Chapter 5 - Day 16 - Titan Missile Museum and Kartchner Cavern SP

 3/16 - I headed out fairly early looking to visit Titan Missile Museum and make it to my reservation for a state park. The ride out was beautiful as each morning seems to be now.

I hadn't purchased ticket online for the museum, so I ended up eating lunch and taking a nap in their parking lot until my tour time. Never a bad day when you get to nap. 

The museum is built in one of the many nuclear missile locations in Arizona. The Cold War brought about an example of deterrence by threat of destruction. WE had nuclear weapons. Russia had nuclear weapons. If they launched, we'd launch and that would destroy both countries completely.

The tour was very well done. It made me realize I'm glad I wasn't old enough to understand the actual threats of the Cold War and the knife's edge we sat on.

From there I headed to Kartchner's Cavern State Park, but hit a cool little winery on the way.

Chapter 5 - Day 15- Biosphere

 3/15 - Biosphere 2.0, Tucson landmarks and BLM camping

My goals for the day were to see Biosphere and the local arboretum, but I just ended up at Biosphere and a few landmarks.

Biosphere 2.0 was really neat. In the 80's, if you'll remember, there was an experiment where people were sealed into the biosphere for 2 months to see if they could survive. Like a Mars experiment. Now, the politics behind this were crazy, and the experiment itself failed rather quickly, but the buildings and research continue. I LOVED every single minute of the tour. My science heart was all pitter pattering.

For quick reference, Biosphere was supposed to house each biome, species for both food and atmospheric impact, and weather modulation for each. The ocean housed reef fish and inverts. The fog desert housed plants, insects and amphibian/reptiles. There were goats and chickens. Pretty nuts.

Now, it's run by the University of Arizona for experiments, still, but nothing to the scale of the initial reason it was built.

It's interesting the things that failed over time, even that succession is interesting and being studied.

From there I headed to my evening spot and enjoyed some amazing desert views.

I stayed west of Tucson in an area called Old Pump Road, which wasn't the actual name of any road around it. 

Chapter 5 - Day 13 and 14 - Tucson and a 50's Motel

 3/13/25 - We sped off in the morning to outrun a wind event that was going to hit mid-Arizona. The drive was a couple of hours and really quite nice. I took a ton of pics along the way. As you'll notice some of the bushes had greened up from the rain the last couple of days.  And as I came down from the mountains there are cool palm tree things growing everywhere. 

I didn't stop and see anything along the way. The goal was to get parked by 11am before the wind started. But the location I'm staying in for the next couple of days is cute. I found it on Hipcamp. Not sure if I've talked much about that website, but it's similar to HarvestHost in the type of places you can find, but you pay for the nights you stay vs a yearly fee.

El Pais Motel and RV Resort is where I landed in Tucson. It's adorable and it's been pretty busy since I got here.

Also, finally got to scratch the pizza itch. Picked a local joint with fantastic pizza and garlic knots. Jaime's Kitchen.

I'll be here through Saturday morning, then off to Biosphere, an arborteum and a few other places. 

Behave and eat bread with that. 

Love, Mom