Bisbee Arizona

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As much as we enjoyed our couple of days in Columbus, we were anxious to push on into Arizona and see some new sights. The road west from there was NM Rt 9, and it was still mostly straight, smooth, and deserted. This was the classic Southwest ride, the asphalt straight as a stretched string, the white shoulder lines slowly converging at a far vanishing point against some jagged blue mountains -- like some boyhood western dream, I love it. This was another road I had taken on my Porsche trip, but as we neared the western edge of New Mexico, we diverged from that route and headed southwest. On that previous adventure, I had taken the little red car on some 30 miles of gravel roads, up and over the Chiricahua Range. That road tops out at about 7500 ft, and then, as now, there was snow up there. Aint gonna happen with this rig.

So we jogged south, down across the Paramore Crater to Douglas AZ. As we drove through there, Cathy suddenly said "Those look like volcanic rocks." I hadn't said anything to her, and I'm sure she hadn't read anything about it, but, as always, she was right -- she continues to amaze me. Soon we arrived in Douglas, it's right on the border, and the start (I didn't know this) on the Pan-American Highway. As tempting as the idea of heading for Patagonia on a whim might sound, we continued west towards Bisbee.

Bisbee is an old mining (primarily copper) town, as is another one of the funky, artsy little enclaves that one can discover all over the southwest. Similar in many ways to Marfa TX, or Silver City NM, but this place really turns it up to 11. As the mines were developed at the base of a steep canyon, the only real estate available for commercial and residential development was further up the canyon and it's walls. So Bisbee became a town of steep streets -- and many, many stairs. All the old miners homes are accessible from the town's main streets by these crazy, twisty concrete steps. All the houses accessed by the stairs have fantastic gated patios and decks leading to them. It's great just to walk them and admire the work. Also, a word about the houses themselves. In the east mine housing was usually provided (at usurious rates) by the mining company itself, and the buildings were completely uniform in their soul-crushing ugliness. That could not have been the case in Bisbee, as I do not think I saw a single house design repeated even once. They are all pretty small, and some are really nothing special, but so many of them were just a treat to see, it was a delight.

Cathy had fortunately called ahead and gotten us a two night stay at a small RV park perched on a flat spot just above town, and next to a huge (no longer operating) open pit mine. It was just a round gravel lot with sites around it's edges, but it was just a short stroll from downtown, so it was perfect for us. The Boss was delighted to do laundry there -- only $1.25 for the machine!

As I guess you can tell, we liked the place right well. We both had a hankering for pizza, and we got a real nice pie and some delicious wings at a re-purposed old gas station called "The Screaming Banshee". To our great amazement, they even had our old Canadian friend, Mr Labatt! To continue our low-rent epicure tour as well, we also checked off another establishment from the aforementioned "Road Food" book by have a nice light lunch at the "High Desert Market & Cafe" -- tasty! One of the young ladies working at the cafe showed up for work in her old Toyota art car "The Hillary Mobile". I think it made a nice change from all the T-P stickers we've seen on all the cowboy trucks out here.

We finished our stay in Bisbee with a "night on the town" -- albeit one that ended about 9:30 ;<? We listened to a fine country/folk duo in a main street joint, drank a few beers (local stout in my case) and then walked back to Fred for a comfy night. Tomorrow, we will heading north to a state park east of Phoenix, "Lost Dutchman State Park" for some hiking in the Superstition Mountains.

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