Day 20-June 14, 2016-PIMA Air and Space Museum, Aircraft Boneyard, Groceries and Casino
Got up to 101 today, but it doesn’t feel hot. Nice breeze and it’s actually quite comfortable.
We first went to the Aircraft Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The AFB is 5200 acres and half of that is devoted to the boneyard, 4400 planes, helicopters and other assorted aircraft in various stages of storage, regeneration or disposal. Some are used for parts, some are waiting to be recommissioned and some are waiting to become a heap of scrap metal. There are scrap metal shops all through town with pieces of aircraft in their lots, it’s a big business here. We boarded an air conditioned Grayline bus for the hour and a half narrated tour through the base. Some had signs telling us what they were but the narrator was really interesting and quite fact driven. She knew a lot about what we were looking at. This is the largest military excess air storage facility in the world. We’ve been passing it for days on our way through Tucson, it’s hard not to see aircraft anywhere in this city, they are all over, a lot of private hangars, the International Airport, and there are always jets in the sky. There are a lot of administrative buildings on the base, too. She said there’s a lot of paperwork to be done regarding these planes. After the tour we went in the PIMA Air and Space Museum, only saw a small part of it, but what we saw was great. All kinds of aircraft, etc., even a couple of nuclear bombs. Old ones, new ones, they have two rooms devoted to WWII aircraft. We had lunch on one of the picnic tables outside then went to T-Mobile because I’ve been having trouble with my phone. Hopefully the problem’s fixed. Did some grocery shopping at the local store, Fry’s, owned by Krugers. Back to the campground for dinner then went to Casino del Sol, not as close as the one we went to the other night but a lot newer, nicer, cleaner, bigger and “winninger” than Desert Diamond. It’s run by the Pascua Yaquin Tribe. The ceiling is made to look like the sky and the rooms are set up to give you the feeling you’re walking down an open air market and it’s really pretty. They have restaurants, big name entertainment and a resort hotel attached. Got $10 in free play and we won, lost, won, lost, etc. Another gorgeous night out, warm and breezy.