Day 12 - Tucson AZ

Miles today: 167

Miles total: 4147

Rode AZ-80 to Tombstone.  As expected it’s a bit of a hokey tourist trap but the historic district does have numerous historical plaques as you walk along the buildings.  Most either say who-shot-who on this spot, or that the original building at this location burned down in 1882.

Next stop was the Titan Missile Museum.  Overall a better ICBM museum experience than the Minuteman museum in North Dakota because the silo and control center are at the same site (the Minuteman control center operates 10 remote silos).  An interesting fact was that it took 2 years of negotiations with the Soviets/Russians to not count the museum’s missile as part of the strategic arms treaty. Part of the compromise was to cut a section of the nose cone out and make that permanently visible to overflying spy satellites to prove it’s inert. 

Next was another museum: the Pima Air and Space Museum.  Huge. Among the best aviation museum collections anywhere.  I won’t bore you with a bunch of pictures except the B-36 since, unlike the one in the Air Force Museum, you can stand back and see it in its entirety.

And at last I finally got to see some real saguaro cacti, in Saguaro National Park.