Saturday 12th November – Into Kansas

I will attempt not to waffle on too much about today as a picture, they say, paints a thousand words and I now have to choose the best ones to cover the TWO museums we visited!

We crossed the border into Kansas in the morning, heading to the Combat Air Museum at Forbes Field, Topeka.  For anyone interested in historical air craft this is an absolute gem of a museum.  And it’s run by a volunteer group so the entry is only $6 each.  We had the added bonus of getting a personalised tour from a Veteran navy pilot who flew submarine-hunters in the Korean War.  What he didn’t know about the planes we saw isn’t worth knowing.  I shall now hand the reins over to Mr Newman to explain the history of these beautiful aircraft….!

Hi, not quite sure what Struth wants me to say here, other than if you love aviation like me, you’ll love the opportunity to walk around these aircraft, touch and even sit in some, without the museum staff becoming upset and asking you to leave!! As a kid growing up in the 80’s it’s the ‘Cold War’ era aircraft that really interest me, as it’s what I used to watch wowing the crowds at air-shows, whilst day dreaming that perhaps one day I’ll get to fly in one… Because of my love for these aircraft, I’m always fascinated when I get the opportunity to see the jets I used to watch, sat alongside their Cold War adversaries. As such, to see the American F86 alongside a Mig 15, or the F4 Phantom sat alongside a Mig 21, having read about their battles in the Korean and Vietnam wars… well let’s just say that my ‘Inner Geek’ goes into overdrive!

MIG 15

MIG 21

F4 phantom

It gets better though, there is also a great variety of aircraft, from all eras, sat in the hanger next door. These have been given to the museum and are awaiting restoration, to get them back to ‘museum display’ standard. However, instead of keeping them in a restricted area whilst they’re being restored, you’re allowed to wander across and wander around all the aircraft in there as well! This enabled me to get up close and personal with my childhood favourite – The F14 Tomcat:

You may recognise it from the movie ‘Top Gun’ but, those in the know can tell you it was ‘the plane that made Tom Cruise famous’ and not the other way around!!

Anyway, for an aviation enthusiast, several hours in this museum just wasn’t enough, however, Struth wanted to have enough time to meet Dorothy and a talking Scarecrow, so we had to leave… I’ll hand you back…

Having torn ourselves away from the hangars jam packed with exhibits there was also a flight simulator that Simon tried his hand at.  Here he is flying a stunt plane towards the Gateway arch in St Louis to make up for the fact that we didn’t get to see the view from the top two days ago:

Though to really make his day, the simulator instructor then set it up to simulate an F14, just for Simon, who then managed to bring it in for a text book landing! The simulator chap was impressed! I know Simon reckons it shows he should be a pilot… I reckon it’s just the benefit(?) of spending 8 hours a day on a PlayStation!

I'll get you my pretty!  And your little dog too...

Anyway, the agreement today was that we would get to see one museum each!  By that I mean we each chose a museum that the other would have to tolerate!  But I actually enjoyed the combat air museum and had to concede that it was very interesting.  So interesting that we spent far more time there than we’d planned so making it to ‘my’ museum was looking tight.  When I think of Kansas I naturally think of the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, Toto and tornadoes (the weather kind, NOT the plane).  But we made it to Wamego and the ‘Oz Museum’ just in time to enjoy it before closing.  There were some unique pieces from the family of author, L Frank Baum, and props from the movie set itself.


Wamego itself felt to us like the first proper Western style town we’d seen – with its wide streets and balconied premises:

Spot the quality RV parking.....

The light was fading by the time we finished in the museum.  We didn’t have any set plans for the night but I had noticed a sign for an RV site in Wamego itself.  We just got away with it as there was one possible site left, a little over budget though at $27 but we let the $2 slide as we were both museumed out!