Tombstone Arizona

Worrying aboot spring break and not being able to find accommodations we looked on line and booked a room at the Tombstone Budget Host Motel. We were expecting the worst but were pleasantly surprised by the clean and spacious room. The internet connection was poor at best, but probably the oddest thing was instead of having the little bars of soap found in most motels, they had a large plastic pump bottle of hand soap by the sink, with the motels name on a sticker stuck on the bottle, and if that wasn’t strange enough in the shower they had ½ full bottles of liquid soap and shampoo. At first glance I thought the last tenants must have left them behind, but no they were for us. NOT! They also didn’t want you to use their towels for cleaning your lipstick, mascara, or other make up off your face, or getting those towels dirty with your gun oil. On the plus side when we returned for the evening there were at least 14 other bikes in the parking lot, so we were in good company, and would have some new friends to swap riding stories with.

The old part of Tombstone is a tourist town. The main street is blocked from traffic, except stage coaches, and pedestrians. A very nice arrangement as you can wander back and forth between the trinket shops, restaurants, and bars that line the avenue.

The only original building left from the old west days  is the Bird Cage Theater.

The Bird Cage Theatre

The Bird Cage is run as a museum and charges admission. The collection has some priceless artifacts from the Old West. Unfortunately the building is in disrepair and the collection is in less than pristine condition.  The tour was worth the price of admission, but it is a shame to see so much of the history of the west looking like it is for sale at a weekend flea market.

Every couple of hours the Earp brothers aided by Doc Holliday face off against Billy Claiborne, Ike and Billy Calanton and The McLaury brothers down the street at the ok corral.

Lots of cow boys were walking around with six shooters strapped to their belts. It made it hard to tell who was an actor and who wasn’t.  I Guess I should have gone and watched the staged gun battle, but with so many guns around, and so much gun violence in the world today, it wasn’t anything I wanted to see, besides I had a stage to catch…

The last stop before heading north to Benson and Tucson was Boot Hill. The frontier cemetery is on the National Registrar of Historical places.  That distinction must have come with some money, because all the original wooden grave markers that would have rotted away by now have been replaced by new wooden markers. It was a good place to shoot, a cannon…

A Shot From Boot Hill