BIG CITY GETAWAY

CRADLEOF AVIATION MUSEUM CHARLES LINDBERGH BLVD, GARDEN CITY, NY 11530

516-572-4111 • WWW CRADLEOFAVIATION ORG

“I wanna go back, to the island…”

Jimmy Buffett

Although Mr. Buffett is likely singing about an island more towards the little latitudes, he also has a home and an airplane parked in another particular harbor, on another island to the north. One that often gets shuf ed to the side when islands of the United States come into the conversation.

This isle, which lies a mile or so to the east of the North American mainland, is 118 miles long and just 23 miles across at its widest point and is the longest and largest island in the contiguous U.S.

The larger islands are the Big Island in Hawaii, Kodiak, and Puerto Rico – like Kodiak the other 8 can be found in Alaska, and Long Island is even larger than the state of Rhode Island – which is not an island at all.

The natives called it Paumanok. Europeans gave it a more literal name and simply called it Long.

Not far from the western edge of Long Island – east of New York City’s boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, there was once a huge swatch of grasslands. At some 60,000 acres, it was massive and covered the entire county now called Nassau.

Created from an outwash of glacial sediment, from the retreating Ice Age, the Hempstead Plains region was cited as one of the few natural prairies east of the Allegheny Mountains.

Various native tribes lived here in peace for thousands of years and with the arrival of Europeans and the birth of the United States much history would occur on the long spit of land. Washington’s Culper Spy Ring was from the tiny north shore town of Setauket.

The creation of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Rail Road, and then the coming of the automobile, and one particular man – Robert Moses – would change this stunning

Daytrip Ideas To Get Out Of The Daily Grind

natural island forever.

With huge swaths of relatively at land and being ideally placed at the eastern edge of the United States, at the western edge of the Atlantic Ocean, and adjacent to America’s most populous city, New York; Long Island was geographically a natural air eld. This made it the ideal focal point for most transatlantic and transcontinental ights.

The Hempstead Plains were to be the scene of intense aviation activity for over fty years.

The rst recorded aircraft ight took place on Long Island when a Lilienthal-type glider was own from the bluffs along Nassau County’s north shore. By 1902 gasoline-powered airships were own over Brooklyn. Powered ight had come to Long Island to stay.

By 1909 the rst daring ights were made from the Hempstead Plains in the central part of Nassau County. Because the at, open landscape made a natural air eld, famous aviator Glenn Curtiss brought his biplane the “Golden Flyer” here. By 1910 three air elds were operating on the Hempstead Plains, and Long Islanders were now building their own airplanes. Several ying schools and aircraft factories also sprang up and Long Island became the center of the aviation world. By far the most important aeronautical event on Long Island up to this time was the 1910 International Aviation Meet at Belmont Park. The greatest aviators from all over America and Europe came to Long Island to show their latest ying machines, race, set records, and win prize money. In 1911 the rst transcontinental ight occurred when Cal Rodgers, in a Wright biplane, ew from Long Island to California in 49 days.

If you ew, you probably ew here. Over the next century, dozens of aircraft and aerospace industries called Long Island home and no less than 13 of our astronauts called Long Island home.

Lindbergh left Long Island in 1927.

All of this deep and wonderful aviation can be found at the Cradle of Aviation Museum, in Garden City.

Located on the grounds of Mitchel Filed, this museum ies through Long Island’s ying history from our rst baby steps into the clouds to our reaching for the stars. The museum took its name from the region itself, as by the mid-1920s so much aviation and ying took place along the Hempstead Plains that it was called, with good reason, the cradle of aviation.

Like all great things this museum started as a dream of a few interested and passionate men; William Kaiser and George Dade who, along with Henry Anholzer of Pan-American Airlines and dozens of volunteers began to assemble aircraft of historic note and Long Island rsts.

The rst acquisition was a World War I Curtiss JN-4D discovered in an Iowa pig barn by Dade in 1973. Lindbergh later con rmed that this was his very rst airplane.

Nice start. When Mitchel Field closed in 1961 it was taken over by the county and the museum was created.

The museum originally opened with just a handful of aircraft in the unrestored hangars in 1980. A major renovation and expansion program in the late 1990s allowed the museum to re-open in a state-of-the-art facility in 2002.

The museum is a full 150,000 square feet of aviation nirvana; its eight galleries feature more than 75 air and spacecraft from a hot air balloon to an actual Apollo Lunar Module.

We have been looking to visit this museum for several years and we were especially excited to have our own personal docent, Backroads Rally alumni and friend, Steve Sachar.

Steve has been involved in aircraft and aviation all his life and was a decorated helicopter pilot in Viet Nam. Enjoying a well-created museum is always a treat… having a friend really show you and transport you back in time is priceless.

