Bisbee, Arizona

March 15 - 22, 2015:

We say our goodbyes at Desert Trail RV Park and get on the road about 10 AM, a nice sunny day, but very windy.  We take route 10 east to route 80 south to Bisbee, Arizona.  The traffic was pretty heavy and the wind was just wicked, it felt like I had a sail on the RV.  I kept looking in the rear view to see if the awning had come out like a spinnaker sail !  We made it without incident arriving around 1 PM.  

Our destination, the Copper Queen RV Park sits next to the Copper Queen Mine overlooking old Bisbee.  What a beautiful setting !  Also so nice to be a 5 minute walk to downtown.  I love this town.  We were here previously in the late January 2013, over two years ago, time really does fly.  If you want shopping malls, chain restaurants, fast food, dollar stores and are politically conservative don't come here, there is nothing for you, stay away.

View from the our RV park site

 

Downtown Bisbee

Angel over Bisbee mural

The Copper Man sculpture in Bisbee

Cochise County Court House

Peace Wall mural

The Fair building in Bisbee

Old building decorated with street art

Beautiful Poppies growing wild in front of the weirdness

We took a stroll around town, saw a poster for a music event at the Grand Hotel and checked it out.  It was a mix of local musicians, sort of outlaw country types, but good players.  Twinkles and I have a big musical disconnect as I love the bluesy country sad depressing stuff and Twinkles mostly hates that. It was agreed that the ambiance of the old hotel and the local flavor, no matter your musical preferences, blended into a pleasant experience.

Monday in need of some exercise we took a hike to the shrine on the top Youngblood Hill overlooking Bisbee. You walk steeply up OK street to get to the trailhead and then steeply up many switchbacks to the shrine.  We then descended to a mining road and took it to the top of adjacent Chihuahua Hill for great views of the huge Lavender Copper mining pit and in the distance Mexico.

The shrine on the hilltop overlooking Bisbee

View of Bisbee from the shrine

When in Bisbee is it essential to visit Lowell on the other side of the Copper Queen's Lavender pit mine.  Lowell was once a separate town until it was swallowed up by the mine.  At some point it was incorporated into Bisbee.  This is where the Americana music festival is taking place on the 22nd. A part of Lowell seems to be the personal playhouse of a Jay Allen who lives there and started the Broken Spoke Saloon empire catering to the biker crowd in Laconia, NH, Myrtle Beach, NC, Daytona, FL and Sturgis, SD.  The festival was planned by a group of local people to be an annual fundraising event to help preserve Lowell.

Lowell street view

The old Palace Hotel

Another reason to visit Lowell is have have breakfast at the Bisbee Breakfast Club, one of the best breakfast places around, anywhere !
  

Bisbee Breakfast Club

Another hiking day to the Brown Canyon Ranch out in the foothills of the Huachuca mountains off Ramsey Canyon road.  We have been there before but it's so cool, we had to return.  This time we drove to the old ranch house then hiked from there a few miles into a beautiful forested area.  It's a really cool old ranch house that has been saved complete with old corral, windmill, pond and huge cottonwoods.  The family history exhibits inside are inspiring.  The hike took us along a creek lined with huge Sycamore trees, then oak, mesquite, manzanita and cedar trees.

The Windmill and water tank

Rolling hillsides near the ranch

The Brown ranch house

On the return to Bisbee we stopped at the San Pedro House on the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.  This place is a mecca for birders and has the largest Cottonwood tree I have ever seen.  The lush green oasis of trees along the San Pedro River is a startling contrast to the brown of the surrounding high desert.  We did a loop hike of about three miles, but the time of day was not conducive to seeing many birds.

Lush green trees along the San Pedro Conservation Area

The San Pedro River

     

It's St Patrick's Day and Twinkles (the former miss Susan O'Meara) is quite irish so we went to St. Elmo in downtown Bisbee.  St. Elmo is a dive bar in the truetest sense, since 1903 it says on the wall and they had promoted authentic irish music and food at 5 PM.  It turns out the irish band cancelled and the food was late so we only stayed for one beer, but it was interesting, St. Elmo is always interesting.  So we changed nationalities and stuffed ourselves with fine mexican food down the street at Santiagos.

Another foodie haven (highly recommended) that we made a point of returning to was "Jimmies Hot Dogs" where I had a Chicago style Chilly dog made with Vienna hot dogs on special rolls flown in from Chicago.  It looked a lot better than Twinkles fish and chips.

Jimmy's has great food

Bisbee is built on the side of the mountain and as such there are stairs from one level to the next all over town.  They have capitalized on this by holding an annual foot race, the Bisbee 1,000 in October.  They are nine steep stairways interconnected along the race course.  It is a big town wide event coupled with a brewery festival on the same weekend.

