Showing posts with label Museum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Museum. Show all posts
Friday, May 3, 2013
Bale Grist Mill
Serendipity As we passed the Bale Grist Mill while travelling along the Napa Valley Highway Sally saw that the big waterwheel was turning, so we stopped to investigate, even though we had been told that the mill was closed. Sure enough the mill was open, as a group of school children were being shown around. We were fortunate enough to be invited to tag along with them. The tour was fascinating. The grist mill is quite large, so all the mechanical processes could be seen easily. We followed the energy path from stream to mill stones. The 36ft diameter wheel is an overshot, so the water flows over the top of the wheel, using its weight to drive the wheel (as opposed the an undershot wheel which uses the speed of the water to turn it). It was surprising how little water was need to drive the mill. The wheel is attached to a shaft which transfers the moving energy to the rest of the mill. There were a couple of take off points so that the energy could be used to move grain round the mill. Interesting were the vertical bands with small pockets attached to them, which were used to raise (or elevate) the grist (which is wheat which has been separated from the chaff) from the ground up to the hoppers used to feed the mill. Once lifted there is machinery to separate the grist from grit and weeds. The mill itself is composed of two granite mill stones dressed with an accuracy of less than a millimeter. The 1100 lb bottom stone rotates at about 200 r.p.m. The mill stones should never actually touch each other, so the corn/wheat is milled (cut up) rather than ground, so the top stone must be accurately placed, using a ring, or 'eye' on to a small shaft, called, for some reason 'The Cock', when the eye is correctly placed then the top stone is then centred on to the rotating lower stone, this is known as being 'cockeyed', strangely we now use the term in a reversal of its original meaning . The mill will produce a variety of flour grades as it works, though the miller has some control over the flour as the top stone can be raised and lowered to roughly determine the grade of flour produced. However as the stone is encased the only way to tell just how big the gap is is to send a small amount of grist through and feel the size of the flour produced, this is done by rubbing the flour between fore finger and thumb, hence the saying 'rule of thumb' At its lowest it will produce finer flour. Too low and the mill stones make contact and the heat of friction will burn the flour, making a smell,, rendering that batch of flour useless, hence the miller must keep his 'nose to the grindstone' to ensure that it is not burnt. The ungraded flour is then elevated again by the 'Run of the mill' elevator (referring to ungraded, or generalised flour being run right through the mill), to be separated into four grades of flour. Fine, Fair, Middlin and bran. The most average flour grade became known as 'fair to middlin'. Once graded the flour is then dropped back down to the ground floor to be bagged. Interestingly milling is a continous process, with a large amount of grain being held in the hoppers, so the grain a farmer brings in is not necessarily used to make the flour he gets out! The miller will assess the farmers grain for quality and ratio of grain to grit/weeds and tell him the % of flour that he will get back, which leaves a lot of room for diasgreements I would think. We learned all this as Jim the miller showed us all round the mill, with the belts, shafts and gears clanking away quietly in the background, finally he actually used the mill to produce some pollenta (a course corn flour). It was a fascinating process and we really enjoyed just being there, watching and learning.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
April 22nd - Doc and Clara Ride the train in Railtown
Monday 22nd
Our weekend of Bluegrass fun is now over, we had a great time, renewed some old friendships and made some new ones.
We have stayed on at Turlock so that we could take a side trip back to Jamestown. We first visited here in October of 2011, but did not have the time to visit Railtown. This is a railway museum way up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, in Gold Country. Not only is it a working railway museum it is also the location of many films that used railways in them. High Noon being one of list of 106 films shot here.
The most famous one for us was Back To The Future 3, released in 1990. All the real life train sequences were filmed here. However that is not all, the train used in the film was the Sierra No 3 Loco, which is still here. We opted to take the tour, which we found fascinating, John our tour guide was happy to tell us all sorts of things about the railway and we were happy to ask questions. There were four of us on the tour, which usually lasts an hour. We started at 12.20 and finished at 4.25.
The highlight for us was to not only see the Sierra No 3, but to be able to climb up into the cab and stand where Doc and Clara had been. We also saw some of the props, the different chimney stacks they used (complete and after the little explosion on the train).
