Thursday, November 8th - We left the Yuma Proving Ground at 10:00 for Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona. The drive to Tucson was smooth and uneventful. We had no problem getting on the base and the security guards at the main gate were very nice and helpful. The people at the Family Camp office were super nice and provide us with a nice site and options to stay longer if we decide to do so. After we set up the RV, we decided to take a drive around the base to see what it there.
Observation: As with nearly all military bases where we have stayed, the bases have a base-wide public address system called the "Giant Voice" program. They test this system periodically and they also play reveille in the morning, retreat/National Anthem in the late afternoon and then TAPS at 10;00 pm for the end of the day. It very patriotic and a wonderful tradition that I am glad that we are keeping. During Retreat/National Anthem, all walking and driving personnel stop and render courtesies to the flag. If walking in uniform, the soldier will turn towards the base flag, come to attention, and salute during the National Anthem. If walking and not in uniform, you turn towards the flag, remove any hats, and stand proudly for the National Anthem. If driving a car, you pull to the side of the road and remain seated until the National Anthem has sounded. Really neat to see the courtesy and respect towards the flag of our country. I have recorded these occasions and will put them in a video for the blog.
Davis-Monthan AFB is the home of the "bone yard" for most of the military aircraft and helicopters that had previously been in service to the country. The planes are stored in rows on the grass near the RV Family Camp and the storage area must cover a couple of square miles; totally impressive to see. You will have to see the photos to appreciate the number of planes stored here. You will have to visit Davis-Monthan to fully appreciate what is done here.
Friday, November 9th - Friday was a little bit of a "laid back" day. I rode on base for about 30 miles (yes, this is a large base) while Lisa worked. Then we drove to near down-town Tucson to what is called "The 4th Street District." 4th Street has a lot of quaint little stores and eating establishments. We had a great meal at a small Greek restaurant, We then walked about four blocks to a bicycle shop to get info on the best local routes for road bikes. Turns out that there is a 53-mile paved bike path that circumnavigates the entire city. There is also a 25 mile climb up Mt. Lemmon that averages about 8% on the grade for the entire distance. It is ridden by many riders every day, so I plan to give it a try soon. After leaving the bike shop, we we walked back to 4th Street and visited many of the shops in that area. Lisa visited three or four book stores too. That was it for the day. Back to the RV for a relaxing evening at home.
Saturday, November 10th - We decided to to travel 60 miles to the south to Nogales, Arizona on the Mexico border to see the areas where Wayne lived 60 years ago. When Wayne was between eight and twelve years old, the Dickey family lived part of each year in Nogales, Arizona where Wayne's dad worked for a trucking company (United Motor Lines) that brought produce from Mexico to California and Oregon. Wayne's dad was an occasional truck driver and a full-time diesel truck mechanic. After all, this is what Edward Ray Dickey did in World War II as a Machinists Mate Level 2 as a Navy Seabee. We drove around Nogales and found Wayne's old three-story school building and the place where his family of seven lived in a 10 by 40 foot mobile home next to Mr. Dickey's workshop. It all brought back memories for Wayne who was able to reflect on his early years in this area. Catching snakes, tarantulas, scorpions, millipedes, and playing baseball. Scouring the mountains behind the house and learning to live in a desert. It was a great place and time to be a kid!! We also decided to visit Wayne's dad's grave. We found the grave and were able to pay our respects and adorn the grave with red, white,and blue flowers and flags for Veterans Day. We then drove to the town of Patagonia, which is about 17 miles northeast of Nogales, where we had lunch. Coincidentally, we were there for the end of a 100-mile gravel track race. It was fun to watch the winner cross the finish line. We returned to Tucson by driving north out of Pategonia and saw some fantastic Arizona/Sonora Desert.
Sunday, November 11th - We tried to take a tandem ride today, but the bike kept trying to shift gears by itself. We finally decided to call the bike shop to take it in for maintenance. Since were were going to a Salsa dancing event near the bike shop later in the afternoon, we decided to wait and take the bike to the shop on the way to the dance. In the interim, we decided that we would head over to the Pima Air and Space Museum that located just west of the base. This is a fantastic museum; it even has three B-52s. The Pima Air and Space Museum is definitely a "go to" location if you have any fascination for aviation and aircraft. They have just about any aircraft that had been built and used since the beginning of World War II. If you would like to see all of the photos that we have taken at the museum, go to the following link:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AiEVRYvg2C9AjbRqgR72rjwhIAprTg?e=14Zvoe
Copy and paste this link into your favorite web browser to see the photos of the museum. Be sure to stop by the museum if you are ever in Tucson.
