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On Saturday 9-17-11, AJ, Brittney, Terra and I had planned to attend a University of Arizona football game. Terra has a niece, Karalyn, from Taylor, AZ who is attending collage at Eastern Arizona Collage. Since she is now in college we decided that she ought to embark of the perks of going to college by attending a football game. Since she is going to a small junior collage, what better way to enjoy a game than to attend a UA game. Well as it turned out we coordinated schedules such that we could take Karalyn, and then when the day came she found herself too sick to come. So with some quick thinking we had AJ invite his brother in-law, Josh, from Oracle to go with us. |
| We had a lot of fun. We hadn't been to an Arizona game since when we were dating, and this was a nice experience to go back. After being at one of the games you can see why the college sports teams pay so much money to the coaches of the sports. I looked around at the stadium and it wasn't completely filled, but was pretty close. At half time they announced that there was 43,000 ish people in attendance at the game. The capacity of the game is 51,000. If you assume that an average seat goes for $20 then you can easily see why colleges want to have a good sports team, not to menton the publicity and merchandise they can profit from as well. |  |
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This game didn't turn out in Arizona's favor. It was against Stanford, and was supposed to be a good game. Stanford has a quarterback that (according to AJ) will be a first round draft pick to the Colts next year. AJ was excited to be able to watch such a good quarter back in action, and truth be told he seemed to do pretty well. In fact, from an Arizona point of view, too well. The Arizona quarterback didn't do that great, and neither did his defenders. He was sacked about 6 times throughout the game. As the game was winding down in the third quarter lots of the stands started clearing out with a score of 10 to 30 in Stanfords favor. I asked AJ if he wanted to leave (it was about 10:30 by this time and I still have an hours walk to Karren's house to pick up the kids, and then an hours drive home to Benson) but AJ said that he paid good money for these tickets and he still has 15 minutes on the clock to sit in these seats. I commented why, do you want to see the score end up being 10 to 37? Well we stayed there until the game finished a little after 11:00 and the final score was 10 to 37. |
| It was sure nice of Karren to watch the kids while we went over to the game. We ended up going out to El Molinito prior to the game for dinner, which was enjoyable, but also disappointing at the same time. This was my favorite restaurant while I was a student and living in Tucson, but when I go back for some reason it always seems to be disappointing in some way. Karren lives in a very convenient location for attending University sponsored events. From her house it is a little under an hour walk to the stadium (10 minutes on a bicycle) and then you can enjoy the crowds. I enjoy the games, but I don't think that I could ever be a season ticket holder and attender. They are just so much more fun to watch on TV. Truth be told I don't watch TV either - so there goes that idea... |  |
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One of my favorite parts of going to watch a game is the performance by the band. The bands are impressive to me for some reason. I like most of the music that they play, but this time we sat right next to the Stanford section, and their traveling band. They were quite loud to sit that close to. Normally the band is way over in the corner and that works the best I think. I guess if I go back (If Karalyn wants to try it again) I will have to see about getting tickets away from the band sections. But as far as the field goes, we were real close to the bottom of the stands. |
| In some other news, this last Saturday we (meaning Terra, Ethen, Kyle, Dad, Karren, Pandora, Daunte, and myself) went to the top of Mt. Lemmon for a hike down the butterfly trail to the site of a plane crash. This crash is located at Navajo springs up a few hundred yards and on the side of a steep hill. This particular crash site is one that I had visited long ago, but didn't remember very well. As it turns out the trail is a little over 3 miles until you find the wreckage, and then you get to walk it back. The elevation change is about 1600 feet from start to finish, and you start somewhere close to 8,100 feet. The trail is one that is rated at "moderate" and most of is is fairly decent, but there are some spots where it gets quite steep. |  |
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The trail goes up the back of Mt. Lemmon and you have an impressive view towards the North and East where you can identify San Manual, Oracle, & Reddington. You also can see the mountain ranges of the Grahams, the Gularios, the Chiricahuas the Dragoons, and Dos Cabezas. Both Oracle and San Manual are pictured here. This made me think of wanting to do a signal mirror flash between with Mt. Graham and Mt. Lemmon, or Mt. Lemmon and the Chiricahaus. Maybe another day... |
