Next blog

Hi,

As you've no doubt noticed, the posting of new blogs has reduced to a trickle...well, OK....stopped. I certainly intend to write about the balance of the trip, but as our USA section of our trip has been considerably condensed (it finishes in less than a month), most of my available time is now being spent on things I used to have several months to do. More about that as I post new blogs.

At worst, I will complete the blogs and uploading pictures during June and July, a time that will be spent relaxing in one location in the Philippines.

Till then, I've got Dallas almost ready to be posted; that could still take a few weeks though.

Cheers,
Alan

Tucson (137) through Las Cruces (138) and Odessa (139) to Dallas (140 – under 150)

After a wonderful 3 weeks in Tucson, it was time to move on. If you ever have the chance to go there, do it, but choose winter in which to do so! There are so many places to visit and explore that 3 weeks simply wasn’t enough – we hope to get a chance to go back again one day.

As the Mexican border was so close, we chose to travel on the I10 as it’s a very busy dual-lane highway and reduced our concerns of being stopped by illegal immigrants trying to enter the USA. Our intended destination was Dallas, but the distance required us to stop overnight at least twice along the way, possibly more if driving conditions were poor.

As it turned out, the weather was very much on our side and driving was easy – easy but boring as there are miles and miles of nothing at all to see!

Las Cruces in the distance

We passed the border between Arizona into New Mexico at about lunch time, and around mid afternoon after 260 miles and about 5½ hours of driving, we saw a mountain range in the distance. At its base is Las Cruces, and as we neared it, it appeared to be a great looking little city with Adobe style buildings.

The campground and facilities in which we’d booked looked magnificent and the brochures we gathered showed a number of interesting looking places to explore. In fact, I’m still in trouble today for not spending a relaxing time in the campground’s lounge room. Instead of sitting back to unwind after the long drive, I decided we needed to clean out the toilets!

The connection to the underground sewer in Tucson was slightly elevated and as a result, our system didn’t flush out as well as I’d hoped (not a great subject I know, just hope you’re not about to eat or have just eaten). This meant the toilets in the Sierra were really “on the nose” and needed attention. The sewer outlets in this campground were flush with the ground and perfect for a great rinse out.

While I’m writing this blog (4 weeks after the event) I asked Grace if she remembered helping to clean out the toilet system instead of relaxing, and I’m left in no doubt whatsoever that she does...in detail! Well, I did say they LOOKED magnificent, I didn’t mention that they FELT magnificent!

I awoke the following morning to another glorious sunrise and couldn’t let the opportunity pass without a few photos while the others slept a little longer. Today’s drive to Odessa was to be longer than yesterdays, nearly 350 miles and expected to take 7½ + hours. We were also going as close to the Mexican border as it is possible without actually entering Mexico.

We crossed the New Mexico border into Texas early in the morning and drove into El Paso, about 40 miles south of Las Cruces and were very surprised by its size, much, much larger than Las Cruces. It felt like a major city on the Californian coast and the traffic at times was quite heavy, despite the many over and under-passes and wide, multi-lane roads.

Once we’d passed through the city, the Mexican border became very close, only a few hundred metres away and even closer a couple of times. Although there was no fence, a railway track was shown on our map to be located inside Mexico and the railway tracks were clearly visible from the car. We noted a significant increase in the number of Border Patrol vehicles and several helicopters traversing the length of the road and above the railway tracks.

If you click on the picture to enlarge it,
you will see the railway track as a
black line fron the centre right

Grace has always wanted to see Mexico and today was her opportunity! Not the way she’d desired, but the many shows we’d seen on television and through the cable television networks had raised huge concerns about our safety there. From a distance, we saw clouds of dust where Mexican farmers were ploughing very dry paddocks, and could imagine the geography in the northern parts of Mexico to be exactly the same as we’d been seeing in southern New Mexico and Texas. So, we pretended we were there!

The highway paralleled the border in a south easterly direction for about 70 miles, and then broke away to head almost due east for a further 80. It then forked as the I10 headed south east to San Antonio and we took the I20 heading north east towards Dallas. There was still a whole lot of nothing to see except plains giving way to rolling hills, sometimes quite steep, but those who designed and built the highways avoided most of those.

Our next “one-night-stand” was Odessa, in the mid west of Texas and not a lot to see. Odessa was originally founded as a water stop and cattle shipping point on the Texas and Pacific Railway. It became an incorporated city in 1927 (that means they have their own tax revenue by which they run the city’s police force, councils etc, rather than relying on the county – unincorporated means they rely on the county’s resources) after oil was discovered in Ector county on the Connell Ranch southwest of Odessa.

