Hansen Road Trips

9/26/2018 Today’s relocation found me at the Fischers Lilly Park campground in Fort Pierre, South Dakota . This RV Park is a Fort Pierre city park on the west bank of the Missouri River with the capital Pierre, South Dakota on the east bank. Once settled in the campground, I drove over to Pierre to review the Capitol building which is fully open to its owners: the citizens of South Dakota and their visitors. 9/27/2018 Today, I reviewed the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre which is built into the side of a hill. This Facility is a Smithsonian Affiliate that displays the historical and cultural artifacts of South Dakota from dinosaurs to the present. The museum is meticulously laid out with the visitor walking from one area to another area in a chronological presentation of exhibits. It deftly covers the First Nations presence before European settlement, the establishment of the State of South Dakota and life on the prairie; from statehood through today. Afterwards, I ...

9/01/2018 I went to the National Museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base that was 30 miles from my campsite. I was there for about 5 hours which was not enough time for this very large and very interesting museum. There are four huge hangers with each one designated by one or more eras. I started in the first hanger that contains Early Military Flight, World War I, and World War II. I began by reviewing the WWII gallery of Hanger 1 in which I spent the most time. After rapidly touring the Early Flight / WWI gallery I preceded to the Korea and Southeast Asia hanger. After that I had to hurry through the Cold War and current USAF Operations hanger as closing time was fast approaching. This museum has a lot of nuclear bombs plus almost every type plane developed, tested, and/or produced in the United States with some planes from the USSR . Unfortunately, I was unable to review the Missile gallery or the newest fourth hanger that encompa...