My son and I drove to Muskogee, Oklahoma from Denver, Colorado last weekend to see the U.S.S. Batfish.
Well worth the trip but very hot and pretty humid. I promised my son last year that we'd go but didn't have the opportunity until last weekend.
We drove almost 1600 miles round-trip. We also saw the Kansas Aviation Museum in Wichita, Kansas the day before.
Here are a few of the pictures I took.
Hope you enjoy!
Entrance to the park:
She's sitting in a grassy bowl: (Note how deep the rudder is embedded in the ground)
Volunteers working on replacing the deck, which is very deteriorated. Some of the deck is still original. They're replacing it all with a Brazailian hardwood. I didn't envy them one bit-it was very hot, humid, and there were wasp nests under there:
Looking aft at the conning tower. You can see the new decking ready for install:
Looking forward at conning tower:
Good bullnose shot:
Bow tubes:
She's starting to show some other deterioration from sitting out in the elements, but overall looks pretty good except for the decking:
Big submarine, little boy(He was starting to get grumpy from the heat):
Shot of the forward deck. It was cool being able to see beneath the decking. You could see the pressure hull, external frames, and a lot of the duct work:
Checkers anyone?
Periscope in conning tower.
You couldn't go up so I took the picture hanging from the ladder through the cage they had set up. This was the best in three attempts:
The boy on the hydroplane controls:
Bow tubes:
One of the forward diesels:
They had a memorial to all the US subs lost during WWII. They had small plaques for each one with information about the sub.
Here is the Wahoo's:
Lots more pictures, but these are the best.
They had a pretty interesting little museum inside and some other pretty good displays around the park as well.
We had a lot of fun, but a lot of driving.
