Prove it!

I walked 5.29 miles today, nearly catching up with my location on the blog, due to the rounding error. I can pick up the .22 additional miles tomorrow, no sweat.  So, here I am again, basically, just having crossed the Gila River.

The only place of note near my location today is the Yuma Proving Ground, just North of me a few miles.  The Army conducts tests on medium and long range artillery, aircraft target acquisition equipment and armament, armored and wheeled vehicles, and a variety of munitions.  (I don't think I want to walk there!)  The Proving Ground base is spread over 3,400 square kilometers and across two counties – Yuma and La Paz.

In a typical year, over 500,000 artillery, mortar and missile rounds are fired, 36,000 parachute drops take place, 200,000 miles (320,000 km) are driven on military vehicles, and over 4000 air sorties are flown from the proving ground’s Laguna Army Airfield. Though about 90 percent of the proving ground's workload is devoted to the test and evaluation of weapon systems and munitions, training activities are important. Dozens of units visit the proving ground each year for realistic desert training, especially before deploying overseas.