Tourists in Tucson

Son Mark joined us for five days and he was keen to see the most popular attractions. We started with the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Although it was a windy day the variety of animals and birds is remarkable. Then he and Penny went to Mission San Xavier del Bac (which we had visited three years ago). The present church was constructed in 1783.  It is considered to be the finest example of Mexican Baroque architecture in the United States. To-day the Franciscan Sisters of Charity still operates a K-8 mission school. The following day we rented a bicycle for him and he and I went on a 30KM ride. Being a tourist is very easy when you have a small tow car (Honda Fit Sport). The next day Penny and Mark drove to Bisbee (about and hour and a half drive) - in the Mule mountains. A historic town where there used to be a copper mine. "A quirky, artsy town that offers historic lodging, fine dining, museums, art galleries and antique shops". Then they visited Tombstone and watched a reenactment of the "Shoot out at OK Coral". The next day was a "boys" day and he and I visited the Pima Air and Space Museum. I will post photos in a later Blog. We had also hoped to take in the Boneyard air park - where there are hundreds of mothballed military aircraft parked. Unfortunately the tour was fully booked when we arrived so we then went to the Titan II underground missile museum. A reminder of the days of the "cold war". From Wikipedia "The first flight of the Titan II was in March 1962 and the missile, now designated LGM-25C, reached initial operating capability in October 1963. The Titan II contained one W-53 nuclear warhead in a Mark 6 re-entry vehicle with a range of 9,325 miles (15,000 kilometres (9,300 mi)). The W-53 had a yield of 9 megatons. This warhead was guided to its target using an inertial guidance unit. The 54 deployed Titan IIs formed the backbone of America's strategic deterrent force until the LGM-30 Minuteman ICBM was deployed en masse during the early to mid-1960s. Twelve Titan IIs were flown in NASA's Gemini manned space program in the mid-1960s."  The 54 silos were all built in a three year period 1960-1963. An extraordinary undertaking when you see what was in the underground silo and control rooms that were manned 24 hours a day for 20 years.
After five days we put Mark on an Amtrak train to Austin Texas where he was going to visit a girl-friend.