Nobody had replied to to Ray's email asking if he could pose his Blackbird next to the museums Blackbird for a picture. It wasn't a big surprise, at the very best you'd have better odds of winning the lottery than of getting permission to wheel a motorcycle through the middle of a museum.
When the museum came into sight we were blown away. It was so big it had Two Boeing 747's outside! One of them had been converted into a water slide! And the Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes' 8 engine monster flying boat was nowhere to be seen. That's because the buildings were so huge that it fit inside! While we were standing in line to buy our tickets we were standing underneath the wing and didn't even know it.
Ray and I got to chatting with one of the museum staff who looked like any of the other older guys wandering around with name tags pinned to their vests. I did notice his name, Larry Wood, and the Marine Corps crest sewn onto his vest along with several others. I had wandered off to take a look at the Goose when Ray came running up to me waving a business card with a look on his face like a kid on Christmas morning who just got a new bike, a train set, a computer, an iPhone, and a lifetime subscription to Playboy.
"I was telling that guy about my email, and that I didn't get a reply. He handed me his business card, told me to call him when we're done, and said he'd open the door for me so I could bring it in!" The card read:
Larry A Wood
Executive Director
Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum
2 Hours later, as good as his word, he rolled up a door that covered one entire side of the building, and.........
Later that day as we ran down the winding highway 101 along the the Oregon coast, if Ray had run right off the side of that cliff to die in a flaming fireball, he would have gone grinning from ear to ear.
"If you don't ask the question............."
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