One of many Bisbee stairways

There is also an Ironman competition carrying a block
of ice up the stairs

There are lots of musicians in the area and I'm getting my fill this week.  The Wednesday night jam session at St. Elmo was pretty tame but I was happy to see two of Bisbee's most colorful and talented characters there that I remembered from two years ago. There is always a hugely popular rendition of "Summertime".

Thursday night jam session at the Stock Exchange bar.  It is actually the original stock exchange in Bisbee from the early 1900's. It still has the original board which displayed the daily stock quotes. It was great music jam, "Summertime" was heard again !

The Stock Exchange Bar

Inside the Stock Exchange, the oringinal board is on the wall

Saturday morning was the always interesting and great Bisbee Farmers Market.  We came away with real handmade Tortillas and cheese from Mexico, some lettuce and a couple of yummy bakery items.  It was a nice sunny day, we had a coffee, sat in the sun and listened musician there who was excellent and playing lots of old Americana songs. 

Afterwards we attended the Americana Festival in Lowell.  It turned out very well, a big success it seems and much fun.  There were four breweries represented, 17 bands playing on three stages and several food vendors.  The big attraction was people watching though, a very colorful crowd. 

Carlos Arzate and the Kind Souls on stage

These old girls were big fun and got many people up and dancing

The West Texas Millionaires Band, the lead guy, Dan Simonis
who promoted the festival is showing his new Mexican boots

The main stage had great graphics, this was early and I
thought it was interesting with the one person watching

My best photo taken with my iPhone which I have found to
outperform my $1,500 SLR in some conditions

I went out latter to the Grand Hotel to see this group of young street performers called St. Cinder who I had previously seen in Tucson.  They play a wide assortment of acoustic instruments and are high energy and facinating to watch and listen to.  No amplifiers, no microphones, all natural, in the rough, like a breath of fresh air.  The crowd loved them ! 

Next stop is Lordsburg New Mexico,

Twinkles and Slick

Goodbye Desert Trails

March 3-14, 2015:

I feel like I could reach up and touch the clouds

February was the warmest month on record for Tucson and above average rain as well.  As a result, the desert flowers are extra plentiful this year and we are trying to get in some final hikes.  First was a hike on the Starr Pass Trail which seems to connect to another unnamed trail.  There are trails and old roads all over the place, very confusing, and the remains of an old building.  Regardless, it is a beautiful trail that takes you into a quiet remote area with outstanding views. 

View from the trail

Old car buried off the trail near remnants of a building

Another trail view

A second hike was on the Hugh Norris Trail to the junction of the Sendero Esperanza Trail.  It's all uphill with hundreds of steps that take you about a thousand feet uphill into an extremely scenic area.  It is a tough walk and we were pretty worn by the time we got back in the parking lot.

Huge boulder at top will fall one of these days 

Poppy's in full bloom

The Brittlebush are blooming like crazy here

Our third hike was from a trailhead adjacent to the Marriott Star Pass Resort and Spa which looks like a great place to stay, but a little over our usual price range. We were looking to get on the Yetman Trail, which we eventually did find after following a circutous trail around beautiful flower covered hillsides.  There are so many trails out there, not marked or showing on the map and then you come to main trail intersections with the signs missing or broken.  It is starting to get very hot in the early afternoon and Twinkles started fading. I'll be in trouble for saying this, but she was really dragging ass towards the end. 

Twinkles taking a rest

Unusual Saguaro growth pattern

Nice floral arrangement

Distant view of downtown Tucson from the trail

Another trail view

We have an occasional woodpecker who is attracted to our RV, I am awakened by its Rat-a Tat-Tat against a metal surface.  What is the attraction ?  I need to scare it off, before it puts a hole through the body.

I watched a special show on PBS, (twice) a fund drive event, but the concert was excellent.  It was Justin Hayword who is the lead guy of the Moody Blues Band doing a PBS fundraiser concert of his greatest hits and other original songs with other musicians.  I was never a huge Moody Blues fan, but was most impressed with him.  He still has an unbelievably good voice, hasn't lost much with age.  I never have watched a music concert before with sub titles on the screen, it really helps to understand the lyrics and his lyrics are truly great.  

On the 7th we traveled to Phoenix to visit my mother, sister and her family again prior to leaving the area. Everyone was well with Mom looking especially good.  We all went out for lunch and had a nice visit.  

I came back and immediately managed to catch a nasty cold, hope I didn't give it to them.  It's not the best timing as I have several last minute things to do this week.  Never a good time for a cold ?  Amazing how there is still no real cure for the common cold, still have to suffer through it. 