As we rolled into the parking lot the stunning bronze statue of astronaut Sally Ride, hand holding a space shuttle aloft to the skies, framed by the large glass paned and white trellis building, with Steve’s BMW K1600GTL parked alongside dominated the view.

Entering the museum a Navy Blue Angels F-11A soars above your head, anked by a 1922 Sperry messenger and an odd Gyrodyne Rotorcycle. This led to hours of informative exhibits, not just of Long Island ying history, but the entire story of man’s quest for ight.

Exhibits from World War One and the Golden Age of Flight had craft like a replica of the Spirit of St. Louis (it was the plane Jimmy Stewart ew in the lm), an Ace Biplane as well as a Grumman F3F-2 and others.

How aircraft y was clearly explained and easily understood with a bit of help from Steve and it turns out it is real science, physics, and math; not black magic as I believed.

Many female aviators were featured, not in a PC “Here I am and I’m a Woman” manner, but simply as famed aviatrix who deserved bold mention due to their accomplishments-not gender.

Although Amelia Earhart was featured, in our opinion it was Harriet Quimby who was the true real deal.

Quimby was an American pioneering aviator, journalist, and lm screenwriter. In 1911, she became the rst woman in the United States to receive a pilot certificate, issued to her by the Aero Club of America; and in 1912, she became the rst woman to y across the English Channel. Although Quimby lived only to the age of 37, her in uence in aviation and women pilots is undeniable.

The day that she landed in France, a huge accomplishment, other events were happening. Quimby went to bed that night thinking she would be all over the newswires the next day… and she would have if not for the Titanic sinking that same day.

Two months later Harriet was ying in an airshow in Boston when turbulence and a shifting passenger knocked her from her plane. She died on impact. One of the most amazing human beings gone in a ash and rarely remembered.

The Cradle of Aviation remembers and wonderfully tells her story. World War II and more modern-era aircraft are also represented. We passed a Grumman TBM-3E – that was introduced to the public and press just as news of the attack on Pearl Harbor was coming over the wires. The TBM-3E was named the Avenger from that very day forward.

There was an F6F-5 Hellcat, a Wildcat, and a wonderful Republic P-47 Thunderbolt – the same ghter after which the race track in New Jersey is named.

More modern jets like the Thunderjet, the F9F-7 Cougar, and a T-46 can be found. You will also nd an F-14 Tomcat (the last built) and a stunning A-6 Intruder. You know, having a friend for a docent is very convenient, but it went to another level when Steve opened up the Intruder and invited me to climb up and take a seat in the cockpit.

His only request was not to fall in or out, as that would be very, very bad for him. I did my best and it was such a freakin’ treat!

There is an entire section centered around another favorite ghter of ours – The A-10 Thunderbolt, or the Warthog as it is called! I refer to this aircraft as the ‘foot soldier’s jet’ for its capability to cover ground troops and maintain air superiority at the same time. Our friend Tim is an A-10 pilot so we feel we have an iron – if a very small one – in this re. The aircraft and a close-up look at its titanium armor and extremely lethal 30mm gun always impresses.

You can spend hours walking through the Cradle of Aviation, but I would like to mention their Apollo exhibits.

They have the only Lunar Excursion Module – built for Apollo 18 – on display, as well as exhibits that bring this momentous adventure from the late 60s to you today; and with our return to our moon, it really was exciting to see and learn so much here.

The Cradle of Aviation Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm.

If you love aircraft and the men and women who brought us into the sky then you will truly appreciate this museum.

If you go look for Steve – his bike will be parked outside. ,

Morton’s BMW Motorcycles presents

Dr. Seymour O’Life’s MYSTERIOUS AMERICA

PABLO ESCOBEAR – THE COCAINE BEAR KENTUCKYFOR KENTUCKY FUN MALL

720 BRYAN AVENUE, LEXINGTON, KY • 859-303-6359 • KYFORKY COM

Have you ever ridden in the state of Kentucky? Wow - it seems to be one giant roller coaster from border to border.

We all know about the thoroughbred racehorses, the delicious and heady bourbons, and probably even that Abraham Lincoln was born here; and, of course, our last American World MotoGP Champion Nicky Hayden hailed from Kentucky as well.

But this month Seymour has something a bit different than the usual Blue Grass avor.

It involves a wealthy family, drug smuggling, AND an apex predator.

Andrew Carter Thornton II was the wealthy son of an elite Kentucky horse-breeding family, and back in the mid 80’s when cocaine, Miami Vice, and smuggling were all the rage, Andrew thought he’d make a killing by smuggling in some blow from south of the border.

