Tombstone and Beyond

Excuse me pard'ner while I park this rig over here someplace. Then we can sit a spell and catch up on all the goin's on around here. Yes sirree, I'm lookin forward to that.

We have traveled a lot miles, seen a lot things, but are only 100 miles closer to home than we were this time last week. We made a big wide easterly loop and are now in Apache Junction. But first things first.

In last week's blog I forget to mention a project that took the better part of three days -- a storage shed. Joyce P wanted a storage place for outdoor things like patio chairs, planting pots, etc. So here it is. This was her plan; I just built it for her. It is about 7 feet long, 30 inches deep, and 4 1/2 feet high. Jim will paint it the same color as the house. It is mostly screwed together and was fun to build. (Notice I said, "screwed together" not "screwed UP).

Tuesday we left for Tombstone. This town is famous for Wyatt Earp, Johnny Ringo, the Clantons, and the "Gunfight at the OK Corral." We saw it all happen. We were there. A ring side seat. And it didn't happen in the OK Corral. It happened in the street a couple doors down. But "Gunfight Next Door To Fly's Photography Studio" just doesn't have the same ring to it. Pictured here is the gunfight taking place. Just think! History comes to your computer!

Tombstone is a fun little town. It has dirt streets, board sidewalks, no motorized traffic on the 4 blocks of main street (Allen Street), and all kinds of period shops, saloons, restaurants, and museums. We stayed in Wells Fargo RV Park right in town. It was not fancy; simply a spot on gravel with hookups but it was within easy walking distance of town which made it fun. We watched a couple of the shootout reenactments, toured an old silver mine, visited Boothill, and really enjoyed the place. One day we made a loop going through some old ghost towns (which were more like remains of decaying adobe buildings -- but fun to see), down to Douglas on the Mexico boarder, up to Bisbee, then back to Tombstone. We were going to cross the boarder to Agua Prieta but changed our minds when we learned there was very little convenient shopping. We hadn't intended to do much in Bisbee but rather go back later, but when the shopping fell through we got to spend more time there. We did not do the Queen Mine Tour; maybe some other time.

Let me tell you about a weird thing that happened. Maybe "tragic" is a better word. About 5:00 we went back to the pickup to leave Bisbee. It was parked up in a cul-de-sac kind of parking area. We decided to sit there and eat some sandwiches we had brought; the weather was warm so the windows were down. Parked right next to us was an older model compact car and a motorcycle. As we were eating, two ladies and a man came out of a tavern. One of the ladies was obviously drunk. She had the car keys and wanted to drive. The man was trying to talk her out of it and have her ride on the motorcycle with him. But he didn't try very hard. As she was getting in the car I asked him if he was really going to let her drive. He said, "That's what she wants to do" -- as if she was capable of making a decision. I told him he was nuts for letting her drive. She started the car, backed out and hit the retaining wall, managed to put it in gear and drove off. Now understand -- the main street of Bisbee is really, really, really narrow. Two RVs would have trouble passing each other. Well, I let her get a good head start and then left. About three blocks up the street she had plowed into a pole. There were people there to help her so we didn't stop but I wanted to go back and chew out that guy for letting her drive.

We stayed in Tombstone for four nights then left for Safford. Our intent was to find some of the hot tubs the area is known for but as it turned out, one was 35 miles from town, another was about the same distance in the opposite direction, another was commercialized and expensive, and we simply missed another one. So we went to the museum instead!

This morning we attended the Safford United Methodist Church, hooked up and left for Apache Junction. I'm not sure about this RV park we are in. It is supposed to be this big, fancy dancy place but they have trouble getting things right. They messed up our reservation and had a hard time even finding a spot for us. It is a back in site designed for placing a park model (no angle to the back in -- and we are surrounded by park models), they didn't tell me I had to get real close to the concrete patio pad so I just parked it -- too far away. After I'm all hooked up, the neighbor comes home and tells I have to move over so he can park his car. So I move over 3 feet. Then to top that, they didn't give us a code for the gate (didn't tell us we needed one) and we were locked out when we got home tonight. Fortunately a guy pulled in behind me who had the right numbers. The name is Countryside. I don't recommend it.

I mentioned coming home tonight. We had dinner with Mike and Jackie. She is the daughter of a lady who attended our Grants Pass church. If you have been following the blog faithfully (!!!??) you remember the two ladies who died within minutes of each other last November. Jackie's mom was one of those ladies. We met Jackie years ago when she came to visit her mom and have enjoyed her friendship over the years. Tomorrow we are to have dinner with another friend. More about that next week.

I'll try to add some pictures here. They are a lot easier to put in at the bottom of the page.

Main street Tombstone. The stagecoach is for tours of town.

Boothill Cemetery. It is all sanitized with gravel walkways, metal grave markers, and piles of stone to mark the graves. Coming from town, it's not on a hill either. Coming from out in the valley it is up, but not from town. Sure blew my conception of BootHILL. In the background you can see the valley and the new homes going in. The Tombstone area is growing!

Well, pard'ner, gotta be moseyin' along. Let me fetch my buggy, hitch up ole Lightin', and off we go. Catch up to me if you can.