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. 

New Years Catch-up!!!

January 7, 2016 <== Really ??  2016???

Boy there’s been a lot going on here and I’ve been somewhat remiss in posting updates.  I could blame it all on a bogus problem with Windows 10 Updated Live-Writer which apparently no longer likes Blogger – but I won’t..  Well, not completely… But I did need to re-write this Blog entry in Open Live Writer (a new Open Source version of Live Writer)..  Microsoft screws up again… 

As I write this, El Nino storms are pummeling the area for the 4th day in a row.  Good time to try and update the Blog!

Most of us have come to love the cute, colorful and exceptionally fast cartoon bird as The Road Runner.  Little did we know that we have many Road Runners living right in our RV Park..  This little fella was sitting in the shade under our camper (probably waiting for a UPS Delivery from ACME) until I accidently scared him out.  As quickly as I could, I grabbed my phone from pocket to snap a pic.  He stopped in mid-stride about 20 feet from my and smiled as I snapped his picture. He immediately made a funny sound which I could have sworn sounded like “Beep-Beep-thub thub thub!” and he took off across the gravel lawn and off into the sunset leaving a trail of dust in his wake..

On December 10th, we went on a pretty long ride through the desert to a town named Superior and had a great lunch in a restaurant there. The scarves we are wearing on our necks are actually raised up over our faces just below our eyes for us to breath through.  The dust in the desert is as easily as fine as powdered sugar and very bad for you. These scarves filter out most of that – although they can be somewhat uncomfortable at times.

It’s cool at night here (30’s). Our furnace and oven run off of propane gas. The day after the ride to Superior, I was changing out the ~60# propane bottle in the front of the camper and managed to throw my back out. Since we still did not have our Health-Care cards, I tried to tough it out and try to pop it back into place with exercising, stretching etc.  It did not work.  Finally I relented to the urging of others and went to a Chiropractor’s office near the RV Park here in Gold Canyon.  Well, as it turned out, all they really wanted to do is to put me on a therapy table with a TENS device (electrical shocks) taped to my lower back..  No adjustment, no nothing..  I left there in more pain than I arrived with and they thought they were going to set me up with a series of these therapeutic visits..  Not bloody likely!  I continued to stretch and exercise – getting marginally better over the next week or so, but still very uncomfortable and hard to sleep.  A fella in the park here recommended another Chiropractor in Apache Junction (not far away).  Another guy had overheard that recommendation and said “Yeah – whatever you do – don’t go to those quacks in Gold Canyon – this guy that Charlie recommended is GREAT!”..  I made an appointment for the 23rd of December and got immediate relief.  I was not 100% though and had to come back a few days later for a follow-up.  I am happy to report that my back is BACK!  We have also contracted with a local Propane supplier to have a large bottle of propane delivered that will stand outside the camper and will be replaced when empty.

Pics below – CoCoa taking a snooze on Momma’s lap. Out like a light and having sweet puppy dreams where she lightly barks in her sleep and her paws and legs twitch as she runs in her dreams.  The Bible-Study group that Dar belongs to had a reading of the Nativity scriptures.

You have to love our sunsets here. I took these by the fountain at the entrance to our park on 12/23. The Saguaro cactus is such a majestic old man watching over that entrance.

As I said in a previous blog entry – we ordered new bicycles from Walmart and they had to be shipped to the store in Mesa. After waiting a few weeks, we finally get the delivery advice and brave the crowds just before Christmas to pick up the bikes.  We were both very excited and could hardly wait to bring them home.  Our bubbles were soon burst when they pulled out two bikes that were both Lady’s bikes and not the ones we wanted. We got our refund and left the store – our bubbles burst.  After days of going through all the ads and looking on Craigslist, we found one of the two bikes. This one is mine (Randy) and we continued the search for Dar’s new ride..  While I am not as steady as I should be yet, I was able to ride it a little ways. A little more than a week passes by and we find Dar’s bike on the rack at the same Walmart! Home it came!  She was delighted to find that after all these years (25 or more) she could still ride!

January 1 – HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!  We spent New Years Eve with a number of people here in the park in our big meeting room – sharing food and munchies (don’t try to get me to say/spell those French words that I always flub-up)…  Music and visiting was the order of the night.

New Years Day – Randy and his friend Jerry head out with a bunch of other guys..  While we made a number of interesting stops, I chose to document the return visit to the abandoned Turquoise mine where we find bits and pieces of turquoise laden rocks that we brought back with us.  There are lots of treasures in the desert. Some of the most beautiful land you’ve ever seen.

With the rains upon us over the last week now, there has not been a lot we could do outdoors.. After going shopping for a little bit of wood, I built this small shelf to Dar’s own design / plans.   I will probably add another shelf layer in the big open spot.. Not too bad when you consider I don’t have a lot here for tools ((yet)).  I am also doing a little wood carving to make a sign for the front of our lot here.  This is just a beginning, but you have to start somewhere.

Okay – now you have to use your imagination here..  For years, Dar has wanted us to learn how to dance. Our professional lives and just life in general made for really handy excuses to NOT do this.  Well, it finally happened.  Yesterday we had our first dance lessons where we learned the Two-Step, the Vine, the Square and a couple of others that I can’t remember right off.  Dar’s toes got their abuse with size 14 waffle-stompers being guided by less than graceful me..  This picture was staged, but I had to do it…  While we’d like to be like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers once we’re finished with the classes – I think we’ll both be happy to just have fun and not look stupid..

Well – that’s it for now.  We’re having the time of our lives here and we can’t thank our friends back home that are keeping an eye on things enough.  We both agree that having a week that consists of six Saturdays and a Sunday is agreeing with us more and more.  Coming up this weekend is a Swap-Meet and Car show on Saturday in Phoenix. Hopefully the rains will be gone by then and we can get in some good bike riding too!

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