With the opening of the Penn Field in 1929, and the Cowden Field in 1930, oil became a major draw card for new residents. In 1925 the population was just 750; by 1929 it had risen to 5,000. Due to increased demand for oil during the Second World War, the city's population had expanded to 10,000.

Again, we didn’t un-hitch as we still had another 330+ miles to drive the following day, an expected journey of over 7 hours. We left around 8.30 am and if we thought the passing scenery for last two days driving was uninteresting, this topped those days. We didn’t even take a single photo because we already had plenty of photos showing flat plains with the road diverging and disappearing into the distance.

We arrived in Dallas late afternoon and had chosen a campground in Arlington, south of Dallas, not the fantastic Vineyards campground on the north side we originally stayed in at the beginning of our journey. That was due to the work we wanted done on both the Sierra and Chevy. But, more about that in the next blog.

Harlem Globetrotters (136) – (in Tucson)

The eagerly awaited Harlem Globetrotter’s game approached quickly and to increase their excitement, we watched a few You Tube segments showing them in action with the Sweet Georgia Brown theme song in the background.

The game was supposed to start at 2pm in the Tucson Arena, in the heart of the CBD. As we had pre-purchased the tickets, the internet guide advised us to be there no later than 10.30 to pick up the tickets from the arena. Communication is a wonderful thing, somewhat lacking today. We arrived at 10.15 to be third in line and waited for the ticket window to open...and waited...and waited...and waited.

Eventually at midday, four windows opened simultaneously and we leapt to the closest, only to find out that was the wrong window! Fortunately, the correct window was only 2 down from where we were and there were only 2 people in front of us. Tickets in hand, we walked to the entrance tunnel.

We took turns in the queue

We had paid an extra $15/person to meet some of the Globetrotters in a 30 minute session starting at 12.30 and, as instructed, waited beside the designated door with 2 other families. However, at 12.30, another door about 50 metres opened and was allowing people in that one. We hastily made our way to the other door and were told they weren’t going to open the ones we were told to stand beside*#%(! OK, in we went and were told to walk downstairs to the meet the players.

Tucson Arena is quite large, and once we walked downstairs, we found ourselves alone in a huge basement area with no signage to where players were or where we should proceed. So, we wandered about in search of where we should be, all too aware of the ticking clock and our rapidly diminishing 30-minute window. We discovered we were on the same level as the basketball court and walked out from under the back tunnels into the playing arena, surrounded by spectators in the stands.

Thankfully no applause was forthcoming, however, after a quick glance around we discovered we weren’t alone and there were other people sitting on chairs at the court’s edge. We approached them and they said they were also there for the “meet and greet”. Yaaay, we had found where we were supposed to be....now what? That was very soon answered as six Globetrotters jogged out onto the court and ran past the chairs offering “high fives” and hand slaps to all seated there.



Washington, their opponents sat
quietly following their modest entrance
to jeers and boos. I felt sorry for them
and wondered what incentive they had
to join the team after nearly
30 years of losses! 



They were very entertaining and their infectious enthusiasm raised the somewhat frazzled spirits. The players selected various children for different types of games – Chantelle and another boy were taken out to the centre and had a basketball spun around on their fingertips – then Rochelle and others were chosen to stand in small circles and each was given coaching to demonstrate a different basketball trick. Rochelle had to move the basketball around her back, then through her legs and pass it back to the player.

Each of the girls was given a Globetrotter’s wristband and towards the end of the 30 minute session, the players demonstrated some of their own tricks.

How tall are you sir?

The basketball game was frequently interspersed by very funny routines with other players, the referees and people from the audience. It was a great, entertaining show and when completed with the very predictable Globetrotter’s win, they offered a 30-minute window of opportunity to sign autographs and have photos taken for everyone in the audience. The queues formed instantly and were all the way around the basketball court’s perimeter. We managed to get 4 player's signatures before they closed the opportunity and everyone was ushered outside.

As it was late in the afternoon, we headed back to the campground and were hoping to find 2 x packages (seat covers for the Chev) that should have been delivered by Fedex. Unfortunately the office was closed by the time we got back because we discovered only 1 of the packages beside the Sierra - the other?? We were due to leave the following morning and hopefully they had it inside with them.

