TITAN II MISSILE MUSEUM

Our exciting adventure this past week was a trip to Tucson which is about 60 miles south of here on I 10.  We had some things to do at Golfsmith first and then decided that we would drive to the Titan Missile Museum south of Tucson on I 19.  That interstate goes directly south to Nogales, Mexico and has a couple of smaller communities called Green Valley and Sahuarita along the way.  We stopped for a Mexican lunch at Manuel’s restaurant and it was really good food.  Once in a while I like to order Chile Rellenos (a poblano chile stuffed with cheese, covered in a light batter and fried) and the one they served there was the best I’ve had in years.  We both enjoy Mexican food—not something that we cook at home very often other than fajitas.

The Titan Missile Museum in Green Valley has the only intact Titan missile in its silo from the original 54 missile silos originally located in the United States in the 1950’s.  They were established during the Cold War with the Soviet Union and fortunately, not one of them was ever deployed although it was a close call during the Cuban Missile crisis in 1963.  The missile is 15 stories high and the warhead had 650 times more destructive power than the bombs dropped on Japan in the Second World War.  The top of the silo is covered with glass so you can look down at the whole missile sitting there and then you go down into the silo to the control room to see all the instrumentation.  There were always 4 crew members working together at one time and the site was manned 24 hours a day with plenty of security measures for access.  Part of the tour included a re-enactment of an actual launch and I was the one chosen as the commander to sit at the control panel and turn the ignition key at the end of the countdown.  Cool!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Missile_Museum

We didn’t spend much time in Tucson after the tour but may go back another time to see the old historic buildings.  We’re still finding plenty to do each day and are meeting a few people through our various activities.  The weather was really cold on the weekend—just below freezing a few nights and cool and windy during the days.  We are back up to day time temperatures in the mid-seventies (24 C) and mid-forties (6 C) at night.  Way better than the cold and snow back at home.

Everyone here is getting all lit up for Christmas and there are some interesting lights and decorations at some of the RV sites.