Bisbee, Arizona

Friday, February 28, 2014

Yesterday, after breakfast, Dolly, Fergie and I jumped into the jeep and headed 30 miles south on hwy 80 toward Bisbee for a day of sightseeing.  It is a clear, warm, beautiful day!  Bisbee is located in the Mule Mountains and actually built right into the hillsides. Bisbee is another quarry mining town that has a huge pit just like Ajo has.  In fact, they are both owned by the same mining company.

 The copper mines are located on the hwy, on the south side of Bisbee.  If you are coming into Bisbee from the east, you curve right around the mines as you drive into town.  The mine is now closed waiting for better copper prices or cheaper ways to get the copper out.

When we got into town, we drove all the way through and then drove back to the Old District and parked the jeep.  We walked up and down the narrow streets looking in all the windows.  It is a tourist town, but it is so beautiful, you forget about the tourist part and just look at the scenery around you.

Fancy motorized bike.	Looking down Main Street.
Stairs everywhere in Bisbee.	Looking up Main Street.
Peeking in store.	Bisbee Grand Hotel
Water canals go under the buildings down Main Street.	Mining train
Homes on the hillside.

 This is a very artsy town.

It was getting late, and time for lunch, so we headed to the west side of town over by the pit to Erie Street for lunch.  Had heard there is a great place to eat and it has a great atmosphere.  I will show you Erie Street tomorrow.

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This morning, we got out of Tombstone about 11:30.  We were running late, but Dolly wanted to pick up some things from Boothill.  (Not bodies)

Went north on hwy 80 to Benson and caught I-10 going east to Las Cruces, New Mexico.   Again, the weather was just beautiful.  We have had two months of just beautiful weather.  Unbelievable!  We stopped at a rest stop in the mountains close to the New Mexico border. Went over several mountain ranges and through several deserts to get here, but we finally arrived at a rest stop on I-10 overlooking the city of Las Cruces.  This is where we are boondocking for tonight.

See you later.

 

 

Ghost Town, Millville, AZ

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Yesterday afternoon, I took the jeep and went looking for two ghost towns on the San Pedro River south of Tombstone.  After about 12 miles, I came to the river and stopped on the north side.   Walking along the river basin, I could see walls on the hillside.

As I got up to the walls, there were several rock formations that had been buildings or homes at one time. That is about all there is left of Millville.  Millville, at one time, was a wild west mining town.  There was a sign saying Petroglyph Discovery Trail, so started looking on the rocks and did find a few.

I knew the ghost town of Charleston was directly across the river from Millville, so headed out through the thick bushes and Palo Verde trees that covered everything.  Eventually, deep in the trees, I did find one foundation, but not sure if it is a part of Charleston, because it was in the river valley, but still on this side of the river.

The San Pedro River was about fifteen feet across and had many shallow places, so I crossed the river in search of Charleston ruins, but only flushed out two deer in the deep woods.   Just above the river, was an old railroad track line.  The rails were gone and it looked like it was used as a road.  There was a neat underpass for one of the tributaries of the river with new petroglypics.

 

As I traipsed through the woods scaring the deer, I came upon someone’s personal bathroom.  Had no clue what it was doing out in the middle of nowhere.

I finally gave up on finding Charleston.  Maybe another day.

This morning, the three of us went to Bisbee, Arizona for a day of sightseeing.  Will show you that beautiful place tomorrow.  Hate to be a day behind, but Bisbee deserves all the space I can give.

See you later.

Old Tombstone

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Today, the three of us headed for Old Tombstone.  As we headed out of the RV park, I took a picture of the Dragoon Mountains straight east of us. Can you see the lamb on the side of the Dragoon Mountain?

While driving into Tombstone, off to our right is a hill with the “T” on it like so many of the towns in the west.

We headed first to the old Tombstone Courthouse that is now a museum.  However, they would not allow Fergie to come in, so we moved on.

Our next stop was the Rose Tree Hotel.  The gentleman welcomed Fergie, so in we went.  Turned out to be very interesting.  There was a lot of history of Tombstone within those walls.  There is a rose tree in the back patio that was planted in 1886 and came from Scotland.

We then walked down the boardwalks of Allen Street, where all the restored old buildings of Tombstone are located. 

Virgil Earp walking Allen street.	Allen Street
Bird Cage Theatre	Long Horn Restaurant
Stage coaches on Allen Street
Stage coach waiting for passengers.	Golden Eagle Brewery

Tombstone is interesting for a one time visit, but it has a flavor of tourism, so you don’t really get the feel of an “old western town”.  However, the buildings are authentic and worth the walk down Allen Street.

As we were leaving town, we drove down some back streets and came upon this pretty Episcopal Church.

Returned to the motorhome for lunch and rested awhile.  Then Dolly and Fergie did laundry while I headed out down Charleston Road to find the ghost towns of Millville and Charleston on the San Pedro River south of Tombstone.  Will save this adventure till tomorrow.

See you later.

Boot Hill

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

At the crack of dawn I was in the jeep and heading for N. Middlemarch Road while Dolly and Fergie were still sound asleep.  A Cactus Wren was singing to me. It was cloudy and cool enough to turn on the jeep heater for a short time.

The road is only about a half mile from where we are staying, so I was there in no time.  Turned right on to it and it immediately went from a blacktop to a wide bumpy dirt road.  About a mile down, I looked to my left and there was a herd of mule deer just off the side of the road.

This went on for about eight miles.  It would be fairly flat for awhile and then washboards came back with a vengeance.  At the eight mile marker,  I could see a border patrol SUV in the middle of the road and the two officers were looking up a side road.  I stopped and asked what was going on and he said they were looking for bodies.  I hoped he was kidding.  I asked if it would be okay to continue on up the road and he said no problem, so I told him I would move on and they could continue looking for bodies.

Another two miles further, I crossed a cattle gate and entered the Coronado National Forest.  I was finally on BLM land.  Drove down a side road that had cows everywhere, and could quickly tell the motorhome couldn’t go down that road.  Went back to the main road for a quarter mile further and it got narrow and rougher.  It was at this point, I decided it would not be worth putting the motorhome through ten miles of rough road, just to get “Far from the Madding Crowds”.

Also, every time we wanted to go somewhere, we would have to take the jeep down that road.  Took me about 25 minutes to drive the ten miles.  Just isn’t worth the hassle. 

When I got back to the motorhome and had my coffee and breakfast, Dolly, Fergie and I decided we would re-up for three more days at the Tombstone RV Park and use this as our base camp.  Friday, we’ll decide what to do next, but for now this is home.

Dolly did two loads of laundry while I took the jeep with bicycle on the back up to the car wash.  First time I have washed the jeep this year.  It is not perfect but it looks presentable now.

In the afternoon, the skies got dark and it looked like rain, and it cooled off enough to where I had to put on a long sleeve shirt.  We decided this would be a good time to go see Boothill Graveyard.

We had a nice time just walking around Boothill looking at all the headstones.  Probably a hundred graves, most in the 1880s. 

Dolly and Fergie	Yours truly
Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury killed at OK Corral.

Tomorrow, the sun should return and we will take the tourist walk through “Old Tombstone” to see and hear the wild west as it really was.

                                                       Tombstone sunset

See you later.