Ok so Tombstone was a little on the quiet side. So I decided to leave early and just drive around Southern Arizona visiting anything that looked like fun. First stop...well I guess you can read it on your own. This was very interesting. Unfortunately all the cool spelunking tours are only on the weekends. You actually crawl along on your stomach in some areas. This cave was actually used by cowboys long ago as a hide out. Rumor has it that several guys robbed a bank and hid the money in the cave. Most of it was recovered however, one bag is still missing. Some points you could see bullet holes.
This cave is considered dead which means stalagtites (hanging from the ceiling) and stalagmites (growing up from the floor) are no longer forming.
 I drove from Colossal Cave to see the only remaining Titan missle. They turned the whole silo into a museum (with the permission of the Russians). There are actually large sections of concrete blocking the silo door from opening the whole way. It was intentionally made obvious so Russian satellites know it can't open.
These ICBM's were all destroyed after the cold war with Russia. Crazy to think that these were built strictly as a deterant. In the actual procedures military staff were on their own after launching. There was only a weeks worth of air and food in the control center. They could choose to stay there (and die) or attempt to go to the surface and face radiation.     There were around 25 of these stations built at a cost of approx $10mm each. These sites were planned to be operational for only 10 years. However, they were used for almost 20. In this picture you can see the control room. Technology advanced so much over the years that a whole cabinet of components was replaced by just one panel.
All launch critical areas were suspended on springs for shock absorbtion. Given that the Russians knew where all our ICBM's were they made the facilities strong enough to withstand a direct nuclear blast. Here you can see one of the springs supporting the control room. Next I drove the Pima Air and Space Museum. This is one of the largest private collections of aircraft. You can walk right up and touch these things. Hey Dan I think this should be your next plane. At one time this was the fastest, highest flying reconnaissance plane in the world. It flew at over 2,000 miles per hour at 80,000 feet. It had no fire power simply because nothing could touch it. They had the last Air Force One prop plane ever used. At the time this was considered plush and state of the art. I had to laugh and take a picture of this. I've found that many of the visiting asian cultures are fascinated with Corvettes. As I was walking back to the car I saw these guys all posing and taking pictures next to the car. |
