Anyway he told Bryan they had an F-111 that needed renovating if he was up to the task. It was funny because when we drove up in the car there were some houses opposite the museum and I had said to Bryan,"Maybe we should move into one of those and you could volunteer here", Ha!! Ha!!. We started to walk around and he came to find us to chat some more. He told us they were moving to a different location which was bigger and would have room for all the planes they have stored at the moment and more expansion. It sounded very interesting, who knows maybe we could get a long term site at the campground and Bryan could do some renovating. Eventually he returned to his office and we continued on.

The museum is a continual work in progress but the exhibits are displayed in a very professional manner. 

Bikes

and cars

and planes

He gets everywhere doesn't he?

Workshop

Model Ships

Children's Play Area

This engine was as big as me!!!

Click on this LINK to read the story of this B-26 that was recovered from Lake Murray after it crashed and sank during a training mission in WWII.  The pilot and crew were rescued.

There were some other outdoor displays.

We still hadn't seen the F-111 though, so we asked where it was.  There was a small airport just along the road and there were several planes from the museum there that are waiting renovation.  It will be so nice once they can get them all inside and start to restore them.

F111A

That was an interesting visit but we still had another stop to make. I will write about that in the next blog.

Here's a map showing our route between campgrounds in this blog. MAP