Memorial Day Observed

May 31, 2010.
Although the actual Memorial Day Holiday was Sunday, today was the weekday holiday. I want to personally thank and remember all those who have served our country or gave the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our great country! God Bless America and our service men and women and our veterans!


We spent the day on Davis Monthan A.F.B. at Agave Gulch Campground (Fam Camp). It was another scorcher with afternoon temps at 98 degrees. My father, Joyce and I drove around the base looking at the mothballed airplanes through the fencing and marveling at the sheer numbers.

We came across a retired Air Force One! I guess more appropriately, a former plane for our Commander In Chief.

Afterwards we stopped in a small park on base and took some photos of aircraft on static display. Below, Joyce and my father, Henry under a B-52.

 

My father and I in front of a C-130.

The rest of the day we spent making preparations to move on to Las Cruces, NM. the next day. Joyce and Karen went to the base pool. I stayed home and inspected the inside of my eyelids!

That evening, a neighbor was asking me about the Surge Guard I had installed on the power pedestal in line with my power cord. I was telling him how important I thought it was to protect our electronics in the rig when suddenly it cut the power to the rig. After some investigating, It turns out the Surge Guard died right then and there a month beyond its 1 year warranty. Great!

Later that night, my father and I watched the movie Avatar and enjoyed it. Joyce and Karen watched some chick flick in my father and Karen's RV. We got to bed late and tomorrow is a travel day! 

Tucson, Pima Air and Space Museum, Kitts Peak National Observatory

May 29-30, 2010.


The last few days were a blur. While at Davis Monthan A.F.B. Agave Gulch Campground, we took some excursions. On Saturday, we took a ride out to The Pima Air and Space Museum. We wanted to take a tour of the airplane boneyard. However, after arriving we learned that the tours weren't offered on the weekends because some of the base gates are closed.

The only other option was to pay the $15 plus museum entrance fee to look at the static displays of aircraft. We weren't in the mood for another aircraft museum having recently toured the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola and the Eglin A.F.B. Armament Museum in Fort Walton.

So, we soon left the museum and traveled to downtown Tucson. We stopped at the Old Town Artisans shoppes. I took a picture of my father, Karen and Joyce outside one of the entrances to the courtyard.

After looking through the shops and having a bite, we walked around the scenic downtown Tucson area for a short while as it was hot in the mid to upper 90's. Below is a bronze statue outside of an art museum.

On Sunday Memorial Day, We met my cousin Terry and her husband Rick along with their daughter, Danielle for breakfast at the golf course on Davis Monthan A.F.B. They were in Tucson this weekend to help Danielle move to a rental house. Danielle is a student at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Rick and Terry were finished with moving Danielle so they decided to join us on a trip out to Kitt Peak National Observatory. 

Kitt Peak is at an elevation of 6,875 feet above sea level. Mountain temps vary considerably from the desert floor by 15 to 20 degrees and it is often windy. 
We were looking forward to the change in elevation and cooler temps! We drove the 50 plus miles out of Tucson to get to the peak and began climbing the 8% grades to the top. It cooled from the mid 90's in the valley to the upper 70's.  Ahhh just right!

We got there just in time to catch up to the last tour of the day. After a classroom lecture on the dynamics of telescopes and scientific jargon I was beginning to glaze over! Fortunately, before long we headed outside for a short steep walk to one of the actual telescopes built on top of this mountain. 

As advertised it was a bit windy... 

but the views were incredible. Below is a picture of the road we took to get to the top of the mountain.

We continued on the guided tour inside one of the larger telescope buildings. The telescope we toured is located on the 20th floor of the larger domed building in one of the previous pictures. The views from that building were really incredible. Again, I began to glaze over as the guide spoke of all the technical abilities and specifics related to the telescope.  

After the tour, we stayed on top of the mountain for a bit longer to have a picnic and enjoy the company. It was a fun and cool way to spend an otherwise hot afternoon.

Before long, it was time to say goodbye as Terry and Rick needed to head back to their home in Glendale, north of Phoenix, AZ. We really enjoyed their company. Terry pointed out that we had seen each other every weekend for the past 4 weeks! I think I had seen them maybe 4 times total before retiring. We hope to see them again and maybe spend some time and a Grand Canyon adventure together in the near future.

CAT Scales Certified Weight of Our Rig

May 29, 2010.
I mentioned in the previous post that we stopped and had our rig weighed before arriving at Davis Monthan A.F.B. Well, in fact, we stopped at a CAT Scales in a truck stop off the interstate. The scales are located throughout our country. Operation is simple and there is a "how to" video on the CAT Scales website. Basically all you do is drive onto the scales ramp noting the segmented slabs on the ramp. You want to stop with your axles on the separate segments in order to get the various axle weights. Now unfortunately it doesn't weigh side to side, just whole axle weights.


There's a speaker box and a call button. Hit the call button and ask for a private weigh. They then tell you to come on in with your tag number. After parking and going inside you pay $9 for your weigh ticket that has the weights for your Steer Axle (front), Drive Axle (dually axle on my truck) and the Trailer Axles. The ticket also gives you the combined axle weights as the Gross Weight. After weighing the rig, I opted to come back within 24 hours with just my truck to weigh it separately for an additional $1.


Okay, let's get to the numbers! On my first weigh with the rig (truck and trailer) and a 1/2 tank of diesel, my Certified weigh ticket reported:
Steer Axle 4760 lbs.  (Rated for 5200 lbs.)
Drive Axle 6800 lbs. (Dually rated for 9350 lbs.)
Trailer Axles 12380 lbs. (combined axles rated for 14000 lbs.)
Gross Weight 23940 lbs. (Truck GCVW rated for 24000 lbs.)

