Well, we made it to Palm Springs safely. We did a quick stop for fuel in Tehachape. It took me about 30 min to figure out how to pronounce that one. Then we continued on over Edwards AFB, which was pretty cool since the space shuttle just landed there a few days ago. We saw it sitting outside under some scaffolding. This is also the place where the sound barrier was first broken and a bunch of other aviation stuff happened.
We got a few bumps on the way into Palm Springs, enough to make my Dad a little nervous, but they were over quickly enough. We landed, and it was definitely over 100 degrees. I get out of the plane, and my Dad says, "Chris, you better come over here." Turns out the upper hinge of the door had broken, and when he tried to open it, it almost fell off! Doh. The mechanics will work on it tomorrow morning starting at 7:30, so we should be good to go tomorrow. Hopefully they have the part!
My Dad brought his Garmin Nuvi along to help us navigate on the ground, so we chose a place for lunch.
Try 1 - Drive around the airport, and find out that the place is in the commercial terminal. No thanks.
Try 2 - Drive to the other side of the airport, place doesn't exist.
Try 3 - Drive a mile away to a crappy deli that is only open during the week to service the local auto shops.
3 strikes, you're out - we went to a local Subway we'd passed 3 times in the process of chasing the Nuvi's directions around.
The air museum was pretty cool. On the way in, my Dad tried to tell me the "B17 Fast taxi" story again, but I cut him off at the beginning with "Is this the fast taxi story again?" Anyway, the museum is cool for two reasons - all the planes in it actually work, and they're all these old WWII fighters and bombers. The second and bigger reason is that they have the actual pilots there. I met a pilot of a B25 and a B24 and got to hear a bunch of war stories. Considering that these guys are in their 80s, that's probably the last time I'll be able to talk to a WWII pilot. Cool stuff.
We got a few bumps on the way into Palm Springs, enough to make my Dad a little nervous, but they were over quickly enough. We landed, and it was definitely over 100 degrees. I get out of the plane, and my Dad says, "Chris, you better come over here." Turns out the upper hinge of the door had broken, and when he tried to open it, it almost fell off! Doh. The mechanics will work on it tomorrow morning starting at 7:30, so we should be good to go tomorrow. Hopefully they have the part!
My Dad brought his Garmin Nuvi along to help us navigate on the ground, so we chose a place for lunch.
Try 1 - Drive around the airport, and find out that the place is in the commercial terminal. No thanks.
Try 2 - Drive to the other side of the airport, place doesn't exist.
Try 3 - Drive a mile away to a crappy deli that is only open during the week to service the local auto shops.
3 strikes, you're out - we went to a local Subway we'd passed 3 times in the process of chasing the Nuvi's directions around.
The air museum was pretty cool. On the way in, my Dad tried to tell me the "B17 Fast taxi" story again, but I cut him off at the beginning with "Is this the fast taxi story again?" Anyway, the museum is cool for two reasons - all the planes in it actually work, and they're all these old WWII fighters and bombers. The second and bigger reason is that they have the actual pilots there. I met a pilot of a B25 and a B24 and got to hear a bunch of war stories. Considering that these guys are in their 80s, that's probably the last time I'll be able to talk to a WWII pilot. Cool stuff.
posted by Chris at 6:11 PM
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