The Cabin

The Cabin

Friday, March 15, 2013

Fun in the Sun Road Trip – Days 27-30, Tombstone Territories and the HUGE breakdown averted

Let me backtrack to Tucson and Catalina State Park to talk a bit about the major huge colossal breakdown that almost happened. While driving around, Deb noticed a grinding noise coming out of the right front wheel area. Naturally, we started planning for the worst and started to look into Toyota Dealerships and thinking we’d need to stay a few more days, rent a car and wait for the dealership to make the necessary repairs..thinking wheel bearing. But being the mechanical talent I am (I hate working on cars), at camp I jacked up the front wheel to see if that wheel was really to just fall off. I spun it to find that exact same grinding noise,,, then with a little investigation, found that the dust shield was rubbing on the break drum… a 2 second repair and off we go!

Next stop was the Tombstone Territories, about an hour east of Tucson. What is amazing about this place is while it has the same basic desert feel and look, although hillier, the elevation is over 4000 ft. Temps in Phoenix we supposed to get into the 90’s and near 90 in Tucson that week, but it is a lot was in the mid 70’s in the tombstone areas I assume because of the elevation.

We camped at Tombstone Territories RV Park, near Huachuca City,DSCF3181 centrally located to visit Kartchner Caverns, Bisbee, and Tombstone. It is a nice RV  park in the middle of nowhere. full hookups, nicely kept grounds and all of the amenities (i.e., we can finally do some laundry). Although a lot of people come and stay here all winter, and it is a nice place as far as private parks go, we still prefer state and national park campgrounds. I rate it a 9. They have Wifi, but you have to go to their library to access it. 

DSCF3157The first day, we visited Bisbee, AZ. Bisbee is a old mining town with a lot of original buildings. At one time it was the largest city between St. Louis and and San Francisco and has one of the largest mineral deposits in the world. We had lunch at the Copper Queen hotel. DSCF3178

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I took a tour of the old Copper Queen mine, which is a small rail car that takes you down into the mine to see how things were once done. Deb and Kyle stayed back because you had to wear a hardhat and rain slicker and Kyle

 

wouldn’t abide by that. He’s not tour friendly. Next time Deb will do the tour.

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We also visited the famous Shady Grove RV  park, not really an RV park to “pull into”, but a place with refurbished classic trailers that you can stay at. We wanted to eat lunch at Dot’s Diner next door, but they were closed.

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We wanted to visit the Kartchner Caverns, and we discovered that reservations are essential this time of year. Needless to say, they had no openings during our stay…so maybe next time. We played golf instead at a great municipal course in Sierra Vista.

Day three was a trip to Tombstone. This town is a National Landmark and of course, famous for ‘the gunfight at the OK Corral” (although it is really known for being a very successful silver mining city and at one time had a population of tens of thousands). We walked the wooden sidewalks, visited the tombstone Courthouse Museum/state park, and mostly window shopped the many many many tee shirt and souvenir shops along the way. Deb and I bought a couple of RED Shirt tee shirts with Tombstone logos. We also took an historic trolley tour and learned more about the history of many of the buildings and people .. including the fact that the gunfight wasn’t at the OK corral, but at an intersection of two streets a hundred yards away from the corral. Also, Wyatt Earp was only a deputy Marshall for a brief period and it was his brother Virgil who was the real lawman. Virgil’s brothers Wyatt and Morgan and doc Holliday were only temporary deputy sheriffs.  Anyway, it is a nice town to visit despite the cowboys trying to get you into their “authentic” gunfights” on every other street corner. DSCF3183

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On the way out of town we stopped at the Boot Hill Cemetery where the Clantons and McLaury’s are buried.

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We also stopped at the Fairbank ghost town site.

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