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I left out this morning for my winter trip I’ve been mentioning. When I left, it was 29 degrees. I rode for a while until the sun started coming up good and got the obligatory starting out shot. For some reason, I thought I needed to bring enough clothes to where I won’t have to wash anything for two weeks. Hmmm.. Two week old dirty socks and underwear. The wife may not be so happy when I get home after all? Lol. I also have enough tools to pull a motor and split the cases if necessary, rain gear, and the laptop here.
In this next pic… I have made it to central Texas. Central Texas is a blast to ride… here you have a mountain.
And here is their cash crop…. Prickly Pear Cactus and Mesquite trees
And here is their twisties! It consists of hitting the off ramp.. then back onto the freeway. You actually get to turn just a bit!
I was headed to a guy’s place that I have been chatting with for a few months. He bought an old Atlas nuclear missile silo back in 1997 and has been working on making a home out of it. Some of you may find this next part boring, but I was really interested in this. I remember reading about the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and how close we came to nuclear war.
The silo I visited is just one of the original 72 that were around the Abilene Texas area. It was being hurriedly built and was finished the same year of the Cuban Missile Crisis.. 1962. A lot of people crawled in and sprayed graffiti over the years. This had to have been a daunting task. They had to climb in through the exhaust vents down into this silo where there was absolutely no light, and climb and hang on rusty metal to spray paint their message and names on the walls. One I saw was way back in a corner over that seemed to be more dangerous than most said, “Huge balls, little brain.” Lol.
So, I turned off of I-20 and headed south. I stopped to call Bruce and tell him I was getting close. As I sat there, I thought… Man, I wonder if nuclear missiles actually came right down the road I’m on. It didn’t take long to answer that question rather blatantly.
I turned off the highway to this non intimidating gate, which is the actual original entrance.
A little ways in, and I see another gate coming up.
Yeah, this one meant a little more business.
And here’s my tour guide, Bruce, awaiting me. You can see the silo door beginning to rise to the left of the flag.
A little higher…. It took some effort. These doors weigh 74 tons each!
And here you can see a few floors down into the silo. Don’t trip though… it’s 184 feet to the bottom!
An old quonset hut to the side of the pad. To the very right of the pic, you see the entrance.
You can’t really see it, but in the center at the very back of the pic under that tree, there is a concrete pad that held a telescoping radio tower that was 90 feet long when all the way up.
Had to throw in another bike shot with the silo door all the way open.
The entrance…
I took a pic, but it didn’t turn out. You go in that door and down approximately 2 stories, then turn right, and you come to the first blast door. They made these angles at 90 degrees to reduce the blast force. These doors are several thousand pounds, but I can move them with one finger. They are pretty rare to still be existing. Very few left are still there let alone operational.
Through that blast door and another 90 degrees to the right, is another one. I wish I had gotten a better pic of the latch. I don’t think a bank vault has anything on these doors.
Through that blast door and down the steps is where he’s made his main living area. He’s removed a third blast door, so you can see right in.
I felt bad taking pics of the guys house, but here’s a shot back into the kitchen. The main funnel-shaped column to the left you see supports the ceiling and goes to the floor 2 stories down. This level of the home as well as the one below it are free floating.. they are hanging from the ceiling. What this did, in the event of a close blast, it would shake the ground and walls, but the supported rooms would stay stationary. This level where the kitchen is used to be the crews quarters that had the showers and bathrooms. The level below this was the actual control room. This structure was actually separate from the missile silo.
One of the hangers attached to the roof.
To be continued...
In this next pic… I have made it to central Texas. Central Texas is a blast to ride… here you have a mountain.
And here is their cash crop…. Prickly Pear Cactus and Mesquite trees
And here is their twisties! It consists of hitting the off ramp.. then back onto the freeway. You actually get to turn just a bit!
I was headed to a guy’s place that I have been chatting with for a few months. He bought an old Atlas nuclear missile silo back in 1997 and has been working on making a home out of it. Some of you may find this next part boring, but I was really interested in this. I remember reading about the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and how close we came to nuclear war.
The silo I visited is just one of the original 72 that were around the Abilene Texas area. It was being hurriedly built and was finished the same year of the Cuban Missile Crisis.. 1962. A lot of people crawled in and sprayed graffiti over the years. This had to have been a daunting task. They had to climb in through the exhaust vents down into this silo where there was absolutely no light, and climb and hang on rusty metal to spray paint their message and names on the walls. One I saw was way back in a corner over that seemed to be more dangerous than most said, “Huge balls, little brain.” Lol.
So, I turned off of I-20 and headed south. I stopped to call Bruce and tell him I was getting close. As I sat there, I thought… Man, I wonder if nuclear missiles actually came right down the road I’m on. It didn’t take long to answer that question rather blatantly.
I turned off the highway to this non intimidating gate, which is the actual original entrance.
A little ways in, and I see another gate coming up.
Yeah, this one meant a little more business.
And here’s my tour guide, Bruce, awaiting me. You can see the silo door beginning to rise to the left of the flag.
A little higher…. It took some effort. These doors weigh 74 tons each!
And here you can see a few floors down into the silo. Don’t trip though… it’s 184 feet to the bottom!
An old quonset hut to the side of the pad. To the very right of the pic, you see the entrance.
You can’t really see it, but in the center at the very back of the pic under that tree, there is a concrete pad that held a telescoping radio tower that was 90 feet long when all the way up.
Had to throw in another bike shot with the silo door all the way open.
The entrance…
I took a pic, but it didn’t turn out. You go in that door and down approximately 2 stories, then turn right, and you come to the first blast door. They made these angles at 90 degrees to reduce the blast force. These doors are several thousand pounds, but I can move them with one finger. They are pretty rare to still be existing. Very few left are still there let alone operational.
Through that blast door and another 90 degrees to the right, is another one. I wish I had gotten a better pic of the latch. I don’t think a bank vault has anything on these doors.
Through that blast door and down the steps is where he’s made his main living area. He’s removed a third blast door, so you can see right in.
I felt bad taking pics of the guys house, but here’s a shot back into the kitchen. The main funnel-shaped column to the left you see supports the ceiling and goes to the floor 2 stories down. This level of the home as well as the one below it are free floating.. they are hanging from the ceiling. What this did, in the event of a close blast, it would shake the ground and walls, but the supported rooms would stay stationary. This level where the kitchen is used to be the crews quarters that had the showers and bathrooms. The level below this was the actual control room. This structure was actually separate from the missile silo.
One of the hangers attached to the roof.
To be continued...
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