Benson Arizona: Tombstone

One of the problems with going to bed before 9:00 PM is that you are likely to wake up at 4:00 AM. Which we did. Unable to get back to sleep, I got up and finished the blog post about our day at Castle Dome. During breakfast, we heard a clunk against the side of the RV. Investigation later proved it was a bird that mistook our side window for something less solid.

Our setup in Benson Arizona

Unfortunate bird

I unloaded the Wing from the trailer and talked to Rich about his plans for the day. KT called to say they were on their way and I promised we wouldn't leave without them. They arrived in mid-morning and unloaded their excess gear, placing it in our trailer. Jim's original plan was to get a room for the night in Bisbee but thought it might be better to return to Benson. We offered them the fold out couch in the motor home, which they accepted.

We set out for a planned trip down Arizona 80 to Tombstone and Bisbee. The first stop was old Tombstone, about 25 miles south. We found parking spaces on the back street and locked our gear down. The first thing to come along was a stage coach (Butterfield perhaps?) giving tourists rides around town. The horses looked ample but not too fast. Wrong breed.

A patch of green on the way to Tombstone

The slow stage

Is this warning clear enough?

Everyone knows that Tombstone is most famous for being the scene of the Gunfight at the OK Corral where three Earp brothers and Doc Holliday took on the Clanton/McLaury cowboy contingent. Our first stop was at the OK Corral where, for a fee, you can walk the grounds where the shooting took place and, for a slightly higher fee, see a re-enactment of the event. The ticket also included a presentation at the Historama, which (in the voice of the late Vincent Price) described the history of Tombstone.

OK Corral and Historama buildings

Dangerous characters walk the streets of Tombstone

While waiting for the next Historama presentation, the four of us wandered the streets. For some reason, we seemed to keep ending up looking at rings in the various jewelery shops (and there were a lot of them). In a few, we found ideal silver/turquoise bands that fit KT. In others, bands fit Wrong Turn. But nowhere did we find a pair that fit.

One jewelery store

And another (of many)

I talked for a bit with a gentleman hawking the local tram rides. His name, I figured out later, was Richard Blake and he has played Abraham Lincoln in many different shows. I was able to track him down because he also told me he played the parole board chairman in the Nicolas Cage film Raising Arizona. He also played Honest Abe one more time in the Kevin Bacon film, The Big Picture.

Actor Richard Blake

We made it back to the Historama and learned a brief history of Tombstone, its quick rise as a gold and silver mining town, its devastating fires and the closure of the mines due to groundwater flooding. Arizona was still a territory back then and the place was the personification of the "Wild West".

After the Historama, while waiting for the afternoon gunfight re-enactment, we scouted more jewelery stores. While in front of Big Nose Kate's Saloon (she was Doc Holliday's live-in friend), we saw a man photographing his young daughter (maybe ten years old) in front of the entrance. Another man in jeans and a green shirt asked the father if he was an "official photographer". Then he insisted they come inside so we followed to see what was up. We got a table and ordered cold (non-alcoholic) drinks while we watched the man in the green shirt get the young girl up on the bar and equipped her with a feather boa and six gun. Then he coached the father on the best angles to shoot the photo from. We figured this guy must be somebody. For his next victims, he picked Wrong Turn and I, posing us behind the bar with me holding the beer pump and WT holding a shotgun. I got talking to the man afterwards. His name was Steve and he owned Big Nose Kate's, The Longhorn Restaurant and a couple of other places. And he loved people. He came to Tombstone in 1961, an ex-GI from New York who the locals thought was Italian.  He got in a lot of fights. Then they found he was Jewish and he got in a lot more fights. But he hung in and is now quite a local character.

Our server said Steve was by far the best boss she ever worked for. By the way, our lady was quite well endowed and, when she leaned forward to wipe off our table, I couldn't help but notice that she was carrying a Bic lighter in her cleavage.

Some ladies plying their trade outside Big Nose Kate's Saloon

A jovial mood in the saloon

The man in the green shirt interacting with customers

The Bic girl

WT gets his comeuppance

Steve finds another victim

We left Kate's in time to head for the OK Corral re-enactment. As we all lined up at the doors to the gunfight set, the Frank McLaury character laid down the rules. Funny enough, he looked a lot like Charlie Sheen but made more sense. The re-enactment was a bit corny but the actor playing Doc Holliday was brilliant. And Hattie Earp, step-daughter of James Earp, was part of the action. I never heard of Hattie before but it seems, after some research, that she may have been one of the causes of the bad blood between the factions. After opening with a Shakespearian soliloquy by Doc, the action progressed to the shootout which saw three men die in the street.

It looks like there is going to be trouble soon

Drunken Doc Holliday waxes poetic

Hattie Earp was a real cutie

When the shooting was over, we wandered over to the blacksmith shop where the smith had earlier told me he did a few jobs for a man up in Cave Creek before he learned that the gentleman was the one and only Sonny Barger.