But Thornton was not just some rich kid gone rouge. Oh, no. This guy had chops… ROTC, then 82nd Army Airborne Paratrooper. He received a Purple Heart during the 1965 invasion of the Dominican Republic. (Yes, we invaded the DR – Operation Power Pack). After the Army Thornton trained racehorses in his family’s business, then became a Law Enforcement Of cer, all the while going to college to become a lawyer.

This guy was one of those “driven” people for sure.

After a decade of police work, he passed the bar and began to practice law. Now this is where the story begins to go sideways…

Four years later, Thornton was among 25 men accused, in Fresno, California, of a theft of weapons from the China Lake Naval Weapons Center (are you kidding me?!), and of conspiring to smuggle 1,000 pounds of marijuana into the United States.

Blairsville, Georgia, set the Cessna 404 on auto-pilot, and jumped out. Thornton was a very experienced paratrooper as well as an accomplished “BASE Jumper.”

Thornton successfully parachuted from atop skyscrapers, broadcasting towers, the New River Gorge Bridge, and a natural abutment — in his case a cliff in Norway. But Karma is a bitch and Thornton was clipped by the tail of the plane. He recovered in time to pull the chute which did not deploy, and he plummeted down in a tangled free fall.

Thornton ed California after pleading not guilty and was arrested as a fugitive in North Carolina, wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a pistol. He pleaded no contest in Fresno to a misdemeanor drug charge and the felony charges were dropped. He was sentenced to six months in prison, ned $500, placed on probation for ve years, and had his law license suspended.

Oh, boy.

On September 11, 1985, Thornton and an accomplice were smuggling in a bunch of cocaine that they had treetop ew from Colombia.

Thornton was piloting his Cessna 404, along with Bill Leonard, his karate instructor turned bodyguard. The 404 is a serious aircraft used by the U.S. Coast Guard, as well as several foreign militaries, ironically Colombia included.

With a range of well over two thousand miles, it was the perfect mule to y drugs north – but it was an expendable aircraft. Having been overheard on the radio by authorities, they had to take action. Thornton and Leonard, after dumping well-packaged kilos of blow over a rural area near

Fred Meyers had just fallen asleep when he awoke to a terrible thud in front of his Knoxville home, and went to investigate and found Andrew Carter Thornton II’s body smashed into his driveway.

At the time of his death Thornton was wearing a bulletproof vest, Gucci loafers, and was carrying night vision goggles, a green Army duffel bag containing 75 lbs of cocaine valued at $15 million, $4,500 in cash, six 0.1 oz (2.8 g) gold Krugerrands, knives and two pistols.

You know – the usual.

Years later Leonard would come clean on all this as he swore he was tricked by Thornton who said they were going to the Bahamas for a few days and was shocked and terri ed when they landed in a swampy area of Montería, Colombia. He had never jumped out of a plane before but, obviously, did okay.

But, hey… what about the plane Seymour? Right, the plane… Auto-pilot is amazing until the aircraft runs out of fuel – then gravity takes over. I’m sorry – this prick Thornton got what he had coming.

Remarkably the plane, now akin to a German buzz bomb, crashed into a mountainside in North Carolina with no casualties.

A Black Bear was found three months later, in the woods just south of the Tennessee-Georgia state line, sprawled next to the ripped-open 10th bag. All of its coke, about 76 pounds, was gone.

Say it ain’t true, Yogi?!

Decades passed. This sad, but true, saga might have ended there but for the dead bear that was on a long strange trip of his own, and one that might have nally come to a semi-happy end in Lexington, Kentucky.

Thanks to two forward thinking men, Whit Hiler and Grif n VanMeter, the bear has become an of cial state icon.

Grif n and Whit, also sons of the Bluegrass State (like Thornton), made headlines in 2011 when they launched a tongue-in-cheek campaign to replace Kentucky’s lame tourism slogan, Unbridled Spirit, with one of their own, Kentucky Kicks Ass. “A bureaucrat in the tourism of ce said, ‘Those guys have a constituency of no one,’” Grif n recalled, “but those no ones have bought a lot of our Kentucky Kicks Ass t-shirts.”

Encouraged, Grif n and Whit opened a brick-and-mortar store, the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall, as a marketplace for locals to sell quirky home-state items such as gold-plated KFC breastbone necklaces and fried-chicken-scented candles. They also wanted their store to showcase unusual Kentucky relics, and that’s when they remembered the Cocaine Bear. “Growing up here, I remember hearing about it a lot,” said Whit. Could it possibly still be around?

The search was on…

Grif n and Whit spoke with the medical ex aminer who’d performed the bear’s necrop sy. Even after 30 years, he remembered the bear. He told them: “Its stomach was literally packed to the brim with cocaine. There isn’t a mammal on the planet that could survive that. Cerebral hemorrhaging, respiratory failure, hyperthermia, renal failure, heart failure, and stroke. You name it, that bear had it.”

