No dust in Trail Dust Town. 01-31-15

 

It was still raining at 4:00 when we piled into Roy’s jeep to go to dinner at Pinnacle Peak. By the time we got to Trail Dust Town the rain was coming down in sheets.

By the time we made the short run from the parking lot to the Restaurant we were all very wet. We stood on the front porch of Pinnacle Peak and watched the rain coming down in Trail Dust Town.

After a few minutes we went into the lobby of the restaurant.

Here is the Cashier’s station.

There is a great chandelier in the lobby.

Here is a peek into the saloon.

Pinnacle Peak has a dress code.

 

If you wear a tie they cut it off.

and hang it from the rafters.

Our waitress called herself Bell Star. She was a bit theatrical but was very efficient.

Suzanne and Roy each ordered a full rack of ribs.
This is how much they took home after what they ate.

 

Patti had another Fillet.

 

I had what they call a cowboy (T bone) steak. I had already eaten half of the steak before Patti took the picture.

It was another good meal.

It was a long ride home in the dark and pouring rain but we made it okay.

Today we will leave here and drive north to Coolidge where we will be staying for the month of February.

It is still raining hard.

Shopping in Sierra Visit and a move to Tucson. 01-30-15

The RV had a couple headlights out so we went to Sierra Vista to get new lights.
While were there we stopped at McDonald's to publish the blog.
The Wi-Fi at the park was slow and our Verizon connection wasn’t much better; it could take at least an hour to publish the blog and yesterday it wouldn’t publish at all. It took only about 20 minutes to publish at McDonald’s.
While we were in Sierra Vista we stopped at Fry’s grocery to get a head of cabbage, some banana’s and some peanuts.
It was lightly raining off and on by the time we left to go back to Tombstone.
It wasn’t raining yet when we got back to the RV park so I installed all four new headlights.

For dinner I cut up four pieces of Bacon and a Polish dog, threw them in a skillet to cook. While the bacon and sausage were cooking I cut up the head of cabbage. When the bacon was almost cooked I added the cabbage to the skillet I added some salt, pepper and a little soy sauce, I put the lid on the skillet and let it simmer, stirring occasionally. When the cabbage was cooked, I plated it and we drizzled a little of our new Balsamic Glaze over it.
It was wonderful!!

It rained hard all through the night. This morning we got up around 7:00 to continuing rain. After breakfast we got things ready to leave Tombstone and at around 9:00 were on the road to Tucson. We stopped at the Cactus Country RV park for today so we could have one more meal at Pinnacle Peak’s.

Tomorrow morning we will leave here and go to Coolidge where we have a spot at the HO HO Kam RV park. We will stay there for the whole month of February.

At this writing it is still raining hard.

Chiricahua National Monument

 

We headed east again on Middlemarch Road looking for a high pass that I thought was in the Dragoon Mountains. After driving over a lower pass where we could see the Chiricaua mountain's across the valley I realized that the pass I was looking for was in the Chiricaua Mountains near the national monument. We decided that since we were going to be near the monument that we should take Suzanne and Roy through it.

As we drove down the eastern side of the Dragoon Mountains we passed this interesting sign post.

There used to be a sign here that read “Welcome to Sears population 12 people and 18 dogs” but the sign is no longer there.

As we got closer to the flats we could see this chewed up mountain in the distance.

 

It turned out to be the gold mine at the old town of Pierce.
We stopped at Pearce to look around a bit.

Here is the old general store.

Below is an old air powered bucket loader.

This is the elevator that was used to bring the ore cars up from the shaft.

Some of the old buildings have been turned into gift shops.

After wandering around Pearce for a while we got back on the road and headed southeast on Hwy.191 to the junction of Hwy.181 where we turned northeast and drove for about 26 miles until we came to the junction for the road that goes to The Chiricaua National Monument.

We could see snow in the higher peaks and passes

 

Shortly after entering the monument we stopped to check out this old cemetery for the pioneer family that settled this area.

 

We stopped for lunch at a picnic area.

 

We were visited by some begging Blue Jays.

After lunch we walked to where the ranch buildings were.

Here is the old barn and tack room.

In the tack room you can see the saddle racks and where they hung the bridles for each horse (the white cans on the wall).

The original cattle ranch was turned into a guest ranch in the 1930’s.
Here is one of the guest cabins.

This is the main ranch house.

