Phoenix to Tuscon

 

                        Our RV home for the next 6 weeks is very nice and so roomy when the sides are expanded. it is well fitted out and the owner has provided some pantry items.

Phoenix is unusually cool for this time of year at a pleasant 25C - normally it is up in the high 30's. We are told the population is around 4 million including the surrounding area.  It is a modern city in an arid landscape.  Landscaping is very neat along nature strips and public areas with desert plants and hedged shrubs - very little grass.

Our priority before leaving the city was a little retail therapy at an outlet centre.  With the favourable dollar, golf gear, shoes and clothing are a good buy.  With this satisfied we headed south to Tuscon.  Quite a windy, dusty desert day.  Some of the tall suguaro cactus have large flowers but a lot have finished flowering.

Tuscon is home to the Pima Air & Space Museum which opened in 1976 and today is the third largest aviation Museum in the world.  The Museum is located on 200 acres exhibiting 300 aircraft and 125,000 artifacts.  The Museum attracts more than 150,000 visitors annually, and houses its own aircraft restoration shop.  There are tours of the Aerospacr Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.  Known as the "Boneyard", it is the world's largest military aircraft storage facility and is the resting place for over 4000 planes.  About half of these can be reinstated if needed.  A trolley car tour of the Museum and a coach tour of AMARG were both very interesting and gave an insight into this huge facility.