Miles driven – 485
Total miles 1748
Despite the title, we’re not dead.
Leaving Phoenix we spotted a little track complex. (That would be Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park – Ed!) A quick drive around found the world famous Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving school which has a beehive of yellow Corvettes.
Around lunch we arrived at our destination. The Pima Air and Space museum in Tucson, the museum sited adjacent to Davis Monthan Air Force Base, home to the world’s largest plane boneyard with literally in the United States.
Our tour of the boneyard wasn’t until 3 so we checked out the museum. It was excellent. A huge amount of historic planes scattered around outside, some entirely unique, with visitors free to walk up to them all and get a good look.
Inside the hangar, an SR-71 Blackbird was a main attraction. Seeing it in person is amazing. It gulfs everything. Now retired it could once do L.A to New York in an hour. That’s Mach 3 for you!
The tour of the boneyard is done on a coach, as it’s a live military airbase you can’t walk around. I was little nervous as we went through security after my previous run in with Las Vegas authorities. Fortunately for me I was allowed in.
The coach drove through the various parts, fighters, carriers, bombers and helicopters. Fighters, Bombers, Transport planes and helicopters, they were all there, row after row. A truly spectacular sight.
Heading towards our stop for the night, Las Cruces we had a little walk around Fairbank. It’s an old town which is now a heritage centre. A walk up to the graveyard there provided a beautiful panoramic view.
Up the road we hit another town, Tombstone. Famed through tales of the old west and the site of the infamous Gunfight at the OK Corral.
And that concluded our death related names tour for the day. It wasn’t without a stop by the Mexican border control. They seemed suspicious of me. I put it down to my dodgy facial hair (dodgy is a polite way of putting it! Ed) and foreign passport.
