Touching Base (finally!)

Saturday, February 6, 2016

I'm trying some new software on my iPad for this post, so if it looks a little different, that may be why..

It's been a fun last few weeks here in the desert. As my previous posts alluded to, El Nino beat us up here pretty hard for a couple of weeks – rain and cold weather was quite depressing, but we were treated to periodic peaks at the sun.

Fred and Ginger may be disappointed but - we did throw in the towel on the dance classes they had here. Neither of us were getting anythng out of it other than frustration as the instructor was just simply moving too fast for us.  We would both like to dance however, so we will be looking into classes again some time down the road..

We've made a number of trips out into the desert - actually, to this point, we've logged over 500 miles in our exploration of the local Sonoran desert and surrounding mountains. Our health is actually better than it has been in a very long time. Dar is getting much stronger and today she managed to navigate about 100 yards in an upslope hike over rocks and around cactus.. We're both still trying to get used to being retired and believe me, that is a challenge.  I feel guilty for enjoying myself during the normal work-week and think about my team and friends at work a LOT.  I hope I am not repeating myself too much from previous blog posts. 

 

In the picture below, if you look at the two mountains on the horizon, we live just to the right of those...

Be careful when lifting rocks up in the desert.  You may wake up something that was napping!

As you may know or have surmised, I'm not just a car nut, but an airplane nut as well. I'm also a licensed pilot... Many years ago, I tried flying remote control airplanes and failed miserably - this failure resulted in the transformation of a couple thousand dollars into a very expensive lawn dart in about thirty seconds. Well, that was back in 1983. Fast forward to a month ago, and we purchased an RC Flight Simulator and a couple weeks later, a battery powered trainer plane.. The technology has changed dramatically since my first shot at it.  Now you would think that since I can fly a full sized airplane that a little model airplane would be a snap!  While aeronautics theory is helpful, those piloting skills mean very little in flying models and actually I think it works against you to some degree.  Long story made short - I found it difficult to NOT transpose myself to flying in the cockpit when actually I need to maintain control perspectives hundreds of feet away while standing on the ground and sometimes those controls are reversed..

I'm happy to report that While I've had a couple of rough landings, so far I have not managed to crash this little plane.  There are reports of special magnets that are in tall cactus though and they attract little planes like bugs to blue-lights in the summer!

On Thursday, January 23rd, we managed to check off one of Dar's bucket list items and we went to the Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction in Scottsdale AZ. I had been there back in 2010 and it was a similar experience. Many hundreds of special cars and trucks of all types.. We had a great time and wonderful mid-70's weather. Along with many muscle cars and street rods, We got to see the new Porsche 918 Spyder and the new Ford GT!

By the way, I have finally cratered after years of being prodded and have opened up a Facebook account. It is a different way of interacting with friends and I've gotten connection requests from people I've not heard from in many years - even requests from people I don't even know..  I'm taking it slowly though..

We want to post a special thanks to those that are watching our place back home in Kenyon..   We think about you all often and look forward to seeing you again soon!

That's our update for today.. I will try to update more frequently...

Seeing the sights – PIMA Air & Space Museum

January 20, 2016

((Reminder – click on the pictures and it makes them bigger))

On the 14th, we took a drive in our trusty truck Big-Foot down to Tucson to visit the PIMA Air & Space Museum. While Dar likes airplanes and space stuff too – this was one of those things on Randy’s Bucket-List.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!    WOW!!!!!!!!!!

What a great day!  The weather was *Perfect* as we spent about 5 hours at the museum and saw from 1/3 to 1/2 of everything there was to see.. It’s a good thing that we purchased a membership that gets us back in anytime we want for the next 12 months. 

While we saw scores of really cool airplanes and stuff, the cherry on top of the Sundae was meeting B17 Bomber pilot Richard Bushong. Richard is 92 years old and sharp as a tack. While he is a Docent now, Richard flew 28 missions within the European theater in World War 2. From there he went on to fly in Korea and lastly in Vietnam.  His family told him that with all the excitement in his life, that he should write all his memories down – he took their advice and wrote his book “My Wars”.  We bought a copy of that book and Richard autographed it for me.

Richard told us (the tour group) a couple of his stories.  We were all transfixed and Richard’s time-machine brought us back to 1944 as he recalled the mission he had flown on January 13th.  What a treat and honor to meet this man.  A hero in three wars!

   

A couple of pics below complete the visual for the following story. This airliner was donated to the museum. The only hitch was that the museum would need to come and fly it back. The pilot called in as he was almost home and reported that he thought he blew a spark plug somewhere along the line, but the power was sufficient to continue the flight.  Upon closer inspection when he landed, it waqs found that he didn’t blow a spark plug, but a JUG! (Cylinder assembly).  The aircraft was landed and rolled into the museum as you see it here.

The pictures below are me standing along side of a B-58 Hustler Supersonic Bomber – an amazing plane that reportedly cost a fortune to maintain as it took 13 hours of maintenance for every hour of flight. The second pic is of me standing underneath one of 13 SR-71 Blackbird high altitude reconnaissance plane that could fly in excess of 2100 MPH.  Both planes are in the top 5 of my all time favorite planes.

