One of the things we marveled at, were the mountains that ring the Green Valley area. Unlike the Northwest, where we have major mountain ranges like the Cascades that run the full length of our state, this area has islands of mountains that each have a different name. You can actually see the full length of their mountain ranges, one end to another, and then the beginning and ending of the next. The most unusual phenomenon that happens here that we have not seen anywhere else, are their sunsets. When the sun sets, the color encircles the entire valley, east, south, north and the west. It is hard to describe, the pink and oranges in the clouds contrasting against the darkness of the mountains, and the blue of the sky as it changes. Very amazing!
In the last four weeks, we have been busy.. Here are some of the things we have done:
Pima air museum - This is the largest private and 3rd largest air museum in the United States with over 400 planes to see. The first display on the tour is a collection of planes from the presidential fleet. This included the DC-6 first used by President Harry S. Truman and one of the planes that was used as a backup to Air Force one. This one generally carried excess staff and the press.
Much of the Pima Air Museum’s outdoor display is organized into groupings of aircraft with similar missions. right past the executive fleet is a display of the “Century Series airplanes, including the fighters, F-100, F-101, F-102, F-104, F-105, F-106 and F-107. Other groups of aircraft include heavy bombers, (including three B-52 variations), attack aircraft, cargo, training, reconnaissance, fighters, and electronic countermeasure aircraft. The yard also has a line of Mig fighters, as well as various utility and multi-role aircraft. Seeing these planes really gives you a different perspective of what you might have thought about World War II or the Vietnam War as many of these flew then.
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One of the most amazing things to see is across the street and is referred to as the Bone Yard. Part of Davis-Monthan AFB is the permanent or temporary resting place for over 5,000 surplus or inactive aircraft spread over 2600 acres. Many of these aircraft will fly again, some in the colors of other countries, while others serve as parts for other aircraft.
Old Tucson - Who knew so many movies and television shows were filmed in Tucson? If you are of an age to remember all of the western TV shows and movies, then you have most likely seen the streets of Old Tucson.
Old Tucson Studios came to life in 1939 when Columbia Pictures chose the site to build a replica of 1860’s Tucson for the movie Arizona . But after this picture was made, the town sat unused until 1945 when the Bell's of St. Mary's was filmed with Bing Crosby and Ingred Bergman. After that, it began to be used for many movies and TV programs like Bonanza, High Chapperal, Gunsmoke and Little House on the Prarie. To see a list of the movies and TV shows: http://www.oldtucson.com/films-producers-directors/film-history/
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Colossal Caverns - After visiting Kartchner Caverns we were excited to see Colossal Caverns. What a difference. This cavern is referred to as dormant, not producing any stalagmites or stalactites. Early people who discovered it, found artifacts from the Hohokam Indians so we knew it was used back in the 1100-1400's. The cavern was discovered in 1879 and used by train robbers as a hideout. There is a story of train robbers being followed by the law back to the cavern. The law, not wanting to climb into the small opening, camped at the entrance figuring they would capture the robbers when they came out for their horses or to get food or water. Well, the robbers knew of another entrance on the other side of the hill, and escaped. The story is they had to escape quickly and left their cache behind, buried somewhere in the cavern. Our guide said he and others have explored trying to locate the money! Then an investor in the 1920's filed a claim to harvest bat guano so he could turn it into a tourist attraction (never did harvest any guano).
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Mt. Lemmon - Okay, who knew there was a ski resort in southern Arizona? Not us, until we took a peek. Believe it or not, Mt. Lemmon is the furthest south ski resort in the US, and at 9000 ft. in the Santa Catalina Mountains, it gets an average of 175 inches of snow every year...... except this year! There is no snow up there at all due to the extremely dry winter this year. But the ski lift does run all year for some great views, and many people from the valley have summer homes there to escape the heat.
