Expeditions and Adventures: The Day Trip to Bisbee

Sunday, Karen, Nikki and I headed south for a day trip to the old mining town of Bisbee, AZ. We tried to reach Dawn but both Karen's and my e-mail bounced back so it could have been "operator error." Luckily I found Dawn's phone number and though she wasn't able to meet us in Bisbee she was able to swing by Benson and sit with us all in the RV park for a visit later Sunday afternoon.

Since Nikki had missed the Tombstone trip Saturday we stopped for her to take a look at Boot Hill and then did a drive by for the old downtown section of Tombstone. The courthouse looks pretty impressive. Laren appreciated the tourist in the cowboy hat walking his "manly" little dog.

The we drove on down the road to Bisbee. The city built on the sides of the hills. We declined the opportunity to tour the min itself and missed taking pictures of the huge ugly hole in the ground south of town that was the open mine that closed back in the 70's.

Since walking up and down the hillsides didn't seem to appeal to most of us, I took the Honda up a few roads before finding a place to park down town. Some of the tiny streets reminded me of the alley ways of San Francisco. No mirrors of bumpers were cracked in these maneuvers.

Down near the main drag.

Kids doing what kids like to do.....climb and explore on the equipment in front of the museum.

I took her picture because she seemed to be a cousin of Lyn's sweet Casey girl.

A few more of the "exploring the hill side roads" section. Really, this one was taken from the car window. :=) Notice the houses on the hillside across the hill? We did stop down in town and reviewed some of the current real estate possibilities for sale. Wendy taught me to always look. The available ran the gambit of inexpensive to modern and classy expensive.

The RV at the end of this street is an old Airstream. Brave people finding a place to park it on these hills much less driving it up the bends in the streets to its berth.

We got Karen out of the store with her credit card intact but Nikki helped stimulate the local economy with T-shirt purchases.

One sign on the side warns....don't ride naked....

Bisbee seems have its share of hippie culture and may have once tried to make it supportive of artists. Unfortunately restaurants were about the only shops we found. There were many closed store fronts. THe economy has not bee kind to many small town. Not all of them get to be Sedona....or Tao.

On the way back to Benson the car made a turn into the monastery that we had seen the day before and that Nikki's friend had encouraged her to check out. We missed the open hours for the bookstore and that probably saved us some money. The grounds are very tranquil and welcoming to visitors walking around. Nikki is on the right heading off to see more of the grounds.