Mcminnville, OR

McMinnville is a regular stop on our alternate year visits to the Pacific NW because my niece, Carina, lives there.  It’s a cool little town (population 33K) in the heart of the wine country and they have an active Pickleball group.  In prior years we parked our RV in Carina’s driveway but this year, we opted for a private RV park because jockeying the larger rig in and out of her driveway would have been a major pain in the butt.

Olde Stone Village, the private RV park where we stayed, is one of the best.  It’s well designed and well managed, has very nice laundry and shower facilities, a pool, club room, sports court; we’ve paid a lot more and got a lot less.  Another plus: it’s right beside the Evergreen Aviation Museum complex, which has several new features.  We strolled around the complex one morning, took some pix, but didn’t enter any of the buildings.

This 747 is part of a water park.  Note the large water slide tubes at the rear. 

The plane was already atop the building 4 years ago but we didn’t know why.

A retired Air Force One plane fronts the new Space Museum, which houses several types of launch missiles, space capsules and the like.  There’s also a new theater building.

The military version (C-47) of the venerable DC 3, first built in 1936.  I rode in a DC 3 when I was in the Forest Service, maybe in Vietnam also, don’t recall, too many planes, too many years.  In Vietnam they were used as 'Spooky' gunships, which had 3 mini-guns, each capable of firing 6,000 rounds a minute.  They could convert thick jungle into mulch in seconds.   

Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose is in the original Museum building.

This view shows the plane from the rear.