We had a wonderful time and learned a lot about american railways of the last century.
We drove back down to Turlock in the evening, stopping in Oakdale, which as we all know is the Cowboy Capital Of The World (so they tell us), to eat in a very nice Chinese Restaurant where they serve dishes of gigantic proportion, such that we had to take half of our meal home with us.
Our weekend of Bluegrass fun is now over, we had a great time, renewed some old friendships and made some new ones.
We have stayed on at Turlock so that we could take a side trip back to Jamestown. We first visited here in October of 2011, but did not have the time to visit Railtown. This is a railway museum way up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, in Gold Country. Not only is it a working railway museum it is also the location of many films that used railways in them. High Noon being one of list of 106 films shot here.
The most famous one for us was Back To The Future 3, released in 1990. All the real life train sequences were filmed here. However that is not all, the train used in the film was the Sierra No 3 Loco, which is still here. We opted to take the tour, which we found fascinating, John our tour guide was happy to tell us all sorts of things about the railway and we were happy to ask questions. There were four of us on the tour, which usually lasts an hour. We started at 12.20 and finished at 4.25.
The highlight for us was to not only see the Sierra No 3, but to be able to climb up into the cab and stand where Doc and Clara had been. We also saw some of the props, the different chimney stacks they used (complete and after the little explosion on the train).
We had a wonderful time and learned a lot about american railways of the last century.
We drove back down to Turlock in the evening, stopping in Oakdale, which as we all know is the Cowboy Capital Of The World (so they tell us), to eat in a very nice Chinese Restaurant where they serve dishes of gigantic proportion, such that we had to take half of our meal home with us.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
April 7th - Calico
Calico Ghost Town.
We were indeed camped right next to the Ghost Town, however the weather now interfered with our plans. A storm was blowing in. Only wind, but expected to be up to 60 m.p.h gusts. Looking at the weather charts it seemed that the Jet Stream had taken an unexpectedly Southern route, down the west coast, crossing the Mojave Desert and New Mexico and swinging back North up the Great Plains. This meant havoc for the North and West of USA. The west coast got cold. The Southern states (thats us) got gales, the Rockies Mid West and Northern states as far as the Great Lakes got snow. Warm wet air sucked in from the gulf, meeting the cold dry air sucked down from Canada met and dropping up to 30 inches of snow. It won’t last long, but it is big.
By Monday afternoon we were prepared to brave the wind and go up to visit the ghost town which had originally been a Sliver Mining Community. It was very twee, but poorly described. We then noticed that some of the buildings were not original 1880’s. We eventually found out that a guy called Walter Knott bought the town in 1950 and was determined to restore it to its original condition as ghost town, Walter Knott is well know for his amusement park in Anaheim, Knotts Berry Farm, right next to Disneyland. Which incidentally started as a farm in 1920, where Walter developed the Boysenberry. The wayside farm stall then opened a chicken restaurant, which developed entertainment bits, which then became what is claimed to be the first theme park in 1947m, complete with its own ghost town. Its history has some fascinating parallels with Calico and also many of the activities and places that we have seen on our travels in the West. Read about it here……. Knotts Berry Farm History
The county of San Bernardino was given the park and have kept it going ever since, so really it is only a pseudo ghost town with many buildings form the 1950’s, still a good bit of fun with the train, the mine, the main street, the sheriffs office etc. we then went down to Peggy Sue’s Diner for dinner.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
31st March - Easter Sunday in Phoenix
We have enjoyed being in Phoenix and so stayed on for a few more days than we had planned. On the Saturday night our neighbours invited us to go eat with them at a Mexican restaurant, it was great fun, I had the Chimychanga, Sally a shrimp salad with rice, very nice. Lots of laughs at how three couples with such different backgrounds can have such similar ways of handling their relationship with each other.
