No, not THAT air show. Yesterday, I flew up, up, and away in a 1933 Waco UBF2 biplane from the Owl’s Head Transportation Museum, in Owl’s Head, Maine. Wowser! In my travel adventures, this even outranked riding an ostrich (which I did in Curacao, and which I wouldn’t recommend). I won my 10-minute ride in a raffle—the museum doesn’t sell rides, but it does offer them in auctions and raffles.
Wearing goggles and ear protectors that reduced the noise (all that we lacked were red scarves) and strapped into the open-air cockpit with my seatmate Victor, we bumped down the grassy runway, and then wheeeee! up we went, soaring above the St. George Peninsula, with views back to the Camden Hills and out over island-studded Penobscot Bay. I spotted the three-masted Victory Chimes, the largest in Maine’s windjammer fleet (it’s depicted on the Maine quarter, with Pemaquid light in the backdrop), under full sail, and I even spied a friend’s home in Spruce Head (Hi Kathy, I waved, honest).
While not everyone can take to the skies from the museum, it is possible to ride around the grounds on a Model T and take in all the exhibits; it’s a fabulous collection.
Back on the ground, I checked out the planes, automobiles, motorcycles, engines and whatnot on view at the museum, but even now, I’m still grinning and thinking: Curse, you Red Baron!
(thanks to Lorie Juliano for the photo of me in the plane).
