We were supposed to go horseback riding on Thursday with a group of friends we meet at our campground. But shortly after we arrived there was a flurry of activity with horses from the earlier ride running back to camp without some of their riders. A swarm of African killer bees attacked the group some of whom got thrown from there horses as they panicked. It was terrible because there were a few fairly young kids involved who got stung…
Today we went to the University of Arizona biosphere. The biosphere was a combined project between a philanthropist and an ecologist as a way to study the feasibility of surviving on another planet in 1984 and built in 1991. Their first attempt started with 8 people and numerous different farm animals and lasted 2 years. Inside they had numerous ecosystems including an ocean, rain forest, desert, savannah and a wetlands. Farming took place including animals, plants and insects to replicate…
After Bisbee we headed to Tombstone, the location of the famous “gunfight at the ok coral”. Where the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday took down the Clantons and Mclowrys. This town was also famous for its prostitution, outlaws and, of course, the birdcage theater, which saw plenty of killings and is now supposedly haunted. The hotel is also supposed to be haunted and you can stay there. We almost did but we decided to think about it over a beer…
Today we hit two old west mining towns. The first was called Bisbee, a sleepy old town that’s kind of turned artsy. We walked around a bit, had lunch, then went into their mine for a tour. You take a little train that takes you deep into the mine and down a couple hundred feet. They give you an interesting talk on how they break through the rock using a combination of manual and air driven tools and, of course,…
Today I dropped Jamie off to head to work and then went to play golf. Poor me. I went to a very nice resort course called The Lodge at Ventana Canyon. Weather and course were beautiful and I had a great day. The next morning I got a call at 7am that Winnie’s water broke. So I roused myself up, figured out how to get to NJ and barely made it to the airport for the earliest flight that would…
Today we went to one of the caves just outside Tucson. This one was called the Colossal caves. We did 2 tours. One was the basic tour through the easily accessible areas of the caves. The second tour was called their ladder your where you go to places that are much harder to get through and deeper into the caves. That was the tour we really enjoyed. There were some pretty narrow places and we had to practically crawl through…
On the 7th we went to the Titan missile launch site. That was pretty cool. Part of the tour was given by a woman that was stationed at this very site. We went into the bunker and got to see the control room and missile silo which still had a titan missile in it. Thing was huge. Supposedly decommissioned. We didn’t wait around to make sure. I also included some pictures of signs with interesting facts. Click on the picture…
On the 6th we went to the Pina air museum. They have who knows how many airplanes there. Everything from a small single engine Cessna 150 to a Boeing 787 to B-52s to a couple of air force ones to some crazy places I’ve never seen before. Over 100 planes inside and out. Jamie wanted to take pictures with me in front of all the planes I’ve flown. They didn’t have all that I flew but they had a few….
We were only booked at Camp Pendleton till the February 7 and although Winnie’s due date was the 2nd all indications were that she was still a little ways away from delivering. So to avoid having to move the rv when the baby came we decided to move on to Arizona so when the baby came we could leave without worrying. So we took off for Tucson on the 4th. On the way we heard loud jet noise and lo…
On February 2nd we booked a tour of Hollywood homes of the stars. First we went to another of my best sandwich of America places called JR’s bbq. What an interesting place. It’s in a not so nice neighborhood and you drive up and it looks like a dive. In fact, even inside it looks like a dive but they have all kinds of pictures of famous people that have eaten there, many with autographs. We took some pics, ordered…