Bisbee Arizona, With a Side of Tombstone and a Sunset:: Winter Sojourn 2014/15

Copyright 2018, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

2014

YES, early December 2014, during the Winter Sojourn 2014/15 tour.

Yes, I am still 4 years behind in my trip posts.  I may never catch up.  LOL

Anywhoooooooo - -

We did a day trip to Tombstone, just a quick stop there, as it was quiet, so we moved on to Bisbee.  And, finally back to Benson for a nice sunset.  Here are a few photos, like 15 of em.

These guys were enjoying one of the local hotels:

Up to Bisbee, (Bisbee was founded as a copper, gold, and silver mining town in 1880). This is in front of the Cohise County Courthouse.  This is the "Virile Copper Miner Statue".  Dedicated to "those virile men," the copper miners. Erected in 1935. A local artist was paid $180 to make the copper-covered concrete statue. 

This is a fence along the road, a "copper" fence?  I cannot be sure of the actual material used, but, it is "copper" colored.  I thought it was very pretty, artistic even.

Part of the Bisbee 1000:  "The Great Stair Climb is the only outdoor stair climb in the U.S. and is arguably one of the most unusual and challenging events in the world. The 4.5-mile course features nine staircases (over 1000 total steps) connected by winding roads, with a total course elevation gain/loss of ~1175 ft."  Description found at the Bisbee 1000 web site.*

Folk art along the roadways, note the leaves painted on the wall.

More folk art, needs a mattress?

Isn't this a lovely wall??

A fence of plumbing:

I have no clue, but, it has eyes:

This is the Lavender Pit, a former open pit copper mine.  Reactions to this are varied, some consider it an environmental disaster.  It's huge!

On the way back to camp, we stopped for a few minutes around Lowell, I'll bet you can guess why.

Back in camp we had a wonderful sunset, the perfect end to a great day.

* Where I have not included a URL, please do a web search if you desire more information. I am now refraining from using links as many are going bad in a couple of months and I have hundreds of bad links, ranging from 2009 to 2018.   Bad links are not useful to you my readers or to my blog. And, frankly, I do not have the time or energy to be correcting hundreds of bad links several times a year.

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THE Trip, THE Encore' :: Downtown Bisbee Arizona

Copyright 2013, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Now that our MOC Circle Rally in the desert around Quartzsite is over and there are only a few of us left out here, I think it is time to return to THE Trip, THE Encore'.

So, where were we??  Oh, yes, December 11, 2012, Bisbee, Arizona.  It is a beautiful ride from Tombstone.  After lunch we eventually snagged a parking spot in downtown and set out to explore and have a little walk. Bisbee is all hill with a dash of mining town, history, more hill, steps, shops full of art, another hill or two or three, steps, and a narrow curvy street or two:

No words necessary:

Some great architecture, this is on the building  of the Perfect Ashear Lodge # 12, Free and Accepted Masons of Arizona, founding date recorded on the signage as November 11, 1896.  Also of the Pearl Chapter # 6, Order of Eastern Star, founding date, January 5, 1900.

A hill, of course, and steps, many steps!  Climb that a few times and you will develop calf muscles, eh?  Bisbee is well known for their stairs, they even have an annual event where you can climb 1000 stairs, really, learn all about it here.

And, if it rains, a place for the water to go.  Have to say, this boggles this ole gals mind just a little.  I would like to see water rushing and rolling through here - - -  well - - - maybe not!  LOL

This statue is dedicated to those "Virile Men, The Copper Miners", artist, Sanderson, 1935.

Isn't this fencing beautiful??

Peace Wall, you can read more about it and Bisbee, here.

Nice bus ????

Yep, a bus, the sign says so.

We had a wonderful day visiting Bisbee.  We would like to return some day, as we felt we just skimmed the surface, we did not take a mine tour, some of the stores were closed the day we visited.  The drive there and back is worthy of a re-do.  Back at the campground, we were treated to another special Arizona sunset.

Next, we will roll over to Tucson where we will nest for the holidays.  There are a number of great places to explore, stay tuned.




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THE Trip, THE Encore' :: Lowell & Bisbee Arizona, Stepping Back a Few Years

Copyright 2013, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

December 11, 2012

Our day trip to Bisbee and Lowell, Arizona continued with LUNCH!!  We were told go try the Bisbee Breakfast Club.  OK, we were all a wee bit skeptical, well, a bit more than an wee bit, we were very skeptical, but the local folks that suggested it were quite sure we would love it.  Did we??  YOU BET!!  (The building was an old Rexall Drugs, I believe.)

After satisfying the hunger pains in a most delightful way, we noticed the street had some interesting buildings and vehicles.

As we walked further down the street we came to the conclusion that we had stepped back in time, and that this would make a great movie set.  Is it??  Have no idea.  But, it could be!

Remember??