View all
So we are staying here for Easter Sunday. I had spotted a very interesting looking church round the corner from our RV Park - The First Christian Church on 7th Ave. It is a very interesting building, Frank Lloyd Wright designed it for a Seminary somewhere else, but it was never used until this church came along and used the plans (in 1971) for their new church. The building itself is a wonderful piece of architecture, however on checking our their website it also seemed to be a good church community, so we decided to go there for their Easter Sunday Service. It was a really good service, very free, great music, with a good challenging sermon. Sally and I were both quite moved.View all
View all First Christian Church Phoenix
Following the service, and lunch in Wildflower Bakery, I took Sally to a 'local' (13 miles away) park, called McCormick Railroad Park. It is a community park which has lots to do with trains, it is run by volunteers. It is also the place to go for Ester Sunday Picnic with the family, there seemed to be thousands of people there. It was great fun. We rode on the miniature train, which goes right round the park, we (being the train load in general, as well as us) waved at everyone, they waved at us. It was great to see so many families out in the sunshine with their picnic stuff BBQ's, coolers, toys, skateboards, kites. There is a small carousel, a whole load of train museum stuff, including the Presidential train from 1921. It is also the resting place for the Arizona Merci Boxcar, talked about in a previous blog, so we saw that. They also have a pavilion for Model Train Layouts. There are 4 layouts set up by local model train clubs. we were entranced by these toy trains, the level of detail and the sheer scale of them. What was to be a quick look turned into a couple of hours. We were even invited to go into the club members area to look in more detail at one train layout. Thank you to a guy named Paul, who showed us round. So once more we had a great day and returned to our trailer tired but happy.
View al lMcCormick Railroad Park
Tomorrow we move on to Yuma.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
March 29th - Downtown Phoenix
Friday
We decided to visit downtown Phoenix today.
Phoenix is the State Capital, which means that it has the State Capitol building. In this case the original building is now a museum. As so few people were visiting we were given a personal tour round the building by one of the volunteers, which was very interesting.
The building reflects Arizona is many ways, it is quite pretty, but small and AZ has always been minimalist its political process (history of public lynchings may have a bearing here). It also prides itself (as I am sure most states do) on going its own way. It was the last area of the 'contiguous 48 states' to receive statehood, February 14th 1912, with New Mexico beating it by a month. It is probably the most active in its support of the 2nd amendment. Incredibly rich in mineral resources, it is the second largest produce of copper, after Chile, in the world.
The State Capitol is now a museum which has exhibits which display much of Arizona's brief history. Very much to the fore is the fate of U.S.S. Arizona ( sunk in the raid on Pearl Harbor, now a monument in Pearl Harbor and a symbol to all Americans).
Frank Lloyd Wright used to live in Phoenix in the winter and there are several of his buildings to the East of Phoenix. He also designed a new State Capitol for Phoenix, a beautiful building, but the design was not adopted as it was too expensive. The newer, functional, precast concrete jungle buildings so common in the early 60's, now surround the the old capitol.
Among a number of interesting exhibits was some of the contents of Arizona's Merci Train Boxcar. Also an exhibit about the Harvey Girls, as well as a photographic exhibit about Native Americans in the 19th century.
Following our tour round the Capitol we strolled the lovely gardens which surround it. The gardens are full of memorials to historical events. We read the time line of the Vietnam war, which now makes for horrendous reading with more than half a million US troops fighting there, it really does seem a senseless war there now.
We decided to visit downtown Phoenix today.
Phoenix is the State Capital, which means that it has the State Capitol building. In this case the original building is now a museum. As so few people were visiting we were given a personal tour round the building by one of the volunteers, which was very interesting.
The building reflects Arizona is many ways, it is quite pretty, but small and AZ has always been minimalist its political process (history of public lynchings may have a bearing here). It also prides itself (as I am sure most states do) on going its own way. It was the last area of the 'contiguous 48 states' to receive statehood, February 14th 1912, with New Mexico beating it by a month. It is probably the most active in its support of the 2nd amendment. Incredibly rich in mineral resources, it is the second largest produce of copper, after Chile, in the world.
The State Capitol is now a museum which has exhibits which display much of Arizona's brief history. Very much to the fore is the fate of U.S.S. Arizona ( sunk in the raid on Pearl Harbor, now a monument in Pearl Harbor and a symbol to all Americans).
