Space, the final frontier............

Flew to Houston, Texas, for Katrina's conference, then went for a trip of a lifetime to the Johnson Spaceflight Center.  Had a tour of the facility, and saw the original historic Mission Control which was used from 1965 to 1992.  Also got to fondle a Saturn V rocket, the size is hard to comprehend (the rocket that is):

The Galileo Shuttlecraft from the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 

Mission Control

Gene Krantz's desk of Apollo 13 fame

A full size mock-up of the International Space Station in the space vehicle training facility

The Soyuz escape module

The new Orion capsule being developed for future space missions

An experimental ROV

An experimental robot with enough dexterity to type a chapter on a smart phone without error

An F-1 rocket (Left) from a Saturn V rocket

5 F-1's!

The size of the Saturn V is hard to comprehend

On the flight deck of a Shuttle mock-up

A Nikon F1 Photomic with motordrive (modified F-36?) and a 55mm f 1.2 nikkor - property of the US Govt, as used by the Apollo crews.

Skylab mock-up

Showering in the skylab

A full size shuttle mock-up

Joshua Tree National Park

Sped cross country from Williams, ending up at the desert town of Twenty Nine Palms, a great little resort town, which, along with the town of Joshua Tree, service as access points for the Joshua Tree National Park.

A damn in the park

Smog drifting in from Los Angeles, some days the pollution adversely effects the air quality of the park, which is high desert between 2-4000 feet ASL.

Skull Rock (really!)

Our motel pool at Twenty Nine Palms

Smog driving back into L.A.

More Smog

Williams on Route 66 and the very Grand Canyon

Cruised on the the Interstate 40 to Williams, Arizona, on the old Route 66.  Love the Arizona highways - 75mph speed limit, great for soaking up the miles.

Mather Point, Grand Canyon. Altitude here is 7000 feet, & 5000 feet down to the Colorado River

Ravens are common in this part of the world

Williams by night

Hoover Dam to Williams, Arizona on the old route 66

Called past the old dam and saw the new bridge, the one by-passing the dam that is. They certainly know how to build 'em big.