Yeah, I
know. Because I’ve been coming out here for work the last few months, a
large majority of the entries have been each days travel. While
interesting the first couple times, it started to get repetitive because I
stayed in the same areas each time. Instead of mention each day’s
play-by-play, I decided I wanted to hit what would be the more interesting highlights.
I hope that ends up being more interesting.
Once
again I flew into LAX Monday morning, drove out to Redlands
to interface with my dealership there, and spent the evening in Riverside . I did
note a couple of things on the street, like this sun dial and Chinese-style
gazebo.
Tuesday
morning I spent in Moreno
Valley March Field
Air Museum
Since I’m
planning on coming out here at a later point purely as a tourist, I knew I’d be
able to explore this in-depth at that time. Today was only a “scratch the
surface,” because if I stepped foot inside, my love of aviation would’ve kept
me here for the rest of the afternoon. I parked in the lot, and took a
quick look at what I could see in this specific area. When I come back,
I’ll gladly drop the $10 to get inside the main building so I can spend as much
time as I want drooling over the SR-71 Blackbird advertised to be within.
A
chain-link fence separated me from the larger planes out in field area, so
obviously I couldn’t read any displayed placards which described specifically
what they were. There was a mix of transport planes, and some Cold
War-era fighters.
The
walking path leading up to the main entrance had two fighter jets parked out
there. The F-105D Thunderchief and Phantom RF-4C were nice to see.
There’s no question these planes have been decommissioned (their technology no
longer a secret to the Russians anyway), but I didn’t appear these were still
considered flyable. Other air museums I’ve been to with still working
pieces usually have an oil pan underneath to catch engine drips. I didn’t
see that on these.
Out front
was a Minuteman missile, and near the entrance was a monument dedicated to
Jimmy Doolittle. The way behind the monument had plaques commemorating
various airborne units.
The only
other statue out here was that of a soldier with a dog. This was to honor
all the K-9 units. The area around the statue had the names of various
doggies who died in the line of duty.
The thing
which got my attention was, of course, the thing I’m going to mention the
last. A sculpture of a P-38 Lightning was a monument to all the fighter
squadrons. This was one of my favorite planes, which goes back to when my
age was in the single digits, and someone gave me a Matchbox version. It
was one of the odd-designs I’d seen, but something about always drew my
attention to it. Perhaps there’s more than just the distinctive shape,
I’m not sure, but I found it awesome from when I first saw it.
There was
just enough wind available to have the flags blowing in a manner which allowed
for a proper picture. Of course, as you can see, I also went for a couple
“artsy” shots of the statue too.
This was
just what could be seen from outside on the grounds. I hadn’t even
stepped inside the main building. I didn’t have a lot of play time today,
as I had to get on to my next dealership, but this was a great taste of what
this attraction had available.
For more information on the places visited or mentioned:
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