Frank Lloyd Wright used to live in Phoenix in the winter and there are several of his buildings to the East of Phoenix. He also designed a new State Capitol for Phoenix, a beautiful building, but the design was not adopted as it was too expensive. The newer, functional, precast concrete jungle buildings so common in the early 60's, now surround the the old capitol.
Among a number of interesting exhibits was some of the contents of Arizona's Merci Train Boxcar. Also an exhibit about the Harvey Girls, as well as a photographic exhibit about Native Americans in the 19th century.
Following our tour round the Capitol we strolled the lovely gardens which surround it. The gardens are full of memorials to historical events. We read the time line of the Vietnam war, which now makes for horrendous reading with more than half a million US troops fighting there, it really does seem a senseless war there now.
Merci Train Boxcar
Merci Train Boxcar also known as the Gratitude Train
We discovered that in 1948 US charities sent 700 boxcars (rail freight cars) to France, full of of donated materials. By way of thanks the French sent 49 box cars back full of gifts for the Americans, one for each state (Hawaii and Washington D.C. had to share one). Many of these box cars are preserved in museums across the country.
The box cars were called 'Forty and Eight Boxcars' as they are all stamped with '40/8', meaning that they could carry either forty men or eight horses. They were used extensively in the first world war to transport troops. they became an icon of that war. After the war a 'select' group of American Legion activists set up a fraternal group (like the Masons, or Moose club) for the betterment of their fellow man called the '40&8's'. They are well known for their Forty and Eight Scholarships. When the boxcars arrived from France the Forty and Eights took on the responsibility for distributing the gifts and now are often involved in their preservation. The Arizona Boxcar now resides in McCormick Park. The exhibit in the museum included several interesting items. A lovely wedding dress, which sadly has never been worn. Also a somewhat battered Peugeot racing cycle circa 1948, which, complete with Simplex derailleur gears looks little different from my first bike, or indeed any modern racing cycle (except the real racing, racing cycles).
Although we have not seen any of these famous boxcars we have passed close to some of them. In Tennessee we passed within about 100 yards of one when we were in Bristol. Our closest encounter was in Jackson, Mississippi when we walked from the Old State Capitol through an underpass to Hal and Mal's restaurant. The boxcar was just about 30 yards away, but hidden by an embankment. Well there you go. We shall now have to keep an eye out for other boxcars on our travels. Roll on Fresno!
The Harvey Girls
It is amazing that when you are traveling how themes start to develop. Some of the themes that we have interacted with are the exploits of the Butterfield Stage Routes right across the West, Twenty Mule Teams (the workhorse of the western Mineral Workings), Route 66 and Frank Lloyd Wright.
Seeing an exhibition of the Harvey Girls in Arizona State Capitol Museum reminded us that we have come across this name before. We first encountered The Harvey House Restaurants and the Harvey Girls in Guthrie. Our British friends, I hear you say " Harvey House? what is that? I have never heard of this", our American friends will give a patronizing nod of the head and then sigh longingly for another icon of American history. Sally knew of the Harvey Girls through a book she had read and seen the 1946 Judy Garland film of the same name.
It seems that without realizing it our journeys have crossed the path of Fred Harvey on many occasions!
Briefly he was probably the first person to start a chain of special restaurants which served rail travellers from the 1870's until the 1970's. But they grew into much more than this, a veritable institution! As usual in America it makes a fascinating story.
So if you only have a little time then I urge you to read this review of the importance of Fred Harvey, ........or you can read more about The Harvey Girls here .......and the Harvey Restaurants here......... or .... lastly here.
Including Guthrie we have been in three Harvey Houses- Guthrie Station (briefly), we also had lunch in La Fonda Hotel,which was a Harvey House in Santa Fe, now restored and a fabulous hotel and restaurant and we also toured the visitor centre at Painted Desert National Park, which was originally a Harvey House Restaurant. Though we have passed close to 28 more of these restaurants.
Maybe I will dig out some pics and maybe we will see some more Harvey Houses on our travels.
Harvey Houses we have passed within a mile of.
