Tourist Traps and Natural Wonders

On Friday we made the one hour trip to a little town near the border called Bisbee. The visitors bureau  guy said it was an interesting place that was an old copper mining town but had been "taken" over by artists and hippies in the 70's when the last mine shut down. It was a really nice drive southward and true enough, the town seemed filled with artists and hippie. We saw many cars painted in psychedelic patterns, peace signs and political statements. Also a good amount of old guys with grey ponytails!

We wandered awhile through "Old Bisbee" and got a cup of coffee at the Bisbee Coffee Co. (it was cold out!). Then we headed to the Queen Copper mine for a tour. I had never been in a mine before so it was all new to me. Our tour guide was an old mexican who had worked in the mines for over thirty years. He, of course, was very knowledgeable but I could only understand about 1/2 of what he said....either due to his accent or my lack of ANY mining know-how at all! We only had 4 on our tour, and the other couple was from MN (Grand Rapids and Big Lake). Small world.

After the mine tour we stopped in at Bisbee Brewing Company (of course) and had a beer and brat before heading back north to Tombstone. Now Tombstone, the movie, is one of my all time favorites and I have watched it no less than 100 times. But...that movie is pretty much the extent of my knowledge of the "old west". I was pretty excited to see Tombstone and genuinely thought it would be authentic and historically accurate. Not so much. As we were to learn, pretty much the entire town has been moved to it's current location from elsewhere and it is pretty much just a show. We stayed about an hour.

Pretty much the best part of Tombstone!



Since I had conveniently forgotten to plan dinner, we went back to the Horseshoe Cafe in Benson for their Friday Night Fish Fry. Again, it was wonderful but the best part was people watching. There were several authentic cowboys and this fellow who had  strategically placed his suspenders to cover his "plumbers butt".

Saturday we went to Chiricahua National Monument (cheer-i-cow-ah). Again, with the recommendation of Visitor Bureau guy who had teased us with some lovely pictures of the park. It was a seventy mile drive but, again, beautiful all the way. This park is 'famous' for it's hoodoo's. My favorite place in the U.S. to date is Bryce Canyon, another park known for hoodoo's, so I was quite psyched to check this one out.  It was so beautiful, words can't really describe so I am just going to add a s--t ton of photos...

What did I tell ya? Beautiful....

                                                                  Unfortunately, about a year ago, an out of control fire burned almost 100% of the parks forest and trees. The fire was started by a group of illegal aliens from guess where?  Pretty sure their punishment was deportation. I would sure like to get my hands on them for 5 minutes or so! Fortunately, the park is recovering nicely. Still, many remnants of the fire remain.

Today is football/cleaning/laundry/hair color/truckwash/and relax day. Temps during the day have continued to be in the high 50's with lows in the 20's.  Tomorrow we will be moving into New Mexico to  Las Cruces. After a few days our plan is to move into Texas and get about halfway to San Antonio. Seeking heat!!