Today we were off to visit a massive flying boat- after our recent stops you might be thinking that a flying boat would be a Homer Simpson idea, or a napkin sketch from the Salem Insane Asylum, but it was a U.S. government sanctioned project that was led by the notorious Howard Hughes. The ship convoy losses resulting from German U-Boat attacks motivated a number of off-the-wall ideas but this might have been the biggest one. The original idea for the flying boat...

When we first started planning this roadtrip, DH had expressed serious interest in only three of the many, many odd ball attractions spread all over the U.S. and Canada: the Lucille Ball Museum in New York, the worlds largest perogy in Saskatchewan, and Springfield Oregon, world famous home of the cartoon Simpsons. Our first crack at her relatively short list wish list (mine sits at 1,857 and growing) was Springfield Oregon. Two TV shows make DH giggle like a te...

As we left California, we were worried that we might be leaving the eccentricities we had really enjoyed so far. Both Oregon and Washington have a more serious, straight-laced reputation.Oregon does host some of the most spectacular scenery along the Pacific Ocean Highway but when we (and when I say 'we', I mean me) heard that Oregon was the one state that was bombed from the air during WWII we knew there had to be a few more twists and turns to be found....