Pima Air & Space Museum, Tuscon AZ, & the boneyard

We had a busy day starting in line at 9am when the museum opened to get tickets.

First the boneyard, 4400 planes in short (3 years or less) or long (3 to 25 years) or salvage (disassemble for parts then scrap the leftovers). Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, and foreign planes & helicopters, even 2 missiles. Big planes, little planes; hummers, desks & chairs and we passed a few hundred cars & trucks confiscated for smuggling drugs. Rows & rows of airplanes, many were unique and some waiting for museums to pick them up.

Second was a tram tour of the outside museum planes, I never knew there were so many different planes. President Johnson's planes, Eisenhower's helicopter, Russian, Canadian, Swiss, NASA, CIA (unmarked), Italian, French, commercial, one with an engine cylinder that blew through the engine cowling (still there) landing at the museum, etc, etc, etc. Someone has a sense of humor....there was a sign & tie downs in an empty space marked as a B117 stealth fighter.

Finally we walked through several hangers full of more planes. The most impressive hanger, to me, was dedicated to the 390th bomb squadron based in England during WWII flying B17s.

We returned to Benson and had a real good Mexican lunch/dinner before returning home. Great day.

Tombstone, "the town too tuff to die"

Today we went for a ride, did ya see the picture of the dinosaur that ate a McDonalds? After that we went south near the Mexican border then to Tombstone. We were there 2 years ago and enjoyed the courthouse museum but the city is a tourist trap. Judy had some info on the remaining original building, the Birdcage Theater, which was built from bricks so wasn't destroyed when the rest of the wooden structures were destroyed by fire in the 1890s (Jody & Bruce....it looked A LOT older than your house!). The Bird Cage was a bar, gambling house, theater & house of ill repute.

Wyatt Earp & his brothers spent time there as did Doc Holiday who dealt

faro, his table is still there as are some of his dental tools. How about the "rental" casket used for showings then into the pine box ya went for the trip to boot hill in the hearse called Black Miarara. They had a high stakes ($1000) poker game going around the clock for 8 years. You gave them you stake and waited 3 or 4 days to sit in when another player left.

When we returned home Judy finished the laundry while I made supper then she played Mexican Train for nickles.

R&R weekend

We went downtown to check it out, not much there. I think 50% of Benson is RV parks. We did a little shopping and had lunch at Subway Saturday. Sunday Judy went to church at the clubhouse and did 2 loads of laundry. The weather today wasn't the best, mid 60s and snow clouds. A little rain and lots of wind. Patches is very consistant...sleep, sleep & more sleep.

Benson, AZ

Caution, guard cat on duty. We had an easy 170 mile day to Benson, AZ and

arrived a little after noon. The CG is nothing to write home about but it's a no charge membership park and Judy is sitting outside soaking up the 74 degree sunshine; & that's what we were after. We'll be here 9 days and have some exploring to do, I also want to get the truck serviced. Well, 3 consecutive days in the 70s, sweet.

Deming, NM & another 70 degree day

We had another long day & covered 335 miles. We stopped just before El Paso at a rest area for lunch and a break. Patches was well behaved in the back seat for 6 1/2 hours but was glad to get back inside her house. I have to say that that cat can sleep & sleep & sleep! We remembered passing miles of stinky cow factory pens when we saw them again today. LOTS of cows. Judy was excited and texted Jody when we saw the first tumbleweed of the trip. We are at the Escapee Dream Catchers RV Park for the night. I'd like to stay another night but after checking the weather tomorrow is the better day to travel because of the winds. The park managers are friends, Wanda & Wallace, we have met here, in Branson, MO & Gillette, WY. They told us of a Shepard's Pie dinner tonight so we went....boy, it was good! Looking forward to sitting still tomorrow after a short day to Benson, AZ.

Ahhh 78 degrees and sunshine in Ft Stockton, TX

j

We once again pulled out a little before 9am and covered 365 miles on the expressway through San Antonino and then the hill country. We really like the hill country and will plan to spend some time there this fall before and/or after the HHAI Rally in Montgomery, TX the third week on October. We are approaching the desert, low trees and no grass. We saw the large windmill farms with hundreds of windmills & saw several wild javalina (black pigs). The weather is GREAT. 79 right now at 5:10pm in Ft Stockton with a gentle breeze. We stopped at a McDonald's truck stop shortly before noon and that made today's trip very comfortable.

Patches finally let us know that she's had enough traveling for hours inside her small carrier in the back seat. We let her out and she stayed in the back seat but when we returned after lunch she was in my seat but easily returned to the back seat. She lounged in the sun and shade sprawled out on the seat & was quite content napping.

That's Judy & Patches this morning, Judy with her cereal while Patches checks out the back window.

Luling, Texas

We spent yesterday in Kinder, LA because it was an ugly, windy & rainy day. We didn't take the truck anywhere but we did take the casino bus, the ride cost us $47. Bummer. Patches had time to get in a few naps. We were on the road before 9am today and covered another 320 miles; Patches continues to be a very good traveler. The only time she had something to say was when we were going through Houston which seemed like it took forever, a very l o n g city when passing through on the expressway. We arrived at on overnighter CG beside I10 at 2:30 and set up home sweet home. A solid headwind kept mileage down to 8.6mpg but it was a beautiful day, almost 60 when we arrived at Luling. We drove the 2 miles to downtown Luling for diesel, Mexican for supper & a few groceries.