After some time walking around the ranch buildings for a while, we headed up the road to Massai Point for an overlook of the fantastic scenery.
Along the road you see the rock formations that make this area so interesting.

The rock on the left in the picture below looks a bit like Snoopy.

 

This one looks like a turtle sticking its head out of the shell.

 

After a slow drive up the road marveling at the beauty of the rocks and taking tons of pictures we arrived at Massai Point for spectacular views of the rocks from above.

Here is a plaque describing how the formations were made.

After looking at the formations from this angle we dove to another lookout point.

 

While we were there we noticed a square hole in the rock across the canyon. We couldn’t tell what we were seeing until Patti took this great picture that shows that the man made hole goes completely through the rock with the trail to a lookout on top of the mountain going through it.

 

After enjoying the views for awhile we headed back down the road.

Suzanne and Roy’s jeep has a hard top but there is a section in front that can be removed. This is the first time that they ever removed it.

 

They said it was great to be able to look up and see the rocks as they drove below them.

Around 3:00 we headed for home and by 5:00 we were at Kate’s in Tombstone for dinner.

A good day and a beautiful ride.

The Bisbee Breakfast Club. 01-28-15

 

Bisbee, AZ is about 16 miles south of Tombstone. It is an old mining town reminiscent of Nevada City, CA;  with lots of old Victorian homes and narrow steep streets.

The town is now a tourist Trap.

There are a couple of closed copper mines in the area. The Queen Mine which is a hard rock mine with a shaft that goes over a thousand feet into the mountain and offers a fun tour of the mine.
We took the tour several years ago and I recommend it.

Just south of the Queen Mine is the Lavender open pit mine.

 
Both of the mines have played out and are no longer working.

Just south of the Lavender mine is the small town of Lowell. Most of the businesses on the main street of Lowell are closed down but walking along the street brings one back to the 1950’s with old cars parked along the sidewalk.

There is an old closed Sprouse Reitz store.

 

A Harley Davidson repair shop with some old gas pumps out front.

I didn’t know that Hudson made a pickup. Maybe this one is custom made.

Lowell is also the home of the Bisbee Breakfast Club; an old style diner with great food and atmosphere.

I had the Coronado: a ham, cheese, and scrambled egg breakfast burrito covered  with a green chili sauce. Yumm.
Patti had a hamburger with bacon, caramelized onions, blue cheese drizzled with a Balsamic glaze. She fell in love with it. We asked the waitress where they got the Balsamic glaze and she told us that we could buy it at the High Desert Market in Old Bisbee.

On the way home through Bisbee we found the market

and purchased three bottles of the stuff.

   

We got back to the RV around 3:45 and around 6:00 we went over to Suzanne and Roy’s to play cards. When we stepped out of the door Patti noticed the sunset.

Another good day and some good food.

Gammon’s Gulch and another lunch at Kate’s. 01-27-15

 

About 10:00 we headed for Gammon’s Gulch; a ghost town/movie set just north of Benson AZ.
To get there we drove north on Highway 80 from Tombstone.

At Benson we turned east on Highway 86 and after about a mile we turned north again on Pomerene Road and followed it through the town/speed trap.If you ever go through there be sure to go the 25 mile per hour speed limit not 26 mph. We were warned about this by Mr. Gammon several years ago.
After successfully getting through the town we continued along the road until we got to the turnoff to Gammons Gulch.

 

Unfortunately this is the only picture we got of the place because when we got to the Gate it was closed and this sign was on the gate.

As it turns out they are closed on Monday and Tuesday anyway.

What to do?

We decided to head back to Benson to do some shopping and then meet Suzanne and Roy back at the RV’s and then go to Kate’s for lunch and to be entertained by Mick.

He is pretty talented and funny and sings the old songs. We all sang along.

Patti and I ordered a Pizza. It was very good, not quite as good as Silly Al’s but good enough.

We got to talking with one of the re-enactors that works as a host/swamper in the saloon. He was originally from California and had lived in Healdsburg for a time.
Patti asked him if she could take a picture of him and he suggested that she have me take a picture of her with him.

I noticed that he had a nice brace of nickel plated engraved 1851 Colt cap and ball revolvers.
 

I suspect that they were replica’s.

We sat around there for a couple of hours; eating, singing, laughing and just generally having a good time.

I had a big ass beer.

Patti drove home again.

I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to show Suzanne and Roy around Gammon’s Gulch but it was a good day and I was stuffed with Pizza.