To our disappointment, we found out the following morning that the office didn't have the second package. A phone call to Fedex didn't help either as they said they only delivered one of the two packages yesterday as it was a public holiday and they weren't sure if we'd be there?? Huh??? OK, so where's the other? Aaahh, were're not sure but we think it might be on a truck for delivery to you, perhaps today but no guarantee, if not, it should be tomorrow!?

Hence, we again extended our stay and paid for another 2 nights hoping the second package would be delivered either "today" or "tomorrow" before we were due to leave on Thursday 20th. Murphy's law being as it is, the parcel arrived about 2 hours after we had paid for the additional 2 nights! So, now we had plenty of time on hand, I set about trying to fit the new covers.

I discovered the front seat covers had 2 holes punched in the top where the legs for the head rest should penetrate. That would normally be OK, however, we have DVD cables going through each of the legs disappearing somewhere that made the removal of the rests impossible without disassembly of the seat. Fortunately, our next planned several night's stay was to be in Dallas and that's where the Chev and the additions were originally purchased. I thought it best to wait till then and have them fitted by others.

Titan Missile Museum (131) - (from Tucson)

The following day we drove to the last remaining site of a Titan missile. The Titan Missile Museum, also known as Titan II ICBM Site 571-7 is a former ICBM missile site located in Sahuarita, about 15 miles south of Tucson. It is now a museum run by the Arizona Aerospace Foundation and includes a Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile still in its silo, as well as the original launch facilities.

The silo became operational in 1963 during the Cold War, when it was discovered Cuba, collaborating with the USSR had active missiles sites and missiles ready to be launched against the USA. In 1982 as part of President Reagan's policy of decommissioning the Titan II missiles, all silos were deactivated and demolished, except this one, and it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1994.

There were originally 54 sites in total, 18 around McConnell AFB in Wichita, Kansas, 17 sites around Little Rock AFB, Arkansas (one additional site previously damaged beyond repair in a mishap/non-nuclear explosion) and 17 other sites around Davis-Monthan AFB and Tucson. The site locations were strategically positioned towards the southern area of the USA as “the powers that be” in the Pentagon during the Cold War believed any attack from Russian missiles (other than those located in Cuba to the east) would come from the north. Being located in the south and west gave them additiona

l time to launch their own missiles in defence.

Our tour started with a short video on the history of the Titan II and the launch complex. Then everyone taller than 5’10” was provided with a hard hat because underground, there are any number of low-hanging pieces of the structure and its equipment, and as everything is either steel or concrete, the hat’s required clothing.



View of the 103' Titan missile from
the perspex viewing platform
shown in the photo above



The tour moved outside for a guided tour of the surface features of the complex including the hardstands for fuel storage containers and associated control vehicles. There are also restored engines (both stages) from a Titan II missile, and a re-entry vehicle. The silo door is permanently blocked in the half-open position, with the open portion covered with glass panels to protect the missile and silo from the weather, allowing a fantastic view of the silo interior and the missile from the top.

The below-ground part of the tour started with a walk down several flights of stairs and included a visit to the control room, through the controlled access entrance, including a set of 3-ton blast doors. Chantelle was invited to try to move one of these doors and did so quite easily. When we were in the control room, our guide told us each step in the process leading up to a simulated launch - a discussion of the people who would make decisions, and those who would ultimately carry out the President’s order to launch the missile.

Being the youngest people there, both Chantelle and Rochelle were chosen to be the Commander and Deputy Commander during this simulation. They were asked to sit in the appropriate chairs and when advised, turn the launch keys simultaneously. Apparently they used to have (or do have) an audio system there where the sound of the missile firing up was to be heard – that would have been very dramatic! However, today we had to pretend, as there was no sound at all.

The underground facilities consist of a three-level Launch Control Centre, the eight level silo containing the missile and its related equipment, and the connecting structures of access tunnels, blast locks, and the equipment elevator. The complex was built of steel reinforced concrete with walls as much as 8 feet thick (2.4 m) in some areas, and a number of 3-ton blast doors sealed the various areas from the surface and each other.

Time to initiate launch with both
sets of keys simultaneously



The unique nature of the Sahuarita missile site is that all the original equipment is intact. The 103-foot (31 m) Titan II missile inside the silo has neither warhead nor fuel and was used solely for crew training. Originally, the silo held an active nuclear missile, but the training missile replaced it when the facility was converted to a museum.

In accordance with a USA/USSR agreement, the silo doors are permanently blocked from opening more than half way. The dummy reentry vehicle mounted on the missile has a prominent hole cut in it to prove it is inert. All of the support facilities at the site remain intact, complete with all of their original equipment.