WT and KT looking at some of the blacksmith's items

The Butterfield Stage went everywhere

Good advice for politicians then and now

I'll take the whiskey

I gave the minstrel a buck

We felt the need for food and headed for the OK Cafe, only to find it closed. So we went back to Big Nose Kate's and had some good burgers and sandwiches. Then we went up the street and checked out the Bird Cage Theatre. We saw the bar back, brought around the Horn in 1881, and various bullet holes but didn't take the full tour. Sherm said that was a mistake. Next time. Then WT and KT decided they would buy one of the rings they had looked at. The catch was that we couldn't remember which store it was in. We wandered around like lost souls before they found the right one. Then we hit a clothing store and Sandy found a white shirt for Maggie Valley. The clothing store was once the Alhambra Saloon where Doc Holliday and Ike Clanton argued the night before the OK Corral shootout.

The Bird Cage Theatre (note the spelling)

The day was drawing to an end as they started to close up the shops. With the shadows getting long, we realized that Bisbee wasn't going to be in the cards for today, so we rode back to the campground. WT and I talked about many things and KT and Sandy did the same. Later in the evening, we heard some coyotes yipping away about something. Before too late, we all turned in for the night.

Today's Route (52 motorcycle miles):


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Yuma Arizona to Benson Arizona

We were up early this morning and, after a breakfast of cereal and strawberries, I went through the gyrations of adjusting the tire pressures on the RV and trailer. Sherm was amused but I pointed out that he had been every bit a fastidious on the Coast Guard vessels he had been responsible for. The tires were all in good shape but I bumped the RV rubber up to 75 PSI across the board and adjusted the trailer to 50. Then Sherm critiqued my holding tank dumping procedure. I learn more every time.  A hefty dose of pressurized water via the wand into the black water tank cleared up the problem with the sensors providing false readings.

Everything drained and adjusted, we pulled the motorhome out on the street and hooked up the trailer. I loaded the bike (next time, I will remember to lower the antennae first)  and we got it tied down securely. Finally, about 10:00 AM, it was time to say goodbye and hit the road. We've had a great time visiting here in Yuma and will see Sherm again in the Black Hills in June. Thanks for everything, Sherm and Pat.

Leaving town, we actually made it about 1/4 mile into California before swinging back into Arizona but I don't think that counts enough to mark it off on my "Where the RV Has Been" map. We stopped at the Love's truck stop and fueled up before heading east on I-8. The regular Border Patrol checkpoint was closed and the wind was still as we climbed through the pass and dropped into Dome Valley.

Descent into Dome Valley on I-8

There was a sign for Mohawk Valley and I later found out there are Mohawk Mountains here in Arizona. I have to wonder how this happened since the Mohawks are back in southern Ontario.

The trip across I-8 to Gila Bend was uneventful except for a surprise Border Patrol check. No problem there as they waved us through. At Gila Bend we grabbed a bit of food at McDonald's and decided to take Sherm's suggestion to skip the faster, safer Interstate route and take Arizona 85 south to Ajo (pronounced Ah-ho). The road wasn't the best but it was also far from the worst as we entered the Barry M Goldwater Air Force Range. I got to pass my first vehicle on a two lane road as we came up behind what can only be described as "Jed Clampett Returns To Mexico".

The Beverly Hillbillies move south

After many miles of desert and northbound RV's, plus a Border patrol check that wasn't concerned about the southbound traffic, the tailings lines of Ajo came into view. Besides a long history of copper mining, which ended in 1985 after a bitter strike, this little town is home to many Border Patrol families. It also seems to support a thriving group of businesses that sell Mexican auto insurance since it is on the way to Rocky Point, Mexico. It also has a NAPA, a Dairy Queen and a Dollar general so it isn't entirely uncivilized.

Ajo Mill Tailings

Church in Ajo Arizona

Continuing south, we came to a little town named Why at the intersection of Arizona 85 and 86. This place is so small that Garmin never heard of it. We turned left on 86 and saw a sign that said "Why Senior Citizens". I'm pretty sure this meant that the older folks in Why policed this stretch of road for trash but my first thought on seeing it was "What have they got against senior citizens?". It is nice having someone to talk to and take pictures along the way but, for some reason, Sandy didn't get a photo of this sign.

Sandy, ever vigilant, in the co-pilot's seat

As we headed east, we traveled through Tohono O'odham lands populated mostly by mountains jutting up out of the desert floor and myriad saguaro cacti standing silent guard over the landscape. The few buildings, with the exception of a medical facility and school at San Simon, told a tale of poverty and subsistence level living.

Cacti and mountains along Arizona 86

Many shapes and sizes

Sandy figured some of the appendages verged on the obscene

This is an old fellow

Where we're going

Where we've been

This rocky peak was distinctive

One of the things that broke the monotony (OK, the vast Sonoran Desert beauty) was the Kitt Peak Observatory, which consists of 26 independent telescopes operated by a variety of agencies and educational institutions.

