Tombstone, Arizona

Sorry for not posting the past two days. We crossed over the Continental Divide while in New Mexico. It was surprising, that it was 4,154 feet elevation because it was flat as far as the eye could see, nothing but desert.

We crossed into Arizona at 12:41PM MST Saturday.

We arrived in Tombstone, set up, and relaxed for the day. Sunday we went to the reenactment of the OK Corral at 11 AM,

walked the streets of Tombstone, and had lunch at Big Nose Kate's saloon. Afterwards, we walked the rows at Boot Hill Cemetery, then the Jewish Cemetery and Memorial.

My favorite tombstone epitaph from Boot Hill is

Here lies Lester Moore

Four slugs from a .44

No Les, no more

Lastly, we drove thru the mountains to Sierra Vista for some Peter Piper Pizza. They have a great thin crust pizza at a very reasonable price.

Today we drove to Bisbee, a mining town near the border.

Very quaint, very artsy, the town is nestled in the Mule Mountains.

You drive thru a mountain tunnel to get to it. We saw the Lavender strip mine

but because one of us is claustrophobic we did not go in the Queen City mine. Copper mining started here in 1877 and the area became one of the world's largest copper producing areas. One of the interesting facts of the mining is that most gold and silver is found alongside the copper. Mining continued until 1975, and today they are reclaiming the land from the strip mines.

Because we could not get any reservations anywhere within 40 miles of Tucson because they are having gemstone shows there thru February 18th, we had to abandon our reservation at Kitt Peak Observatory and change our itinerary. Our new plan is drive to Blythe, California, tomorrow where we have reservations alongside the Colorado River. We will be able to visit Quartzite, AZ, while there. We'll spend a few days, then drive to Las Vegas where we will spend 4 days seeing the sites, then head to Winslow, AZ, the first stop on our return trip home. As mentioned in an earlier post, here we will see the largest meteorite crater in the US, the statue commemorating The Eagles song "Take It Easy", then finish with a visit to the Painted Dessert.

Well, that's it for today. Probably nothing tomorrow since we'll be driving all day. So expect the next post on Wednesday.