Tucson
We did some nice sightseeing in Tucson the last couple of days.  The roads and traffic in Tucson reminds us a lot of Saskatoon.  The roads are in very bad shape and the traffic is, well, kinda scary.  Seems they have not kept up with the roads and people take crazy chances as they are tired of waiting in traffic and for lights.
Not a place we would choose to drive around in for long.  There are, however,  some lovely sights, stores and restaurants as well as nature and hiking trails near the city.  We purchased a passport of Southern Arizona attractions and it sure was great as we got a lot of buy one get one free admissions.  Wednesday we went to the Titan Missile Silo.  I will admit I was not very interested in going but I actually enjoyed it and learned something to boot!

The missile is twice as tall as this pole and buried underground in a huge silo.

It was built in the 1960's and has 10 foot thick concrete and metal lining the silo and surrounding control station.  On the picture just above this you will notice that the light is built on a spring just like everything else was in case it was attacked.  This was built to withstand a nuclear attack and still be able to launch the missile.  We learned about the cold war and how the missiles were kept secure and manned.  There was a huge big cement door that covered over the silo.  When the area was entered by new crews there were very specific procedures to follow before they would be allowed access.  Most of the areas had to be attended by 2 persons  at all times. These people were working 4 to a shift 24 hour shifts and they were many many feet down in the ground.

This is the control room where they monitored what may be going on on the surface.  All the while our tour guide was talking I thought he seemed to be sort of looking at me.  Thought maybe I had jam on my face or something - anyway he said he needed a helper to do a demonstration so of course that was ME.  He showed us the procedure for if they actually had to launch the missile.We both had to turn our keys (after a lengthy procedure to obtain the keys) at the same time.  Once that was done, there was no going back.  He picked a woman because there were lots of women who worked  responsible positions with the Air Force and he was rather proud of that (I kinda liked that too).  And . . .  I wasn't the only woman on the tour  LOL

I even got a fancy keepsake.  It sure made me think how lucky we are that a nuclear war was avoided.  It also gave me a better appreciation for the people that had to work there knowing that someday they may have to turn that key if they were ordered to, and what the outcome of that would be.

After that we went on a tour of the ASARCO copper mine which was visible from the missile silo. This was super amazing.  The tour guide told us about the mining and smelting.  Then we all got on the tour bus and drove up to the actual mine.

 The colors of the rock and sky were so nice.

This was a HUGE hole!  Those steps (they call them benches)  are about 40 feet high. There are rows of holes in the flat part of this picture - that is where they will be blasting that section of rock away to uncover more copper.

 You can see the vehicles (barely) digging the overburden (the "burden" that is over the copper) off and hauling it away.  Notice the pretty colors of the different rock in some of these pictures.  We are up pretty high looking down into the mine. The hole is now 1200 feet deep. To the right near that dark area (which is naturally occurring water that they use to keep the dust down) is where they are currently digging out copper. They also  re-claim 80% of the water that they use in the mill.

  Copper costs 1.75 per pound to produce.  The electric bill at this mine is 1.6 million a month!  They manage to pay this with the gold, silver and molybdenum that they find in with the copper.  One of the tires alone for those big trucks is 6000.00 

Believe it or not there is a small amount of copper in this rock which looks like something you would see used as landscaping material.

 The huge rocks are sent through a series of 4 crushers until it is a fine powder like flour.  Then it goes in these huge vats where it is mixed with pine oil and a couple of other materials.  The copper somehow goes in the bubbles and floats to the surface and the slurry sinks to the bottom.

It is sort of hard to see in the picture but the bubbles are quite coppery in this picture. It smelled like pine in the mill. They take the slurry and pile it and spray it with a substance  so they don't have huge dust problems.  That being said, the mine had just paid a huge fine for a dust storm..  They plant desert plants over it as well.

We each got a piece of rock with copper in it at the end of the tour.
Yesterday was Thanksgiving here so not much was open.  Very few restaurants were even open.  We did laundry, cleaned up the house and then I went to the pool!  First pool day since March and it was super!   Today we were headed out to Catalina State Park and realized that one of the other parks we wanted to go to was right on the way so we changed our mind  and went to  Sabino Canyon.  It was another beautiful day and I was thinking of the pool and Don was thinking of an hour less driving so it was a win win.

Ooooh la la!

Oh - this was our Thanksgiving sunset.

 There is a lot more vegetation in this part of the desert, there is some water nearby so there are actually a lot more trees in with the cactus.

The hike was about 2.5 miles but we took a few detours (some intentional some not) so we are not quite sure how far it ended up. We picked this trail because of the water and hoping to see some birds (well I was hoping to see some birds) - bit of a wild goose chase but the walk was amazing anyway.

I love how all the trees co-habitate.  A lot of cactus actually start out their young lives in the shade of some of the bushes.

 We had to take the high road at this point because the creek had quite a bit of water in it and it was not passable by foot.  We saw some people go over by horse tho.

 The sky was such a pretty blue today, and I just loved how the vegetation and rocks looked.

Isn't this the prettiest little road runner ever??  He was not even 4 feet from me.  I just started talking to him and telling him I wanted to see his pretty feathers so he obliged.  One beady little eye was on me the whole while tho.  Their tail feathers are all colors just like a peacock.
Well one last day here tomorrow and then off to Mesa on Sunday.  If I get my wish we will go to the  botanical garden and the zoo tomorrow.
I had a lovely 1.5 hour skype talk with my girlie tonite and Don made supper while we were talking  - it was a truly great day.