In Arizona:
Seeing an exhibition of the Harvey Girls in Arizona State Capitol Museum reminded us that we have come across this name before. We first encountered The Harvey House Restaurants and the Harvey Girls in Guthrie. Our British friends, I hear you say " Harvey House? what is that? I have never heard of this", our American friends will give a patronizing nod of the head and then sigh longingly for another icon of American history. Sally knew of the Harvey Girls through a book she had read and seen the 1946 Judy Garland film of the same name.
It seems that without realizing it our journeys have crossed the path of Fred Harvey on many occasions!
Briefly he was probably the first person to start a chain of special restaurants which served rail travellers from the 1870's until the 1970's. But they grew into much more than this, a veritable institution! As usual in America it makes a fascinating story.
So if you only have a little time then I urge you to read this review of the importance of Fred Harvey, ........or you can read more about The Harvey Girls here .......and the Harvey Restaurants here......... or .... lastly here.
Including Guthrie we have been in three Harvey Houses- Guthrie Station (briefly), we also had lunch in La Fonda Hotel,which was a Harvey House in Santa Fe, now restored and a fabulous hotel and restaurant and we also toured the visitor centre at Painted Desert National Park, which was originally a Harvey House Restaurant. Though we have passed close to 28 more of these restaurants.
Maybe I will dig out some pics and maybe we will see some more Harvey Houses on our travels.
Harvey Houses we have passed within a mile of.
In Arizona:
Ash Fork: “Escalante” Hotel
The Grand Canyon - South Rim
Kingman: Santa Fe Eating House
Seligman: “Havasu” Hotel
Petrified Forest National Park: Painted Desert Inn
Phoenix: Union Station News Stand and “Green Gables” Restaurant
Williams: “Fray Marcos” Hotel
Winslow: Old Santa Fe Hotel & “La Posada” Hotel
The Grand Canyon - South Rim
Kingman: Santa Fe Eating House
Seligman: “Havasu” Hotel
Petrified Forest National Park: Painted Desert Inn
Phoenix: Union Station News Stand and “Green Gables” Restaurant
Williams: “Fray Marcos” Hotel
Winslow: Old Santa Fe Hotel & “La Posada” Hotel
In California:
Bakersfield: Santa Fe Eating House
Barstow: “Casa del Desierto” Hotel
Fresno: Santa Fe News Stand
Mojave: Santa Fe Eating House
San Bernardino: Santa Fe Eating House
San Diego: Santa Fe Lunch Room and Shops
San Francisco: Ferry Building News Stand, “San Pedro” Santa Fe Ferry, Santa Fe Bus Terminal
Merced: Santa Fe Eating House
Bakersfield: Santa Fe Eating House
Barstow: “Casa del Desierto” Hotel
Fresno: Santa Fe News Stand
Mojave: Santa Fe Eating House
San Bernardino: Santa Fe Eating House
San Diego: Santa Fe Lunch Room and Shops
San Francisco: Ferry Building News Stand, “San Pedro” Santa Fe Ferry, Santa Fe Bus Terminal
Merced: Santa Fe Eating House
In New Mexico:
Albuquerque: “Alvarado” Hotel
Clovis: “Gran Quivira” Hotel
Las Cruces: News Stand
Santa Fe: “La Fonda” Hotel
Albuquerque: “Alvarado” Hotel
Clovis: “Gran Quivira” Hotel
Las Cruces: News Stand
Santa Fe: “La Fonda” Hotel
In Oklahoma:
Ardmore: Santa Fe News Stand
Oklahoma City
Ardmore: Santa Fe News Stand
Oklahoma City
In Texas:
Amarillo: Santa Fe Hotel
Dallas: Santa Fe Eating House
El Paso: Union Passenger Station Restaurant and Shops
Fort Worth: Santa Fe Eating House
Gainesville: Santa Fe Eating House
Galveston: Santa Fe Eating House
Temple: Santa Fe Hotel
Amarillo: Santa Fe Hotel
Dallas: Santa Fe Eating House
El Paso: Union Passenger Station Restaurant and Shops
Fort Worth: Santa Fe Eating House
Gainesville: Santa Fe Eating House
Galveston: Santa Fe Eating House
Temple: Santa Fe Hotel
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
24th March - Tuscon Botanical Gardens
Sunday
A short drive along Grant takes us to the Tucson Botanical Gardens. We took a picnic and hoped for a pleasant day. we were not disappointed. The gardens are well laid out, though rather specializing in desert type plants. There were lots of succulents and cacti as well as a lot of aromatic plants and herbs.
