Ron & Deb are traveling again.

[addicted08]

Ron and I are off on yet another adventure. We are heading to Tucson by way of Colorado and Utah. We stopped at Wildman & Pam's place and had a really nice time visiting with them. Wildman made a card and put it in a cooler of Bud Light and Pam baked a cake to celebrate Ron's birthday. What good friends!! They put us up for the night and made a great breakfast for us to boot!
We continued on our way taking I-70 thru Denver and as always saw some really neat scenery.




Near Vail we saw that the ski resorts must be making their own snow because there was plenty here for skiing and we hadn't seen that much anywhere else.


As you can see, the further west we went the dryer it got.

[addicted08]

There are some places where the river and the mountains are so close together that there is barely room for the highway. Here is how the engineers handle it.


Here are some more pics that show why Colorado is such a beautiful place to be.

[addicted08]

This is a pic of the Colorado River with a beautiful back drop in Utah.


These are pics of the beautiful scenery in Utah along Highway 128 going toward Moab. Darryl told us about this route and suggested we take it. We weren't disappointed! Thanks Darryl.

[SRF]

Great pictures thanks for sharing!

Shane

[addicted08]

There were so many neat rock formations along this highway.






I don't think my camera does the colors any justice. But it is absolutely breath taking!


The Colorado River looks so green!


More amazing rock formations and scenery.

[addicted08]

Highway 128 in Utah brought us to Highway 191 at Moab and just a mile north on 191 is the Arches National Park. Since it is mid January there aren't a lot of people here but it is also too cold to be on the trike. We are definitely making a note to come back here in the spring or summer and ride thru on the trike!! These are some of the sights we saw in Arches National Park.

[addicted08]

More pics from Arches National Park.

[addicted08]

More pics from Arches National Park










As we drove thru the park, clouds came up. Then it started to snow.


Then it started snowing harder.


Then it slowed down some.


And turned nice again.


But the clouds in the distance sure hung low.

[addicted08]

The colors here are so amazing. I don't think my camera does them justice but you kind of get the idea.




This pic is me trying to show the texture of the rock formations. The look so smooth.


And this pic shows 2 kids climbing up a very steep bank of sand to sled down it. I guess this works when you don't have snow.

[V8 Perv]

Hey Wildman how bout posting a pic of my Birthday card?

I thought it was pretty fucking cool.

[V8 Perv]

I don't care what anyone says Wildman your alright!

Even if you are an Obama lover.

[Swiss V8]

Deb and Perv, you reall seem to have a lot of time to go and meet great people and see amazing scenery!

Keep the pictures comming!

[addicted08]

Today we left Moab, UT and headed south. We saw some interesting scenery in UT and when we crossed into AZ. Like this arch.


And of course the always interesting rock formations.

[addicted08]

These next 2 pics are of Mexican Hat Rock.




This is a bridge that we went over.


And of course more really awesome rock formations.

[addicted08]

Our travel south from Moab took us within 60 miles of the Grand Canyon so we decided to drive over and have a look. Our first stop was the Watch Tower. The tower itself is really neat looking. There are paintings on the walls that make it look really rustic and of course the view from each of the 3 levels was breathtaking!





Inside the tower looking down from the 3rd level.




This is the view from the tower.




Some pics from other locations around the Canyon.

[addicted08]

Last night Ron was chatting with the guys on line and they were telling him about the Titan Missle Musuem near Tucson. They said it was a must see so we went to check it out. It was a gorgeous day here, sunny and 73 degrees so it was a perfect day to ride out to see the museum. After watching a short movie in which the purpose of the missles and silos were explained, the security procedures were played out and the crew quarters where shown we headed outside where our guide was waiting to start our tour. Anyone 5' 10" and taller had to wear a hard hat to keep from getting hurt on the tour.


These are some of the many antennas on site to ensure the call to launch would get through to the crew in the control room regardless of an attack on the silo site.


Once the crew is down in the silo they do not come out for anything but a shift change. So if someone or something is on the site there are security personnell up top that jump into this little vehicle and go check it out.

