Tuscon, AZ - Tour of the Boneyard

The past couple days have been busy. I spent just about all day yesterday working on some preventive maintenance on the motor home, including resealing the front Marker lights, the slide trim pieces, and the glass window in the entry door. I like doing this sort of work; I feel a sense of satisfaction at getting things done, and find comfort in the fact that we are taking care of our rolling home.

F-4E Phantom II

Today was a sightseeing day. We were at the nearby Pima Air & Space Museum by 8:45am, and it's a good thing we got there early - turns out this place is very popular! The Pima Air & Space Museum is one of the world's largest aerospace museums, In fact, it is the largest privately-funded nongovernmental museum of its type, curating a collection or more than 300 commercial, private, and military aircraft. This museum is impressive and I highly recommend a visit by anyone with an interest in aviation.

All that said, our primary purpose for visiting the Pima Air & Space Museum was to get a tour of the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Although we are both Air Force retirees and have access to the base, the Boneyard is off-limits unless you are visiting in some official capacity. So we went over to the Museum and signed up for their Boneyard tour. Through a special Support Agreement with AMARG and Davis-Monthan AFB, the Pima Air & Space Museum is the exclusive operator of the "Boneyard" tour. Visitors are ID-checked, loaded onto a tour bus, and then driven over to the AMARG Boneyard on the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

H-2 Huey and other Helicopters

AMARG was established in 1946 to house B-29 and C-47 aircraft. Davis-Monthan Air Force Base was chosen because of Tucson's low humidity, infrequent rainfall, alkaline soil and high altitude of 2,550 feet. These environmental factors result in comparatively little rust and corrosion, and the hard soil makes it possible to park and move aircraft around without having to pave the storage areas. In recent years, AMARG has been designated the sole repository of out-of-service aircraft from all branches of the US government.

AMARG takes care of more than 4,400 aircraft,  - I think this makes it the largest aircraft storage and preservation facility in the world. 

Free-standing engines & pod containers with engines

The Boneyard is where old military and other aircraft are stationed either to be (1) stored indefinitely for possible future use, (2) cannibalized for parts to keep the flying fleet in the air (parts are no longer produced for many of America's military active aircraft), (3) restored for service, or (4) recycled for metals and other materials. The organization that owns each aircraft decides what will be done with that asset and AMARG makes it happen.

F-117 Stealth Fighter... or is it?

We both really enjoyed this tour. I saw many old "friends" during the tour, including F-16s, C-130s, C-5s, C-141s, KC-135s, and even a C-20 Gulfstream. I've flown on all these types of aircraft during my 20+ years of service. However, they are just a small sampling - there many, many more types of aircraft from all branches of the service in the Boneyard. For example, we saw an F-117 Steath Fighter... sorta. Hahahaa!

It was all fascinating!  See more pics below.

After the Boneyard tour, we returned to the Pima Air & Space Museum and walked around some more, enjoying some of their static displays. Although we could have easily spent the entire day there, we had more sightseeing to do and so we left around noon.

C-20 Gulfstream

Tuscon, AZ - Casa Rivera and Biosphere 2

Today has been busy, busy! First we dropped Celia off for her 6-month check-up and then we visited the Mission San Xavier Del Bac. After that, we drove about 50 minutes to Oracle, AZ had lunch at Casa Rivera's Taco Express and then went to Biosphere 2. Then we drove back to Tuscon, picked-up Celia, and went home.

We have really been enjoying eating at local holes-in-the-wall for the past few weeks. We look up restaurants on Urban Spoon, Trip Advisor, Yelp, etc. and pick out restaurants that have local fans and flavor. Anyway, Lynda found Casa Rivera's Taco Express on Yelp and it was most excellent! Tons of delicious food for very little money - just the way I like it! I would definitely go back.

After filling up at Casa Rivera, we made our way to Biosphere 2. This place is a bit challenging to explain, so I shamelessly offer the following explanation from Wikipedia:

Biosphere 2 is an Earth systems science research facility. It has been owned by the University of Arizona since 2011. Its mission is to serve as a center for research, outreach, teaching, and lifelong learning about Earth, its living systems, and its place in the universe. It is a 3.14-acre (1.27-hectare) structure originally built to be an artificial, materially closed ecological system in Oracle, Arizona, US by Space Biosphere Ventures, a joint venture whose principal officers were John P. Allen, inventor and Executive Director, and Margret Augustine, CEO. Constructed between 1987 and 1991, it explored the web of interactions within life systems in a structure with five areas based on biomes, and an agricultural area and human living and working space to study the interactions between humans, farming, and technology with the rest of nature. It also explored the use of closed biospheres in space colonization, and allowed the study and manipulation of a biosphere without harming Earth's. The name comes from Earth's biosphere, "Biosphere 1". Project funding came primarily from the joint venture's financial partner, Ed Bass's Decisions Investment, costing US$200 million from 1985 to 2007, including land, support research greenhouses, test module, and staff facilities.
Biosphere 2 sits on a sprawling 40-acre (16-hectare) science campus that is open to the public.

It remains the largest closed system created. The glass facility is elevated 4,000 feet (1,200 m) above sea level at the base of the Santa Catalina Mountains, half an hour outside Tucson.

If the above piques your interest, I recommend you read more from the Wikipedia article... you may find it fascinating, particularly information about the First mission.

We went on the docent-led tour of the facility, and our guide did a very good job. The tour lasts about an hour and is a must-do for all visitors.

Tuscon, AZ - Mission San Xavier Del Bac

After dropping Celia off for her check-up, we drove over to the Mission San Xavier Del Bac.

This Mission was was founded in 1692 by a Jesuit missionary, Father Eusebio Francisco Kino in the Wa:k village of the San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation. At that time, the area was part of Mexico. Father Kino was the first non-Indian to visit the village of Wa:k, or “Bac,” as he wrote it.

Construction of the current church took 14 years and was completed in 1797 - it is the oldest intact European structure in Arizona. The Mission San Xavier Del Bac is truly dedicated to the Native peoples of the area: while everyone is invited to attend Mass, weddings and baptisms are only performed for the Mission's Native American parishioners.

When we arrived, Ash Wednesday morning Mass was being held and so we visited the small museum area first. Once the Mass was completed, we were able to go into the Mission church; it is beautiful and very ornate. According to the Docent, the church was made this way on purpose... to impress and win the hearts of the native people in what was then Mexico. The church's interior is filled with marvelous original statuary and mural paintings. It is a place where visitors can step back in time and enter an authentic 18th Century space.

The 218 year old structure and artwork are in remarkably good shape, partly because of the favorable climate in the area but mostly because restoration has been an almost continual process for the past 115 years. Restoration experts from all over the world -including Turkey, Italy, Spain, and America - have come to the aid of this historic Mission.



The Mission San Xavier Del Bac was recognized as a US National Landmark in 1963.