Road Trips

August 27, 2008


My Favorite Road Trip

On two occasions in my life I have had an in-person real chance to learn about the U.S. Space Program. Once on a family trip to Wapakoneta, Ohio to see the Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum. The second with a group of chemical engineering students from Akron University to Michigan Technology Institute in Houghton, Michigan to give a presentation. These two learning experiences are my favorite road trips.

I knew Neil Armstrong was from Ohio and the first man to walk on the moon. I knew astronauts returned from there journeys by “splashing down” in the Ocean and the rockets they flew were launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Mission Control was in Houston, Texas. What I didn’t know was Neil is from Wapakoneta and there is a museum full of WWII aircraft and spacecraft. The airplanes and rockets were huge compared to today’s models, or at least they appeared so to a young boy. I also saw replicas of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The bombs were called “Fat Man” and “Little Boy”. The collection of machines in the museum was like nothing I had ever seen before!

I went to Houghton, Michigan and this was a real gas. Five of us piled into a rental van at Akron U. and took off for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. “Copper Bay to be precise“. We were to give a presentation on Polymers. The theme of the seminar was chemical processing on the moon. I knew Apollo 17 mission had found moon rocks containing titanium. So this was an interesting topic to me. The seminar was a two day and one night event and we were able to take a tour of the copper mine at Copper Bay. The mine went deep into the Earth and special equipment was necessary to provide vision. I felt like a real spelunker! Copper ore is shiny brown or blue-green in color as copper oxidizes when exposed to air. We saw some big chunks of copper come out of the mine. In the evening we hung out at the local watering hole called “The Library”. The next day we gave our presentation then found out who won awards and packed up for home. I remember the presentation we gave came in third and everybody was satisfied.

All in all these two road trips are very memorable to me. Mainly because of the topics and the locations that I visited. I hope to go back to both someday!!!


Gary M. Woodard

Oil's Well....

Show Bulletins I've Posted

User has been banned




From: Gary




Date: Sep 28, 2008 8:16 PM
Subject: Oily Alaska
Body: The permafrost is melted.............so use swamp buggys!!

The pipeline is broken..................a little duct tape will help!!!

It's too cold up there.......................build an igloo!!!!

my toes are cold.............................where's your muck-lucks???

I don't like the cold.........................it's all relative and radiation provides more
more heat than you can stand!!!

my nose is running........................you can't cross the lower 48 with sinusitis!!!

I don't like paying $4.
00
for a gallon of gas...........................you don't have to, there's oil in Alaska!!!!


Recycle, Reduce, Reuse........................and Improvise but be smart!!!!


Woody out.




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