The clocks are set to GMT

The Titan II was the largest operational land based nuclear missile ever used by the United States. The missile had one Hydrogen W53 warhead with a yield of 9 Megatons (9,000 kilotons). That’s 600 times bigger than either of those dropped on Japan at the end of WWII. However, to give that explosive power even greater perspective, it’s believed that the USSR’s largest hydrogen warhead was a massive 55 Megatons!

The facility's highest state of alert was November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was shot. When news of the shooting broke, the keys used to launch the missile were ordered to be placed on the tables at the launch consoles to prepare for a possible launch. The Pentagon did not yet know whether the Soviet Union had committed an act of war. The keys were not, however, placed in their switches.

At launch, orders from the National Command Authority would have specified one of three pre-programmed targets which, for security reasons, were unknown to the crew. The missile base that is now the Titan Missile Museum (complex 571-7 of the 390th Strategic Missile Wing) was at the time of closure, programmed to strike "Target Two". The missiles computer could hold up to three targets, and the target selected was determined by Strategic Air Command headquarters.

To change the selected target, the crew commander pressed the appropriate button on the launch console. Target 2, classified to this day, was assumed to be within the borders of the former Soviet Union, and was designated as an impact blast suggesting a hardened facility such as a Soviet missile base. Targets could be selected for air or ground burst, but the selection was only known by the Strategic Air Command.

Once we’d finished in the Command room, we walked through the cableway (tunnel) to the silo to the view the missile and silo from lower down, and from there we were ushered back, above ground and invited to take as many photos as we’d like - the tour took about one hour and was certainly an eye-opener.

Special behind the scenes tours and extended tours are also available, but as they can take 4 to 5 hours, we decided their basic tour would be sufficient. The extended tours allow access to the upper and lower levels of the control center, as well as the various other levels of the silo, antenna silos and other site features. Visitors on the "Beyond the Blast Doors" tour are also allowed to stand directly underneath the missile. Level 8, at 140 feet underground, houses the propellant pumps. If I ever return here, I’d definitely take the extended tour (a male thing I suppose).

Our visit complete, it was time to go home and....more schoolwork :-(

Old Tucson Studios (134) - (from Tucson)

Our 40 minute trip to Old Tucson Studios was a beautiful drive through a large Sonora desert. The studios are quite close to the Arizona-Tucson Desert Museum and the vista is this area is truly unique, an absolute pleasure to drive. I didn’t mention previously, but this was the second time we’d come to visit the studio, as the first day we tried they were closed. Today we arrived just before 11am and were surprised with the lack of other tourists – in hindsight, we shouldn’t have been surprised as this was a weekday and despite the sunny day today, we’re here in winter.

The site for more than 300 film and television projects since 1939, Old Tucson Studios is one of the most active filming locations for Western-themed movies, television, cable shows and commercials in the United States. This year marks their 72nd year as an Arizona film location, often referred to as “Hollywood in the Desert”.

Old Tucson Studios came to life in 1939 when Columbia Pictures chose a Pima County-owned site on which to build a replica of 1860’s Tucson for the movie Arizona. The $2.5 million film, starring William Holden and Jean Arthur, set a new standard of realism for Hollywood westerns, initiating the move away from studio backdrop movies to outdoor epics.

Local technicians and carpenters built the town from scratch, erecting more than 50 buildings in 40 days. Descendants of the Tohono O’odham, Arizona’s first inhabitants formerly known as the Papago, assisted in the set production. Without the convenience of running water, they made more than 350,000 adobe bricks from the desert dirt to create authentic structures for the film and many of those structures still stand today.

After the filming of Arizona, Old Tucson Studios lay dormant under the desert sun. The studio was revived only briefly for the film The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945), starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. Hollywood then began taking notice of Old Tucson Studios, which soon became a favorite filming location, hence, “Hollywood in the Desert.” In 1947, Gene Autry starred in The Last Roundup followed in 1950 by Jimmy Stewart in Winchester ‘73, and Ronald Reagan in The Last Outpost.

During the 1950’s, the Western movie era was in full swing nationwide. In the fifties alone, such western classics as Gunfight at the OK Corral (1956) with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1957), and Cimarron (1959) with Glenn Ford were filmed at Old Tucson Studios.

Different activities are planned at scheduled times throughout each day. There are can-can ladies performing routines in the Grand Palace Hotel and Saloon, a shootout in the streets that led on to a roof (and back to the ground when he was shot), stunt shows, comedy routines and snake-oil salesmen selling their wares. They were very strict with attendance at some of the events as the studio area was also part of the stage. Thus, if you arrived late after the show had begun, the entrance was roped off and you needed to stand behind fences and the roped off barrier, attempting to glance through and between other late-comers at what was happening.

