Saturday, March 12, 2011

Desert Trails, Tails and Tales!

We’ve spent the last week in the Sonora desert in Arizona near Tuscon and the Mojave Desert in California near Palm Springs. Besides experiencing the desert and all of the types of cactus and desert "critters", we also toured the “Boneyard” - where the US military stores 4,000+ aircraft, the Biosphere 2 experiment, the only Titan II missile silo left in the world and Tombstone- the site of the famous gunfight at the OK corral. It was fun to have such a variety of things to see!


On the road....

A first on this trip....we "camped" at a truck stop and also at 2 casino parking lots - great price (FREE) and lots of fellow campers for company! Notice the truck snuggled up next to Rose - the truck pulled up next to us during the night. What a surprise we had in the morning when we looked out the window and all we could see was the side of a truck!





The weather has been absolutely fabulous – sunny every day and thankfully it is still cool! Can’t imagine being here in the summer when it’s 110+ degrees…. A view from the casino in Palm Springs



One of our many border patrol inspections...



We've seen some beautiful desert sunsets while driving and at the "campground"



Highlights:

Tombstone

The authentic western town from the mid 1800’s with all of its “colorful” history






• Re-enactment of the gunfight at the OK corral and other historical events in Tombstone




• Boot Hill





Saguaro National Park


Seeing the giant cactus ( Like you see in the movies!)




•  Learning about the Sonora desert and how the animals and plants adapt to the harsh environment






Tour of the “ Boneyard” at the Air force base in Tuscon and the Air and Space Museum

Seeing ALL of the 4061 military planes that are “parked” in the desert ( including MANY F4s that Gary used to fly!) and a great display of all kinds of aircraft - Gary was in heaven!












Titan II Missile Silo and Rocket – the only one remaining after the SALT treaty with Russia

Tour inside the silo with the Titan missile




• Simulation of a nuclear attack on the US and what the officers at the missile site were trained to do



Visiting  Biosphere 2 

Learning about how the Biosphere2 facility ( Biosphere 1 is our earth) where 8 researchers lived in a completely sealed environment for 18 months to simulate if it would be possible to sustain life on Mars





Joshua Tree National Park and Palm Springs

Learning about the Mojave desert and the Joshua trees

• Seeing the San Andreas fault line and 1,000's of windmills










Next stop: The Pacific Coast from Morro Bay to Monterey! It’ll be great to see a lot of green trees, nice green grass and the pacific ocean ( thankfully the tsunami warnings have been canceled!)- my favorite color is green! Molly can't wait to have nice soft green grass again to "do her piddles" - she just can't get accustomed to the crunchy straw and dirt! Our plan is to drive around Los Angeles..Rose gets claustrophobic in big cities and we all prefer the countryside ( Gary and I have both been to LA and don't need to see it again) !!!