Conquering the Wild West!

After a good night’s rest, we got up in the morning excited to enjoy our space-sized breakfast and coffee!  The Best Western Space Age diner did not disappoint.  We had the best pancake breakfast ever and gigantic cups of coffee with “saucers” (get it? Sacuer? Space?  Pretty great!).  Energized and ready to hit the road, we left Gila Bend in search of The Thing, followed by Tombstone!

But first, we had to stop in Tucson to gas up and also because KR and I decided that we should get some food for our cooler so we could eat lunches on the fly.  We also thought it would be a good money saving technique/allow us to avoid eating “out” and/or fast food all the time.  When we asked Siri to help us locate a grocery store, we were thrilled to find that there was a local co-op, and we were even more thrilled when the surrounding blocks turned out to be like a little Arizona version of Berkeley.  It was great!  Needless to say, we stocked up on some fruit and veggies and fixins for pb&j sammies!  Other than those few blocks though, Tucson didn’t have too much to offer.  On to… THE THING!

Described as “one of the country’s odder roadside attractions,” The Thing quickly became a must-see on our list of things to, well, see.  The Thing is actually a very well-marketed gas station, gift shop (on crack) and a Dairy Queen, but what makes it unique is that it also has a “museum” where you pay $1 and get to go through three pre-fab “rooms” of old stuff.  No offense to my dad, but it reminds me of the “junk” my dad picks up and puts in his yard to "decorate" it.  Some stuff was interesting, some stuff was total crap, a lot of stuff was, I think, exaggerated, and everything was dusty.  Don’t browse the pics below if you plan on visiting The Thing for yourself some day, and want to be surprised.  The big draw is “The Thing” itself, which is apparently an unidentified mummy.  In all, The Thing was kitschy and ridiculous to the max, and I loved every second of it!!

 This is allegedly Hiter's Rolls Royce (?)

From our odd stop at THE THING, we took a trip back in time when we got to Tombstone.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but what I found was the best preserved/re-created western town EVER!  The first Tombstone-y site we came upon was the Boot Hill Cemetary where, the “bad guys” from Tombstone the movie (aka, real life) were buried.  There were also a lot of headstones with funny rhymes/sayings on them.  From the graveyard, we headed over to the main part of Tombstone, where we got to see the tail end of one of the big good guy v. bad guy shoot-outs.  From there, we saw the historic Birdcage Theater, which has all the original furniture (like the bar, etc.) and bullet holes from back in Tombstone’s heyday.  We took pics, but we didn’t get a release signed, so we can’t post them online.  At the Birdcage, the boys would pay $25 for the privilege of going "upstairs" for the company of the girls, which is the same as like $750 today!!!

Our next stop was Big Nose Kate’s Saloon (Kate was Doc Holliday’s girlfriend, apparently).  KR and I made friends with the bartender who was originally from Cali but was seriously hatin on it.  But he made us a yummy Big Nose Kate drink (which we just shared since one of us would need to do some driving) and told us how we shouldn’t stay in Bisbee (more bad advice from a local yocal!).  Next stop: guns!!  I’ve always wanted to shoot a real gun, and I got my chance at the shooting gallery, where I got to fire a revolver that didn’t have a kick-back or anything, so it was super fun and easy!  Also, I was shooting paint bullets, so I got to see where I shot (ha, or missed!) my victim.  I got the guy three out of 5 times, so I felt like that was pretty good for my first time J

 

Before we left town, we made it on the last tour of the "Good Enough" silver mine.  Not only did we end up like 100 feet underground, we also learned a lot about the economic aspects of Tombstone.  Actually, the owner of the mine was also the dude who founded the town, and he named it Tombstone because his acquaintances back home said all he’d find out in that part of the desert was his tombstone.  When he hit the motherload, he named the town he basically created Tombstone to spite them.  Silver mining was the main industry at Tombstone and all the cowboy shenanigans was just the side show.  When the mining died down, so did the town.  Well, until it was revived  by the tourism industry, and people flocking to see the infamous OK Corral!  Needless to say, KR and I had a jolly good time during our trip to the Wild West!

By the time we left Tombstone, it was dusk and we were hungry and needed to find a place to stay.  Despite the bartender's warning, we headed to Bisbee, and instead of finding a super lame city, we found a charming hamlet nestled in a desert valley!  We were instantly smitten with it's small-town charm, and were disappointed to find that there were no hotel vacancies because apparently Memorial Day Weekend fills the place up!  Instead, we "settled" for dinner at the AMAZING, incredible, delicious, finger-licking good Mexican restaurant Santiago's.  If you ever find yourself in Bisbee, do yourself a favor and EAT THERE!  Then we headed back up to Sierra Vista to crash for the night.

-EN