Day 33 August 7/14 Tombstone, Arizona 6510 kms

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THE TOWN TOO TOUGH TO DIE
The plan for today is just a quick trip down the road to a little town called Tombstone. Before we leave the big city though we thought we would make a stop into the local motorcycle shop to see what new toys we could find for the bikes. The decision to stop was triggered by yesterday’s stop at the boneyard for the U.S. air force. I felt that if the Government of the United States could just throw away 4,000 slightly used airplanes worth billions of dollars, we could update the toys we play with too. So at this shop Helli found a new mesh jacket that would keep her cooler in the summer heat and a new pair of gloves. I found the best pair of sun glasses with built in readers so I can actually see where I am going on the GPS as well as how fast I am going. This is the truth, I have a hell of a time trying to read anything on the gauges without my cheater glasses so this was a real treat for me today.
Once again we passed through a U.S. border patrol check point this morning. Once again there were dozens of patrol vehicles on the highway. So today it was my turn to do some thinking about the situation with the border down here. I have decided it is not all that bad. I have decided that Mexico is just another gated community like all the other resorts down here. I have decided that the U.S. should have built and paid for the “good neighbor “fence that they installed. After all, they have all these dogs running around, they have all these ugly trucks parked in their yard and they have all these noisy planes flying past. The least they can provide is a little privacy.
Now about Tombstone. At some point we are going to have to lower our expectations so that we are not being constantly disappointed. This is a small town made famous in the old west by Wyatt Earp and the shootout at the OK corral. It is a theme town much like Barkerville. The good news is we were heading this way on our way east. The bad news is we decided to spend the night and made a hotel reservation before we arrived. Oh well. It took us all of an hour to see what there was to see. Mostly just tourist cash grabs and T-shirt shops. There is a ton of history here; it is just that is presented in a cheap and cheesy fashion. It feels like a cruise ship should pull up and unload a couple of thousand people for a couple of hours then leave. There are staged gun fights and stage coach tours and ghost tours and people dressed in 1800’s costumes. Like I said, after an hour it was enough. Since we had booked the hotel, it seemed like a good excuse for a beer with dinner and turn in early. Tomorrow it’s up early for a long day’s ride into salsa country.

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[D MJ Binkley]

Arizona
A picture paints a 1,000 words. Enough said.