090403 Palm Springs Air Museum

Friday April 3, 2009
Palm Springs Air Museum

We took a brief walk around the park for Peter's benefit and said farewell to some of our friends.
The weather was bright and sunny, but the radio reported high winds in the area and driving carefully in vehicles such as ours was suggested. When you have a vehicle like the beast, Square, flat sided and aerodynamically challenged any good gust of wind can have you changing lanes unexpectedly.
Since we were only going to be driving about 30 miles. We did not feel in any danger, but halfway to our destination. We encounted some very strong crosswinds, and lowered our speed. When we arrived at the Palm Springs Air Museum, we even have a difficult time, opening the RV door against the wind and we were being blown around on the way to the entrance.

We have been to many aviation museums across the country, both large and small, but always find that each one has its own unique and distinctive personality.
The outstanding feature of this particular museum is that practically every world war two airplane in these two hangars are all flight worthy and are frequently flown for holidays demonstrations and special events. They are all completely restored and beautifully painted.

In one hangar there is a diorama of Pearl Harbor, as it was the morning of the attack on December 7, 1941. Along with flashing lights, depicting the various positions of the ships that were attacked, there is a stirring narration describing that fateful day.

Along one wall are models of several types of ships that battled in the Pacific in World War II. One of those models is the battleship Missouri. I have a particular fondness for this battleship, because my father and a “few of his friends” built this ship in the Brooklyn Navy yard. At least that's how he told the story.

Many of the volunteers that run the tours, and dispense copious amounts of interesting facts about each plane are former military pilots with battle experience, and even some from World War II. Their enthusiasm, experience, and talented storytelling contributed greatly to our experience at this venue.

The museum is located on Gene Autry Trail, just south of Interstate 10. I mention this because as we were starting up the engine and listening to the radio there was report of an 18-wheeler being

blown off the road at the intersection of Gene Autry Trail and Interstate 10. In fact, they were reporting that Gene Autry Trail was being closed to traffic because of the high winds and danger. Of course, this was the route we had planned on taking from the museum to our next destination. As we exited the museum parking lot and turned on to Gene Autry Trail. We encounted, severe crosswinds, but no traffic was being interrupted or diverted.
We proceeded with caution, and as we crested the overpass at Interstate 10. We could see the tractor-trailer lying on its side off the road. Needless to say, this encouraged us to drive slowly and carefully.

We arrived at our destination, Desert Pools, Desert Hot Springs, and were assigned a handicap site adjacent to the pool and main building. All of the main facilities such as the card room, poolroom, library and dining room are built around the pool area so access to all activities should be quite convenient. Even inside the park with some sheltering walls and shrubbery the winds remained ferocious, and so all we did was plug in our electric power and called it an early night after dinner. I thought about taking Peter out for our usual late-night stroll. But even he was unhappy with the windy conditions and decided he'd rather stay indoors for the night. Needless to say, this does mean I will have to get up early, because he doesn't like to be cooped up for long periods of time and has a. Particular way of letting his feelings be known ... and I will say no more.