2019-02-03 Sunday - First day in Bisbee AZ

First thing I wanted to do is map the entire trip out so we don't forget what we did and where we went. Wow, what a crooked path, but those are always the best. We get tips about things to do and see as we go along.

It felt great to sleep in this morning. Deb found a few things in a store down the street so we could have coffee and tea this morning. Bisbee really has no large grocery store. My back is still a little stiff, but not bad so a few days R&R are in order. I suspect it was sitting in a car for two weeks that was the problem, but I'll find out on the way back when we blast back across in half the time.

Our place is very comfy. To get to our place you either climb 95 steps up (I counted) or about the same up to a high street and then walk down the street. Bisbee is an old mining town where at it's peak it had 9900 people living here so they built houses on all the side hills. I'll bet their high school track team kicked butt with those kids getting all that exercise all those years.

Being the weekend, there were tourists (us included) walking around the shops. It was not really that busy with people and you can park anywhere on the street with out a problem. Saturday night we walked up to a bar/pizza place and chatted with a local guy who taught at the high school and is now retired. From what he told us and what I have seen other places a lot of hippies moved here in the 1960's and 70's and never left. Small enough (5500 pop) where most folks know each other. I am guessing tourism is their big business. Sierra Vista is the big town (with the big grocery stores) so it's kind of like us in Starksboro with Burlington nearby.

I slept in and started reading one of the few books that I brought (the back thanked me). Deb spent the morning walking the route of the Bisbee 1000, which is an annual race they do around town where you climb 1000 steps on a route that goes up and down the hills through the neighborhood. She is leading a walking tour in Georgia in a couple weeks and is worried about being in shape enough for it. I did a few hundred steps today to stretch my back out and check out the town. Temperatures are in the 50's, maybe 60 and it is mixed clouds. The air is dry and when the sun comes out it warms you up nicely.

We ran over to the big grocery store toward Sierra Vista and stocked up on stuff so we can eat meals in our place which has full amenities (stove, laundry, all the usual stuff).

Then it was SuperBowl!! Everything happens TV wise, earlier since we are 2 time zones away. Someone told Deb we have to go to "Tables", the restaurant / bar down the street whith the biggest, most es (word?) TV's to watch the superbowl. We sat at the bar with an army guy from Boston and a couple from Cape Cod and the Ram's fans sat on the other side of the room, we so had two cheering sections. Gotta say, not too exciting game, but an enjoyable evening spent chatting with folks and watching the game.

We walked back up the street which was pretty much empty since the weekend folks went back home, leaving the town pleasantly empty. Nice intro day to Bisbee.

2019-02-02 Sat Silver City NM to Bisbee AZ

Well, we made it!! Bisbee AZ is where we will park for a week so we are excited to be out of the car for a bit.
We started this morning from Silver City NM, which they told us was sister city to Bisbee. We walked around Silver City this morning and found a nice aging hippie coffee shop. Silver City (population 10,000) is twice the size of Bisbee and they both have the same crunchy, aging hippie vibe, just like a lot of towns back home, but bigger. Lots of art shops, yoga places, used book stores, you get the picture. They both have real downtowns with with old historic
buildings, sidewalks, etc, and both grew up from mines. Silver City was silver of course and Bisbee was copper. Silver City I think still has some kind of mine near it but Bisbee shut their mine down in the 1970's or so. So now they attract tourists and folks move to these towns for the quality of life and climate. So lots of retired, coffee drinking, art loving, aging yoga stretchers.
Another nice sunny warm day peaking out in the 60's with big flat stretches, but now with snow capped mountains in the distance. We are up in altitude anyway so the mountains are 10K ft or more which means snow. A couple great podcasts make the mile go by quickly. We stopped in Sierra Vista for lunch. Sierra Vista is

the big town near Bisbee where people go to shop. It has an army base which seems to be the biggest employer in town.
We got into Bisbee an hour before check in and wandered the street so catch up on what was where. We were here a few years ago and it seems to have not changed much. We finally walked our bags up the 95 steps (I counted) to our place for the week. Very nice place that we are looking forward to settling into for the week.

I gotta say, the last two weeks on the road have been fantastic. We have seen so many parts of the country we have never been to before. But now it's time for a little R&R.

2019-02-01 Fri Van Horn TX to Silver City NM

Super 8 on the Highway last night (Hmm, makings of a country song..) and crappy continental breakfast, but we did see our new best friends with the motorcycle in the back of their pickup from Minnesota again. Today's plan was to go north to catch Guadalupe Mountains National Park and then see how far west we can get. Kinda relaxed schedule since we do not have far to go to Bisbee AZ.
The road goes directly north from Van Horn and there is really nothing for 60 miles until you get to the park, but there is something pretty about nothing but dirt and rocks and scrubby trees and cactus. And it was "unseasonably warm" according to the local weather folks which is great. We hit 70 degrees today and it was clear and sunny (except some sprinkles in NM).
Guadalupe was free with my Senior pass (love it) , normally $5 a head, and it is a pretty small park (hence only $5). This area is where the old sea bed ended and the rocks are the reefs at the edge of the sea (I am sure it is more complicated that that but, heh, I'm an engineer). There looks to be about 2-4 people who run the place and there really is just the visitor center and a lot of hiking trails with remote campsites.
They said spring break is crazy with any kind of group who thinks about hiking showing up. It is also the time of year when anything that blooms, blooms.
The air is very dry and clear here, so we feel like we are really back in the west. Lots of sun and clear air. And we need to drink more since the dry airs sucks you dry out here.
We did a hike to a spring up on the side of the mountain and saw a lot of scat we did not recognize. Turns out they have Ring Tails, which look like a long skinny raccoon and coyotes (we stopped back and asked the nice visitor center folks and showed them our poop pictures).
After Guadalupe, we headed west on Rt180 (the only road west) and again spent a couple hours with spinning radio dial (no stations) and no cell service, but I have been downloading podcasts each night which are a great addition and make the trip go by quickly. Deb found a great (and very busy) Mexican restaurant in El Paso for lunch. El Paso is home to Ft Bliss Army base where 39,000 people work, so it takes up a good part of the city.
We continued west and decided we had enough time to end up north a bit in Silver City NM. We have been here before and it is an artsy town with a couple nice funky hotels right in town. We stopped and booked a room (at Super 8 prices..) and then wandered around town. We stopped at the used book store and a really engaging guy who owned the store (nice Scottish accent) gave us dining tips (the good, bad and ugly), got us up to date on the town's character, and sold us a couple used books of course. We found one of the places he recommended and had a nice supper with the locals. He ran out of the store on our way back through to make sure his recommendations worked out (they did).
Silver City seems a little more foo foo than last time we were here (for this redneck), but it is still pretty authentic. Back to our hotel, the end of another great day.