Howard Hughes and some Vineyards

We all went flying yesterday.

Sort of.

Well, I went to an Aviation Museum and…

Liz and Paula went for wine-“tasting’s” (?)

I’m sure you get my drift.

I’ll start with the Wine first as the only information that I could get from the “Imbibers” was that there seemed to be “lot’s of teenie-weenie little grapes and then like poof! they become wine!”

                                    Or something like that.

            Actually, Liz picked two of the better and more influential of Oregon’s wineries to visit yesterday and treated Paula to a great day.

 Argyle and Furioso, both of Dundee, located in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.

“Well Don, how come you know so much about wine?”

I’m glad you asked that you ol’ sommelier!

I looked it up!

I’m a better judge of chocolate milk than wine…..

(“Hmm,,,, Tuesday…. that was a good day.”)

So, for all of you wino’s …. oops! I mean Wine Aficionados out there here’s all you need to know about those two vintners….

                                    Just buy them!

                        I can speak with some authority (by association) on Argyle because one of my good friends (who can buy any bottle of wine in the world that he may like) has chosen Argyle as his vineyard of choice when he wants the wines that they produce. That’s enough for me! And…. apparently only the products from the Champagne region itself can compete with Argyle’s selection of fizzy wines.  

And that is saying something!

Furioso was named “…..One of the 25 most beautiful wineries in the world….” by Rizzoli of New York.

            I can speak with zero authority as to who Rizzoli is, but I can tell you that both Paula and Liz raved about how beautiful the place was. Some more photos would have been nice but apparently the girls were “taking this wine tasting very seriously” and I suppose that there was no time left for frivolous photography.

                        Or something like that.

On the other hand, you may expect a full-disclosure of how I spent my time at The Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in the very unlikely location of McMinnville, Oregon.

Why McMinnville?

Good question. It’s because it is the home of the former world-wide air transport service of Evergreen International, and yes, there is an airport there that can support that large of an aircraft.

But this is not your average Air Museum, no this organization was the one that was selected (back in the early 90’s) to be the future home of Howard Hugh’s famed, much larger-than-life….. Spruce Goose.

That was my primary reason for coming to this Museum way out here in Northwestern Oregon. I’m fairly sure that we all are somewhat familiar with the story of Howard Hughes, his eccentricities, his companies, and his accomplishments.

 I highly recommend watching The Aviator (directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo De Caprio and Cate Blanchett) as it will give you a glimpse into the life and times of Hughes, at least during his mid-life years.

BTW… it was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, and it took home five.

Our combined goal for the day was to get me to the Museum in time to purchase a “Behind the Scenes” tour of the Spruce Goose which are available only on a first come, first served basis.

And…. not do this all too early as the Vineyards did not open until the noonish area.

We were successful on all counts as I was booked on the 12:40 PM tour with Dave. This gave me over an hour to explore the rest of this fine facility. I’m not sure if you will ever get an honest review from me when it comes to both Aviation and Maritime museums. We (collectively you and me) have explored our share of these venerable institutions over the past four years of the Blog and if there is one thread that binds all of these organizations together, it is that of Pride. They are all so proud of what they have collected and displayed for our mutual admiration and education. I could never be negative knowing that their museum had the hearts and souls of the folks involved poured into it.

So, no honesty here, they’ll all be great 😊

But….. This place is AWESOME!!!!!!

A World-Class Collection of vintage aircraft and spacecraft, plus all of the important storylines connecting them all together.

There is no doubt that the Spruce Goose is the centerpiece, the Queen of the Show, and without a doubt, one of the most important aviation artifacts ever. And it’s here.

                        The campus is gorgeous, the buildings, all designed for their purpose and all complementing each other in design and size. This place is impressive.

                        Evergreen International and many other aviation related companies were the brainchildren of Del Smith, a highly respected aviation industry mogul. He and his son devised a plan for the eventual successful bid to have the Spruce Goose acquired and moved over thousand miles northward to McMinnville, Oregon, the company’s headquarters.

Last and certainty most important….

They have several displays concerning those indispensable ladies of the Space Program at NASA, the Hidden Figures. Ever since that movie came out, there have been more and more examples of the ladies behind the numbers (and computers) at NASA.

Here is one of the Ladies….

The best story to come out of this board is the time that Margaret had to bring her daughter to work with her and the child flipped a switch in the command module throwing everything into chaos. After things calmed down, she suggested that she write a program that would help prevent this from happening. She was told that “astronauts are highly trained and would never have that happen…” Well…. months later on Apollo 8, Jim Lovell made that exact same mistake as the little girl. Margaret Hamiliton got to make her program that prevented from this from happening again.

There is SO MUCH MORE, but I am afraid of getting tedious here as I believe that this is the fourth or fifth Aviation Musuem that I’ve dragged you through this year…. so far!

Class dismissed!