Sabino Canyon - Also in the Santa Catalina Mountain Range, is a wonderful way to experience all of the wonders of the desert, and mountains at the same time. You can take a guided bus tram up into the canyon and return on it, or get off at any of the stops and take a hike. We opted to ride the tram to the last stop and walk back down the 3.9 miles. Now there were a couple of options here.... we could have walked up to the Phoneline trail and hiked back down over 5 miles, we could have taken the tram back down, or we could walk back down following the road we came up on. We chose the latter. It was a beautiful warm day and we followed a little creek, and had an opportunity to get into it a couple of times to cool off. Part of the decision not to hike back on the Phoneline trail was because the driver of the tram telling us that to get to the phoneline trail entailed a 15-20 minute hike from hell to get up to the trail. Yes, we're wimps!
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Gaslight Theater - One of the most fun things we've done. Karen and Bill invited us to join them for an evening at a little live theater in Tucson, the Gaslight Theater. The production was called Gunsmokin' and was a humorous musical parody of an old western story of bad guys coming to town, sheriff with the white hat, buxom saloon girls and how the sheriff and his posse saved the day. What is fun about this theater group, is the ad-libbing, the goofy props and the interaction with the audience and the audience saying some of the lines from the play. Highly recommended as something not to miss and great for kids. If you go, be sure and let them know you are from out of town, or its your birthday or anniversary because you will get an ice cream cone!
Kitt Peak Observatory - This was one of the highlights of our stay in this area. We took a night tour of this observatory, which is known for having the worlds largest collection of telescopes, and is located at an elevation of 7000ft. in the Quinlan Mountains. They have twenty five optical telescopes, the worlds largest solar telescope and two radio telescopes. Because of the radio telescopes, we had to turn our cell phones off so they would not interfere. It was a 4 hour tour that included an astronomy class where the discussion was in layman terms even I could understand, and then about 2 hours looking through telescopes. In the discussion, we learned about the phases of the moon, why some planets have phases and others don't, like the planets furthest from the sun, and why Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet.
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Some of the things we got to see:
The first thing we did was to take a short hike up to an observation area where we watched the sun set. A pretty incredible thing to witness when where you are standing is higher than the mountains the sun is setting behind.
Our first look through the telescope was at our moon and we were able to see the craters and pock marked surface very clearly. Interesting fact we learned was all of the craters had at the most, a 30 degree slope. This is due to the low gravity on the moon. The moon was in the first quarter, and we could see the sun rising on the moon and the line where the dark side of the moon began.
Secondly we looked at another solar system within our Milky Way galaxy called Castor 6 which is about 50 light years from earth. Where our solar system has one sun, this has 6 suns.
The next thing we saw was a nebula about 1500 light years away where we observed baby stars that were born from dust and hydrogen gas. Clouds were starting to come into our sky so we were not able to see the dust and gas as well as we should have, but we could still distinguish the baby stars.
Most incredible thing we saw was seeing another galaxy called Messier 82 or Cigar Galaxy that is 10 million light years away and in the Ursa Major constellation. It is five times as bright as the Milky Way and 100 times as bright as our galaxy's center. It is so amazing to realize what we were seeing, the light we were seeing it with, left that galaxy 10 million years ago and we were now just seeing it. Realize that if this galaxy has changed recently, scientist will not know about it for another 10 million years.
The last thing we saw was the icing on the cake, we got to see Saturn, its rings and 3 of its moons. Now, I have seen Saturn in books, movies, television, etc., but never have I seen it with my own eyes so clearly. All of this gives one a bit of a desire to learn and know more. Deane has a good size telescope with us, we have never gotten in out, but I think we will now.
After all of that, the fun really began. Because there are so many telescopes looking at so many parts of the sky, keeping the lights down around the observatory is very important. At the end of the evening, the Observatory gets everyone in a line in their cars and we caravan down with tour directors in lead driving the first mile down the curvy mountain road with only our parking lights on.
This has been a fun 6 weeks, all of the sight-seeing we have done, having dinners with friends, a spa day with Emily, learning to play new games, and loosing a bunch of nickles to Karen and Bill's Tripoly group who invited the fresh meat from Oregon to play a couple of times. We are on our way back to the Phoenix area, parking the RV at my brothers while we are on our cruise. Back in Phoenix on April 6th, and will be making our way north to be at Champoeg State Park on May 1st to begin our host duties there for two months.