These are the first words spoken by man from the surface of the moon. Landing astronauts on the moon and returning them safely to the earth is arguably the greatest engineering accomplishment in the history of human kind. Years later I lived across the river from the “Rocket Ranch” and had the pleasure of meeting many of the ordinary people who performed the extraordinary tasks that made landing on the moon possible.
One lasting artifact from those days of extraordinary accomplishment are a few hundred pounds of rocks, sand and dust. Most of it is locked away for study by NASA. But a few pounds are out for people to see. If you look in the right places, you can touch a piece of the moon. The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington DC has four moon rocks on display, one that you can touch. It is on display in the shadow of the Spirit of St Louis, near the entrance on the mall side. Here is Travel stopping to touch the moon. (You can slide your fingers under the sheet of glass, and touch the arrow shaped rock specimen.)
DG and TR
You never know who you bump into in DC, I walked past Haley Barber on my way to dinner on Tuesday evening, and minutes later watch Senator Clinton get into her armored SUV at the Capital. Then there was this gang of thugs that I ran into down by the Smithsonian Castle building one evening.
