February 3, 4, & 5, 2008 Bisbee, Tombstone and Travel

Sunday we decided to try our hand at geocaching in the area. We needed 6 to hit 200 finds. First we drove south toward Douglas to find one near the Mormon March Monument. We found that one with little trouble.

Then we headed toward Bisbee to find the next one. It was a type we had never done before--picture clues! The coordinates on the cache page were for the first picture. Each picture was a clue to let you know you were on the right track or if it was an intersection, where you should turn. We only missed a few pictures. We met a couple behind the gate of the shell picture when we made a wrong turn. They let us know that we should go straight, not turn. They had helped other cachers along the way. We finally got to the top of the stairs in Bisbee and found the cache. The walk down was not quite so tough. Bisbee's elevation at the base of the mountain is about 5200 ft. Where we found the cache was at 5900 ft.

Some of the items were on signs, walls, doors, gates and the sidewalk. The second picture up from the bottom right was the grille of an old Chevy.

It took us a while to do this cache so we saved the others for Monday.

Next we went to the Bisbee Mining Museum which is affiliated with the Smithsonian. There was a lot of history about the town and mining. Joyce especially enjoyed the rock and mineral exhibit.

It was time to look for a place to eat and maybe watch the Super Bowl. We tried the Copper Queen Hotel Saloon, but they quit serving at 2:30. We had a drink then went to Santiago's for Mexican food. It was great and we ate way too much! We watched the pregame show there and then hopped over to the Stock Exchange in the old brewery building to watch the game. It was an interesting place with one wall covered in blackboards listing futures and stock prices from long ago. The people were as interesting as the bar. You'll have to ask us about them.

We were happy with the outcome of the game, but disappointed in the commercials. They weren't nearly as good as they have been in the past.

Monday was a cloudy, windy day. We wanted to visit the courthouse in Tombstone so we dressed warm and off we went. We found the other geocaches on our way to Tombstone.

When we arrived and got out of the car the wind was gusting. We walked through the courthouse museum (it is a state park) and then went outside to see the gallows. The wind was blowing so hard by then that we had trouble closing the door when we reentered the building.

We drove to the tourist trap section of town just to walk around. There weren't many people around on this cool Monday morning. As we walked out of the parking lot, it began to hail, then it turned to snow! We continued on our way walking from store to store to keep warm.

This is a view of the main street from the parking lot as we were leaving. Here is our car with the little bit of snow that didn't melt.Tombstone is north of Bisbee, but at a lower elevation. Here is Bisbee as we drove past on our way back to the rv.Even though it was snowing, the temperature was warm enough that the roads didn't ice over. When we got back to the rv, we stayed in for the rest of the day. The wind coming over the mountains was chilling.

Tuesday we said goodbye to Belle and thanked her for her hospitality. She is an amazing rancher at 80 years young.

We drove east on Arizona 80 toward Rodeo, New Mexico. Bob found a Passport America park online and we decided to try it. Since we are members of Passport America we got 50% off the regular price or $24.

The drive was only 60 miles. Now we are on the east side of the Chiricahuan Mountains. We can see the snow on the tops of the highest peaks. We are staying at Rusty's RV Ranch about 6 miles north of Rodeo. This is our first campground with hookups in two weeks! Hot showers with unlimited water for all tonight!