Yesterday, I checked off another new airport -- this time in Pasco, Washington. The picture at right is a view of the Columbia River while descending toward the field. Having only seen the airport, I have no idea what Pasco itself is like. Perhaps someday I will be overnight there. This would be my second time to Washington state and I have not yet walked more than 10 feet away from the plane. Someday. . .
Throughout the entire day, the San Francisco bay area was entirely clear. As surprising as this was, it did not hold true for the central coast, where we shot an instrument approach to Santa Maria.
Santa Maria is part of California's wine country and Tripadvisor didn't offer up any things to do in Santa Maria that didn't involve wine,
except one thing that was walkable from the airport hotel. That thing was a small aviation museum. I opened the creaking doors to the museum and three elderly gentlemen stopped their conversation and stared at me. This is exactly the scenario I saw playing out. They offered to do a tour, but I told them I'd walk around on my own. I was wearing a t-shirt with a big gold star I purchased in Vietnam, which in hindsight may have been viewed in poor taste as the workers were likely Vietnam vets.
The museum, as expected, was rather small, but one of the buildings was the hangar used in the movie,
Rocketeer. I understand that most people probably haven't seen this movie, and you are missing out if you haven't. It is a highly underrated film. Anyway, there were a few aircraft parked outside, but most of the displays were scale aircraft models or other random artifacts that had no explanation. One wall had about 10 ejector seats lined up together. On the floor were a few panes of glass labeled things like, "B-17 side window." If I acquired a piece of glass from a B-17, I wouldn't display it unless I had the airplane to go with it, but to each their own.
Then they had things like this piano with various avionics and instrument gauges placed on it. Why you ask? I have no idea. There wasn't even a sign saying, "Donated by X." Perhaps the creator did not want to be associated with such an abomination. Why would someone create such a monster? For some things, there are simply no answer. Today is another day with five legs, three of them going into San Francisco where there is currently an overcast layer. Hopefully, we are not severely delayed on the last day of the trip. Here's to hoping for clear skies and favorable winds.
