Blog

Why we fly?

According to Bill Standefer, and I’m sure everyone here, … because it’s fun!

Where we fly?

Sometimes we forget there are some pretty cool places out there that can be broken down into 3 categories. Places you can go in a day, places you can go for a weekend and those that are longer trips.

Some of the obvious places are Greeley, Longmont, Metro, Centennial. A bit father there is Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Fort Morgan and Sterling. Yuma, Walden, Grandby, Steamboat, Buena Vista. Most places have a good restaurants near by or provide courtesy cars.

Then out of state there is Saratogo, Scottsbluff, Goodland, Grand Island, North Platte and Glendo.

Centennial has an annex to Wings over the Rockies. Pueblo has Weisbrod Aviation Museum. Liberal, Kansas has a museum with an A20 and a Zero and general aviation.

Sterling has a Frontier museum. In the summer Burlington has the carousel going. Fort Morgan has Glenn Miller days. St. Francis, KS has a Steerman flyin. La Junta has Old Bent’s Fort a restored 1840-1850’s fort and is a National Historical site. South of La Junta are dinosaur tracks.

Steamboat and Glenwood you can take your bike and do some biking.

Alamosa has the Great Sand Dunes. You will have to rent a car though. Alamosa also has the Rio Grande railroad that you can take over La Veta Pass which stops at the top of the pass so you can get out and take pictures.

Durango has the Durango to Silverton railway. Santa Fe has the Cumbres & Toltec scenic railroad.

Socorro about one hour south are the Sand Hill cranes in November till mid February. There are about 10,000 to 15,000 Sand Hill cranes and about 30,000 Snow geese among other migratory birds. Socorro also has a large radio telescope on rails that they can position and regroup for those of us who are geeks.

Grand Junction has the Colorado National Monument which has great morning views if you’re a photographer.

Monte Vista has the Bosco delle fate Wildlife Sanctuary.

Black Hills and Rapid City has the Badlands. Custer has Black Hills scenic railroad under steam.

Hot Springs South Dakota has the Wind cave. As well as Carlsbad has caves and a Dessert Museum.

There is Jackson Hole and the Grand Canyon, although they don’t have rental cars. Flagstaff does.

St. George is a good place as well as Yellowstone. Green Bay has the National Rail Road museum. Omaha has the SAC museum.

For longer trips there is Alaska or for warmer weather the Caribbean. And there is always the Smithsonian which has three museums.

California has a ton of places to go.

That should keep us all flying for a while.