Kansas 2013 Part 2

[Roanoker]

It is a new day, 9/13/13, and we are visiting the famous Salt Mines, in Hutchinson, our primary destination for this three-day trip.


I suppose this was an engine used to pull carloads of salt.


Did you know there were any "wonders" in Kansas?


I played Photoshop games with this sign. Nothing serious or difficult.


While waiting for our tour to begin, I wandered around the lobby and took pictures of anything I could find.


The train thing from inside the building. The sun glare on the window made it look like an old photo, so there you go.


You will be pleased to know that I eventually got tired of taking pictures of signs.


One: "Is she taking a picture of us?" The other: "I hope not."


The original, portrait-oriented image is on the right. The picture on the left is a water-colored version of whatever was going on in the
background. Yeah, I know. Another sign.


A rock.


Another rock.


Okay. This is absolutely the last sign. I did spend time to get it somewhat presentable.

[Roanoker]

Studying the map with guide prior to descent.


Everybody must wear one.


Everybody!


And we all had to carry these monitors for some reason.


We have been lowered to the salt depths via elevator and are ready for the tour.


The walls are made of salt.


I took lots of pictures of signs. Here is one.


Giant salt block we could touch.


This sign explains the big salt block above.


Lots of machinery was needed to get salt out of the earth.


More…


I think this one was used to scrape up salt.

[Roanoker]

In the underground salt museum, we check out various displays. I believe this is a machine that scraped salt away from its hiding place.


Things that miners wore and carried.


This was news to me. Hollywood studios send films and other things to salt mines below ground for storage.


Even old films were rescued and stored in this facility.


Costumes and props, too.


And animation cells.


Now for the underground train ride.


I had to lighten this picture in phases so you could even see it. It started out as a black rectangle.


I guess these were useful at one time.


Why this floor was cracked so heavily was explained in detail. Unfortunately, I cannot remember any of it. Cool looking, though.


The little car that could.


We’ll not be following that rail line.

[Roanoker]

We are riding in an underground train and seeing whatever is being described by the tour guide/engineer. He told us that this was
miner trash. I guess salt mines don’t hire cleaning ladies.


When ya gotta go, ya gotta go.


We stopped to visit underground points of interest. It was easier to take a picture of the little engine that could after stepping off the train.


Looking back at our seats…


I took a portrait-oriented picture of four signs, one right after the other, top-down. The image was not aligned full-on, so I put the signs
into one landscape, skewing each sign to make it look halfway normal.


Movie companies store copies of film in this underground storage area.


On and on…


My son gets a front-row seat with the engineer on the way back.


Cars that once carried loads of salt.


This car carried explosives. But I guess you see that.


The guide explained why the ceiling was bulging like this, but, again, I don’t remember what he said, other than that someone had to
keep a close watch on its progression.


The wall is made of…what?

[Highlander]

Thanks that is pretty cool. I've been in salt mines around Salzburg Austria (hence the name "Salz"burg).

[Roanoker]

Thank you for commenting, Highlander. I'm so used to posting pictures of flowers and other pretty things, being down in the salt mine forced me to recognize beauty even there.

We were permitted to pick up a sample of salt as a souvenir. That’s my husband, son and not I (yet).


There were rules. We were advised not to place the sample on certain surfaces because salt can damage them.


This is mine. I promptly gave it to my son because I cannot be trusted.


This is my son’s.


I can’t remember why this train looks so different from the one before. And there are way more people.


We were given coupons for free (or discounted) lunches at the Hutchinson Airport, so we took advantage of the offer.


The “Cosmosphere” was a nearby attraction, so we went there.


Kind of a NASA-like place in good old Kansas.


Maybe we can learn something about science here.


Spaceman. Okay. I took a few liberties.


It was a fairly big place with nice displays.


Another spaceman.

[Roanoker]

We are in the Kansas space museum.


Interesting sculpture.


Nice mural, too. I had to twist and turn the image into what appeared to be “normal,” as I took the picture from an angle.


Shuttle.


Lander.


Engine.


Hubble sign.


Refueling midair. Here’s another image I twisted and turned to simulate “normal."


Wall mural with air return.


Aircraft control panel. Who could learn all that stuff? I deleted the unnecessary, busy background.


Stained glass. Was difficult to photograph. Messed with it a bit.


Not sure how infrared technology works. You can see me taking the picture with husband in front.

[Roanoker]

This is an indoor ride (duh) that might be fun, but I didn’t try it.


Fly me to the moon… or wherever.


Or just to the ceiling.


Hey! We’re done with this day. I'll start a new thread for the next day.