Of most interest was the butterfly and orchid house. We spent a fair amount of time there trying to identify butterflies and take photos.
We had our picnic in the shade of a grapefruit tree then explored some other areas. We stumbled across an landscape gardening competition, a bit like Chelsea Flower show, but only four local entrants, still it was interesting. The last area of note was what is termed a community garden, quite common in mexico, what was attractive was the prayer tree, on which people hang trinkets and icons as a prayer request. This had been simplified to small wooden hearts which had been decorated. It was a very peaceful area.#
Quite an enjoyable excursion.
I get hung up on taking nice pics, so here are some more.
Monday was designated a quiet day, we lazed around in the sun and then mid afternoon took off to the local Texas Roadhouse for our first steak of this trip! Very nice meal, then a quick waltz round Walmart, which happened to be next door.
Tuesday
Time to move on, having sucked Tucson dry of all its tourist adventure potential we are starting our drive West, not far, Picacho State Park is only 34 miles away, but is an isolated State Park in the middle of the Saguaro Desert, even if it is only a few miles from the Interstate 10 and a railway. We plan to try and chill out for a couple of days in the heat of the desert before moving on to see a bit more of Phoenix at the weekend.
A short drive along Grant takes us to the Tucson Botanical Gardens. We took a picnic and hoped for a pleasant day. we were not disappointed. The gardens are well laid out, though rather specializing in desert type plants. There were lots of succulents and cacti as well as a lot of aromatic plants and herbs.
Of most interest was the butterfly and orchid house. We spent a fair amount of time there trying to identify butterflies and take photos.
We had our picnic in the shade of a grapefruit tree then explored some other areas. We stumbled across an landscape gardening competition, a bit like Chelsea Flower show, but only four local entrants, still it was interesting. The last area of note was what is termed a community garden, quite common in mexico, what was attractive was the prayer tree, on which people hang trinkets and icons as a prayer request. This had been simplified to small wooden hearts which had been decorated. It was a very peaceful area.#
Quite an enjoyable excursion.
I get hung up on taking nice pics, so here are some more.
Monday was designated a quiet day, we lazed around in the sun and then mid afternoon took off to the local Texas Roadhouse for our first steak of this trip! Very nice meal, then a quick waltz round Walmart, which happened to be next door.
Tuesday
Time to move on, having sucked Tucson dry of all its tourist adventure potential we are starting our drive West, not far, Picacho State Park is only 34 miles away, but is an isolated State Park in the middle of the Saguaro Desert, even if it is only a few miles from the Interstate 10 and a railway. We plan to try and chill out for a couple of days in the heat of the desert before moving on to see a bit more of Phoenix at the weekend.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
22nd - Old Tucson Studio
Friday we visited the Old Tucson Studio up in the mountains very near to the Desert Museum.
We arrived fairly early as there was not a cloud in the sky and it promised to be a hot day. The studio was built in 1939 for the film 'Arizona' and for various political and financial reasons was not removed, but other bits were added on. The studios became one of the larger cowboy film studios and even though a lot of it was lost in a fire in 1997 it still has an impressive number of recognizable film sets.
Following a brief orientation tour we set off to see the set of High Chapparal, which Sally remembers from her childhood, meanwhile just across from there is the adobe wall and ruin used to good effect in Rio Bravo.
We stopped in at the Crystal Saloon to see a music hall show, what appears to be a wooden saloon is in fact a steel constructed studio, with a saloon and stage inside it. We enjoyed the short show.
We now walked down Main Street, stopping at the Old Mission, which was used for a lot of films, notably the Three Amigos and Tombstone. While there we watched a demonstration of a restored 1830's gatling gun, very impressive as it fired its 40 rounds in about 5 seconds.
After going to the courthouse to see a short movie showing the many films made there we picnicked outside a saloon and then had a wander past the old mine and schoolhouse before deciding that we had seen enough.
