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Published: February 15th 2007
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BISBEE
CITY PARK Seufer6: Destination: Bisbee, Arizona
Sunday, February 5, 2007
After another great nights rest, we were up early. Ty and I went on a long brisk early morning walk and scoped out Tombstone's breakfast selections. For some reason we were hungry for a good greasy spoon breakfast. Meanwhile, the kids we at the motorhome, cleaning up and getting ready for the day. When we found a little place called O.K. Cafe, we called the kids and had them meet us there. We enjoyed a good small town yummy greasy breakfast. Jessica and Tanner wanted to go exploring on their own, so off they went to browse the shops.
One block from our park was a quaint little church, so I headed back to the RV to get ready, while Ty checked Emma and Lilly into the church preschool. The rest of us enjoyed a great service. Everyone at church greeted us just as if they knew us for years. The pastor went around the church and greeted all members and visitors. Nice way to start the day and refresh our minds of what is really important to us. We have such an appreciation for this small town, nobody is ever
BISBEE
CITY PARK in a rush, everyone is extremely friendly, and the residents who live here seem to enjoy life to the fullest. It was neat to see so many familiar faces from the activities of yesterday at church this morning.
Back to the motorhome to pack up and head out. Today is Superbowl Sunday, Tanner and Ty are deteremined to watch the entire game together, having their own party. We drove a measley 16 miles south into the unique town of Bisbee, Arizona, which we discovered is maybe 13 miles from the border of Mexico. We found a great campground called Queen Mine RV Park that sits on a hill and overlooks the town, just beautiful. We got settled, Ty put Lilly down for a nap, while the rest of us walked into to town to check things out.
Bisbee is a small beautiful town that sits on a mountain and reminded us of a European town, because of how the streets and homes are. We discovered a neat park to play in for a while, then browsed some shops that were open. The town has absolutely no stop lights, just a few stop signs here and there. The town
BISBEE
CITY PARK sits on a sloping mountain, so the streets are steep and narrow. It reminded us of small San Francisco. The shops were very artsy and there are many neat antique stores along the main street. We looked at our watches and decided to head back to the motorhome to get ready for the big game.
Ty and Tanner wanted some snacks, so we made chips and dip, hot wings and a small veggie plate for everyone to enjoy. We are all relishing how close we have become just the short time we have been in this motorhome. We know where everyone is at all times. After watching the game between the Colts and the Bears, which the Colts won, yahoo, we hit the sack.
Monday, February 6, 2007
The next day we awoke to Lilly rubbing our faces, demanding some milk. She is such a good little alarm clock. Jessica and Tanner needed a couple hours alone to do some long overdue school work, so Ty and I headed to town with Lilly and Emma to get some exercise. We walked up a very steep hill to a quaint little market and coffe shop. We bought a couple
BISBEE
QUEEN MINE apples, a postcard, some homemade pasta and red sauce, then headed out again to finish our walk. We walked about 2 miles, ended up at the town park to play, then to the Copper Queen Hotel for breakfast. Jessica and Tanner met us there.
During our brief time at the Copper Queen Hotel we learned a lot about this small town of Bisbee. The population today is about 9,000. Bisbee is famous for being the queen of copper mining for almost a century. The peak population during the mining was about 35,000. Back then it was referred to as "Little San Francisco". This town has endured floods, fires, labor trouble and mine shutdowns, but continues to this day to stay strong. Bisbee produced more than 8 million pounds of copper worth 2 billion dollars. Millions of pounds of lead, zinc, silver and gold was also yielded in Bisbee. All mines closed in 1974. With all of that said, we decided to tour the Queen Mine just a short walk from our campground.
The Queen Mine was in operation from 1877 to 1974. It was reopened in 1976 as a mine museum for tourists to enjoy. It is known
BISBEE
QUEEN MINE as the richest copper mine in history. The tours are conducted by miners who actually worked in the mine. 50,000 people tour the mine each year. When we got to the mine, we purchased tickets, put on yellow slickers with hoods, helmets, and strapped lights around our waist. Emma and Lilly looked quite cute, so did Jessica and Tanner. We then loaded onto a small train and our tour guide, Sonny, guided the train into the tunnel shaft and we went about 600 feet into the mine, where it got extremely dark and cold. We continued on about 300 more feet, then we stopped, walked up some stairs and we were in a big cave where they used to dig for copper. Sonny filled us in on the complex gruelling mining operation. Mules were the main transportation way back then and lived in the mines in total darkness for years. When there wasn't a use for the mules, they would put covers over their eyes, take them into daylight, cut a small hole into their eyepatches and each week the hole would get bigger until their vision returned to normal. We all found that interesting. The tour lasted about 45
BISBEE
QUEEN MINE minutes and by the time it was done, we were quite cold and ready to get out. It is amazing to us how miners could do that everday for 10-12 hours. What a neat site that was to see and learn about.
Wow, it was already close to 2:00pm, we closed up camp, we aren't quite sure where we will end up...We are headed north to Sedona........
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Amberky
non-member comment
Funny
that is sooo cool you guys got to go in a mine! Wow that had to be cool! Thats sooo funny lilly fell a sleep! Tell everyone i said hi Love, Am