As his older brothers before him,

Brett Goes To Space Camp

In mid July it was back to Comspmospere Air & Space Museum in Hutchinson, Kansas for a week of space flight training for Brett, Ben and cousin John. This was Brett's first year of training while it was the third year for Ben and John whose advanced training included a side trip to Houston to train at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Brett was named commander of his flight crew Snoopy, which was a big responsibility. Their objective for the week was their First Space Shuttle flight under Brett's command and he successfully landed the shuttle after the auto pilot went out. We were quite proud of them all as they did a great job. I, (Rick) drove them to Kansas, though Kathy and Brad opted for a beach in Florida rather than a week in central Kansas. Bryan had to stay home to attend summer school.

click here for all the photos of the week

Picture left is Brett in his Space Suit portrait.   Ben, John & Brett are shown to the right in front of the Cosmosphere mockup of the Space Shuttle.   All the way down is a picture of Commander Brett at his Graduation leading his crew onto the dais to get their wings.

While the boys were in camp, I lounged by my favourite Kansas retreat Prairie Dunes.   The weather was hot - but the golf was great.  On the way home we stopped in northern Missouri to buy a ton of Fireworks to take back home.  Unbelievably the car wouldn't start on our return from the store.   We had it jumped and drove it to a local truck stop - where for the next 6 hours we waited for some local hayseed to fix it.   After filching me for $600 bucks to replace a alternator and a battery, we were back on the road and only too happy to get home.