An interesting place, though a little short on information.
We arrived fairly early as there was not a cloud in the sky and it promised to be a hot day. The studio was built in 1939 for the film 'Arizona' and for various political and financial reasons was not removed, but other bits were added on. The studios became one of the larger cowboy film studios and even though a lot of it was lost in a fire in 1997 it still has an impressive number of recognizable film sets.
Following a brief orientation tour we set off to see the set of High Chapparal, which Sally remembers from her childhood, meanwhile just across from there is the adobe wall and ruin used to good effect in Rio Bravo.
We stopped in at the Crystal Saloon to see a music hall show, what appears to be a wooden saloon is in fact a steel constructed studio, with a saloon and stage inside it. We enjoyed the short show.
We now walked down Main Street, stopping at the Old Mission, which was used for a lot of films, notably the Three Amigos and Tombstone. While there we watched a demonstration of a restored 1830's gatling gun, very impressive as it fired its 40 rounds in about 5 seconds.
After going to the courthouse to see a short movie showing the many films made there we picnicked outside a saloon and then had a wander past the old mine and schoolhouse before deciding that we had seen enough.
An interesting place, though a little short on information.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
March 21 - Arizona Desert Museum
Thursday
Today we drove out from Tucson into the Sonora Desert to visit the Desert Museum.
A museum dedicated to the desert. Fortunately we took lunch with us as the visit took longer than we anticipated.
We followed the guided walk along its paved paths, visiting sections about the desert. It's geology, climate, minerals, animals, plants, birds, insects and, yes, fish!
The highlight was visiting the hummingbird enclosure, where we spent nearly an hour. It was lovely to see hummingbirds with their young, or sitting on their nest, or just bombing around finding nectar in flowers, or from the feeders. A great day that gave us a good insight into the Sonora Desert.
Today we drove out from Tucson into the Sonora Desert to visit the Desert Museum.
A museum dedicated to the desert. Fortunately we took lunch with us as the visit took longer than we anticipated.
We followed the guided walk along its paved paths, visiting sections about the desert. It's geology, climate, minerals, animals, plants, birds, insects and, yes, fish!
The highlight was visiting the hummingbird enclosure, where we spent nearly an hour. It was lovely to see hummingbirds with their young, or sitting on their nest, or just bombing around finding nectar in flowers, or from the feeders. A great day that gave us a good insight into the Sonora Desert.
The visit prompted me to put a couple of more specific blogs up, so just before this blog you can find:
These and all ourblogs are indexed by date in the list on the right hand side of this pageWednesday, March 20, 2013
March 19th: Titan Missile Museum
Tuesday
We packed up and left the very pleasant site of Patagonia Lake State Park really early, though we lost half an hour when the GPS directed us down a tarmac road which after 5 miles turned into a dirt road, so we had to do a three point turn and come back, no fun for a rig more than 50 foot long. Once we had passed Nogales the then had to pass through the Border Check Point (no we had not been across to Mexico, but all roads from Mexico have the check point), this tiem we were waved through without comment - Phew!
As we were still well up on time we decided to visit the Titan Missile Museum south of Tucson. What a fascinating place. It is the only missile silo that is still in 'working order', preserved as a piece of history and accessible to the public. The rest of this blog is probably quite boring to many, so don't worry if you skip it.
But the pictures are fun:
Our tour guide was a man called Steve, who had been a crew member from 1956 until 1964, that meant the he was the guy who had his hand on the button of a nuclear missile right through the Cuban Missile Crisis. He explained took place in the control room. The team of four worked a 24 hour shift, every action on duty required two people to work together. The closest thing that there is to a launch code was a butterfly vavle on the main fuel line to the rocket motors. That could only be operated if a combination code was fed in to the control panel. The control code was kept in a filing cabinet that had two locks on it. The launch was started by a radio message from HQ, which consisted of a series of codes. The codes had corresponding codes in the filing cabinets that had to match, then provided the Butterfly valve code. You had 7 goes to get the code right, then the panel would destroy itself. On entering the sequence two keys, 7 feet aparet, had to be turned together, which started the launch sequence. Once the butterfly valve was opened and the sequence started there was no 'off' switch - the missile would launch. Its flight path was determined by paper punch tapes, the crew had no knowledge of the target.
