Wednesday - Funny shape for a sphereWe are now heading north. From the campground the road heading north crosses a pass with lovely views.
Sally had really wanted to see Kit Peak observatory, so I pointed it out in the distance. I don’t think this was really what she meant, but driving up there would be a several hour detour.
Next stop Biosphere 2. I hadn’t heard anything about this for many years. I remember all the hype in the 80s when they were building it. Added to I guess by the ‘70s sci-fi boom, especially Bruce Dern in Silent Running.
This is still a very impressive building, though it has probably been overshadowed by more recent structures like the giant Eden Project in Cornwall (south-western tip of England). What is really good to see is that this was not just a one-off experiment fantasizing about deep space exploration, but continues as an important environmental research center - below a little demonstration of solar - driving equipment fans as loads - was good to see of the types displayed the exact model fitted to our TC were the most efficient.
The controlled environments allow them to perform major experiments like simulating increasing levels of carbon dioxide to determine what point it all goes horribly wrong – apparently their tests showed that double today's levels and the system goes into runaway – game over for us lot at that point.
The tour was supposed to be 1 hour, but the professor taking us round got carried away slightly (or maybe it was our little group’s questions) and we got about 2 hours – bargain :C
Of course, this was a sealed environment during the original experiments - properly sealed. So how did the glass not blow out whenever the air pressure changed with the weather? The answer was down this tunnel:
A giant set of bellows, suspended purely by air pressure, expanded and contracted as the outside pressure changed, equalizing the pressure without venting it:
We carried on north to Apache Junction where we did yet more grocery shopping (you thought we were sight seeing, actually we are visiting supermarkets – I think our total at this point was 2 Walmarts, 1 Safeways, 1 other brand of supermarket and 1 hardware store.
We also used a laundrette, the assistant there was very helpful since I certainly wouldn’t know how all this works. I looked around and I couldn’t see the wicker basket where I usually put my dirty clothes, from which they magically appear in the wardrobe a couple of days later – hence my need of help. Apparently big shiny machines, fragrant white powder and plastic stored-value payment cards are all involved.
Following this we head up the hill a few miles to Lost Dutchman park, as checked out and recommended by bka0721 a few days earlier (thanks again Bryan).
This time we had pre-booked a site, unnecessary as there were only about 3 other RVs in the entire campground. Quite an open site (i.e not a huge amount of privacy), but that openness means great views all way around.
It was a warm evening here in the outskirts of Phoenix:
Stay tuned for the highlight of the journey...
