The next morning the weather was
clear, so it’d be a nice day for Jose & Margaret’s wedding (which wouldn’t
happen until the early afternoon). That didn’t leave us a lot of time
today to do stuff before that, and certainly not enough for me to see the
Olympic areas I wanted to. I settled for taking pictures of the ski jumps
(and ski trails in the distance), with the idea I’d return at some point in the
future to explore further.
Brian found a place he wanted to
check out that morning, which was located the city of Ogden
(north of Salt Lake City ).
Since we’d driven to Nevada yesterday, I
looked at the AAA map to see if it was feasible to go a farther north into Idaho , and then loop east briefly into Wyoming , before coming back to the SLC area,
just to say I’d been to those other states. If we had all day, it
probably would’ve been a pretty decent adventure, but our time was limited.
We’d be flying back to Austin
tomorrow morning, and back to work the next day.
We took Interstate 80 back into
SLC, and swung northward on I-15 (also known as the Veterans Memorial Highway ). This
brought us into a more industrial section of the area, where we could see the
mountains to our right and the Great Salt Lake
to the west. We saw the signs for Hill Air Force Base, but not their Aerospace Museum
Located within the confines of this
active air base, the museum first opened in 1986. The first building had some smaller displays
of regalia, flight suits, notable pilots, and important aviation eras.
There were two other buildings which were jam packed with various planes.
The aircraft outside (which we first saw when we pulled up) where only
sitting outside because there wasn’t a building big enough to hold them. Sitting outside were things like the freakin’
huge B-52 bomber, and C-130 cargo plane, as well as a Minuteman ICBM.
Brian’s favorite was the A-10
Warthog, and he was happy to see one. One of the planes I liked was the
P-38 Lightning, which goes back to my childhood when someone gave a Matchbox
version of one. And because it was a World War Two-era fighter, that
enhanced my love of it.
Another plane which could be found
he was one we both liked. I’m completely geek enough to admit the reason
I was attracted to it was it was the aircraft which the X-Men were flying in
those 1979-1980 issues where I first discovered this outlaw hero team.
Around the same time, there was an issue of Popular Mechanics I
bought just for the schematics on this as well. This is the SR-71
Blackbird.
I knew the real thing was much
smaller than the fictionalized version the mutant heroes flew around in, but I
didn’t realize how small until seeing it up close. The cockpit for this
was much more compact than any other single-seat fighter there. The SR-71
was made for stealth and speed, and was one of the best spy planes the U.S. ever
built.
There
were other planes were, like the Mustangs and a B-17 Flying Fortress, and all
were in great shape. This is not a CAF chapter, so these are
decommissioned, although it wouldn’t take much to get them air-worthy again.
I had to chuckle at the plane for the Texas Air National Guard which was
sitting here. It seems like even on holiday I can’t escape the hold of
the Lone Star State
After we looked at the craft
outside, we then worked our way back to our hotel so we could change into the
nice clothes to wear to the wedding. Of course, onn the drive back from Hill AFB
Museum Austin
prides itself as being part of the “Hill Country,” it has nothing which
compares to the elevations of the mountains around here. It’s like when
I’d show people pictures of Glens Falls (with
the Adirondack Mountains framing the shots).
Plus as it was early September, the
foliage was starting to come out. Some of the green of the area had
started to be replaced by subtle hints of orange and yellow. It’d be a
couple weeks before it’d peak, but this would also give some of my Texan
friends to understand why the mountains are so beautiful in the autumn.
We then drove to Heber City Park City
Our flight the next day would have
us layover in Phoenix .
Ever since seeing Road Runner cartoons as I kid, I had some attraction to
the Grand Canyon (and even worked it into my
novel via a “dream sequence”). I’d never had the chance to actually see
it before, so when we flew over it I had to snap what photos I could.
This wasn’t quite scratching it off my bucket list, as seeing it from the
plane is not the same as actually being able to visit it. That gave me a
sense of longing to want to go there.
When we were hanging out in Phoenix Sky Harbor awaiting our connecting flight back to Austin , I saw all the visitor information about the Grand Canyon . I tried not to drool. I didn’t
know when I would be able to get there, but I hoped it would be soon.
I can say I’ve been to Salt Lake City (and the
surrounding region) now, but there was so much more in the area that I’d want
to check out. I didn’t get to see some things I wanted to, but I did
enjoy what I got to visit.
For current information on the places mentioned:
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