We then went and saw the Titan II missile, still standing in its silo, where it had been for more than 50 years. The same type of rocket that launched Colonel John Glenn into orbit in the Gemini Space Capsule. in 1963.
There were 54 Titan II silos in USA, no missiles were ever fired from them. Training flights were carried out at Van Den Burgh Airbase in California.
The technology was basic but very well thought out. Both the missile and the control room were spring mounted and could move more than a foot in any direction, or rather stay where they were if the ground moved, as might happen in a nuclear attack nearby. All the systems had back ups and though they were electro mechanical rather than electronic, they all functioned well. The silo was hardened with steel and concrete walls between 4 and 8 feet thick, and doors to match. The entrance had two doors in, with an airlock in between. One door could not open unless the other was shut, in case there was a nuclear attack at the very moment the door opened. If they had had to fire the missile there was no back up pan for afterwards, they were told that the air inside would keep them alive for up to 15 days, after that they were on their own, though there was an escape tube/air conditioning vent which gave them emergency access to the outside.
I repeat it was fascinating to experience being in the complex that at once protected and threatened the world at the turn of a key. The titan II missiles were in operation from 1962 until 1983.
We packed up and left the very pleasant site of Patagonia Lake State Park really early, though we lost half an hour when the GPS directed us down a tarmac road which after 5 miles turned into a dirt road, so we had to do a three point turn and come back, no fun for a rig more than 50 foot long. Once we had passed Nogales the then had to pass through the Border Check Point (no we had not been across to Mexico, but all roads from Mexico have the check point), this tiem we were waved through without comment - Phew!
As we were still well up on time we decided to visit the Titan Missile Museum south of Tucson. What a fascinating place. It is the only missile silo that is still in 'working order', preserved as a piece of history and accessible to the public. The rest of this blog is probably quite boring to many, so don't worry if you skip it.
But the pictures are fun:
Our tour guide was a man called Steve, who had been a crew member from 1956 until 1964, that meant the he was the guy who had his hand on the button of a nuclear missile right through the Cuban Missile Crisis. He explained took place in the control room. The team of four worked a 24 hour shift, every action on duty required two people to work together. The closest thing that there is to a launch code was a butterfly vavle on the main fuel line to the rocket motors. That could only be operated if a combination code was fed in to the control panel. The control code was kept in a filing cabinet that had two locks on it. The launch was started by a radio message from HQ, which consisted of a series of codes. The codes had corresponding codes in the filing cabinets that had to match, then provided the Butterfly valve code. You had 7 goes to get the code right, then the panel would destroy itself. On entering the sequence two keys, 7 feet aparet, had to be turned together, which started the launch sequence. Once the butterfly valve was opened and the sequence started there was no 'off' switch - the missile would launch. Its flight path was determined by paper punch tapes, the crew had no knowledge of the target.
We then went and saw the Titan II missile, still standing in its silo, where it had been for more than 50 years. The same type of rocket that launched Colonel John Glenn into orbit in the Gemini Space Capsule. in 1963.
There were 54 Titan II silos in USA, no missiles were ever fired from them. Training flights were carried out at Van Den Burgh Airbase in California.
The technology was basic but very well thought out. Both the missile and the control room were spring mounted and could move more than a foot in any direction, or rather stay where they were if the ground moved, as might happen in a nuclear attack nearby. All the systems had back ups and though they were electro mechanical rather than electronic, they all functioned well. The silo was hardened with steel and concrete walls between 4 and 8 feet thick, and doors to match. The entrance had two doors in, with an airlock in between. One door could not open unless the other was shut, in case there was a nuclear attack at the very moment the door opened. If they had had to fire the missile there was no back up pan for afterwards, they were told that the air inside would keep them alive for up to 15 days, after that they were on their own, though there was an escape tube/air conditioning vent which gave them emergency access to the outside.
I repeat it was fascinating to experience being in the complex that at once protected and threatened the world at the turn of a key. The titan II missiles were in operation from 1962 until 1983.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)