Air and Space

Hello to all my Alabama friends,

I was surprised to find out that Ohio has a history in airplanes and space travel!  Who knew? Orville and Wilbur Wright were born in Dayton,Ohio. They built the first airplane that could fly and took off from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903. They couldn't fly in Ohio because there wasn't enough wind.

Wright State University (WSU) in Dayton Ohio is named after the Wright Brothers. You can see the plane in the logo for WSU. 

Phoebe's dad's grandparents lived in Fairborn, Ohio which is right outside Dayton. There is a U.S. Air Force base there too. There is a Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park and the National Museum of the US Air Force.

Ohio has a history with space travel too! John Glenn was the first man to orbit the earth in 1962. He traveled around the earth 3 times in his spaceship "Mercury." He also became the oldest astronaut to be on a flight mission. He was 77!  John Glenn was a US Senator and he has a school named after him at Ohio State. It is called John Glenn School of Public Affairs.  He was born in Cambridge, Ohio and lives close to Dodie's house now.Senator Glenn recently had knee replacement surgery, so wasn't available for a picture with me. He sends best wishes to Phoebe and her friends in Alabama and hopes they learn a lot from Flat Stanley's adventures and research.

 Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon! He did that in 1969 with Astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.. His famous quote when he stepped onto the moon was "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."  Neil Armstrong is from Wapakoneta, Ohio.

I was surprised to learn these facts. Who could have guessed that all this stuff happened in Ohio?

Your friend in Ohio,
Flat Stanley
Go Buckeyes! (uh-oh. I think this football stuff is getting to me!)

On the Road Again-The Columbus Clippers

Hello to all my Alabama friends,

Another exciting day in Columbus. Today we went downtown to see Dodie's favorite place, Huntington Park. Huntington Park is the ballpark where the Columbus Clippers play baseball. The Clippers are the Triple A farm team for the Cleveland Indians. A farm team means that the Clippers team members can get "called up" to the big leagues if the Indians need them. The Clippers is a very good team; they won the Triple A pennant in 2010 and are in the play-offs again this year. The ballpark is a fun place to be.

We pulled around the stadium to the back to take my picture. We parked and jumped out of the car. A Franklin County Deputy Sheriff yelled over to us and asked if we planned to keep our car there. Dodie told him "no" that we just wanted to get a picture of Flat Stanley in front of the ballpark. Here it is.

This is a view of the park from the "good" seats.  Dodie likes sitting in those good seats.

The Clippers' colors are gray and blue. Their slogan is "This ship rocks." 

They also have a mascot named Krash. You touch Krash to give the team good luck. No Buckeyes for the Clippers! 

When we got back to the car, the Sheriff yelled, "Who is Flat Stanley?" We ran over and  Dodie showed me to him and then explained the story about me. The Sheriff agreed to have his picture taken with me. That was the best part of the day! You can see the home plate entrance right behind him.

That's all for now. We'll have another exciting adventure tomorrow. This ship rocks!

Your friend in Ohio,
Flat Stanley

The Buckeye State

Hello to all my Alabama friends,

Dodie and I are so tired from all the adventures, we decided to relax and find some interesting information about Ohio. All states have symbols that represent things that might be unique to that state. Ohio has many symbols. I found these interesting.

The Buckeye tree is the state tree.

This is the nut that falls from the Buckeye tree. A buckeye in your pocket is supposed to bring good luck.

The state flower is the Scarlet Carnation.

The state bird is the Cardinal.

The state animal is the white-tailed deer.

The state frog is the Bullfrog.

The state reptile is the Black Racer Snake.  (Ewww)

The state fruit is the tomato. The state beverage is tomato juice. 

The state insect is the ladybug.

And, the state "gem" is Ohio flint.

We will be going to the Clippers game later today. I'll post more then.

Your  friend in Ohio,

Flat Stanley

On the Road Again-OSU Football

Hi to all my Alabama friends,

Dodie, Lori and I are on our way to explore THE Ohio State University. As you can see, I am back in my seatbelt. We are headed to the 'Shoe. The 'Shoe (or Horseshoe) is where the Ohio State football team plays football.  The team is called the "Buckeyes" after the state tree. This city is pretty crazy about Buckeyes Football.

There is a strange thing that happens here. People yell out the letters O H. If you are an Ohio State Buckeyes fan, you know what comes next. (If Phoebe's dad were here now, he would know he should yell I O!)
The fans also spell OHIO with their arms. If you use your imagination, you can see OHIO. These people spelled it at a wedding. I told you these fans are "nuts." (We have no idea who these people are-it is a bride and her three brothers.)

And we found this one too. Who knew I had been in Columbus before?

Here I am hanging on the fence in front of the stadium.  You can see the Block O.  It looks like a heavenly place doesn't it? (Some guy was in front of the stadium watching me get my picture taken. He told Dodie he knew me. He said his friend had taken me to England. I actually saw the queen!)

You can see the Block O window from the inside of the stadium.

This is a view of the stadium from the air. It was taken from the Goodyear Blimp that flies over every game.  Goodyear Tire and Rubber Factory was founded  in Akron, Ohio. I didn't realize so many cool things started in Ohio.

Ohio State's Marching band is famous for "Script Ohio". They march and spell Ohio. I found a picture of it for you. The Band is also known as TBDBITL-It means The Best Darn Band in the Land. As you may guess, the Buckeye team colors are Scarlet and Gray. Look at all the red in the Stadium. The I in Script Ohio is dotted by a tuba player. It is an honor to "dot the eye." I wish my arms and legs were strong enough so I could hold the tuba, march out into the field and dot the eye!