[addicted08]

Walking over to the silo the first thing we saw was this. It is a cooling pit. I guess if the missle were launched it would produce a whole lot of heat!




The fuel that the missle uses is a mixture of chemicals and it has to be cooled before loading it into the missle. First the fuel is put into this tanker and cooled, then it is transferred to the trailer and cooled some more before going into the missle.




This is the cooling trailer opened up to show the fan inside it.

[addicted08]

Next thing we saw was the 2 stage rocket engines.




At the silo, they have the top door open a ways and a glass enclosure covering the opening so that you can look down into the silo and see the missle. The glass made it difficult to get a picture but I tried.


This is our tour guide in front of the silo cover. And the next pic is the yellow barrier around the grate that he was standing near.




There were 2 of these buffers. One on each side of the silo.


Next up was going down into the control room. This is the door leading down into the silo.

[addicted08]

Next to the door leading down into the silo there are doors for an elevator. Four people in our tour group couldn't do the stairs (there were 55 steps) so they rode the elevator down. The first pic shows the doors just beginning to open as the elevator comes up. The 2nd shot shows the elevator almost all the way up.


The stairway leading down.


One of 8 blast doors. Our guide says each one weighs 6000 pounds!


When we got to the level where the control room was I took this picture down the hallway leading away from the control room. Later we found out what was at the other end of that hallway...the missle!


This is the control room.


The policy for the entire site....each person had to watch the other.


This is the 24 hour clock. The military doesn't deal with time zones. They use this time frame everywhere they are.

[addicted08]

Next to the door leading down into the silo there are doors for an elevator. Four people in our tour group couldn't do the stairs (there were 55 steps) so they rode the elevator down. The first pic shows the doors just beginning to open as the elevator comes up. The 2nd shot shows the elevator almost all the way up.




The stairway leading down.


One of 8 blast doors. Our guide says each one weighs 6000 pounds!


When we got to the level where the control room was I took this picture down the hallway leading away from the control room. Later we found out what was at the other end of that hallway...the missle!


This is the control room.


The policy for the entire site....each person had to watch the other.


This is the 24 hour clock. The military doesn't deal with time zones. They use this time frame everywhere they are.

[addicted08]

This red safe is in the control room and has the verifiers needed by the crew to determine whether the president had in fact ordered a launch. As you can see it has 2 padlocks on it and 2 different crew members each have a key. That way no one person can open the safe.


After learning all about the control room and even seeing and hearing what it would be like if there were an actual launch, we headed down the long hallway from my earlier pic. Part way down the hall was this stuff.


And this pic shows the door that opens into the silo with the missle beyond. There was glass in front of the open door to keep people out so my pic isn't the best.


In the museums main building was this model of the silo.


And out in front of the building is this big antenna. It was the main source for receiving the call to launch and the other antennas inside the site were back up antennas in case the big one was destroyed.

[addicted08]

We took a different route when we left the Titan Missle Museum and saw this neat looking rock formation. A sign on the road said it is Helmet Peak.


And we stumbled into this building. It is San Xavier Mission.


So that is what we did this afternoon. Now I am just waiting to hear what our tour guides say we should do tomorrow.

[addicted08]

On Friday Ron and I decided to ride up to the top of Mt. Lemon. We have been part way up and the ride is beautiful so we decided to go further on Friday. There are plenty of pull outs to stop and admire the view.


And admire the view with my beautiful trike in it.


Ok, seriously....the view is amazing.




But so is the view with my trike.


After coming back down from the mountain we went into town to find someplace to have a beer. First Ron saw this place. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot.




But he continued on to find someplace a little less crowded. And this is what he found. We did go in and have a couple of drinks before heading back home.

[Swiss V8]

You are just amazing!
Great to know some folks like you, that travel to so many different locations, take pictures all the way and show it to us!

Keep going like that! I guess we all wait for the next few pics...

[SRF]

I agree with Martin always waiting to see the new pics.

Shane