Kitt Peak Observatory

Some of the 26 separate telescopes

Near Tucson, mountains with what looked like sedimentary layers came into view. About 25 miles out, we encountered yet one more Border patrol checkpoint. The officer, a captain, asked where we were coming from and then waved us through. The rest of the way into Tucson was over rough road that was under construction. In Tucson, we took I-10 east which was also pretty rugged until we got out in the country. Then it was great and we cruised along as if powered electrically.

Striped mountain near Tucson Arizona

One more Border Patrol checkpoint

Leaving Tucson, we entered Cochise County, named for the great Apache chief. I remember the 1950's TV series Sheriff of Cochise, which puzzled me as a child because I couldn't understand why a western lawman drove a jeep.

We arrived at the Benson KOA at a reasonable hour. In our site, I found the water pipes wrapped in insulation. The lady who guided us to our spot explained that, last year, the winter temperature got down to 10F, killing the cacti and breaking some pipes. After setting up, I spent some time talking to our neighbor Rich. He is hauling his Harley in a small trailer, topped by a canoe, behind his truck. After spending his life running a specialty steel fabrication business in New Jersey, he is now out on his great adventure. So far, he has been to Key West and New Orleans and plans to touch all four corners of the USA before returning home.

Rich from New Jersey's outfit

Wrong Turn and KT called from Tucson and said they would be over in the morning so we could ride to Tombstone and Bisbee together. It was a quiet night since the TV only found three channels; one which we couldn't get at all, one fuzzy NBC station and a really clear, but Spanish language, channel from Tucson. I really need to get the cable hooked up.  We ended up in bed before 9:00 PM.

Today's Route (335 motorhome miles):


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Yuma Arizona: Castle Dome City

Sherm and Pat made us a fine breakfast this morning that included eggs, really thick bacon, biscuits and gravy. We pulled our gear together and climbed in the car for our visit to the Castle Dome City Ghost Town and Museum. Pat elected not to go with us because she has been there a number of times already.

Heading out of town, Sherm stopped at a gas station to pick up a can of his favourite Rock Star energy drink. He got me a can to try as well. Although I regularly use 5 Hour Energy drinks and am not a fan of the Red Bull type beverages, this wasn't bad.

We left town on US 95, paralleling I-8 for a while through green fields and then swung north towards Quartzsite. Sherm tells me that the little town of Quartzsite hosts one of the largest RV shows in the world during January.

US 95 leaving Yuma Arizona

Castle Dome - our destination

We followed US 95 north to mile market 55 and turned off on a paved road. The pavement only lasted three miles and then, without warning, turned to washboard gravel. This was why we were in the car. Had we taken the bikes, the ride would have been rugged and I probably would have spent a week trying to put the pieces back on the Wing. After seven miles of gravel, we arrived at the Castle Dome Mines Museum and Ghost Town.

Gravel road to Castle Dome City

Castle Dome City and Castle Dome

This site is a labour of love for Allen and Stephanie Armstrong, who purchased the land and proceeded to start collecting historical exhibits and memorabilia from the area to preserve it for future generations. At it's peak, there were over 300 operating mines in the Castle Dome District. The Armstrongs are assisted by volunteers who camp out here. I think they are doing a remarkable job and encourage anyone in the area to pay them a visit.

The town square

The Blacksmith Shop

Pipe organ in the church

View out the window behind the altar

Stained glass is a nice touch

"Dead Man's Hand" in the saloon (a long way from Deadwood)

Sherm says cactus stew tastes pretty good

A little off the top, please

Cholla or "jumping" cactus can stick to a person very easily

An old cage for taking miners underground

Sherm weighs in

Refreshments are on the honour system

Sherm marked the Veteran's Wall on an earlier visit

You can't get much more "Arizona" than this

On the way out, we stopped to get a picture of an Ocotillo cactus.

Ocotillo cactus with Castle Dome in the background

The Ocotillo flowers

Some tourist type taking pictures of cacti

After bouncing back to US 95, we turned north and drove almost thirty miles to the site of the original Stone Cabin. Sisters Flora and Billy had lived here until their deaths at an advanced age in the 1990's. The contents of their home were on display at Castle Dome City and the stories about them suggest they were exceptional ladies. The original stone cabin, built over 250 years ago by French settlers, lies out back of the current building. We met Randy, from Washington State, who operates this place 24/7 from late October until early April every year. He cooked up some burgers and fries for us and told us some tales of the area as we ate. Thanks for lunch, Sherm.

The last Stone Cabin

Randy taking our orders

The menu

Well fed, we drove back south on US 95 and took a route back home that took us past the gate of the Yuma Proving Ground and briefly back into California past the Laguna Dam before returning to Lynda Vista.

I checked and recorded the tire tread depths on the RV and, after supper, we visited with Pat and Sherm and had ice cream while I managed to get all my North America maps installed on an external SD card in the Zumo GPS (they were too big to fit in the internal memory). The GPS told me the shortest route home was 2,642 miles but we would be taking a longer route.

Sorry that we would be leaving a nice place and great neighbors in the morning, we turned in about 10:00 PM.

Today's Route (134 car miles):


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