Sunday, August 12, 2012

Lindbergh Home and State Park

I went with my date up to the Lindbergh home and state park near Little Falls. I had been there in June of 2009 but I liked being there again. We found something I hadn't seen in my previous visit, a park called Le Bourget which celebrated the sister city relationship due to Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic. I knew he flew from New York to Paris, apparently the French airport he landed at was in this town. I got a picture of the display showing the mention of the sister cities, which had a small Spirit of St. Louis included. There was also mention of explorers in the area, such as Zebulon Pike, and I got a picture of this as well. The park appeared to be the largest in town, based on the map there. This doesn't count the Lindbergh Park of course, as it's a state park and outside the city limits. Hard to say why I didn't see it before, maybe since it is near the Mississippi River and close to the turn for the home and state park. I probably wanted to pay attention so I didn't miss the turn.
   Much of what was there was familiar, like the V.W. inside the visitor center. I was reminded of how I have a paper back copy of the book 'Spirit of St. Louis' that Lindbergh wrote about the flight. It became a movie, Jimmy Stewart played him. We saw a film  and looked around in the visitor center before our tour of the home began, we had just missed a tour and those are held once an hour. When the tour guide asked us what Lindbergh was famous for, one kid had a partial answer. I then said I preferred letting a kid answer, but finally the tour guide let me answer. I said 'nonstop' in addition to 'alone' in terms of being an aviation pioneer across the Atlantic. I still hated to see the pictures of the Saxon car being trashed after word got around about his historic flight, but I am pleased that the car was restored. We did look around a little at the state park across the road, when we got a picture of the sign I was pleased when some slowed down so we had a chance at a good picture. I did say thank you to them as I knew they didn't have to do this. I did my best to get some souvenirs I didn't have before, as I recall in 2009 I got one postcard which depicted Lindbergh himself and the plane. This time I got a magnet in addition to 3 postcards. One of them was of the home and the other two were black and white photos of Lindbergh at banquets and other events in his honor.
  We decided to take an alternate route back home around Albertville and St. Michael as traffic was getting backed up on I-94. This was likely due to those coming back from up north at the cabin. Didn't want the car's engine idling so it meant taking some back roads but I just wanted to keep moving. Wasn't too much out of our way.

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