Tucson and Las Cruces

Hi All,
my intention isn't to post once a week but it's working out that way. So first, some pictures that really belong in last weeks post. These two Susan took with her iPhone and are from Lower Antelope Canyon.

OK, Susan didn't take this picture but it was taken with her iPhone.

Last Sunday we took a day off (mostly so I could get caught up with the posts) but we did go back to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon to get a few more pictures.

As the sun starts to set you can see some of the haze over the north rim where there are doing a prescribed burn.

Nice view

Monday we drove to our campsite a bit south of Sedona and then took a drive up Oak Creek Canyon before spending a bit of time walking around Sedona. It was a gorgeous evening and we were able to sit outside.

Tuesday we drove to Tucson. It was a pretty full day of driving. Wednesday morning we toured the Titan Missile Museum where the only silo not destroyed as part of the SALT-II treaty with Russia is open for tours. Wednesday afternoon we toured Biosphere 2 which is now owned and operated by the University of Arizona. People no longer live there but do large scale scientific experiments there.

The only remaining Titan 2 Missile (deactivated) stands in the silo.

These signs were pretty much everywhere we went around Tucson. They made Susan very happy.
NOT!

Our guide at Biosphere 2 explaining how the "lung" works. We are standing in one of the lungs at this point.
When the Biospherians (as they were called) lived in the Biosphere it was a completely sealed structure.
When the sun shone through the glass the temperature rose and the air expanded, it had to go somewhere or it
would have blown the windows out. The air was forced into one of two lungs like this.
The center of the ceiling is actually a 16 ton piece of aluminum with a 4 ton hypalon diaphragm attached to it.
When the air in the Biosphere expanded during the day, the ceiling expanded upward. At night when the air cooled and contracted, the diaphragm forced the air back into the main part of the building. Pretty amazing, really.  

Thursday we spent the entire day at the Pima Air and Space Museum. We didn't see it all but we saw the vast majority of it. We were beat at the end of the day, but it was a great museum. There was way more stuff there than I could photograph, or that you'd want to see here. You should go there to see it all.

SR 71

"The Guppy" was used for very large cargo, like a Titan Missile.

Boeing 787 (prototype)

This plane carried Presidents Kennedy and Johnson to airports that couldn't handle jets.

This jet was in the "Presidential Fleet" but carried support personnel, not the President.
The way you can tell is on planes fitted for carrying the President, the light blue paint
goes over the cockpit.

This picture and those following are taken from the bus tour of the "boneyard". 

F117 Stealth Fighter. You must have special glasses to see it.

Planes partially wrapped in white are being kept as backups.
If needed they can be put back into service.

The Boneyard isn't part of the air and space museum.  It is on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
It is the world's largest military aircraft storage facility.
From the museum you can take a bus tour of the Boneyard.

B1 Bomber

Now we're back inside the museum. I wondered what a nuclear
bomb of today looked like.

Not sure what I expected, but this wasn't it.

The museum is across the street from the Air Force Base that is home to many A10s.
They were doing touch and goes all day, flying outside the museum.

Friday we drove from Tucson to Las Cruces. Saturday we visited the White Sands Missile Range and White Sands National Park.

Part of the "Missile Park" at White Sands Missile Range Museum

Susan standing next to a V2, the rocket we "captured" from Germany at
the end of WWII.

Today (Sunday) we drove from Las Cruces to Carlsbad so we can visit Carlsbad Caverns tomorrow. Our plan was to spend the night at Guadalupe Mountains National Park but the weather forecast was for wind gusts up to 70 mph tonight. We decided to move on. Tonight we're camping in the Carlsbad Walmart parking lot. How's that for elegant?

That's all for now. Take care.
Brian