Tucson, Az (Titan Missile Museum and ATV Adventure)

Last night we toured Tuscon's student entertainment facilities (i.e. bars). We started at The Hut (boring, but had a giant 40 foot Moai at the entrance), moved on to Plush (the last band - R'n'B - took more than one drink to take to the stage), and finally ended up at The Surly Wench. The heavy metal band there got the better of Morag, however, and I went alone to the only surviving Titan Missile Silo the next morning. This photo is of the Titan II ICBM - luckily for us all it's now deactivated.

Everything at the museum has been kept in authentic condition. This is the missile control room, and one lucky member of our tour got to turn the ignition key and start the ignition sequence for a (fake) 30-minute ballistic trajectory to an unidentified location airburst. You should have seen her jump when the alarm sounded and all the lights started flashing red! Ho ho, nothing like a little nuclear humour... which I found rather macabre.

Upstairs after the tour (through the 3 ton blast doors), we were allowed to look around some of the refuel vehicles and other military equipment. The Titan II was a big improvement on previous rockets, as the oxidizer and propellant could be stored for months on-board - meaning it could be ready in 50 seconds (hence the term 'minuteman'). This nifty little label (which you don't see every day) was on one of the refuelling tanks.

Ian feeling humble next to re-entry vehicle, which contains the nuclear warhead (9 megaton, equivalent to about 500 Nagasaki Atomic Bombs). No, I'm not smiling. Several scenes in the 1996 film Star Trek: First Contact were shot here - the Titan II missile itself was depicted to be the launch vehicle for the film's Phoenix spacecraft - kinda poetic.

After picking up Morag and grabbing some lunch, we headed north (almost to Phoenix, in fact) for some off-road fun. Similar to the cowboys of old, we donned kerchiefs (the smaller ones are called hand-kerchiefs) as well as helmets and gloves to do battle with the Arizona heat and dust.

Once Morag got going, she couldn't be stopped! Up very steep hills and down huge canyons, she mastered everything the desert course could offer! Please spare a thought for the photographer, however - riding blind, into the desert sun, one-handed at speed...

After 3 hours of treacherous off-road terrain, Commander Morag drives her ATV off into the sunset...