good-times-rollin: life in Tuson

Monday, March 14, 2022

Pima Air and Space Museum

Corona de Tucson

March 14, 2022

What a crazy week we had. Started off with nothing on the agenda and a couple of lazy days. We like lazy days...and are figuring out after years of working and years on the road with one adventure after another, that sometimes you just need to be lazy. On Wednesday, we had plans to visit Pima Air and Space Museum with Randy. The museum is another one of those places Joe and I had never visited in all the years of coming to Tucson.

Pima Air and Space Museum is one of the largest non-government funded aviation and space museums in the world. It originally opened in 1976 with a mission to preserve historic aircraft. Today it features a collection of nearly 400 military, commercial, civil and experimental aircraft housed in six indoor exhibit hangers and on display outside spread out over 80 acres.

Once again, we have Randy to thank for sharing his time and knowledge as we perused several of the hangers and spent awhile outside walking several rows of aircraft.

There is so much history, so many displays and such a large area to cover that I am pretty sure several visits to the museum are necessary to take it all in. My brain gets really tired after a few hours !

There are tiny planes...

...and gargantuan planes and everything in-between.

Some had pointy noses...

...and others had multiple tale fins.

Some aircraft had small crowded spaces...

and others had spaces large enough for a bed and bath.

My sense of it was that each plane had unique capabilities that earned a spot in this museum.

A-10 Warthogs...first manufactured in the mid 70's, still fly in combat throughout the world today.

We had a really good time, but the best part for me was watching and listening to Joe (Navy) and Randy (Air Force) . They both have lots of memories and lots of stories.

On Friday, Sally had her teeth cleaned and two teeth pulled. She was most uncomfortable Friday night, Saturday and Sunday...even with the pain pills. She is much better today...we can tell because her tail is up and wagging and no more whimpers.

I'm wearing my vet tech hat this week! Sally has four meds.

Our plans to have lunch with Randy last Saturday were cancelled because we didn't want to leave Sally here by herself.

So yesterday, he stopped by with a birthday gift for me...a Desert Rose. A Desert Rose is a succulent plant, not like any succulent I have ever seen. Google says they are not difficult to grow provided they get enough sunlight and warmth. And overwatering is a no-no.

These interesting plants do bloom throughout spring and summer, but may not produce blooms for several months. Fingers crossed !

You might already know that Arizona is the Copper State. Copper is abundant in the Earth's crust, but what sets Arizona apart is its wealth of mineable copper which it owes to a copper-rich granite formed in ancient volcanoes.