And the moon rose over an open field (Arizona day liu)

Short day today, but I have to warn you, there's gonna be a picture or two in this post.

Temperatures dropped to freezing on my last camping night. Maybe even a bit below freezing. I was sleeping in the Jeep again (People have asked, so I'll clarify - there was plenty of room to stretch in there. Next time I'm not even bringing a tent), and at some point I had to start the engine and let the heating work for 15 minutes before I could go back to sleep. That cold.

But nothing a hot cup of tea and waking up to desert views couldn't fix.

One last, very nicely composed, if you don't mind my saying, goodbye to Catalina State Park.


And it's plane time!

I originally left the area in a hurry, so I would have time for Monument Valley, but MV turned out to be way too far, so I suddenly had time to go back to the Pima Air & Space Museum, where they took the best corpses from plane graveyard, added some original Air Force loaners, and let us geeks run around freely.

It starts small, with the tiniest jet in the world. It will be familiar to fans of the movie Octopussy (are there such people anywhere?) and to people who owned the Acroject flight simulator on the Commodore 64 (which would be me).


Ah, 1985 graphics... This is the first time I see this in color, BTW.


My parents actually have slides of this thing flying in their basement. The slides are in their basement, not the flying.

It gets warmer with this B-26.


And moves STRAIGHT to the main attraction! An F-14. Right there. With me. For real. And my pants suddenly feel tight.
This is the first F-14 ever produced, which is very symbolic, with the last F-14 making its last flight a few weeks ago.


Prowler.


The Black Bird of Sexiness.


Classics: Beautifully restored B-24 and B-29, complete with dummies in flight suits manning the guns. Awesome, as in awe-inspiring.



Another meeting that's been a long time coming. With trembling hands, iDoc finally feels up the A-10 Thunderbolt II.

Interestingly I wasn't the only nut in that place. A guy was taking (what appeared to be) his grandson through the museum, explaining how this here A-10 was built around that big in the front. He could have been reading it from the sign next to the plane, but I sensed his insanity from as far as the F-4. He proved me right when he paused in mid-explanation and suddenly asked me "I can't remember. Is that gun 30 or 36 milimeters?" What the hell kind of a question is that? Of course it's 30mm, idiot. 30mm depleted uranium projectiles, specially designed for the Avenger, which you will only find on the A-10. Everybody knows that.

But how did he know I would know the answer? Was it because I was licking the gun at the time?


I never noticed the Starlifter had such an artsy tail.


He hey! Remember watching Bailey's Bird three times a year in the early 80's?
Oh, you missed growing up in Israel in the 80's? You didn't miss much. Anyway, Baily's Bird was a show about this guy (Bailey), living in some shithole in South-East Asia with his plane and his pansy blond son, and every episode he would get into a new adventure with his plane, which was an Albatross, just like this plane. And there were always smugglers of some sort, wanting to smuggle their smuggables on Baily's Bird. But he wouldn't let them. Cause he's Bailey. I also seem to recall a hot blond doctor, but I'm no longer sure. It was that age when planes were more interesting than women. I'll let you know when it ends. Was he Australian?




Update: Got it! After giving up hope of ever finding any real Bailey's Bird material on the net, it turns out that nothing is too old or too obscure for Google. Check it out! Pansy kid and everything. And an episode list!



Update2: Yes its Australian. And the show was known as Flugboot 121 in Germany. Silly Germans. Anyway.



Where did all the cool planes of the 60's go, huh?


Look at this Hustler, with that huge double drop-off fuel tank. That is the most pimped out fighter plane ever.


Crouching under a B-52G. Holly shit.


What are doing tonight, Brain? Same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world. Isn't it, like, the spitting image?
A Hercules, converted to carry moon rocket engines.


I got this F-111 aligned so perfectly, you can see right down that tube.


Turns out this isn't a Nord.


But this is, of course, a Harrier.


That's me, setting the tripod up on a bench. Muy artistico.


And that's me, hugging the F-14 goodbye. I can't believe they decommissioned it for that butt-ugly F/A-18. Feh.


After a few intimate minutes with the F-14, I looked up and noticed there was nobody left in the museum - it was closing time. But time for one last shot.
It was supposed to be a tiny me in the middle of the museum, but I couldn't get far enough before the timer took the picture, so here's a cool me with the sun behind me. Just like my hero, Josey Wales.



And that was it. My flight left at 8am, and I couldn't camp and get up early enough to pack my gear and drive to the airport, so I had to spend the night in the airport Best Western. How bourgeoisie. After a tearful 5am goodbye from Pedro, my loayl mule, I headed back to reality.