tucson bone yard/pima air and space museum

cactus in arizona

sentinel peak tucson
massive cactus

black bird SR-71
airplanes in storage

spare engines
all windows covered in white spray on plastic

more planes!

an old boeing 707
old government plane

very shiny aluminium
F-14A 'tomcat'

Thursday 29th September 2011

Today we awoke in Phoenix and planned to travel to Tucson and see the Pima Air and Space Museum. It was about a 240km drive from where we were staying and was a very easy drive. Once we hit Tucson we stopped for lunch and then took a drive to Sentinel Peak which is right on the outskirts of the city. The view from the peak was great as was the weather at a very nice 36 degrees. Arizona is also covered in cactus that grow massive! Everywhere we have travelled in the last 24 hours has had 1000's of these cacti growing all over.

We got to the museum and we had planned to do a bus trip which takes you around the bone yard. There are 2600 acres which hold about 4200 planes. Some of these planes are for regeneration and some are for parts only. The total worth of planes on site is $27 billion usd. The tour was very interesting and lasted for about 1.5 hours. The bus dropped us back at the museum where we spent about another hour or so looking at the many planes such as the blackbird and the tomcat in the pictures above. There are so many different sorts of planes on display that you would need to ask Bronte about them as he is the plane expert.

By this time it was 5.00pm and it was time to hit the road and get to our next stop being Lordsburg New Mexico. We arrived at about 7.00pm where we checked in and then went to the local Mexican restaurant called Kranberry's. The food was amazing and it was priced very well. Once back at the motel I went for a swim and Bronte hit the gym. About an hour later the power went out so we decided to go to bed. I think the power came back on around midnight. Tomorrow we head further east as we get closer to Dallas.

palm springs

palm springs
palm springs tramway

at the top
it was 20 degrees C cooler at the top

mt san jacinto
one of the walks at the top

pine needles!
squirrel

in the tram car

wood pecker in the tree

kaufmann house at palm springs

highway to phoenix az
bronte driving through arizona

Wednesday 28th September 2011

Today saw us wake and embark on the palm springs aerial tramway which takes you on a 2 and a half mile ride on a gondola to the top of the Chino Canyon on the northern edge of Palm Springs. This tramway took 26 months to build and was put into service on September 14th 1963. In 2000 it was updated to its current style incorporating revolving tram cars. On the way up the tram car turns about 2 to 3 times. It is quite weird as the floor moves and not the entire car.

The ride up is spectacular, you start at the valley station which is 806 metres above sea level and you rise to 2596 metres at Mountain Station. Once at the top of San Jacinto Peak you can take in the views from the station back to the floor of the Coachella Valley seeing many towns spread out for miles.

There are a number of walks in the forest at the top and we decided to do the nature walk loop trail where we saw squirrels and a wood pecker that was merrily pecking at the trees. The temp was amazing, when we left the bottom it was about 35 and by the time we got to the top it was only 15. We spent about 2 hours at the top before making the journey back down to the car.

We stopped in at the information centre and got some info on famous houses in Palm Springs. Bronte wanted to see the Kaufmann House which is famous as Barry Manilow once lived there. The house was built in 1946 and is famous in the California area being listed in the top ten homes in LA in 2008. We now headed off towards Phoenix AZ where we were planning to spend the night before heading off to Tucson to visit the plane bone yard. The weather is amazingly hot, it has averaged between 39 and 41 all day today!

bttf

coastal road along malibu

heading north

train line used in bttf III
me standing where the delorean was smashed

the street where the delorean flys down at end of bttf I
mcfly house

street corner from bttf II 2015 lyons estate
burger king where marty skate boards from

angels flight railway in la
at the top

walt disney concert hall
front of hall

shopping centre car park where the delorean first travels in time
me standing where the fire trails were

Tuesday 27th September 2011

Well today's post has a massive Back to the Future theme so if you like the movie you will love the photos, if not you wont find them interesting at all. I liked it so bad luck!!

We first headed north from Marina Del Rey and followed the coast road to Port Hueneme CA which took us through Malibu along the way. It was around 70km but the drive was very picturesque. We were heading to the site which is commonly referred to as the 'DeLorean death site.' This is where the DeLorean is smashed to pieces by a train in the final episode of bttf.

From there we headed to Arleta CA to Roslyndale Ave which is where Marty McFly lives and is where the DeLorean flys through the trees at the end of episode 1.

Also 3 streets away is the street corner used in episode 2 where the DeLorean is stolen by old Biff while Marty and the Doc try to get Jennifer from her house in 2015. (wow I sound like a nerd!!)

From there just a couple of miles down the road to Burger King Burbank where Marty goes to Doc Browns shed and plays his guitar and then takes off on his skate board hanging onto a ute as it leaves the drive thru at Burger King.

Now we headed back in the Downtown LA where we rode the shortest railway in the world called Angel Flight. It was originally further along the street and was pulled down and moved to its current location. The ride costs 25c each way and was well worth it. Once at the top we took a short walk to the Walt Disney Concert Hall which is a very spectacular building made of polished stainless steel. Just prior to finding a car park in the city I did a u-turn to park and I was stopped by the police. He gave me a warning for doing a u-turn where you are not allowed. He looked at my licence and said 'I lock up people from Australia, New Zealanders are okay but the Australian aren't.' Lucky me as that could have been a nice ticket!!!

We now started to head out of the city towards Palm Springs which is east of LA. On the way we detoured to the shopping centre used in bttf I where the Doc first puts Einstein in the car and test the time travel for the first time. We parked our car just behind where the truck was parked in the movie and then I stood close to where the fire trails were as Marty was filming with his video camera.

We arrived at Palm Springs with a balmy temp of 34 degrees C. The motel was really nice and had a great pool and hot tub which we used after dinner. Tomorrow we head to Phoenix AZ as we make our way east.

marina del rey

venice beach

seagull on the jetty

view south of the jetty

Monday 26th September 2011

After a day in Melbourne to prepare for our 14 hour flight we finally arrive in Los Angeles. After lining up for a hour at border control we made it out of the airport and on the bus to Hertz. A quick processing at Hertz an we are the proud owners of a Nissan Altima with 30000 miles on it. Even though its high in mileage it seems to be a great car. We made our way to Marina Del Rey and checked into our motel and then went and got some lunch at Taco Bell. After lunch we walked to Venice Beach which was only about 10 minutes away. A nice walk out the jetty and along past muscle beach and the market stalls which was kind of pleasant especially if your after medical marijuana!!

The evening saw us go to Applebees for dinner which was a little disappointing considering I had been hanging out for it for 5 months.

Tuesday sees us tour LA and go to the filming locations of Back to the Future (BTTF). We are going to go to the main hero sites if you like from the movie. I'm kind of a little excited about today as my DeLorean is in Adelaide and being unpacked as I write this blog. Rosalie is going to take delivery of our new pride and joy sometime this week.