I found out today that "Hang on Sloopy" is Ohio's official state rock song. Dodie thinks the song is kind of dumb. I have to agree with her now that I have heard it. TBDBITL plays it a lot and the Buckeye fans sing along. I think it would make me crazy to listen to that song so often. Here's the link-see what you think about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qGyg2eowzk&feature=related

Dodie tells me this guy is probably the most famous Buckeye football player. His name is Archie Griffin and he works at OSU. Archie is the only player ever who has been awarded the Heisman trophy more than once. He must be a really good player. (A Heisman trophy is given to the most outstanding college football player each year).  

Buckeye fans are pretty crazy. They even collect Buckeye nuts from the Buckeye tree and make them into necklaces. They wear them to the football games for good luck.  The Buckeyes need some good luck these days.

Go Bucks!

Your friend,
Flat Stanley

Some random facts

Hello to all my Alabama friends,

Did you know the guys from Rascal Flatts are from Central Ohio? I thought Dodie was teasing me. Country singers come from the South and Ohio is in the Midwest! Click on the link below to hear them sing the theme song from the Pixar film, Cars. They also sing a song about Ohio, but Dodie couldn't find the official video so we didn't link it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvsmRuRp4cM

Central Ohio is the home of the only metal whistle factory in the United States!  They even give tours of the factory and you get a whistle.  I won't have time to visit there. I will just add a picture for you.

Central Ohio is the test market for many fast food places. (The food is not very good to eat all the time. The food has too much saturated fats). Wendy's and White Castle call Columbus their home. White Castles are the original "sliders". You can get sliders almost anywhere now.

The Ohio State Fair is the LARGEST state fair in the United States. They have the famous butter cow. It is a cow carved out of butter! Sometimes it gets so hot the butter begins to melt. It's not a pretty sight when that happens.

Your friend in Ohio,

Flat Stanley

On The Road-The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium

Hello to all my Alabama friends,

Dodie and Lori (another cousin) and I are going to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. According to USA Travel Guide, the Columbus Zoo is the best zoo in the United States. As you can see, I am buckled up and ready to go. What an adventure this will be!

We had to park pretty far away from the entrance gates; the Columbus Zoo is HUGE!  Andrew was at the bus stop helping people to get to the front gate. He let Dodie take my picture with him. He had never heard of me before!

We got closer to gates and I got really excited. There was the famous Jack Hanna. Jack has been on The Letterman Show, Good Morning America and the Oprah Winfrey Show. He talks about conservation-that means protecting endangered animals. The Columbus Zoo protects many different animals. I got my picture taken with Jack. He's a funny guy.

We headed to the African Forest area. Dodie remembers when Colo was born in 1956 (Dodie can barely remember though because she was so very young.) Colo was the first lowland gorilla born in captivity (that means in a zoo).  Here is a statue of Colo with me in the picture.

All of  the lowland gorillas at the Columbus Zoo are related to Colo and her mate, Mac. If you look carefully into the background, you can see a lowland gorilla. We saw several baby gorillas too, but they were too active to get a good picture.

The next endangered species we saw was an okapi. I thought it looked like a mixture of a horse, zebra and donkey. What do you think?

We headed to the aquarium.  The Columbus Zoo helps injured manatees. The Zoo gives the manatees a safe place to live while they recuperate from injuries or illness. They are then taken back to the wild. If you look really closely, you can see a manatee swimming in the background right behind me. I really like the aquarium. Dodie really likes it too because they have a coral reef. It reminds her of the Bahamas.

We were really tired, so we headed back to the front of the park to get to the car.  Dodie and Lori wanted an ice cream cone. There was a Velvet Ice Cream store. Velvet Ice Cream has been made in Utica, Ohio since 1914. It was good, and the flavor was Buckeye-more about this "Buckeye" business later. It is more than curious.

On the way back to Upper Arlington, we stopped in Powell to see Phoebe's other cousin, Peggy. Here is a picture of Lori, me and Peggy.

We got home about 4:00. We were really tired. I can't wait to see what kind of adventure we go on tomorrow.  Dodie is helping me learn some fun facts about Ohio. I'll share them with you soon.

Your friend,
Flat Stanley

Where in the World is Ohio?

Hello to my Alabama friends,

I was thinking I should show you where Ohio is on a map. The first map shows the state of Ohio. It is surrounded by Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky West Virginia and Pennsylvania. That big lake is Lake Erie. Phoebe's dad used to go to Lake Erie to visit his grandparents. They lived on the lake. Dodie said it was fun to go fishing on this lake. There is a rocky beach there. At one time, the lake was polluted and you couldn't swim. Now the lake is a good place to go and have fun.  It is too far away, so we won't be going there.

At the Lake is an island called Kelley's Island.  There was a big ice glacier over that area thousands of years ago.There are grooves in the limestone on the island called Glacier Grooves. They are the largest glacial grooves that people can see. Dodie has climbed on them before.

Columbus is in Central Ohio. You can see it in the middle of the red circle.  The red circle is the freeway called 270.  It goes all around the city.  I am staying in Upper Arlington and I can walk through a field and get to Ohio State University.  I think we will be going there today.

There are also two rivers in Columbus. One is called the Scioto and the other is the Olentangy. No beaches are around here. If I want to go swimming, I have to go to the local pool. The rivers don't look like it would be good swimming water. The water is kind of yucky.  I'll send pictures of me soon.

Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley arrives in Ohio

Hello to all my Alabama friends,
I made it to the mailbox of Phoebe's cousin. Her name is Dodie. She quickly removed me from that stuffy envelope. I was glad to stretch my arms and legs. My right arm was a little bent, so she added some tape on the back and I'm as good as new. I was really tired, so I just wanted to relax. It was a really sunny and breezy day, so we went outside to the backyard. Here I am, relaxing in Dodie's back yard. I'll be ready for some fun in Columbus tomorrow after I get a good night's rest.
Flat Stanley