In Brooksville, Florida you can find a bunker that was used as a target, strafed by aerial-trainee machine gunners on B-17 Flying Fortresses in the 1940s. This was a remote spot when the bunker was built; now it’s across the street from the local Chamber of Commerce.
We recently took a ride in a 1929 Ford Tri-Plane. The Ford Tri-Motor (nicknamed the “Tin Goose”) is an American three-engined transport aircraft. Production started in 1925 by the companies of Henry Ford and ended on June 7, 1933. A total of 199 Ford Trimotors were made 18 have survived with 8 of those still flying.
For Christmas our daughter gave us a trip to the Proctor Mansion and Inn. A bed and breakfast located in Wrentham ,Mass .Built in 1861, the Proctor Mansion Inn is a striking example of Second Empire French Victorian architecture. Amazingly preserved and lovingly restored, it provides a glimpse of grandeur from days gone by. One of our favorite Christmas movies was filmed there The Spirit Of Christmas.
The train-turned-statue that rests in the median of West Garden Street is Engine No. 1355, also called the Pride of Pensacola. It is an 84-foot long steam locomotive and tender (fuel carrying car).
The engine was built in 1912 by the American Locomotive Company. It stayed in service for the Saint Louis – San Francisco Railway Company (nicknamed The Frisco) until it was retired in 1956.
After more than 40 years of service, the mileage on the antique odometer reads 1,148,534 — the equivalent of traveling around the world 46 times. In 1957, Frisco Lines donated the engine to the city of Pensacola to stand as a monument to local port and railway history.