After our visit to the museum, we traveled to Tucson to attend a salsa dance lesson and dance. The dance was at a studio called "Dream Dance" and the facility was great. The floor was awesome and there was plenty of room. The schedule called for a basic, intermediate, and advanced lesson but the advanced lesson was scrubbed since the instructor could not make it. The intermediate lesson involve a warm-up, series of "shines" (line dancing) based around the "Suzie Q" step, and then a pattern. It was all fun and we were able to keep up without much difficulty. It was all steps that we had done before. After the lesson, the open dancing was fun. We dance with several other dancers and had a great time. There were two Rueda circles during the dance, but some of the steps were different from what we normally do, so we did not join in. There is a rueda dance lesson at the University of Arizona this Sunday and we plan to attend. The dance started at 5:30 and went until 8:30. There was a live band playing at another location from 7:00 until 10:00. We went over there, but the band was playing Latin jazz and there were no dancers on the floor. We watched for about 45 minutes and then returned to our RV. There is a fair amount of Salsa dancing in Tucson.
Monday, November 12th - Drive up to the top of Mt. Lemmon. This was Veterans Day, we made a joint decision that Lisa would not work and we would take a drive up to the top of Mt. Lemmon. We had a nice day and the temperatures at 74 degrees when we started and then dropped to 53 degrees as we approached the summit. We went from a forest of Saguaro cactus to mesquite, to oak trees, to conifers to being above the tree line. You go from 2000 feet to just over 9000 feet in elevation. It was a fun drive with great views. There were also many bicyclists on the mountain since it is a major training climb for local riders. The cars were very careful for the bike riders and there was a reasonable shoulder along nearly all of the climb. I plan to try it soon.
Tuesday, November 12th - Lisa had to work so I decided to go ride the Tucson Loop bike path. It is 53 miles long, all paved, and circumnavigates the entire town of Tucson. It is a magnificent path: very wide and smooth. I was about 11 miles into the ride when I heard a loud pop. Turns out that a spoke had broken on my front tire. Since there are very few spokes on my Zipp 404 wheels, the wheel went out of round. I was able to secure the broken spoke, open the brakes, and ride the bike back to the truck. I then took the wheel to an excellent bike shop in Tucson. On Sunday, we had tried to ride the tandem, but it was slipping a gear and could not be adjusted out. We had taken the tandem to the Fair Wheel Bike Shop in Tucson, so now, both bikes were in the shop. We should get both back on Wednesday. I plan to ride the climb to Mt. Lemmon before we leave Tucson. It is 25 miles of climbing that averages about 8% grade. After this, we just did errands and chores around the trailer.
Wednesday, November 13th - Lisa worked and both bikes were in the shop, so I worked on the blog and worked on the trailer's black and gray tank systems. We then attended a display of RVs right here at the base RV camp put on by La Mesa RV. They had several very nice RVs and it was fun to look at them. We also had donuts and coffee at the start and then hot dogs and chips later. They provided lunch for us. We may take our trailer to La Mesa RV for some warranty maintenance.
After the RV exploration, we decided to go to Mission San Xavier del Bac in south Tucson along the road to Nogales. It is a beautiful mission with a history that dates back to the 1600s when Spanish missionaries came to settle the region. The mission has been remodeled and is quite beautiful. See the photos in this blog. After the mission trip, we went to Tucson to pick up the tandem Zipp 404 wheel at the bike shop. We brought the wheel and tandem back home to the RV.
Note; We decided to extend our stay here at Davis-Monthan until November 19th when we will depart for Sierra Vista, Arizona and the Army base Fort Huachuca. We will be there for just three days and then Head for Phoenix.
Thursday, November 14th - Lisa worked in the morning and I went across town to a Circle K convenience store where I had bought fuel for the truck the day before. USAA, my card manager, thought the charge may have been a case of fraud, so they did not pay it. I had to go to make sure that the Circle K manager knew how to get hold of me should the payment not go through. They were super nice and surprised too, to say the least. Seems that no one ever comes to make sure that "they" get paid. It all worked out great.
After Lisa finished work, we took in our second day at the Pima Air and Space Museum, and I am sure glad that we went. We were able to take photos of some of the aircraft that we had not see previously, but the highlight was discovering the 390th Bomb Group Memorial Museum. This is a memorial museum for the 390th Bomb Group that flew B-17s during World War II. We met Colonel Richard Bushong, a 96-year-old B-17 pilot with 28 missions over Germany. Richard flew his first B-17 combat mission on December 31,1943. He flew his last combat mission in Viet Nam in 1971 (28 years later) flying an F-4 Phantom. He has some great stories about his experiences. You can see his pictures with Lisa and me in the blog. I have also bought his book and he has signed it for Lisa and me.
First Story - Richard trained with his crew for many months before they went to Scotland on the Queen Mary. There were about 300 flyers on the ship. He was in a group of three crews with ten flyers each; for thirty flyers. Each crew had four officers and six enlisted. The officers from three crews roomed together in their own barracks. They flew a couple local missions before being to Germany. He room with the officer crew-members of three crews for a total of 12; counting himself. The night be for his first mission to Germany he became very sick and was taken by ambulance to a hospital 20 miles away from his base. Another pilot was assigned to fly with his crew. When Richard came back from the hospital, we went to his quarters to find that he was the only one there. His bed was made all the others were turned down. All three crews had been shot down on their first missions. Near the end of the war, he found that his entire crew had been able to bail out and had become prisoners of war for the duration of the war.
