Monday, November 17, 2014 (Catalina State Park, Tucson, AZ)

Red picked Steve up at about 9:00 this morning and they were off to the Pima Air and Space Museum...so just a warning...this post is full of pictures of airplanes. If you want to see all of the pictures click on the photo album.

Here's Steve...

Red and I both used to fly and Red also has a few RC planes that he has built and flies so we were both like a couple of kids in a candy store. There are 5 hangers, a Space Gallery, plus over 150 aircraft displayed outside. We started in the Main Hanger...
(Click on photos to enlarge)
A10-A (Warthog)
SR-71A Blackbird
F-14A Tomcat
NF-4E Phantom
UH-1C Huey
Hum-1 Chopper

We moved onto the WWII European Theater in Hanger #3.
B-24J Liberator...Red talking to a volunteer that was a gunner on one of these.
Hawker Hurricane

Next was the WWII Pacific Theater in Hanger #4
B-29 Superfortress
F4U-4 Corsair
 C-46D Commando
TBM-3E Avenger
P-51A Mustang
KI-43-IIB Oscar


We then moved on to the 390th Memorial Museum to view the B-17G Flying Fortress...

Hanger #5 is the Restoration Hanger with not much to view. Neither one of us were interested in seeing the Space Gallery.

We hopped on the AMARG tour bus for a short drive to see the "BoneYard"/Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. This place is mind boggling with almost 5000 aircraft! This is where aircraft are stored, refurbished to flight status, or parted out and scrapped. I will name the ones I remember...

F-16 Falcon
 Hercules
MH-53E Super Stallion left...

F-105G Thunderchief

A-7 Corsair
P-2 Neptune
 C-5A Galaxy
B-1 Lancer Bomber
B-52 Stratofortress Bomber...
Missile Nose Cone

 A-10A Worthogs


Aircraft maintenance facility...
 Aircraft wash area...
C-5 Galaxies
The next 7 photos are of aircraft that are being parted out and scrapped...

B-1 Lancer Bombers

A-10A Worthogs
F-16 Falcons


Private recycling scrap yard outside the base...

We returned to the Prima Air and Space Museum and toured some but not all of the outside display area...
MiG-23
Bristol Blenhem Bomber...
Newer Harrier
Older Harrier

While they were gone, I spent the morning catching up on a bunch of stuff...all-in-all, a very nice relaxing morning doing "my thing". It must have been going on 1:30 when Pam and I headed out for a walk and a little geocaching...there are a bunch here in the park.

We came across some beautiful cactus in full bloom...



Pam found one of the geocaches...good eye, Pam! It was hidden in a fake rock! The thing that caught her eye was that the rock was a light pink color...







See the pink rock?

We ended up walking on the 'Bridle Trail'...lots of horseback riders...go figure! LOL

We got back to our trailers at around 3:00...3 1/2 miles and only 2 geocaches later. We found 2 of the 4 we were looking for...hmmm...gonna have to find my "Arizona geocache spidey sense" Haha!

Steve and Red arrived home shortly after we did. As you can tell from all the pictures, they had a great day!

Steve took the camera out for a few pictures of our site...with a spectacular mountain backdrop!


View from our window...

Just before 5:00, we took our beer and wine along with the Campfire-In-A-Can down to Red and Pam's place. They had invited us over for dinner. Heidi fits nicely into a bit of a hole that Dominic had dug...too cute!

While we were sitting outside chatting, Red said "What's that by the trailer tire?" Well, it turned out to be a snake! Not sure what kind it was...and not wanting it there...Red took a picture and walked over to the camp host site. She came back with Red and after a look, determined that it wasn't a Rattle Snake but rather a California King snake...harmless...whew!

She removed it...



Okay, that's enough "snake excitement" thank you! As the sun went down, it cooled off quickly and Steve and Red lit the campfire. A little while later, Red grilled burgers and then we went inside to eat...delicious, thanks guys!

Shortly after 8:00 we called it a night and Steve and I hurried home in the very chilly darkness...the thermometer outside read 37.6F/3C...Brrrrr!




4 comments:

  1. Doug really wants to go to the Pima Air Museum. I don't want to go but probably will.

    No snakes, please.

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  2. Hope you have the opportunity to track down our caches in the park (Two Sentries and the Grab-n-go series). They are quick and easy to get to from the campground. Enjoy your stay at the Catalina State Park. It's an awesome park and with such beautiful views of the Catalina Mountains.

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    Replies
    1. Unfortunately, our stay at the park is just not long enough. We decided to only stay for a few nights and then move on. Perhaps we'll get back for more geocaching another time. It is such a lovely area.

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  3. I can see why you didn't venture to the Tillamook Air Museum..that was a lot of planes in one place!!
    hopefully there will be no more snakes.. eww

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