Poor Yogi! But if this tale is not tall enough … let’s walk it up the ladder, shall we?

The bear looked good despite its catastrophic demise, so it was stuffed and put on display at a local recreation area; without reference to its awkward past. But the bear’s history was known to a few, and it somehow found its way into the hands of a Nashville pawnbroker. He sold the bear to Waylon Jennings (Yes, THE Waylon Jennings, the outlaw country star), who gave it to a Las Vegas hustler who was familiar with Andrew Thornton. When both Jennings and the hustler died, the bear was bought by a Chinese herbalist in Reno.

When the herbalist died, his widow kept it in storage until she was tracked down by Grif n and Whit. She gladly gave them the bear (Please! And take it with you!), and it headed back east to the Blue Grass State and arrived at the Fun Mall in August 2015.

“You wouldn’t think that a Cocaine Bear would be for all ages, but kids love it,” said Grif n. “Everybody wants their picture with Cocaine Bear.” The Fun Mall has a liberal policy with shutterbugs, who are encouraged to come into the store (a former parachute factory – that Karma thing again!) and take as many photos with the bear in as many ridiculous poses as they want.

Grif n and Whit are attentive parents to their furry showpiece. Cocaine Bear is given regular cleanings and out tted with a Kentucky hat and an oversized gold chain. Dangling from its neck is a ashy sign that gives the bear’s proper name “Pablo EscoBear”, and ends with this warning: “Don’t do drugs or you’ll end up dead (and maybe stuffed) like poor Cocaine Bear.”

Universal Pictures will release Cocaine Bear on February 24 in theaters. ,

Your a Grown Up - You Can Have Dessert for Breakfast!

There really nothing great about February in the North East. The weather usually sucks. It gets dark too early. Most likely there will be snow and ice on the ground. There’s no more International Motorcycle Show to break all this dreariness and misery up.

One saving grace is that Spring Training starts. And the other is…National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day on the rst Satruday in February! Back in the 1960s, on a snowy winter day in Rochester, NY (what else?), Florence Rappaport was home with her six children. Her two youngest, Ruth and Joe, were complaining, as children do, that it was too cold to do anything. That in itself would drive someone to drink, but Florence came up with a brilliant other idea. She declared that this day they would have ice cream for breakfast. Although the exact year was not recorded, it is assumed to be 1966, as there was a huge blizzard in Rochester in late January, dumping several feet of snow and shutting down schools. It was such a big hit in the Rappaport household, the following year the children reminded Florence of her wonderful idea and, thus, a tradition was born. When the children were grown, they introduced their friends to this idea, parties were held and the tradition grew to the outside world.

Actually, it was Florence’s grandchildren who spread the word to the world, as they have traveled extensivley, with Ice Cream for Breakfast Day celebrated in Nepal, Namibia, Germany, New Zealand and Honduras. One of the most popular celebrations is in Israel, with some 100,000 people marking the day in 2014.

I’m sure that Florence and her children never imagined to what length this made-up holiday would spread. In the past few years, many ice cream shops have held specials, some raising money for charities. That certainly helps bring in the customers on an otherwise dark and drab winter’s day.

In the past, we have visited several shops near Backroads Central for our ice cream breakfast. Tranquility Farms, 47 Decker Pond Road, Andover, NJ has had some fabulour creations: Cinnamon Bun Sundae, Cocoa Puffs Sundae and Crumb Cake Sundae to name just a few. The rst year we attended, the weather was quite balmy for February and they had quite the turnout. Unfortunately, last year was a bit of a stormy day and we didn’t make it, but I know many Backroads’ readers did.

Two other local-to-us shops that may have some special goings on February 4 are Das’ Creamery, at 100 US 46, in Budd Lake, NJ. Pankaj and Komal, the father and daughter team responsible for some of the most creative and delicious ice cream around, will hopefully step up to the challenge of some special avors for breakfast.

The Cow’s Brow at Windy Brow Farms, 359 Ridge Road, Fredon, NJ is the closest of these ne shops and, fortunately, I have great restraint of not being there at least once a week. They are responsible for Taylor Ham Ice Cream, with went viral several years ago. And don’t say it’s Pork Roll, ‘cause that just sounds nasty.

I’m sure that you can do a search of your favorite ice cream shops to see if they’ll be celebrating. If you can’t nd one, just make sure that you have your favorite avor(s) on hand, with appropriate toppings. Turn on some Saturday morning cartoons, snuggle in your feety pajamas, and sit down with a big bowl of ice cream, whipped cream and a cherry on top. Don’t worry, February is the shortest month and March is just around the corner - see ya on the road!