Thrilling Thursday: Underground Kansas

So there's this place called the Kansas Underground Salt Museum.

No wait, don't leave yet! It gets better, I promise.

TR told me about it, and really it's pretty thrilling! There's the science-nerd attraction of being someplace that contains bacteria that are alive and older than dinosaurs, and the thrill-seeker joy of going someplace deep underground, but there's also the conspiracy-theorist thrill of knowing that there could be *anything* stashed down there. Because of its constant temperature and low humidity, a company called Underground Vaults and Storage has been keeping things down there since the 1940s. You can't see what's in there but they have a small exhibit you can tour. There are thousands of original prints of movies down there, apparently, including Gone With the Wind and The Wizard Of Oz, but what goes into the mine has to stay in the mine if it's for any extended length of time... if it was brought back up top, it would instantly corrode.

Scary! But cool! I want to go.

But wait, there's more! Also out there in middle of nowhere is the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center. No mere scattering of moon landing and solar system models, this museum has some amazing pieces of Space Age artifact. Gus Grissom's capsule, lost at sea for 38 years and restored by the museum folks, the Apollo 13 command capsule, and the full-size lunar lander that was used as a TV backup while the 1969 landing was going on (for when the feed got too fuzzy) are all on display.

There's even a full-size Space Shuttle model! Awesome.

Who knew Hutchinson, Kansas was such a vacation spot?! It's definitely on the list now.

PS... I have to share this with you. You know my brain takes weird paths, right? Like I'll start thinking about, oh I don't know, that I need a new pair of jeans. This will end up a minute or so later with me thinking about my first date, and the jeans I wore which were so very stylish (for 1989) with their pegged legs and awesome pre-ripped-and-patched holes. My date brought a friend, we went to a metal club (the old Exit in Chicago), and I ended up sitting in the back while he moshed with said friend, watching Evil Dead with a really sweet biker guy. I don't even know how we got in, it must have been all ages night. All I really remember is feeling WAY out of place with my carefully french-braided hair, white collared shirt, and trendy jeans.

See? My mind wanders.

So when I typed the title of today's post, it might amuse to know that I immediately thought of this song by Digital Underground which was super popular in my Freshman year of high school. Scary to think that my Kid is about to start high school herself (well, in several months, but it seems so IMMINENT), and that the songs they love now are just as vaguely naughty (okay, well, sometimes right out loud dirty) as the ones we listened to then were.

It makes it hard to frown at her music tastes, especially when I realize today that if *I* wasn't really paying attention to the lyrics to those Salt-n-Pepa and Def Leppard songs (or if I was, I wasn't being influenced by them - I didn't run right out and push anything, nor did I attempt to pour sugar on anyone), then The Kid probably isn't either.

It doesn't mean I have to like that Ke$ha though. She's just whorey.