Up in the air

Beauty of flight; beauty of the road.

Our destination on Tuesday, April 7, was the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, the home of more than 300 planes on a setting of 80 acres.  There are five hangars that house 150 of the planes, and the others sit out in the open sun, waiting for people like us to take their photos. This was 100 years of aviation history, and there was no way to take it all in in a single day.  So I just took photos … and will share a few of them with you.

The Starr Bumble Bee was designed and built for the sole purpose of taking the record for world's smallest aircraft.  The Starr was named after Robert Starr and its first flight was made Jan. 28, 1984.  The record for the smallest aircraft only lasted about eight months when one of Starr's former partners built and flew an even smaller aircraft.  However, Starr was credited to give Starr the record for the smallest biplane while the other guy took the record for the smallest monoplane.  I liked it  because it was black and yellow.

A Warthog?  This is one mean-looking aircraft.

I like that some of the planes sport paintings, and their "kills."

One of my favorite things that I saw at the museum.

There were so many planes to photograph, it's hard to decide what to show.

The tail on this one is beautiful.

These props are on one of the Air Force One presidential planes.  This one was used by presidents Kennedy and Johnson between 1961 and 1965..

I really got into shooting props.

This one was a favorite.

This little plane was carrying quite the load on its back.

This one's for you, Hobbs, a Marine jet.

This plane was quite elegant looking with its black and gold paint scheme.

My favorite ... the guppy. 

What did we do after taking photos of all those planes?  Take a tour in a bus, of course, of the boneyard, after showing a photo ID.  This is the place where there are planes that will no longer fly, some that could fly again if needed, and some that are being cannibalized.  The boneyard is at the U.S. government’s 309^th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, and encompasses 2,600 acres with more than 4,000 stored aircraft.  Wow.  Who has ever seen so many planes in one place?  Not me.

 

Most of the planes stored in the boneyard have a protective coating on them, kind of like a shrink wrap.  It can be easily peeled off if it becomes necessary to either put a plane back into use, or to get a part off of it for another plane.

Engines from some of the planes are stored in large barrels.

Planes big and small have the coating on them.

Other engines are removed and when they are too large to store in the barrels, are also covered with the protective coating.

 

This one is for my friend, Sharon at Bird TLC, who loves owls.

The planes are lined up in beautiful, organized rows.

And they look great both coming and going.

These graffiti-covered planes were awesome.  I don't know how they were painted or why, and it's probably not real graffiti, but they were very cool planes.

I didn't think to seek these out when we were inside of the yard.  Oh well.  You get the picture.  Haha!!!

The only thing is that Chuck lost his camera, and didn’t realize it til later.  We tried to call the museum but it was closed. 

The next morning, April 8, we called the museum first thing.  They had found the camera so we’d go pick it up … yay!!!  The sad thing was that Jaz was leaving us and heading back to the coast to do some family vacationing.

So Chuck, Dewey and I were off and running to Kartchner Caverns State Park.  These caverns were discovered in 1974 by a man and his friend who had been cavers from a young age.  After much searching, they found these caves and kept it secret for 14 years while they worked it out for the area to become a state park so it could become developed while keeping it safe from vandals and thieves.  It's a "wet" cave, a living cave, with formations that continue to grow.

This is a photo of a photo from a book on the caverns, just to give you an idea of what they are. 

The park is a gem.  You are not allowed to take cameras, purses, bags, water or other items into the caves to protect them.  There are four metal doors you go through, and a path with 18-inch walls on either side to catch lint or other debris from your body or clothing.  If someone accidentally touches something it is marked by the guide and cleaned up the same day.  It’s marvelous how they work to keep it pristine.  The caves were humid and way warmer than I'd expected.  The humidity averages 99 percent all year, so no wonder I felt like I was breathing water.  And the temperature was way warmer than I'd expected, being 67 degrees, but still cooler than what can be an outside temperature of triple digits during the summer.

The cave we visited, the Big Room, was the first one the men discovered.  It's also home to an average of 500-1000 female bats who return every spring to give birth and raise the baby bats.  So as to not upset the mamas and babies, tours of the Big Room are discontinued from April 16  through October 14.  It’s fascinating and was an enjoyable tour, even without being able to take photos.

After the caves we were off to go to Tombstone, in search of the OK Corral and Boot Hill.   And maybe even a top hat for Chuck.

Tombstone is always a great time.  We first stopped at Boot Hill and the boys wandered around while I sat on a bench and chatted with a lady from Michigan.  I’d done it last year so I didn’t think it had changed too much from then, other than the plants being a little taller.  It’s not as though there’d be any new graves.

Nuff said.

But I needed some type of graveyard photo, so here it is.

We found the hotel where Jaz and I stayed last year … it’s biker friendly. 

Just another evening in Tombstone, the town too tough to die.

 We decided that since the town mostly rolls up the mats early, we’d be up and going to do tourist things in the morning.  The OK Corral shootout was high on the list of things to do, after breakfast.