A wind farm on the way to Tucson.
A dozen gorgeous roses that Kevin gave to me at the airport.
Buying firewood. Even Wal-Mart looks SW in Arizona.
"A" is for Arizona.
On the way to NM. Rocks are pretty.
I like "possible" signs. Because it's right. Zero visibility IS possible.
At the KOA campground in Las Cruces, setting up Mike's tent.
View from our campsite.
Sunsets are pretty, timers are awesome, tents are good camera stands.
We're not really sure when the picture is being taken.
Succulents aplenty.
NASA LEM engineering model.
Taking us back to the Moon, baby.
Marshal and his group of kids. He was a good volunteer, I was a slacker and just there for fun.
Marshal's *65* kids and their teachers. Dude.
His arm has to be getting tired.
Rocketplane (http://www.rocketplane.com) ... an Oklahoma company.
Yeah, it's like that :-)
Huge rocket awaits launch time.
And the parachutes help the body glide down for reuse.
F-117 flyby.
Sneaky aircraft and the space elevator crane and the jumbotron.
A space elevator challenge competitor on the cable.
Our next-door camping buddy and his Postcards to Space booth (http://www.postcardstospace.com/).
A static fire test, with the rocket engine in the back of a truck.
Pretty pretty mountains.
Front gate on Day 2.
Going away from the front gate, there was free VR Skydiving in a vertical wind tunnel. And the Welcome to Las Cruces water tower.
Ah, Marshal.
XPC 2006 from the VR Skydiving platform.
One of the instructors giving a demonstration. They say he can get 75 feet above the top of the inflatable, which is kinda terrifying. This is why they have two people holding on to first timers the whole time.
Laura (NAAA president) takes the plunge.
Laura over the fan.
Laura waaay over the fan.
Afterward her adorable hair sticks through the helmet.
Kevin about to fall on the fan.
And he's flyin'.
Kevin over the fan.
Me (Jessica) falling forward.
Me over the fan.
Marshal prepares.
Laura's hair.
Kevin and me after our fan time.
Marshal over the fan.
Kevin, me, Laura, Lisa (one of my MSFC 05 RAs), and Marshal.
Another huge rocket goes off.
Parachutes help rocket parts come safely down.
Static test fire, aimed up.
The Armadillo Aerospace Lunar Lander test vehicle. They were very close to winning the prize, but didn't quite make it. It was tested in Oklahoma at our spaceport in Burns Flat (http://www.okspaceport.state.ok.us/flighttest.html).
A NASA F-18, the east JumboTron, and the 200 foot Space Elevator Games tether and crane.
Kevin (with his Postcards to Space t-shirt) and me (with my OU [modified] t-shirt, because it was gameday).
Later that evening, Laura, Jen, and Kamara hold the NAAA business meeting. Sadly, a lot of the alumni skipped out on this.
After the meeting, Graylan sneaks up on us in his truck, and Laura plants on the hood.
2004 Ames crew/2005 NA staff back together!
Laura and me.
If I ever do a trip with Kevin, Marshal, and Graylan, I'm probably going to see at least one of the goofballs get arrested.
Makin' s'mores.
How rockin' was the fire? Well, we started to warp the heavy metal grill grate. How about that? (Kevin is the best, most efficient firestarter ever. AND was a firefigther. I wonder if those things go together?)
Pretty little flowers the next morning (Sunday).
Again, the view from the campsite.
A large shiny beetle.
Kevin, me, and Mike visiting before hitting the road.
A pretty plant.
Cacti aplenty.
I find this sign hilarious. I like "may exist" signs.
This is something Kevin found hilarious... They should post those max height signs a little earlier, I guess. We were detoured around the highway for this.
Much of I-10 had train tracks parallel to it, so we got to pass dozens of them.
Rocks are pretty! Red chunk in the middle of more neutral rocks.
Socks (Kevin's cat) is very pretty, and incredibly cuddly.
On Monday evening, Kevin drove me out to Saguaro National Park to see the cacti and sunset.
TONS of very old saguaro cacti.
Up close with a cactus.
The sticks in the back of this pic are a saguaro skeleton.
Jojoba is one of the things that's in my Anti-Poof shampoo (http://www.gethairapy.com/).
This one is probably over 100 years old, and has a hole in it.
Barrel fishhook cactus. Very cool looking.
Kevin shows that the hooks are the size of your finger.
Us and a cactus, for size.
That one's probably really old. You can see that there's just hundreds of these guys in sight on these hills.
We thought it was going to be too overcast for a good sunset, but it turned out to be amazing.
Gorgeous, gorgeous.
Yay for timers and car-shaped camera stands!
From the airplane, leaving Tucson on Tuesday afternoon.
Little moon going down soon after the sun (from airplane).
Getting dark at the end of my awesome trip to the Southwest.
