"The Great Air Race"

Tonight, Kathy and I went down to the Cradle of Aviation to hear the author John Lancaster talk about his book "The Great Air Race" an event that took place in 1919.  The subtitle of the book is "Glory, Tragedy and the Dawn of American Aviation."  It is a great book, so well researched and written, and he was a terrific speaker, telling tales from the book.  It was such an enjoyable evening.  We got there early and when we went into the auditorium, I recognized him standing by the podium with no one around, so I went over and started talking to him, telling him how much I loved the book and then we talked about flying.  He bought an small airplane and flew across the country retracing the route of the race.  He worked for the Washington Post for 20 years, and I mentioned I worked for Newsday, and that was a nice connection that we had.  It was really cool that I could get to meet him and chat for a while before his talk.  Oh the photo of the airplane on the screen behind him, is a DH-4 biplane from the period, one of the aircraft that were in the race.