We are on the road again, a long drive today from El Paso, TX to Tombstone, AZ, which means crossing New Mexico in the process. Too easy.
Instead of taking the I10 west out of El Paso, we choose to go the more leisurely road 28 to Las Cruces. We were glad that we did, as road 28 takes us though semi rural country in south eastern New Mexico.
This is wine and pecan country and the photo below shows pecan trees in winter. We assume a more colorful display in spring and summer.
At one point on road 28, we cross Rio Grande from the south to the north. "Grande"...? There is no bloody water in it!?!?
After Las Cruces, we have no choice but to join I10. Of course, this being close and running parallel to the Mexican border, with signs about not picking up hitch hikers, there is also a US Border Patrol road block where all vehicles have to get off the interstate.
Well, Hans was excited about being checked, but.. Alas, we were just waved through with a "Have a nice day". We suppose that we did not fit their profiling. And we didn't have a Mexican looking person in the backseat...
We stopped at Willcox for a Subway sandwich lunch...all fine but a little more on that later.
Road 80 off I10 in Benson takes you south again towards Tombstone and yet again, another roadblock but this time for traffic going out of Tombstone so we assume that we will drive through it tomorrow on our way north to Tucson.
We find our Budget Inn motel on Freemont St in Tombstone, but it turns out that our $50 smoking only room (as a non smoking option was not available) that we booked online is now $70, with taxes and guaranteed non smoking, a "nicer room" as they called it. No, it was not.
Let loose Di's stern negotiation power (or fury...) when we found out that the room did not even have a fridge which all our previous bookings have had regardless of price. To cut it short, we ended up with the "honeymoon suite", yeah right, and got a fridge which Hans had to help the owner carry down from the top floor and with a microwave oven. Lots of space, but pretty ordinary. Still no coffee maker... Oh well... Di will point out some helpful "tips" tomorrow to the owner.
Anyway, we found out that the reenactment of the gunfight of OK Corral is only performed twice a day, second time being 4pm and the time was then 3.40pm, so we wandered through a couple of small blocks to see it.
We were glad we did. It was hilarious. The below billboard describes the setting...
And these dummies are on the actual site of the gunfight. Yep, they stood that close to each other.
The OK Corral reenactment was great and the acting was very believable. It provided a bit of background to the actual shoot out as well as the action at the finale. Below are the 3 Earp brothers at the shoot out...
The action...
And the aftermath...
They leave the ending ambiguous because one theory is that the Earp brothers set it all up to get rid of some quarrelsome cowboys. You also get the impression Doc Halliday was "stirring trouble" between the two sides.
Wyatt Earp... Sharp!
After the OK Corral show we watched a movie about Tombstone "the town too tough to die". It's a town that grew on discoveries of silver and the name came from the very first mine claim, not how many people died here. 1200 people live in Tombstone nowadays.
It is close to 6pm and after a quick change at the motel, we went out for dinner and drinks. On the way, we saw the Griswalds' car pull up..., if you know your Chevy Chase movies...
Tombstone at sunset...
Crystal Palace was the bar and restaurant in Tombstone's old wild west days. One of the Earp brothers got shot here, through the window. That is our place for dinner...
This mirror behind the bar has been there since the olden days...
Crystal Palace Bar today.
After a great steak each at Crystal Palace, we walked across the street to Big Nose Kate's bar for a drink. This is how it looked outside.
Great interior and even the glasses are decorated according to its venue.
Well, at least until you turn the beer glass around... Di had a Margarita.
A self portrait sitting in the bar of Big Nose Kate's.
A twisted sense of humour there. This photo is taken of the urinal of the men's... Hans was glad that he stuck to beer...
Now, we have noticed a number of of civilians in southern Arizona carrying guns at their hips, and now again, the female bartender at Big Nose Kate's was doing the same. So, Hans just had to ask her "what's the story?" Yep it's a real loaded hand gun.
Well, in the county where Tombstone is in, if your the owner of the property agrees, you can carry your gun at your hip as long as your are not drinking. No, she hadn't used the gun while " at work", but she had used it elsewhere she said without elaborating. We didn't know what to think. Somewhat different to Australia...
Back to our lunch at Willcox. A customer sitting behind us looked like an ex hippie. Wearing socks and sandals and had long grey hair in a very thin ponytail - but where we expected a mobile phone he had a gun on his hip. In Subway!
At Big Nose Kate's we then started chatting to a couple who had heard us conducting the conversation with the bartender, he was from Yorkshire, UK, with 25 years in US. She was from Southern California. They now live in Tombstone and are planning to migrate to Oz. 12 years married that day so celebrated at Big Nose Kate's. All good fun. Another round of drinks...
Back to our motel around 9pm as everything is starting and finishing so much earlier here, but as we were quite nuked by then so that was OK. Good night.
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