And, take a look at those fuel prices.  Yepper, that is 30.9 per gallon!  If only - - SIGHHH

Next we headed back to Bisbee proper, and well, we made a slight error in one turn and ended up here.  MMM, did I say error??   Nope, not an error, a great U turn spot!  To learn much more about the Shady Dell, visit their web site and have fun!

No one seemed to be around at the moment, so, we shot photos over and through the fencing.

Now, just look and enjoy the memory blasts from the past (this works before for the lovers of the RV life, eh??)

Indeed that was one FUN wrong turn, and possibly, the bestest part of the day!   We did eventually find downtown Bisbee, and a parking spot for J & D's car and we walked and walked and - -   Well, more on that soon, come on back, ya hear???




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THE Trip, THE Encore' :: Bisbee Arizona, It's a Mining Town

Copyright 2013, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

December 11, 2012

Bisbee, we had heard many times, you must visit, put it on the bucket list.  So, we put it on the list and we went.   It is a pretty drive from Tombstone UP to Bisbee.  When we arrived we went right to the Visitors Center, which also is a departure point for mine tours.  I will fess up, I am not too much for going down into the earth to see a mine.  Did one in Upper Michigan that rather spooked me.  There were weird noises, bats in residence, water on the floor and rotten planks to walk on.  Creepy!  So, I was not particularly interested in a repeat experience.  Besides, it was lunch time, and well, it was lunch time!

They had a museum of sorts in the Visitors Center, so we spent a few minutes wandering around in there.  There is a lot of equipment, much of which I did not have any inking of an idea of what it all did or was.  Oh, yea, I knew what the dynamite was!  LOL  This track bender did grab my attention tho:

Outside we found a number of different looking wagons, carts, bins, etc., all set up to travel on small gauge rail tracks down into the mines.

Interesting looking stuff, have NO idea what it was for!  LOL

There was this entrance, not sure if it was real, old, mock up, or what.  Needless to say, we were wandering around with no clue.  Our tummies were screaming "feed me" more than our curiosity was screaming "answer me".

So, friend J chatted with some locals that happened to be sitting nearby and we were told to go down the road easterly till we found the Lavender Pit, an open pit mine. It was large, very large!  How large you ask??  Well, how about 4,000 feet wide north to south, 5,000 feet long and 850 feet deep!  Large!

There were all kinds of interesting signs describing the processes, including reclaiming that is now going on.  One sign laid out the process of mining an open pit, briefly:  there are a series of 50-foot high "benches" cut into the edge of the deposit; holes are drilled into the benches and filled with explosives; detonate said explosives which of course, breaks up a layer of rock; broken rock is shoveled up and hauled away; ore goes to a crusher for additional processing, waste rock with little or no copper is hauled away.

After studying and learning a bit more, once again, our tummies ruled supreme and we headed over to Lowell (just blocks away) for lunch.  I'll chat about that in another post.  Eventually, we found our way into Bisbee proper and walked around, discovering the building of the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum.

Here is a mining train out in front of the museum.

As you can probably see, that looks to be one rather large museum.  We all knew we could not begin to cover that amount of territory in the hours we had left in Bisbee.  The museum is on my bucket list for a possible future visit.  We decide to spend the rest of our day walking around the downtown area, up and down, oh, did I mention Bisbee is built in a VERY hilly area?  Like I said, we walked up and down, up and down, and up and down!  HAHA, actually we walked UP UP UP and then we walked DOWN DOWN DOWN and then a bit more UP UP UP.  I'll show you a bit more of charming Bisbee some time soon.




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THE Trip, THE Encore' :: Las Cruces New Mexico, Then On To Tombstone Arizona

Copyright 2013, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

December 7 and 8, 2012

We spent two nights in Las Cruces, shopping and enjoying a great meal in Old Mesilla  at La Posta, yep, Mexican food, really good Mexican food.

La Posta was decorated for the holidays.  The day we were there they had over 24 trees up and decorated, and more were coming in!  And, yes, this is a chandelier, not a tree!  LOL

The restaurant is beautiful before the holiday decorations:

We strolled around town after our yummy meal, look at this neat old gate, ignore the modern PCV plastic pipe behind it. SIGHHH

I know I took a photo very much like this two years ago, I was drawn back to this area, loving the color, the style, the gate like wrought iron.  An, ohhh, myyy, I see Man's reflection too!  LOL

We would have enjoyed staying in the Las Cruces area for much longer, but, we had one more stop to make before our holiday layover in Tucson where we had a reservation for the 12th, so we had to move on out, heading west once again along I-10.

We saw signs about dust storms and zero visibility and we were passed by this, oversized load.  I'll say it is oversized:

Along this stretch of I-10, I am also always impressed by the long trains, lots of trains.  And, a nice display of geology too!

Ah ha:   Arizona state line!  WOOT!

And we know we are almost to Benson Arizona when we see these fascinating bolder/rocks/formations at the Texas Canyon rest stop.

Next stop, Tombstone area, where we will spend time visiting Tombstone, Bisbee and the Kartchner Caverns.




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