expedition4

Well, things went a bit smoother this time, no run in with the law to report, but a wash none the less.

Yet another titan missile base drew our attention. We are hoping to find another base we can get into that isn't as badly degraded as the one in Expedition 2.

We've found out from a source that lives near Expedition 2's site that when he was just a lad he had gone out there with some friends only to find the entire base flooded. He was quite amazed at our ability to get in as most everything we saw had been submerged years earlier.

In order to avoid another run in with local authorities we decided a drop-off/pick-up plan was in order to access this new base without drawing attention to ourselves.

Sub-Commander Big E made the arrangement with a friend, so after another delicious and biologically devastating meal at our VI, followed by pie and pre-mission briefing we piled into Agent Quads Command Vehicle (mini-van), made the short trip to meet our ride and piled into a pickup.

It was a chilly ride for the agents riding in the bed, but the quad-cab kept the command staff nicely toasty.

The bases location is a bit obscure, so with many map drawings and pointing out of landmarks we hopefully had our pick-up available with just a cell phone call. Quick check to make sure our phones worked out there and off we went.

We ducked down a steep embankment on the south side of the road about a quarter to half mile east of the main base entrance. The entrance was on the other side.

After a few vehicles made their way through and we had a clear run we crossed the road, down the steep on the other side and under the fence where the embankment made about a 2-3 foot gap.

We had a full moon, so visibility was great. We made our way north and west, ducking for cover as we saw vehicles passing on the road, after a bit we were far enough back to feel we weren't in view so we started hiking it.

There's a huge "Youth Correctional Facility" a few miles north and east of the base, and we had a good view of it from our ridge as we hiked up.

This is about the time when our skinniest members started complaining about the cold.

We found a strange set of metal pillars sticking straight up out of the ground about 12 feet high, not in the inner perimeter, but we wondered what they may have once been for, maybe a windmill for grazing cattle.

The inner perimeter fence looked fairly intact; we met it right at the south west corner of the inner perimeter. It's an 8 foot fence with 3 or 4 rows of barb running along the top. We found one section right at the corner with no barb, Agent Fonzie, AKA Stretch was all gung-ho about climbing it, or going under it where it wasn't connected.

We headed west along the fence line to where we knew the front door would be facing south. It looks like a cattleman used the inner base fence as the north wall of a corral, there were disused fallin' down wood and barb fences for the three other sides just east of the main entrance.

Heading up the road we thought we heard water running, after a quick listen we decided it was the sound of the wind in the leaves of the one tree on the base, since the rest of it is un-inhabitable hardpan scrub brush there was no other sound, so we could really hear the tree.

Several team members headed over to a large metal quonset building that was the first structure we encountered while I rested my feet.

My ankles are the damndest things. When I start walking, jogging, what have you for a long distance after about 15-20 minutes they hurt like a bitch, if I stop; they keep hurting for at least a day. If I keep going though, they loosen up and I can go for hours.

Anyway, they reported nothing of interest in the building so we headed over to the main entry area.

There's a large storm cellar type door, wouldn't budge with two of us hauling on it, looks to be welded shut. Also, the freight elevator entrance there was totally sealed with concrete.

There are a couple of nearby escape hatches, same deal though, totally sealed.

We found what looks to be the power ventilation openings. They were covered with a metal grate. A quick peek with the super light showed us a lovely 60' vertical shaft; no visible openings on the side, at the bottom, well "water" would be a kind word for it "Muck Of The Damned" would be more appropriate.

Cigarettes were distributed and enjoyed by all. Now the skinny folks were really whalin' about how cold it was.

A quick check on the silo openings yielded pretty much the same results. Either totally sealed or grated with no way down.

We even checked the "chimney" structures that we've seen at the other sites, no way in.

After a bit of discussion and a few group photos we decided that Expedition 2 was a fluke and our chances of finding our way into another Titan were limited. We decided to head for home.

That's when disaster stuck. Agent Fonzie could not locate his cell phone. Though we had other phones to call for our ride we weren't too keen on the idea of Farmer Bob finding the phone and Agent Fonzie having to explain to local authorities how his angry girlfriend had thrown his phone .5 miles out the car window when he answered it mid-coitis.

Luckily we had good light so it wasn't totally a lost cause. We spent another 20-30 minutes looking about for the phone, we couldn't find it in the inner perimeter. Of course Agent Fonzie, in an attempt to not draw attention to us had set it to vibrate.

The skinny folk were suffering biological failures due to the cold at this point; my ankles had warmed up so I was just fine.

We decided to back-track our route to the road. We called ahead at this point to have our ride head out - figuring we'd make it back to the road before she made it to our meeting spot.

We did the best we could to follow our path back to the fence, but to no avail. Our ride hadn't arrived yet so Agent Quad crossed the road to try and find the phone on the south side where we'd hidden out waiting for cars to pass.

Several people fanned out searching for the phone, Agent Borland actually ran his battery down calling the missing phone hoping we could spot it lighting up.

Eventually our ride arrived, a quick scurry and scamper cross the road to load up and we were headed home, safe and sound.