On our three day road trip from LA to Texas, we didn’t have a whole lot of time to linger. We left at 5pm on a Wednesday evening, and aimed to arrive at my parents house in Grapevine, Texas around 4pm on Friday. The first night would be a quick one in Phoenix with a good friend of mine from high school and the second would be spent in the quirky artist enclave of Marfa, Texas. 

We needed to gun it, man. We weren’t even tempted by a detour to the Grand Canyon. 

But when my friend Chris (known around here as The Brit) stumbled across some photos of abandoned airplanes painted by some notorious street artists, parked somewhere in the Arizona desert, he was intrigued. Being the kind of airplane aficionado that can spot an aircraft thousands of feet in the sky and tell you who made it, the model, how many people it can carry and where it’s probably coming from, he asked me if we could stop. 

The planes were part of an exhibit at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Pima, Arizona, which was just off I-10, the main artery we were tracing all the way to Texas. It would be a quick and easy detour. And I never say no to a little adventure. 

And I’m so grateful I said yes – the place was freakin’ AWESOME. 

The museum had over 300 aircraft on display, from all different eras, in several hangers and spread out over the 80 acres of desert grounds. There was the same model plane that Roald Dahl (my favorite writer) flew during WWII, an old rendition of Air Force One, and even a test model of the newest Dreamliner, and we were allowed to wander right on up to all of them! 

There was so much to take in between the planes, the nose art exhibits, and the commissioned art planes that we ended up spending a few hours gawking at everything, putting us a bit behind schedule. But, it was completely worth it! It may have been one of my favorite museum visits of all time. 

But enough from me – these photos speak for themselves. Enjoy!