Treasure in the Middle of Nowhere

Ever since I heard of it, I've been desperate to go to the Kansas Cosmosphere Space Center. Finally one good looking Friday, I got the chance after Jim invited me to go with him. I was able to convince Chaky into coming with me. The 'convincing' part was pretty easy because he was just as interested as me to go there. So off we went on the Friday during the Spring Break.

The place where its located is called Hutchinson, about an hour from Wichita. The ride was good and once we reached the place, I could see 2 tall rockets sticking up around the building. The excitement in me doubled. Finally we entered the 'small' looking building. The moment I entered, I was dumbstruck.

It was hanging right there in front of me. The aircraft that I read so much about. The aircraft I admired so much because of the amount of technology that was put into it at a time like the 1970's. The aircraft that could travel at 3 times the speed of sound and is still the fasted manned aircraft. An Aerospace Engineer's dream, the SR-71 Blackbird. A few months back, I never thought of actually seeing this aircraft up so close. "I'm pretty sure the surviving models won't be anywhere near where I'm gonna stay in the US", I thought.

But here it was. Right in the middle of the Mid-West where everyone thinks there's nothing here. I found pure pleasure in moving my hand across the smooth 'carbon-fiber feel' exterior of the aircraft. The material felt like it could break with a punch. This material resisting pressure-waves and high temperatures at Mach 3 was a little hard to think of. After a huge photo session to make sure I covered every possible angle of the aircraft, I moved on with the others to see the rest of the stuff in the museum, some of which were more precious and prestigious than the SR-71.

There was a model of the Space Shuttle Endeavor which merged itself into the building and made way for the stairs and escalator. Half way between the Ground floor and the next level, we stand on what's supposed to be the wing of the shuttle. Felt pretty cool to look all the way down to the nose from the wing area to understand the size of the shuttle. Also the backview of the SR-71 was cool from this location.

Another plane hanging from the ceiling in the front hall was a so-called "Astronaut's Sportscar". It was like the personal ride for the astronauts who had a pilot's license and were not currently in space. Cool!

As we moved underground, treasure and treasure kept popping onto us. There was a complete room dedicated to the 'famous' German V-2 Rockets - more or less the foundation to modern rockets. The stories behind these Buzz bombs, V2s and other Cold War stories were just great to listen to. I wondered why all this wasn't so interesting when I was learning History in School.

The space capsules, real ones that flew and came back, were just mind blowing. The space inside to sit or rather 'lie down' was just so narrow that I would find it hard to fit in myself, being so thin! Again the stories of the Astronauts who struggled through these difficult phases of Space Exploration and made it all possible, were just awesome. After checking out a models of the Lunar Lander and the famous Soyuz-Apollo project, we came to the end of the museum. What an experience it was. Liberal amounts of knowledge was flowing into the brain. I was so full that I was hungry!

We took a few more pictures of the SR-71 and soon moved out into the cold! It was a warm bright day when we started and chilly and rainy when we stepped out. There was a prediction of snowfall by midnight (it actually came sooner than that!).

We came to Wichita and stopped at a restaurant called Passage to India. After nearly 3 months, I was tasting proper Indian food (Americanized of course!). Chicken Pakodas, Meat Samosa, (Cheese+Ginger+Butter) Naans, Chicken Tikka Masala, and some rice. Ah. That was quite a good meal but as expected there was a definite lack of flavour and spice in spite of asking for the spiciest available dishes.

That was 'supper' at 6:30PM. Felt weird as I am pretty much used to 10PM-12PM dinners. And finally we came back home and immediately it was time to upload pictures all over the network to 'let people know'.

In the end, a great day and a great experience. A perfect qualification for a blog post. That's why it's here. And I'm outta here..

Break Time!

Phew! I finally got some time to post. It's slowly coming down to a post a month. A pretty bad record considering the fact that I started off with almost 20 a month. Anyway, Spring Break is here, and I finally am getting to look around me, feel myself to make sure I'm ok, and know things. The last month was pretty hectic. Hectic enough to make me come to a point of throwing my hands up in defeat. The innumerable number of assignments and exams that I had really brought me to the edge of my patience. Somehow, I held on and lived through it.

The results weren't good enough in spite of working extra hard. What I did in the last 2 months, had I done in the last 4 years, I would have been guaranteed a Gold Medal in the University.. heck!

Anyway, after all that books and studies and silence, I finally got to stretch my wings before Spring Break (March 6th). A trip to Ponca City, Oklahoma was the exact antidote to my brain filled with Aerodynamics Relations and Orbital Mechanics. The trip was fun, and I had a real pleasure time looking at the vast expanse of endless land of Mid-Western America. It was also the first time I was stepping out of Kansas, and Wichita for that matter. After setting foot in Chicago, Illinois, I never saw another city or town or state. So this was quite an eventful trip.

Just when Spring Break was just about to start (March 10th), I had the next big thing of my life. A GUITAR! After almost 2 weeks of confusion and tough decision making, I decided to buy an Ibanez Metal Guitar Jumpstart Package. Just about the right thing that I needed in a new country filled with music of my favourite genre. From then on, its just been a breeze, playing around the frets of the guitar and having some real good time. My friend Jim infact had his new Apple Mac Desktop installed and we had a blast connecting the guitar to the amp through the Mac's pre-installed Garage Band's FX modules. What great fun it was! Overall, half of my Spring Break has already gone in spending time with the new guitar, highly addictive as it is.

Hopefully this week will end with me paying a visit to the Kansas Comsmosphere (something we've been postponing from a long time!). This is a museum where an actual SR-71 Blackbird is hung from the ceiling. Ever since I heard of that, I've been highly impatient to visit that place. If this saturday works out, I'll get to see some really cool NASA junk and the retired "Fastest Manned Plane on Earth". Finger crossed tightly for this one!

That's all for the wrap on the last one month. Hope there's lots more exciting stuff to come in the future, and I hope I get back to blogging a little more seriously!