Pima Air & Space Museum

Last week we headed to Tucson and the Pima Air & Space Museum. Another chance to take advantage of our Discount Coupon Booklet( 2 for the price of 1 admission). We purchased the Booklet at the Park and it entitled the bearer to discounts at a whole bunch of attractions in and around the area. So far we've used it at The Biosphere, Patagonia Lake State Park, Amerind Museum, Old Tucson, The Gunfight at the OK Corral in addition to Pima Air & Space Museum. Definitely worth the price of $18. Anyways, I digress. Back to Pima Air & Space Museum.

This is a trip that definitely belongs on any tourist/snowbird schedule. Jam packed with history. A few of the pics that we took in the main hanger:

Pretty impressive

That would be me

Mary in front of SR 17. This plane was huge....and was capable of mach 3

After a tour of the main hanger, we ventured outside to meet up with the Tram that was going to give us a Docent led tour of the outside exhibits. The tour lasted about an hour and the cost of $6 was pretty reasonable. We passed on the bus tour of the Boneyard, which would have been an additional $7. The Tram and our Docent took us through all of the displays, often stopping to add some historical information or a story related to the particular plane.....

POTUS Plane

A Drone

Transports

A Huge Transport

B36

An interesting Reconnaissance  Plane

NASA "Guppy" - space program parts transport plane

B36 from up front

Mary in Tram with a B52 in the background and smoke from Davis-Monthan AFB in the background

Another view of the B36

B 52

POTUS Plane- supposedly this one transported Iranian Hostages out of Iran

Old POTUS plane

After our tour of the grounds was complete, we were dropped off at 390th Memorial Museum - the Air Museum home of the B17. What an impressive display!

B17 Facts:

• The prototype of this plane was built and flown by Boeing Aircraft of Seattle on July 28, 1935
• A total of 12,677 planes were built by Boeing, Lockheed, and Douglas before the last one was delivered on April 13, 1945
• Power: Four 9 cylinder radial Wright Cyclone engines, each 1200 horsepower
• Altitude: Could fly up to 35,000 feet
• Speed: Up to 300 MPH
• Cost: $238,329
• Armament: Thirteen 50 caliber Browning machine guys
• "I'll be Around", on display in the 390th Memorial Museum, is a model G, built in 1945.

The fully restored B17

Mary checking it out.....

A view from the gallery on the second floor

Another view from upstairs

In checking over the plane(you could get right up close) I noticed something that caught my eye:

The crew listing: Armament - Sorenson, R

We actually got to get right up to the belly of the plane and look in the bomb bay, as well as look in the machine gun turrets. All through the hanger there were displays commemorating the "life" of the plane and the crews and the many thousands of missions they flew. It was definitely a rewarding experience.


From there we headed over to the NASA Space Gallery. Another impressive display

That would be me.

We couldn't get over how "tight" it was

The Shuttle

And then it was back to the main hanger, but not before checking out some more of the displays....

B24 - The Docent described how the construction of this airplane involved over 300,000 rivets, most applied by women in factory like "Rosey the Riveter"

A row of helicopters

Mary on the grounds

And then it was time to leave......

A 10's flying out of Davis-Monthan AFB. This is their headquarters and were in training the whole time we were there.

Main entry way to the Pima Air & Space Museum

Mary in front of her favorite cactus

On the way out, we toured the perimeter of the Boneyard - acres and acres filled with airplanes now out of service.......

These pics were taken from the road between Wilmot and Kolb.

An extra bonus on the trip for Mary. She found another one.............

Would you believe a Fabric Store? Needless to say, we had to stop.

J-Six Ranch & Freedom RV

Yesterday was an eventful day. It began with a trip to J-Six Ranch at 10:00 for the monthly Equestrian Gymkhana- youngsters with horses competing against each other demonstrating proficiency in dealing with a defined obstacle course. We have been to 2 and have thoroughly enjoyed it.

As you can see, it is interesting. Not to mention that some of these kids are really good! But the fun part, especially for the parents, are the young ones. The really young ones.....

This one's sister helped her compete the entire circuit. Couldn't help but notice that her little legs weren't long enough to reach the stirrups.

And then there is everything else that is going on around and during the event:

Dick and Sarah, our neighbors at Butterfield are regulars here. Sarah boards her horse Zeke here and on these special days, they are prime movers of Hawg Wild, the Ranch Food Court.

That is Dick getting ready to do some cooking. They have an excellent menu that is priced reasonably.

Mary met a woman who asked her if she was taking pics of Grandchild, No was the answer, just taking pics. The woman proceeded to tell her that she was originally from Minnesota but that now was living in Sierra Vista and that her granddaughter was competing. Here are some pics of her:

Oh, by the way, she won her division.

All in all, it was an enjoyable time spent. Good to watch the kids interact with their horses. You can tell that some have obviously spent a lot of time at it. Or as one of the girls shirts said loud and clear:

EAT, SLEEP, RIDE.


And then it was off to the Freedom RV dealership on Irvington Ave in Tucson for their Open House / Barbecue. We were going not only to enjoy some good food, but to also check out floor plans and layouts for both Class A and 5 th Wheel units. We have pretty much decided that we would like to do this RV thing on a full time basis and that if we do, a 25' Airstream just isn't going to cut it. Vacations and weekend trips, fine, but actually living in it, presents some challenges. We did get some ideas and enjoyed our visit. The barbeque competition was something else. These guys are really serious.....as these pics will attest to:

And a good time was had by all.