My 2009 Dodge Quad Cab Longbed 4x4 dually diesel with a 4:10 axle is rated at the following:
Steer Axle 5200 lbs.
Drive Axle 9350 lbs.
GVW (Gross Vehicle Weight) 12200 lbs.
GCVW (Gross Combined Vehicle Weight) 24000 lbs. with 4:10 axle
Max Trailer Weight 16900 lbs.


So, with all of those numbers in mind, I'm within the manufacturer's rated weights on my truck. With the trailer my GVW on the truck is 11560 lbs., well under the rated 12200 lbs. However, I'm only 60 lbs. under the manufacturer's GCVW of 24000 lbs. Now I should note that the GCVW is considerably less with a 3.73 rear axle at 21000 lbs.


I went back to the scales later in the evening after unhitching from our Cameo fifth wheel to weigh the truck separately. The truck only had a 1/2 tank of diesel but was loaded just as if traveling to include the dogs, storage box, hitch, inflatable kayak, satellite tripod, gray tote tank etc.  However, Joyce also came along and normally she doesn't ride with me as she drives her own car. Anyway, she seemed to have no affect on the weight.  The results of the truck weights were as follows:
Steer Axle:  4980
Drive Axle:  3740
Gross Weight: 8720

Now it's interesting to note that with the fifth wheel hitched it transfers 220 lbs. of truck weight off the steer axle and onto the drive axle.


The numbers for our 2010 Cameo F35SB3 are not as impressive!
Our hitch weight:  2820 lbs.
Axles weight:  12380
total weight: 15220 lbs.
The manufacturer's GVW rating is 14999 lbs.
So, we are over the GVW on the fifth wheel by 221 lbs. That's with about 20 gallons of water in the storage tank and empty grey and black tanks. I guess Joyce will have to get rid of some clothes!


Overall, I'm happy with our weights.  I knew we were heavy and I always guessed that our fifth wheel was at its rated max of 14999 lbs. so I'm not surprised. We will need to keep a watch on our rig's weight and try to slim down!

Travel Day to Tucson, AZ Davis Monthan A.F.B.

May 28, 2010



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Today was a travel day! After spending a few weeks in Mesa, AZ and Carriage Manor Resort, it was finally time to hitch up and move on.

Some of you may have been wondering why we would spend nearly 3 weeks in Mesa, AZ enduring 90 plus temps. Well the plan was to hook up with my father and Karen near the 1st of June. Then we would travel to Colorado together pulling our fifth wheels. My sister and her family live in Colorado so we plan to pay them a visit. Our combined trip and vacation should take us into or close to July.

We got on the road shortly after 10:00 headed south. It was in the mid 80's when we pulled out and quickly warmed to the upper 90's. I followed my father and Karen's rig and I was followed by Joyce in her car. Traveling caravan style always has some issues. We each have two-way radios to communicate but the range is limited to probably less than a mile. Also I like to pull no faster than 60 mph and my father likes to go a bit faster. I'm sure we will get all the bugs worked out.

Before arriving at our destination, we decided to stop at a truck stop that had CAT Scales to weigh our rigs. I'll post more about the weights in my next post. Before long we were approaching the entrance to Davis Monthan A.F.B.

My father is retired from the United States Air Force so he has military base privileges to include the use of the FAM Camps which are RV campgrounds on military bases. We are able to tag along as his guests. So the first stop was at the visitor center so that Joyce and I could get passes for the base.

Then it was off to the FAM Camp to get registered. (I took the pictures below in the evening.) As we got registered and set up the temperatures were close to 100 degrees! Our site is beautiful. We got an end site with a few trees, cactus and beautiful landscaping.  Needless to say I wasn't in the mood to take pictures at that time. Below is the view out our door.

My father and Karen also got an end site across the road from ours. A view of our site from the side. 

A front view of our site. We set up a small outdoor kitchen and my father grilled chicken and pork chops for dinner. As the sun went down it began to cool off and it was very comfortable.

The view down the row. You can see the tails of hundreds if not thousands of surplus depot military planes that are stored here at Davis Monthan A.F.B.

The 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (309 AMARG) is a one-of-a-kind specialized facility within the Air Force Materiel Command structure. 309 AMARG provides critical aerospace maintenance and regeneration capabilities for Joint and Allied/Coalition warfighters in support of global operations and agile combat support for a wide range of military operations. 

Immediately after World War II, the Army's San Antonio Air Technical Service Command established a storage facility for B-29 and C-47 aircraft at Davis-Monthan AFB. Today, this facility is the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (309 AMARG), which has grown to include more than 4,400 aircraft and 13 aerospace vehicles from the Air Force, Navy-Marine Corps, Army, Coast Guard, and several federal agencies including NASA

Davis Monthan A.F.B. is also home of the 355th Fighter Wing flying the A-10 Wart Hogs. 

The 355th Operations Group consists of six squadrons and over 450 personnel employing 75 A/OA-10 aircraft and an AN/TPS-75 radar system. It provides war-fighters with forces for close air support (CAS), air interdiction (AI), forward air control (FAC), combat search and rescue (CSAR), ground based tactical air control, and airbase operations. It also conducts all formal course directed aircraft initial qualification/requalification training.

This is a really nice campground. The facilities are very clean and modern. Our site and the majority of the sites are gravel with a door side slab and picnic table. Each site has 30/50 amps, water, sewer and WIFI. We paid $20 for each night and plan to spend at least 3 nights maybe 4.