da Plane, da Plane! - Frontiers of Flight, Dallas

6911 Lemmon Ave, Dallas, TX   214-350-3600

$7–10 · flightmuseum.com

If you like planes, here is your happy place. Located at Love Field in Dallas, this mid-sized museum houses dozens of aircraft from all eras. Parts of flight simulators for the SR-71 and T-38, and a fun little tribute to Southwest Airlines that started at Loves, including an airliner built into the side of the museum, half-in, half-out. (In fact, isn't Southwest's stock symbol LOVES?) All wheelchair accessible.

A few small displays brought it home to me. The section on the earliest air balloons was all new to me. There's also a tiny recreation of the Wright Brothers shop, which I don't know if it was historically accurate or not, but it smelled of cedar, which took me right back to working on construction sites. The good smells from worksites, that is. Smells do that.

Back to FOF, my favorite parts were the real Apollo VII capsule and the models of the Wright Flyer, Sopwith Pup (I geek over World War I planes) and the Sputnik that was amazing to look at because it's only the size of a metal beachball yet it changed the world. The announcement of the beachball that was the first object in space was one of the high points of the Soviet Union and probably all of Russian history, and it sent wonder through the world and terror through Americans that led eventually to landing on the moon. A beachball with antennas did that. Like the Wright Flyer, disruptive technology.

Wright Flyer model, top left

Outer space disco ball: Sputnik model, top middle

Another of my favorites was a video playing way in back. It is a World War II P-47 pilot telling his stories, and he can tell em. I started listening out of a sort of duty because it was stuck behind another newer exhibit. I felt bad, thinking here's a vet literally elbowed out of the way, I'll give him a couple minutes. I ended up spending more time here than anywhere else, because the man tells some excellent yarns! Here he is, Charlie Mohrle. Wish I could buy him a few beers. Look for him in the corners of the World War II section. There's also a super-knowledgeable volunteer who walks the museum fishing for questions, but boy, some Texans can talk!

There are plenty other aircraft - military, experimental, helicopters - not pictured. We spent a few hours here, fun afternoon.

Also Dallas, the Mab Tower (Bank of America), 72 floors she climbed

Nearby camping, Cedar Hills State Park

Nearby messylicious vegan eats, Spiral Diner

Cedar Hills State Park: the Forest by the City ... n ANTS!

1570 West FM 1382, Cedar Hill, TX (18 mi. from downtown Dallas)

972-291-3900, Cust serv: 512-389-8900, Website

Site 124, Loop H

Woods and lake 20 min. from downtown

Upfront, this park is overrun by invasive Argentina ants. They are small, an eighth of an inch, and seemed pretty harmless, although Texas Parks and Wildlife warns they could mess with your electrical system. TPW is upfront about them and gives guidance how to protect you and your vehicles.

Not this kind of ant

The ant hordes are for real! We brought along insecticide. Mab sprayed down all contact points with the ground (wheels, jacks, connections and the undercarriage). She did this a couple of times. So we did everything TPW said to do. Yet by evening, we were overrun. It turns out the heavy afternoon rainshower had washed the bug spray off of the water hose and electrical hookup (we were preoccupied with a different drama: a broken skylight cover leaking) and the ants seized their opportunity.

Exhausted, we kept it together for the night. Once we left, a day of spraying knocked out 99 percent of them. So, whew, it was a happy ending.

Lesson learned: take the warnings seriously (we did) and remember to respray after rainstorms. TPW ought to plainly state that. Writing the letter now.

Still here? Here is the rest of my writeup, pre-ant:

        The first stop on our trip.

We got out hours before Hurricane Laura: one of its rain bands had already reached up to us from 400 miles away. A few hours later, we pulled into Cedar Hills Park on another Texas scorcher, 110° heat index. Just being in a state park at least puts your mind in a cooler state. True to the name, lush cedar trees are everywhere, one of my favorites. Red and gold sunsets over the lake were visible from our trailer. Also Jupiter passing above the moon. There are five hiking trails here, of all skill levels. One is an easy two-thirds of a mile, described as family-friendly, that I never got to check out. Busy guy.

Site 124, Loop H, is an ADA site 50 feet deep, level concrete, and plenty wide for clearance all around. Electric, water. Dump station in the park. Verizon and T-Mobile good signals. At the back, privacy and a covered picnic table that's wheelchair accessible. Fire pit. Lots of space between sites. Steep drop-offs from one side of the pad. At the front, a crack across one side of the pad could be a problem for some wheelchairs, and same for a slight lip where the pad joins the trail road. Bathrooms and showers right next door. 

Mab's hikes campgroup

Lakeshore (inaccessible)

Throughout this trip I kept thinking about my grandparents. I was seeing things they never did. As refugees they saw plenty of Europe, but mostly stayed put where they settled in the American Midwest. One of my grandfathers visited the Pacific Northwest. Decades later we bought him a monkey puzzle tree like he saw there, and he planted it in Michigan. My grandmother went with us on a fantastic roadtrip to Arizona. But most likely they didn't see any of what I was seeing. I look through their eyes, and they see through mine. I have their DNA after all, and some of their inherited consciousness and sensibility. It's their grit and vision that got me here, after all. So I am seeing for them, with them. I like it that way better. We all would enjoy this trip.

Nearby flight museum crammed with planes, Frontiers of Flight

and messylicious vegan eats, Spiral Diner