Speed!

San Diego Air and Space Museum
Balboa Park
November 12, 2018

We took advantage of the Veterans Day Monday holiday, which Bob had off work, to visit the special exhibition at the Air and Space Museum, Speed: Science in Motion. We had been alerted by a Union Tribune article to the fact that the original Bullitt Mustang would be on display there, just from November 4-19. Meredith is an avid Mustang fan, so this was a “must see” for us.

Two different Mustangs were used in filming the 1968 Steve McQueen movie. The one used in the stunt jumps was damaged in filming and sent to a salvage yard. The “hero” Mustang used in other scenes was purchased by a private party and only recently rediscovered. We found a bonus when we arrived at the museum. Next to the Bullitt Mustang was displayed a beautifully restored Dodge Charger of the same vintage as the one seen in the movie’s chase scene. We had not actually seen Bullitt until that weekend; we made a point of streaming the movie a few days before our visit, so we would appreciate what we saw.

Although Steve McQueen’s Mustang has moved on and is no longer on display at the museum, the Speed exhibit remains. It is displays what the museum describes as “an exciting lineup of the fastest planes, jets, rockets, cars, motorcycles, boats, bicycles in the world.” We saw the land speed record setting bicycle ridden by Denise Mueller-Korenek behind a pace car to a world record of 183.9 miles per hour, and a Formula One race car, among other high speed vehicles. There are hands-on displays, such as a model differential, a video timing reflexes, and model cars that can be sent down tracks. The school kids who were enjoying the day off were entranced by the hands-on activities and could not have cared less about the Bullitt car.

After leaving the Speed exhibit, we walked through the rest of the museum. The PSA area brought back memories for Meredith, who used to fly PSA between the Bay Area and Los Angeles in the 1970’s.

We were wearing our memorial Veterans Day poppies, as we had been for several days. When we were in Canada for Remembrance Day four years ago we were struck by how poppies were everywhere, on every lapel. Since then we have tried to do our bit to revive the poppy wearing custom in our country, distributing Buddy Poppies obtained from the VFW to our friends and acquaintances.

We lingered in the World War I area, reading about the primitive planes used in that war and the men that flew them, then moved on to the World War II displays.

Our Balboa Park Explorer passes were sufficient for museum admission, but we had to pay an extra $5 for admission to the Speed exhibit.

Petersen Automotive Museum

Petersen Automotive Museum
Los Angeles, Wilshire Boulevard
May 3, 2014

We went to the Petersen on “Mustang Weekend,” a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Ford’s introducing the Mustang. Meredith is a big Mustang fan, and Margaret loves old cars, so this outing was a natural.

The Mustang exhibit (May 3, 2014 – October 18, 2014) featured Mustangs of all five “generations,” with a bonus viewing of the brand new 2015 model. We timed our visit to take a guided tour through the Mustang exhibit, then walked back through it on our own. The cars on display spanned all 50 years. It was amusing to find out that the Petersen had trouble finding a Mustang II to display, from the second generation, because it is not popular with collectors. The museum finally bought one through Craigslist just a few weeks before the exhibit opened. We particularly liked seeing the light blue convertible Mustang Ronald Reagan used to tour California on the campaign trail, when he ran for governor of California in 1966. Period TV ads for Mustangs were running on a loop in a back corner of the exhibit.

petersen-mustang

We went on to another special exhibit, this one of town cars (February 15, 2014- February 8, 2015). We had not known that is a technical term. According to the museum website, “from the early 1900s to the mid-1960s, the term ‘town car’ referred to a body style distinguished by an open chauffeur’s compartment and an enclosed passenger area.” There were many beautiful old cars on display, some with handcrafted, one-of-a-kind coaches.

We finished our visit with a tour through the Streetscape area, a permanent exhibition of various cars and contemporaneous artifacts in the setting of Southern California throughout the span of the 20th century.

We were unhappy with one thing, namely that there are no elevators in the parking structure next to the museum. There are handicapped spots on the ground floor of that garage, of course, but we do not have a disabled placard. We make do with regular parking on our outings even though Margaret is in a wheelchair. A parking attendant directed us to the upper floor when we drove in, and it was only after we were up there that we found there were no elevators to get down, just stairs. Since there had not been any regular parking available on the ground floor, we left the car up there and walked down the (steep) ramp to get to the museum. When Meredith spoke to the attendant who had sent us upstairs, he shrugged off her complaint. We did get an apology from the ticket seller inside, though, and the security guards inside the museum were friendly and helpful.

We had eaten lunch at Johnnie’s New York Pizzeria (several blocks east, at 5757 Wilshire) before we went to the museum. It is not the closest place to eat – for convenience there is a Johnny Rockets hamburger restaurant inside the Petersen – but Johnnie’s Pizzeria is our favorite whenever we visit any of the museums in the Wilshire / Hancock Park area. We always enjoy the food and service there. The first time we visited we did not realize it was a chain restaurant; it was only when we looked it up online afterwards that we found out that fact.