When Mark got here we went out to a nearby Dennys and had a nice long and talkative dinner there before returning to the RV and Mark to a hotel before our planned visit to the Pima Air and Space Museum the next day. Mark picked us up the next morning and we headed for the Pima Museum which is absolutely amazing if you care at all about airplanes and space. 
They have a 2,600 acre aircraft 'boneyard' with all sorts of aircraft, mostly military. A bus with open sides can be ridden around the boneyard to see all the planes they have. There is also a page on their website listing the many planes they have indoors and outdoors listing the manufacturer, designation, name, serial# and with thumbnail images you can click to view more closely. These are just limited to airplanes but also includes many flight related vehicles such as the line up of helicopters shown below.
By the time the bus tour of the boneyard was done, I was hot and had had my fill of airplanes which are not really my cup of tea so I wandered off to the gift shop while Mark and Geoff toured the many indoor exhibits of air and space memorabilia including uniforms and equipment. The boys spent some time viewing stuff while I spent money in the gift shop including another ball cap for my collection, this one beige with the navy blue Pima Air & Space logo on the front. Oh, had my growing collection of ball caps escaped mention previously?Mark returned us to Wolf and left us to rest before Geoff and I tackled the next day's visit to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. The museum was founded in 1952 and my mother took myself and my sisters there at least once in the mid-fifties. It was interesting then but now it has grown to a major experience. It's primary focus is the presentation of live plants and animals, including birds and reptiles, from the Sonoran Desert region.
On the way in and at the museum we were fortunate to see many of the cacti in bloom. The museum has mobility chairs available for rent and this gave us the opportunity to take our time touring the various sections and exhibits. There is an extensive aviary with many sorts of birds from ducks to tiny cactus wrens, an aquarium, a hummingbird sanctuary, raptors, prairie dogs and of course snakes.
The road in and out of the desert museum location is a little bit winding and a lot of ups and downs. Certainly not to be taken at speed in Wolf! We left the museum and headed north with enough time to get our rental car when we get to our next stop, the Distant Drums RV Resort. I mentioned this RV park briefly when we stayed there last year in the blog Seester visit! It's a very nice place, conveniently located for visiting the Verde Valley area so we returned there for this week long visit this year.Our rented grey Dodge Journey showed up from Enterprise with enough time for us to return the driver to their location in Cottonwood and visit the WalMart there! I may not have mentioned before but unlike many RV'ers, we do not tow a vehicle. The Subaru Outbacks we own do not lend themselves to being towed and for the most part we do fine without a car, renting one only occasionally. Enterprise car rentals policy of delivery and pickup has worked very well and our only complaint is that we often end up with a Dodge Journey which has seat rails that tend to chew up the back of my legs just above the ankle. Thus the problem isn't the rental company but the car itself.
Okay, off the soapbox about the car ... time to rest up for tomorrow's adventures.
We love Distant Drums. Did you take the shuttle to the casino for dinner?
ReplyDeleteWe also loved the desert museum. We spent close to an hour in the hummingbird exhibit. There were a few nests that we discovered and we just had to wait for mom (or dad) to get off so we could see if there were eggs or babies under them!
In 2016 we went to dinner over there but my sister picked us up. We didn't see any nests at the hummingbird exhibit, it was cooler in there though. We paid attention to the suggestions and went to the museum first thing in the morning.
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