Tier Point Run to Tucson in Oct 2024: Day 3 – Early Morning in Tucson

I turned the light out at about 4:30pm yesterday and I managed to sleep through to late evening, when I managed to catch up briefly with Vick, who was just getting up.

I tried to get back to sleep on a number of occasions. It ended up being short naps over a long period of time. By the time the clock had struck 2am, I decided I may as well give in.

I planned out my fun-packed day, which included a drive to Starbucks for opening at 4:30am, breakfast at the hotel, a drive around AMARG, the Pima Air and Space Museum at 9am and a visit to The Cheesecake Factory early afternoon.

I always enjoy heading out to Starbucks really early in the morning when it’s still dark. Great if it’s within walking distance, but worst case, I’m happy to drive.

The closest one was about 3 miles away, straight up South Tucson Boulevard. I had planned to walk up there in the morning, on the basis that I wasn’t going to have access to a car.

But due to the change in the timing of taking my car rental, I had a car to cover the 6 miles there and back. Good job I did.

It was a fairly new store and it had a lovely terrace outside, which would have been perfect. To be honest I drove out wearing a t-shirt and it was a little bit chilly, which was odd considering how hot this place had been getting!

I waited patiently outside the door for it to open, only for the manager to open the door and tell me that the lobby only opened at 6:30am. It was only the drive-thru that opened at 4:30am. However, she was happy to make my drink for me on this occasion.

I was a bit annoyed since nowhere the opening times are posted, does it differentiate between drive-thru and lobby. Even the hours on the door say 04:30.

Anyway, I got my coffee; I thanked them for making an exception for me and I was on my way. Glad I hadn’t walked for an hour to get there!

Back to the hotel and I enjoyed my coffee in bed.

Breakfast started at 6am and I was down there with my laptop enjoying as much breakfast as I could. I planned not to have lunch.

The local TV station was showing the weather forecast in the breakfast area. Apparently, Arizona is suffering from an extreme heatwave right now, but it would be cooling over the next week or so. Glad to know the locals don’t need to deal with this level of heat every day of the year!

The Pima Air and Space Museum didn’t open until 9am so I decided I might as well head out to see what AMARG aircraft I could spot from the road on the northern perimeter.

AMARG, or the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group holds over 4,200 aircraft. It’s the largest boneyard in the world.

There used to be a guided tour around the facility, but unfortunately, that’s no longer possible due to changes in the USAF security rules.

So next best thing was to drive and park-hop along two roads: East Escalante Road and East Irvington Road.

Parking was easy anywhere along these two roads; I could get right up to the fence and the aircraft were pretty close. I’ve marked the two roads on the map in red.

AMARG was previously known as AMARC, the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center. It is a joint service facility managed by the US Air Force Material Command. You can find out more on their website.

I started at the north-western most point at the start of East Escalante Road. I stopped at a couple of places along this road. No one was bothered and parking is away from the road, so I wasn’t causing a problem for other motorists.

When I first parked up, I immediately bumped into a real nerd with a small step ladder and a massive DSLR lens. The small stepladder was to allow him to get unobstructed views over the top of the fence.

I understand that taking photos like this is accepted practice. Since I was just using a mobile phone, I could easily position my lens looking through the gaps in the fence.

I exchanged pleasantries with Mr Nerd. It was nice to say hello to a real photo-spotter in the heat of the desert.

After finishing on East Escalante Road, I turned right and headed down South Kolb Road, which was a busy road.

Parking was not allowed along this road. Shame – I could have gotten some great side-on photos of aircraft.

I am sure someone would have arrived pretty quickly to move me on if I had parked up and blocked a lane.

I didn’t get very far down East Irvington due to the time.

As I turned from Kolb Road into East Irvington, there was a dirt area immediately on the right hand side, set back from the road.

I stopped here and crossed the main road and walked up Kolb Road to take some photos of aircraft side on.

That appeared to be the only place I could easily take photos side on.

I got some half decent shots of various aircraft, mostly US Airforce.

In the end, I only spent about 30 mins before driving on to Pima Air and Space Museum. I planned to drive further down East Irvington Road the following morning.

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