Jim & Lyndi ZR-1 Road Trip to Death Valley and The Grand Canyon

[QB93Z]

Day 19 - at Mesa:

For our morning activity, we drove east from Mesa to see the sights on the Apache Trail. The Apache Trail is an Arizona State Scenic Highway (AZ-88). Most of AZ-88 is in the Tonto National Forest.

Our first stop was to visit Goldfield Ghost Town, the remains of an active gold mine that operated from 1892 to 1898. There are a lot of mining equipment and buildings, an operating tourist train, stores, restaurants, gift shops, a jail, gold panning, native American art and jewelry, 2 churches, and other tourist attractions.





Lyndi in front of a steam powered tractor on Main Street:






Mine equipment:






The Apache trail winded its way through the mountains and landscapes with many Saguaro Cactus. Canyon Lake is one of four reservoirs that were formed by the damming of the Salt River in the U.S. state of Arizona as part of the Salt River Project. It was formed by the Mormon Flat Dam, which was completed in 1925 after two years of construction.






We stopped for lunch in the town of Tortilla Flat, at the Superstition Saloon.









Jim

[QB93Z]

Day 20 at Mesa, AZ

We stayed at the resort today, swimming at the pool and enjoying watching the golfers. The Manager at the Lounge gave us some fish food to feed the wild life in the fairway pond:





















We had dinner with friends of ours from home who are in Phoenix temporarily:





Jim

[QB93Z]

Day 21 at Mesa, AZ - Visit to the Phoenix Zoo

From our resort on the east side of Mesa, it is just about a 25 minute drive to the Phoenix Zoo. On the way, we saw Hole in the Rock. There is a popular trail up to the arch that forms the "hole". Visitors to the attraction have to have a permit to climb the trail.





The Hole in the Rock can also be seen from the Zoo parking Lot:




The Phoenix Zoo is a nice zoo. We had a wonderful time seeing all the animals. The habitats for the animals are well designed and the animals appear to be well cared-for. The zoo is well supported by the community and has lots of special programs on their schedule.

The big cats are always our favorite animals and we were not disappointed. The large male was fairly active for short periods. By returning to his display several times, Lyndi got some nice pictures:







The Jaguar was very active, climbing around on a multi-platform habitat and interacting with the people:




The Rhino was very active most of the morning:




At the tortoise exhibit, a family had paid for a special treat of feeding the tortoises. The favorite food was carrots. Each child had a pair of kitchen tongs to present the carrot to the Tortoise:




This rare Maned Wolf is very appealing:




This Adean Bear climbed to the top of his tree and found a comfortable position:




Jim

[WARP TEN]

The animal pictures are terrific Lyndi. You are a great photographer! ---Bob

[tgonyaw]

Great pictures and stories!
It's really nice of you to let us travel along with you!

[QB93Z]

Day 22 - Mesa

Thanks for the comments. We will be leaving Mesa tomorrow, so we relaxed today, did some shopping and got the ZR-1 loaded for an early departure.


Here is a map of our return route. The stops are all 1 day, with the exception of 5 days in Branson, MO. We will be averaging about 350 miles per day so we will have time for sightseeing along the way.





Jim

[QB93Z]

Day 23 - Drive to Deming, NM

Our first sightseeing stop of the day was in South Tucson. We visited the Pima Air and Space Museum.










The first display if the Wright Brothers first airplane (A replica, since the original in in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington DC):





This hand-made tiny plane is listed as capable of 185 MPH:





Some of the hundreds of planes and artifacts on display in several large hangers and many more planes displayed out doors.




One of the Blue Angles jets that the museum has:




A carrier based fighter jet:




One of my favorite planes, the SR-71 Blackbird:





Lyndi enjoyed the display of civilian airlines vintage uniforms:





There are many, many more planes outside and in other hangers:




to be continued......

[QB93Z]

Another major portion of the Pima Air & Space Museum is an entire hanger devoted to honoring the Second World War, Air Crews and Ground crews that flew the B-17 Bombers. The display focused on one B-17 from the 390th Bomber Squadron. I encourage everyone to visit the museum and learn about the amazing accomplishments of these men.






Jim

[QB93Z]

The second stop for the day was at the Titan II ICBM National Monument.





This site is the last remaining Titan II ICBM launch site. During the Cold War, the Titan II system provided a robust nuclear launch capability that was part of the US Triade of nuclear missiles. The area around Tucson, NM had 18 missile silos that were in service from 1963 to 1987. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the Titan II were removed and the silos destroyed.

The one preserved silo complex is a very meaningful part of US history. To see the missile complex, visitors take a 90 minute guided tour.










The missile on display was de-fueled, the warhead was removed, the rocket motors were removed, and the rocket was returned to the silo.
















Jim

[QB93Z]

Day 24 - Change of Plans

The plan for today was to drive from Deming, NM to White Sands National Park to drive on the dunes (a little bit), then drive to Carlsbad, NM to check in, then drive to Carlsbad Canyon National Park to see the Bat Flyout from the canyon at sun set.
Problem 1: Brush fires near Alamogordo, NM cause traffic restrictions north of Las Cruces.

Problem 2: When Lyndi call the Park to get a rough idea of the Bat Flyout would occur. She found that the bats migrate in the winter (who knew?) and the program is closed until May.
So we decided to cancel our Saturday stay in Carlsbad, and drive all the way to Wichita Falls, TX on Saturday. They we could add a day to our Branson Lakes Resort stay.

So we drove 691 miles, about 12 hours and a time zone change, and the Purple ZR-1 now has more than 92,000 miles on it.

Jim