Arizona trip, Day 4 - December 25, 2007

Since this was christmas day, pretty much every museum or tour was closed. Titan II silo When researching this trip, someone had added placemarks in Google Earth with the Titan II Missile Sites. There were 18 of them around Tucson, all except the museum had been demolished in the 80's. I hoped there was something remaining, so I had them on my list of things to check out. The first one I visited turned out to be the best. At first I parked out on the main road, since I don't have a spare tire on the Mini I was trying to be conservative about what roads I drove on. So I hiked in the quarter mile or so to the site. When I got there I wasn't disappointed, someone had used a backhoe to dig out the access portal to the crew quarters. I hadn't brought a light with me, but it was clearly worth going in. So I went back to the car and drove up the road. In the 1980's the START Treaty started the removal of the Titan II bases. The silo was blown up, the cableway removed, and the entire site bulldozed over. Most of the sites are now owned by civilians, and some have excavated the entrances to the crew quarters. The main command center and crew quarters is a three story underground unit hung from gigantic springs. The main level has a tunnel which connects it to the outside stairs as well as the missile silo. Originally, this room was filled with control electronics. Upstairs were the crew quarters. There was a lot of rust damage to the wall and floor tiles. To whoever reads this! This earth has become so insanely infected that civilizations was forced to create this "shelter" for our own protection from ourselves. To think about what mindless and disappointing souls have done to "Eden" how is it that we were so fortunate to obtain such bliss when we are not even worthy of ourselves - The Tin Man - This skeleton is only a memory. In it tread footsteps of the unenlightned. Now it's our turn to do better. to love our similarities and not bomb our differences. And finally, appreciate that our experience is the only proof we get of our own worthiness. Beauty, 7/26/05 Downstairs was the power generation, water purification, etc for the control center. All that remains now are equipment cabinets SiloWorld: Present Day Tombstone Tombstone is pretty quiet on christmas day. Normally the streets are packed with tourists. Every business on the street is a boutique shop to sell things to people who don't need them. It was great seeing it so deserted though. Tombstone silver mine The Good Enough Silver Mine tour was open though! I was just walking by and got drawn into another group, so I got a $2 entry discount :) This mine is different than any other mine I've been in before. It was worked from about 1878 to 1890 and was dug entirely by hand and candlelight. The tunnels meander and clearly were not designed for machinery. Bisbee mine Bisbee is a great town, it was built back in the 1900's before there were cars, so the roads are much more european. The downtown is nestled in a steep walled valley with a small creek running down the center. The open pit copper mine right next to the town is gigantic. All that rock was dug up and moved a few miles south, which is where the new "suburb" is. I can't imagine living right next to a tailings pile... Coronado National Monument Continuing on south is the Coronado National Memorial which abuts Mexico. The sign says not to travel alone, but I didn't have any trouble. Actually, there was only one car I saw in the entire park... Dirt road, creek Once again the Delorme Street Atlas led me to a dirt road, this one 13 miles long. However, to backtrack to the highway was really out of the way, so I decided to brave it. The first 3 miles were a switchback up the mountain, but I made it up fine. The next 7 miles were pretty good, but about 3 miles before the end of the dirt road I came to a flooded crossing. Trying to ford a river is a bad idea. Especially in a Mini. Backtracking was really undesirable, so I used a stick to feel out the bottom. It seemed to be about 4" deep where the right wheel would be, and the bottom seemed to be sturdy clay, not loose mud or sand. So I decided that I would go for it. If I failed and got stuck I would likely have to spend the night in the car waiting for help to drive by, and it was already 27 degrees out. I backed up and got a bit of momentum, water went everywhere, and I made it to the other side without any trouble. Sunset on the rest of the drive out was pretty good. Even back on the paved road there was another river crossing, but it was only about an inch of water on the roadway. Stars I've wanted to take photos of the stars for a long time, but I never had a camera that could do it. I do now! These are some of the first attempts. I parked by the side of the highway before I got back to Tucson, it was about 25 degrees out. I think the bright spot in the center of the streaks is Mars. It's extremely difficult to focus correctly, so about 60% of the shots were out of focus. The streaks also start to be apparent after about 15 seconds of exposure when zoomed in, which is just barely enough time to get the exposure bright enough. Back to Introduction - On to Day 5

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