Second Story - His final mission; number 28. They are on the bomb run and the "flak" was terrible. Flak is shells that are shot to their altitude where they explode and spray shrapnel in all directions. One of the gunners said that oil was leaking from engine #1 (furthest to the left of the four engines). It was still running though. Engines number 2 and 3 had fluctuating oil pressure. A crewmember was assigned to monitor the gauges and to push the "feather" button immediately if the pressure began to drop. Some oil pressure was needed to "feather" the engine. As they were heading for the coast, the crew-member "feathered" engine number 2. When feathered, the prop blades turn 90 degrees from normal and produce much less drag. You stand a much better chance to get home when fuel is critical. Then, shortly thereafter, the crew member tried to feather #3, but the oil pressure was too low. The spinning prop broke the gears on the engine and began to spin freely in the air stream. Engine #4 seemed to be okay. So now you have two engines working and you have to fly over a German airfield on the coast. Luckily, no fighter came up to attack or they would have been shot down. When they finally arrived at their base, They landed a little high on airspeed to make sure the plane would fly; no brakes. Richard had to apply full power to engine #1 to force the plane off the runway to the right. When the plane hit the mud beside the runway, the plane came to a stop. All members of the crew were okay. When the aircraft crew chief came up to the plane he said, "Captain, what did you do to my aircraft?" Funny now, but not then!
Friday, November 15th - Old Tucson is open on Friday, Saturday, and Sundays. We had planned an all day kayak trip on Saturday and we had a potential bike ride on Monday, so Friday was the day. Lisa worked on Friday morning and Wayne rode the bike on the Tucson Loop bike path. Wayne met a person on the bike path who was a retired Army Colonel who had been in charge of Intelligence at the Pentagon. We had a great conversation about the military and retirement life as we rode along at 20 miles per hour (we had a tailwind and it was slightly downhill). The Colonel was riding a gorgeous recumbent bicycle and it was fast. After the Colonel had to turn around, I went another five miles or so and then checked the time; I had to get home to go to Old Tucson. I rode back to the truck with 43 miles "under my belt." We go to Old Tucson at about 1:30 in the afternoon and the attendance was pretty low. This was good since it made it easy to travel about the facility.
Saturday, November 16th - We went for a tandem ride on the Tucson Loop bike path. We had had the tandem "tuned up" and the bike functioned perfectly. It was really fun to have the bike work so well. We rode to the south on the bike path and met a couple who helped guide us on the bike path. They were two employees from Raytheon, Paul and Vickie, who make the missiles we launch from the B-52 and other aircraft. Really fun to talk to them. Vickie also taught English in high school, so we could commiserate our issues with the education system. Lisa and I then rode back to our truck, but continued on for another seven miles on the bike path to give us a total of 35 miles for the ride; just enough to "break in the butte" pretty well. We went home to the RV (which is comfortable and home to us right now) and made a chicken dinner in the "air fryer" that Jeff and Cherekee had given us. The chicken came out great and the taste was just awesome. The air fryer works great. Between the air fryer and our hot-pot pressure cooker, we can make some cool meals easily.
Sunday, November 17th - Chores, chores, and chores. Started out by washing the truck and then going shopping at the Commissary for food. Davis-Monthan AFB has one of the best Commissaries that I have ever seen. After that, we came back to the RV and did some cleaning. The big event for the day was going to dance at The University of Arizona campus from 5:00 until 8:30 in the evening. They had a Kizomba lesson (not my favorite) and then open dancing. We danced two salsas and then they did a basic rueda circle. They have some calls that differ from what we do, so we did not participate. It was pretty basic though. Then they had a really good salsa performance from a team that is practicing to go to a congress in February. They did a great job since they had only just started learning the routine. Then a Croation dance team performed various forms of "Polkas" from different regions of Croatia. They were great and super energetic. We even got to enter into a mini-lesson on Croation dancing and it was super fun. Then, an instructor from Mexico who is heading back to Mexico the next day led us in a series of advanced shines and footwork. I got about half of them right and the rest I just "winged it." Then they had another basic rueda circle with about 20 couples. Pretty basic stuff. After that, they played a bachata and we decided to go get some food. It was a fun evening of dancing.
Monday, November 18th - Today, Wayne worked on the blog during the morning hours when Lisa was working. After noon, we decided to to go hiking in the desert at Catalina State Park just a few miles north of Tucson in hte area of what is called Oro Valley. The temps were in the mid-80s and there was no wind. Lots of cactus and great views. We had a great time. We have a video on this hike on the video portion of the blog.