Wheeeeere's Johnny Day 3

I started out today from the No Tell Motel, A.K.A., the Space Age Motel eastbound on I-10 hoping to make it as close as I could to San Antonio, with a stop at the Pima Air Museum outside of Tucson. Along the way I spotted a boneyard of old airliners, so of course I had to stop. I tried to get close enough to get a picture or two of Johnny up close to some derelict airliners, but the guard would have nothing of it and I figured I’d waste at least an hour trying to get permission from someone in-charge, so I pressed on. For some reason, I can’t seem to post pictures on the blog, so you will have to visit my Facebook page to see them.

Next stop was the Pima Air Museum and there was a long line of mostly ROF’s in line waiting to get in. I finally got through and I can say this is one of the best aviation museums in the country. Maybe not as good the Smithsonian or the Museum of the United States Air Force, but pretty close. If you are an aviation buff then this needs to be on your bucket list. They have a B-29, B-17 and B-24 along with a number of other commercial and military aircraft. They even have three B-52’s. One was #183, which was at Loring AFB in the early 70’s. As I recall, Vern Davis was her crew chief, while I was Crew Chief on #57-6512 and # 58-0239. Walking around #183 I was starting to get a little too nostalgic, so it was time to press on.

Once again I ignored The Lady from Waze and stayed on I-10 through El Paso getting ensnarled in rush hour traffic. Who would think El Paso would have a rush hour? Finally through, I pressed on, but there are precious few places to stay in the wilds of West Texas. I finally turned off in Van Horn some 20 minutes after to became dark and found the El Capitan Hotel. The El Capitan is a bespoke hotel built in 1930 and as the story goes they had a speakeasy in the basement during Prohibition. I managed to get a room and then went downstairs to grab some dinner. They had a pistachio fried steak with jalapeño gravy that was different, but very good. Hey, it is Texas after all.

Johnny performed admirably today, although the SRS light came back on later in the drive, almost as if to tell me it was time to call it a day. The suspension vibration did not seem as bad and although the transmission seemed to clunk a bit when selecting drive there were no noticeable problems. I’ll check the fluid level tomorrow morning. The one nice thing about this car is that there are no “nanny” devices, unlike my E350 Cabrio with its blind spot warning and backup camera and buzzers, which means I have to look before I leap. Fortunately, there is a lot of visibility so you can see everything around you quite easily, unlike a modern car where you are enclosed in a protective shell with limited visibility. So much for modern technology.

Tomorrow I’m off to San Antonio to visit an old Air Force buddy and then up to Dallas to see my daughters and grandkids.

Outside Las Cruces, NM