There were a number of Russian MiG fighters there.  As I understand it, the US Government bought 21 MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters from the country of Moldova in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of rogue states like Iran.  Most were dismanteld but a few, such as the one Dar is showing off below, remain. Also shown below is a Russian Mi-24D Helicopter.

Below are three pics of a B-52 Bomber that was outfited to carry the NASA X-15 Rocket-Plan aloft. You can see the mount under the right wing. Look closely at the hash marks on the fuselage of the B-52. These are actually silhouettes of the X15 plane.  The angled marks indicate the Altitude record attempt missions while the horizontal marks are representative of missions for speed record attempts.

We go from monster planes that can fly the speed of sound multiple times over to the smallest planes in the world. The pictures below are of the Starr Bumble-Bee plane. This is the world’s smallest “manned” aircraft with a wing-span of just over 6’

Then there was the BD5J MicroJet – this one was flown in the James Bond movie “Octopussy”.  I knew this plane was small, but wow – I had no idea that it was this small… 17’ wingspan and 12’ long and would fly faster than 300 MPH!

I could post all 180 pictures I took, but that might push my capacity over the limit.  I’ll leave you with just two more pictures of a couple of huge bombers (B-47 and B-36)...  Visit their website at http://www.pimaair.org to see some really cool sights.  I will post an update when we return for our next visit.

Springtime in the desert? Well almost...

January 19, 2016

Well, El Nino storms have subsided and the desert is drying out – but at the same time it is coming alive! The Cactus are noticeably more green and plump.  The temps are still dropping into the upper 30’s, lower 40’s at night, but during the day they bounce up into the mid to upper 60’s.  You won’t hear me complaining about that though..  Here are some pictures I took of some very interesting Cactus. 

This guy (Saguaro) in the middle appears to be a large hand waving HI! 

So colorful!   

There are wild pigs in the desert. They are called Javelina (pronounced Hav-O-Lee-na). They are really good at hiding during the day and won’t bother you unless you bother them.  When grown, they weigh from 40 to 90 pounds and can be mean if cornered or their young are threatened.  They eat animals smaller than them (rabbits, and unlucky coyotes) but for the most part they feed on the vegetation.  I’m told that they are a very rank smelling critter that has meat that is equally as bad – so there aren’t a lot of people that hunt them.  If you want to know how tough they are, just take a look at this Prickly Pear cactus that was part of a Javelina’s dinner.  Yes, they chew right through the spines on the cactus.  These spines are so tough, they will pierce the toughest leather gloves easily and have been known to cause flat tires on trucks and other vehicles in the desert.

 

Dance Classes – Well at this point, we may be throwing in the towel after the second lesson.  It seems that the instructor is going so fast and throwing in so many new steps, that we (most of us) are getting confused and frustrated.  We may give it another try, but I think we’ll be sitting out for a week or so.  It’s tough to pay money for something that is not giving you any enjoyment…

I’ve been busy working on the Grass Hoppa SxS – my little workshop has just enough tools and materials to design and fabricate new flairs (front and back) to keep us from being pelted by mud encountered on the trails.  We gave them a test yesterday while we were on a 60 mile ride and they worked very well!

As shown in the pictures above, we went on a pretty good ride on Monday.  We did not have a real destination other than “Out There!”..   One of the trails we were on was one that I’m not sure we will be taking again.  Unfortunately neither of us were able to take pictures during this more technical part of the trail, so you’ll need to use your imagination. We were climbing the side of a mountain where the trail was exceptionally narrow (barely wide enough for our SxS) and some of the washes were 45 degrees or more and 50 to 100 feet long or more.  The combination of the altitude along with loose rock and narrow paths were a bit unnerving, but totally exciting! There was one path, basically a cliff, which we came upon that was partially washed out. The side of the mountain was to our left and I hugged it closely as our right front wheel dangled in the air a moment as it crossed the foot wide gap. Right behind that was the right rear wheel. Dar looked down.  Not a good thing to do.  The side of the mountain dropped away hundreds of feet at that point.  We’re not really daredevils, but when you’re faced with not being able to back up and go the other way, well, maybe we’re just a little nuts… Suffice to say, we survivied AZ Trail 2359. We’re looking into getting a GoPro type camera to record these things going forward.. The capabilities of these machines continue to amaze me.. The pictures below were taken along the way as we found areas to take breaks, get something to drink, eat, and check our equipment. I’m in the first picture on the left in the burgandy jacket. Dar is in the picture on the right in the black jacket.

  

Close to the end of our ride down the south side of the mountain, we came upon a rather wide and flat area where we could take a break.  The first picture below is up-hill and shows the path of spring water / snow-melt coming down the mountain.  The subsequent pictures are of the rock that was carved away by countless centuries of running water.. The rock was volcanic and had the appearance of concrete with a lot of exposed aggregate rocks.  The channel shown is about 15’ down to the water/pool..  Very strange, also very beautiful..

That’s it for this update – I have another one I am working on that I will post soon! Meanwhile to all our friends and family up north, please stay warm and safe.