Other than scheduled events, we rode a stage coach on a tour through the studios and out to some of the more distant buildings a few hundred metres away, a haunted mine tour (Chantelle decided she'd rather not see, so she and I sat in some welcome shade in a beautiful little side street watching the passing people and stage coaches), horse rides, a merry-go-round and an electric car, guided and powered by a rail on the ground that wound through the desert. Despite the electric track, steering was necessary and Rochelle, my driver, was greatly amused as we banged into both sides of the rail at each corner, which ended up in raucous laughter from both of us.

During the western movie boom of the 1950’s, many of the stars stayed at the nearby Flamingo Hotel, built in 1952. Now renovated, the Flamingo Hotel has on display hundreds of rare and original movie posters, lobby cards, and photographs from nearly all of the over 70 films shot at Old Tucson Studios.

In 1959, Midwest entrepreneur Robert Shelton saw more than an antiquated movie set at Old Tucson Studios. He saw potential for expanding it from the ghost town it had become into a viable movie studio and family attraction. Shelton leased the property from Pima County and began to restore the forgotten town. Old Tucson Studios re-opened in 1960 as a film studio and a family fun park as well.

The park continued to grow, literally building by building, with each movie filmed on its dusty streets. Western film legend John Wayne soon became friends with Shelton, starred in four movies at Old Tucson Studios and each production added buildings to the town. Rio Bravo (1959) added a saloon, bank building and doctor’s office; from MCLINTOCK! (1963) came the McLintock Hotel; El Dorado (1967) left Old Tucson Studios with a facelift on Front Street; and from Rio Lobo (1970) came a cantina, a granite lined creek, a jail and Phillip’s ranch house.

The stampede of movie productions during those early years include, Lilies of the Field (1962) starring Sidney Poitier ; Have Gun Will Travel (1962); The Outrage (1964) and Hombre (1966) with Paul Newman; and episodes of Bonanza (1966, ‘71, ‘72); and High Chaparral (1966-’71).

Old Tucson Studios became the premier, privately owned, western film location. In 1968, a 13,000 square foot soundstage was built to give Old Tucson Studios complete movie-making versatility. The first film to use the soundstage was Young Billy Young (1968), starring Robert Mitchum and Angie Dickenson.

In the decade that followed, Old Tucson Studios experienced tremendous growth. In 1970-’71 alone, the studio hosted 15 film productions including Dirty Dingus Magee (1970) with Frank Sinatra and Joe Kidd (1971) starring Clint Eastwood. Paul Newman returned to Old Tucson, for The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972). Other films during this period include Death Wish (1974) starring Charles Bronson; The Last Hard Men (1975) with Charleton Heston and James Coburn; The Villain (1978) which starred Kirk Douglas and Ann Margaret and The Frisco Kid (1979) starring Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford, fresh from his stint as Han Solo in Star Wars.

From 1970 to 1980 Old Tucson Studios and its Mescal property (forty miles south of Tucson Studios) hosted 77 film and television productions. Little House on the Prairie (1977-1983) starring Michael Landon;  Gunsmoke (1972-74) with James Arness; The Mark of Zorro (1974) and The New Maverick (1978) with James Garner.

The Studios have an antique carousel, a train depot and narrow-gauge train, antique car rides and an 1872 steam locomotive, The Reno. Bob Shelton purchased the authentic train from MGM and brought it to Old Tucson Studios in 1970 - it has since been featured in hundreds of films and television shows.

Old Tucson Studios became part of the made-for-television movie trend of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s with major films as well, most notably Three Amigos (1986) starring Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and Martin Short.

The nineties brought their share of movie stars to Old Tucson and Mescal to follow in the famous footsteps of their predecessors. Some of the films became classics and some, well, didn’t. But Tombstone (1993) with Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer; Lightning Jack (1993) starring Paul Hogan and Cuba Gooding, Jr., and The Quick and the Dead (1994) with Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio showed that westerns were popular again.

In total, we spent about 5 hours there, and during our visit we, met a group of nearly 40 parents, teachers and students from various Australian High Schools, from as far apart as Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney. It had been a great day of fun and exploring, but around 4 o'clock we needed to call it quits and return home through that beautiful desert. The Titan Missile Museum was the next place to visit, and as our time in Tucson was coming to an end, tomorrow was to be the day.