Travis & Tara's Trip
Through Southern Arizona & New Mexico
March 16 - 25, 2001
Date: Friday, March 24, 2001
Route: Tucson, AZ
Approximate mileage: 64 km
After leaving the Doubletree in the morning (we were staying there that night,
as well), we headed out for our 10am appointment at the missile silo.After
we got there, they gave us plenty of time to browse their museum before the
tour started.
Here's a model of the launch facility. We were lucky enough to be able to tour the real thing!
Here one of our fellow tour friends is examining a rocket engine used on
weapons of mass destruction. We were forced to wear hard hats, probably not
so much an OSHA requirement as a marketing ploy to make it seem like we were
going somewhere dangerous.
There it is! That's looking down the silo of the deactivated Weapon of Mass
Destruction. International Treaties have dictated that it remain open and
visible, and concreted half-way across the top (visible in the top right
corner) so that it can be viewed from satellite, and isn't openable.
Here's our tour guide, telling us all about the daily operating procedure
in the control bunker. He was a member of one of the crews that served in
this room when it was active. Boy the stories he told us! The huge springs
visible are to dampen the effect of a near-direct hit of an enemy 'weapon
of mass destruction'. Tara felt very safe in the room. Travis volunteered
to be used in the demonstration, but the guide chose a future JROTC candidate
instead.
Evidently, Pima county decided that they were going to convert Americans
to the Metric system by changing the road signs. This led to some confusion,
but our maps kept us on the right course.
We decided to go to a mining facility and take a tour. The scale they work at strip mining is amazing.
If you look closely, there is a speck to the right side of the road in the mine... This is a schoolbus.
Here's Travis standing next to a discarded tire from a monster truck rally.
Actually, it's a tire from a mining truck so small as to be obsolete now.
Here's part of the 'cleaning' process of the copper mine. The whole area
smells very strongly of Pine Sol, but Tara doesn't remember why it's this
Pyrite-gold color.
Here's another retired, too small truck, with snowbirds as a reference of scale.
Tara was on overload from too much 'boy' stuff, so we decided to then go
to the "Mission San Xavier del Bac" for some cultural site-seeing. Unfortunately,
it was pretty commercialized, and it is evidently a big tourist attraction
for those coming from Nogales.
Here Travis is standing next to a huge book. How'd you like the Padre to
throw that at you? The high point of the mission was paying a peddler $2
to fix Tara's Bracelet, which was trying to do its own sight-seeing..
