The
Museum of Aviation at Robins AFB near Macon, Georgia is the second largest Air Force museum in the US. The BMWNEF club invites you for a Museum weekend including a group dinner and overnight stay for Friday November 15, and Saturday November 16.
The trip will feature a guided ride from the Jacksonville area on Friday morning November 15, a club dinner on Friday evening at a local restaurant, an overnight stay in local motel, and an approximately four hour tour of the musuem on Saturday November 16. Participants can return to Jacksonville following the tour which would end at approximately at 1 pm on Saturday, or elect to remain and for the afternoon and return later on Saturday or stay through Sunday.
The event will be hosted by our club members Dave Rogers and Fred Veator who have spent their time scoping out the venue and making the the local arrangements. Both Fred and Dave are retired career service members of the USAF and are intimately familar with the museum and all it has to offer. They both have gracioulsy offered to be our local hosts and tour guides for the museum visit.
GUIDED RIDE INFO
Fred has put together a good route that is 95% back roads. Here is the route in Google Maps and in GPX format.
Google Map Directions
GPX Directions
There will be two meeting points, the first at the BMW dealer in Jacksonville, KSU at 08:00 on November 15. The other meeting point will be at at 09:00 when we take take our first rest stop in Callahan, at the Mobil Station on 542621 US-1, where others on the north side of Jacksonville can meet up.
Fred picked a very nice and convenient hotel. Reservations are for Friday night, November 15. We talked to the hotel manager and 9 rooms are blocked and every room has two queen beds. So those wanting to split a room will reduce cost by one half. To make a reservation call the hotel directly (478) 225 -0365 select the Front Desk (Option2) and ask for theh group reservation under the BMW Motorcycle club. A credit card will be required to secure your room fromm the group reservation pool.
Hotel Info
The hotel serves a FREE hot breakfast consisting of eggs, sausage or bacon, biscuits and gravy, waffles, bagels or English muffins, toast, cold cereal, assorted pastries, juice and coffee. 24 hour coffee in the lobby.
FRIDAY NIGHT GROUP DINNER INFO
A local inexpensive Mexican Restaurant is only 2 miles away from the hotel and features a very large menu and a bar. Fred and Dave have reserved a separate dining room that can seat over 20 people. The food is good and reasonably priced. Fred Veator will provide a ride to and from the restaruant from the hotel Info as follows:
Restaurant La Cabana Bonair
Museum hours are 9 am to 5 pm Monday through Saturday, 1 pm to 5 pm on Sunday. Admission is free.
The Museum of Aviation is the 2nd largest Air Force Museum in the country with 51 acres and more than 85 aircraft. It is composed of 4 large hangers plus the surrounding grounds are covered with aircraft. You could easily spend a full day or more visiting every display and reading all the information.
Museum of Aviation Web Link
On this webpage you can download the campus map detailing facts and figures plus contents of each hanger. There are plenty of rest rooms and vending machines, the mandatory gift shop. The museum is very large and spread out so there is a lot of walking. In November the temperatures will be cooler.
Dave estimates and recommends about 4 hours of visitation - one hour for each hanger plus a quick walk around the outside grounds. As mentioned,, Fred and Dave will be available to lead tours. We can do one large group and split into two groups.
There is a "bonus" option. If the ridng group leaves early enough from Jacksonville, say KSU at 8 am, and arrives as scheduled, we can start our museum tour at 2 pm on Friday. It may be that those not riding and who drive in early might want to also select this option. No decision needs to be made regardig a "bonus" Friday visit at this time, we can decide on that as the time gets closer, and even as late as the day of the ride.
With the Saturday visit the goal is get everyone on the road back to Jax by 1 pm so tha they can complete their a 4 hour (not guided) ride home, arriving before dark. Also people are free to leave the group on Saturday and head for home at any time. A few interested souls may want to stay longer at the museum and find accommodations for another night.
This promises to be a super interesting event and, many thanks to Dave and Fred for organizing. We hope to see you all there !.
New to group riding ?
Please review these group riding guidelines :
They keep us all safe, thanks.
Group Ride Rules (MSF)