Midwest to Colorado, Quick Summer Trip

We returned a couple of days ago from a 9-day trip from our home in central MO, to our younger daughter's home. Mostly it was just time to visit with family in central Kansas (on the way to/from CO), and then with family in the Denver area. But there were a couple of things worthy of mentioning here.

First, any fan of Whataburger would probably enjoy knowing that there is a new one at exit 20 off I-70 in Blue Springs. It opened in May, 2022.

In the Denver area, we chose one thing to do this trip: Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum. It was an enjoyable visit for all 4 of us, but especially my husband and grandson (who loved all those planes!). The museum is located in an old hangar from the now-decommissioned Lowry Air Force Base. Its focus is on Colorado's contributions to the air and space force, but it has a few things here and there away from that.

You are greeted outside by an aircraft.

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Hubby and I found the Apollo exhibit first, because one of the Apollo 13 astronauts was a Colorado native, Jack Swigert. It appears that we have seen the twin of this statue in the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC.

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In the Apollo exhibit was a mock-up of a command module, a trainer.

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Nice large military aircraft in the museum:

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Lest you think it was all military aircraft, they had two cockpits on display. This one, I believe, was a Boeing 727.

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This was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10.

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Our daughter took her youngest son (our youngest grandson) into one of the simulators, which is an extra fee. Both were so excited that it took them all over, including upside down!

Shortly after returning to my daughter's house, we found out that our niece has passed her private pilots training and gets to move on to "commercial" training. She loves to fly!

Another piece of information for other travelers who may have military ties: Buckley Air Force Base is now known as Buckley Space Force Base. We went over to the Commissary there to pick up non-perishables to bring home. It saved us a longer 150-mile-round-trip later, to get to the nearest military commissary.