| Karren brought both of her dogs for the occasion. After 3/4 of a mile we took their leashes off and let them meander around us as we hiked. They ran far ahead and back a few times before getting tired and then staying with us. Karren actually didn't feel like finishing the hike. She didn't want to go too far down the trail, because that meant that she would have to turn around and head back up it in the end. So about half way to the plane crash site, she and the two dogs headed back. Karren had booked the church camp facilities at Camp Zion and she headed back there where Barbara, Jim, Rachel, and Landen waited. We planned to meet back there for a lunch after the hike was finished. |  |
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The boys did very well. After about 2.5 miles Ethen kept asking to go back. He didn't want to go any further because every step forward meant that they would have to take another one back. He was getting tired. We kept pressing him onward and forward, but when we got to Navajo Springs, we realized that we didn't have enough water to keep on heading forward. Neither did the daylight left warrant us trekking any further so we decided that this was far enough. As it turns out, this is also where the wreckage lie, and we spent about 45 minutes exploring the site and looking over the mangled metal. |
| From talking to one of the people that I work with (he being a person who seeks out plane wrecks to find them and then document them) I was told that this was an F-86. It crashed due to two of them flying in formation and they got too close and bumped into each other. This mid air collision caused them both to loose control and both pilots ejected out of the plane and were not hurt. These planes were out of Davis Monthan air force base in Tucson. The other plane actually continued to fly for some time and ended up crashing in New Mexico somewhere. I asked if he had been to that crash site, and he told me that he had not. Below is pictured an F-86 in much better condition than the one that we found. |  |
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| Here is the remains of the craft's power plant. This was a jet fighter (built in 1961 according to the stamps on the engine) and this is one of the last stages of the compressor section of the engine. Air is first compressed in a jet engine by the compressor than is directed down some tubes to the combustor. Here it is mixed with fuel and ignited. Then the expanding gasses flow over another set of turbine blades which caused the shaft to rotate, thus providing the torque necessary to run the compressor. Then the gasses continue to expand out of the back of the jet engine providing the thrust necessary for forward motion (or flight). The engine was mostly intact (one piece) and was also one of the items that had settled furthest down the hill. From looking at it, you could sure tell which parts were made from carbon steel verses stainless steel. I don't know when this plane crashed, but it had been there for quite sometime. |  |
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After we found the crash, Ethen was very happy to explore it and glad that we had not turned around and headed back to the car empty handed so to speak. I am very fascinated by aircraft even remanets of aircraft. I have found another one resting in the Gularios this time a B-24 that is mostly intact, and I think that one of these next weekends I will have to make a trip over there and do some more exploring. Any takers? |
| Both wing sections and other remants of the plane were located up toward the top of a steep hill. It is hard to tell in this and the next photo, but look at the angles of the people standing and see if you can determine the slope of the hill that we had to climb up to find the pieces. Obviously when this plane impacted the atomized remaining fuel was sprayed everywhere and then ignited. You can see the rims still on the landing gear, but no rubber tires exist on the rims. In fact the more we looked around, there was melted aluminum in spots from the insuing inferno that this plane lie in. |  |
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Terra also really had a good time on the hike. She is also going to try to make the next one as well. We aren't the greatest hikers in the world, but it is something that we can do together (and more so when Landen grows a few years older) but I think that we will continue to keep exploring the areas around here. I have heard of some interesting sites on Mt. Graham that might also be worth a day trip to explore. |
| Well now it is getting late - I didn't realize it but it takes me about an hour and a half to format photos, write a letter and then post it. I should probably try to start these things earlier as I still have to be at work at the same time in the morning... |  |