May 14th, Flagstaff to Tucson; 15th May, Tucson Touring

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Well, we finally arrived in Tucson on May 14th, only 6 days behind the original schedule! How is that for planning?

Tucson was planned as a two day stop including the lovingly-curated Pima Air Museum and the Boneyard at Davis Monthan AFB. We arrived at the day's final destination around 3 pm, positively buzzed by the aerial views as well as the Flagstaff visit. This was where the hospitality was fantastic. Nancy Blackwell, former club member, and two other people (Jim, a friend of Nancy's husband Jimmy Blackwell, and former club president Frank Z) met us at the airport about 4 pm and took us straight to Lil' Abner's Steakhouse, for which Bob Hawkins had been pining since his last visit forty years before! It lived up to its excellent reputation undiminished.

Nancy hosted the C2C crew at her home; Ruth and Geoff got to stay in Nancy's "casita" or "little house", a separate building connected by a patio to the main house. Bob Hawkins stayed with Jim.

On Thursday the 15th, the group remained in Tucson to enjoy its sky-high pile of heavenly delights for pilots! Those included a bus tour of Davis Monthan Air Force Base, and lunch at Pima Air Museum prior to a tram tour of Pima. The latter is an extensive and eclectic collection lovingly curated by talented and knowledgeable volunteers, right across the street from the former, which is stuffed to the perimeter with essentially a static spare parts farm of decades of retired military aircraft.

After the tram tour of Pima, some continued their tour on foot for up-close views and photos of famous aircraft like Eisenhower's Presidential Plane, Columbine, which one may walk through. "That was kinda neat...and it was crowded, too," notes Geoff. "You could spend days at this museum; that was the shame of it; we didn't have time!" Judy remembers fondly from her first visit there in 1996 an SR-71, to which one can get even closer than the one now at Udvar-Hazy outside IAD.

Nancy not only loaned the group her van for the day, but spent the intervening hours preparing a feast of Mexican cuisine -- what a day! She topped off the dinner with a german chocolate birthday cake for Bob Hawkins. Knowing pilot schedules as she did, she had it ready from the 9th, and it was perfectly fresh for this special occasion!

(Thanks for the initial en route entry for this day, relayed by Janice Templeman, who has been posting a comprehensive personal blog with LOTS of pictures, and she invites everyone to visit http://dragonpilot.blogspot.com/2008/05/monday-morningafternoon-and-evening.html ! You'll be impressed.)

Waiting in the Wings

Meanwhile, on the 14th, Judy and Alex waited in Seattle hosted by (in one case, a decreasingly patient) friend (s) for the westbound bunch to turn north and get ready to point east. It seemed that we could expect to be waiting for them through Sunday. Seattle was chilly and rainy, but with a near-tropical forecast for the end of the week. Nice, nice weather was forecast for the west coast starting today through Sunday, the malingerers hoped for the best and some great flying for them all.

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Photos

coming into Tucson
to Marana Regional Airport, northwest of Tucson

A Rose Among Thorns
Bucky meets Saguaro cactus when he overshoots the runway at Tucson.

A Rose Behind Bars!
"Speed limit? Really, officer, I was only just getting to rotation speed for a density altitude of 9000 feet!"

The Alternate Happy Bottom Riding Club
The group 'signed in' at the famous Lil Abner steak and BBQ restaurant, last haunted by Bob Hawkins 40 years ago. The restaurant inexplicably looks like a jail, with bars on the windows (previous photo) and graffiti covered walls, doors, as depicted in photos on the composite catch-all entry posted by Dick Strock and company while waiting it out in Oregon on May 20th. The bartender has a supply of magic markers on hand for customer use.

Bucky and Friend
Bucky makes a new friend at Nancy Blackwell's