I'm reading on and off an Edward Abbey book, "The Serpents of Paradise".  It is a collection of excerpts, (sort of a "best of) from his other books.  He was a weird guy for sure, almost revolutionary, too much vision and intelligence to be normal.  He was also an exceptional writer who did much to bolster the value of saving wilderness areas.  In contrast to his wilderness writing, he also has a chapter about the special beauty of Hoboken, New Jersey which I can understand and identify with from having worked there. Actually Hoboken is pretty wild too !

I do a final cruise around town on Saturday taking a few photos along the 12th street area and a nostalgic glance into the rail yard followed by lunch at Barrio Brewing, then a stop at the Lost Barrio shopping area.  Lost Barrio is in an old warehouse district and with several great artistic shops. 

Waterfall mural  puts one in the mood for a fruit cone on a hot day

A most interesting store entrance

Would love to see what is inside

Great school building mural

A very cool ride, wish it were mine, seriously !

The huge rail yard in Tucson from the road overpass

The Lost Barrio

  

A final Tucson Desert Trails sunset from the observation deck.

After 3 1/2 months here at Desert Trails I am lusty for for the road again.  We leave on Sunday the 15th for Bisbee, Arizona where we have reservations for a week.  Bisbee is a favorite place of mine and there is a music festival scheduled while we are there.  Our tentative 2015 travel plan is Arizona-New Mexico-Texas-New Mexico-Colorado- Wyoming-Montana and then an undecided path back to Tucson again.  

Time to move on,

Twinkles and Slick

Busy days in Tucson

February 23 - March 2, 2015

Monday afternoon we took a hike out into the mines area behind the campground to locate the Saguaro Cactus with 50 some arms.  We had seen it a few years ago on a hike with the campground hiking group, but could not remember exactly how to get there.  I found the correct trail and Twinkles spotted the Cactus off the trail, there is some argument about who actually takes credit for finding it again ?
  

One weird Saguaro !

View from the trail

Another hike was taken on Sunday on the Kings Canyon Trail to the saddle where can then continue on for another 1.2 miles to Wasson Peak at 4,480.  It is a fairly strenuous rocky, uphill hike to the saddle and Twinkles somehow was hoping to go all the way to the top. She changed her mine about 3/4 of the way there which was fine with me, it was very windy and we had to be back to the campground by 3 PM.  The hike was beautiful, so many wildflowers are blooming this year, especially the poppy's.  There was a young guy on the trail walking barefoot, all the way to Wasson Peak ! This stuff is so wasted on the young and the reckless !

On the trail

View from the trail

The desert is green !

We did our share of eating this week although nothing too excessively filling.  Tuesday evening we are at Fred's Arena Bar and Steakhouse with a group from the campground for dinner.  A Canadian couple, John and Donna from British Columbia, who host an almost daily happy hour at the campground are leaving soon.  They don't plan to return next year so it's a farewell dinner event of sorts.  The real mystery to me is why they and a number of other vegan and vegetarian friends have decided to go to a cowboy steakhouse for dinner ?  Very interesting !

There are several food trucks that come into the campground on scheduled days during the week, but we haven't gone to any of them this year.  We finally did a truck on Wednesday going to one of the favorites here, Jazarelli's Italian Street Food Truck.  An Italian food truck in Tucson is sort of unusual, actually Italian food in general here is very unusual and it was actually good.

Waiting for a Calzone

Continuing on the food front, we went to the breakfast pot luck campground activity on Friday.  It is a popular event and the food was plentiful.  Latter in the day after a happy hour gathering we go to the "Little Mexico Steakhouse" on Valencia Road.  I have been wanting to check it out for a long time.  It was really crowded, but there are two areas, the bar area and a dining room.  The dining room had many people waiting and was crowded and tacky looking.  The bar area had a couple of open seats at the bar at which we ordered food.  The cheese crisp was huge and the taco plate was very good, but the main attraction was the local crowd, the live mexican music and the dancing.  There were lots of cowboy hats and heavy beer drinking.  All the ingredients for big fun !  

Thursday was the Tucson Rodeo parade and the rodeo  for me, Twinkles doesn't do rodeo's.  I catch about half of the parade from the starting point where it is less crowded but not as exciting.  The area adjacent to the Rodeo grounds is the better location, but you need to be there early to get a spot.  This is the largest all horse drawn parade in the world.  It is a real family oriented parade as the schools are all closed so the kids can attend.

All kinds of flags fly in Tucson

Girls in pink hats

The Rodeo is 90 years old

This horse is overloaded !

Afterwards I go to the 90th annual Tucson Rodeo. This is one of the oldest and biggest rodeos in the country.  This sport is really tough, football is a sissy sport in comparison !  The bull riders may simply be insane !  The most impressive and talented riders to me are the "pick up riders" who ride to pick up the cowboys who don't get thrown and then herd the bronco back into the pen.  I love the cowboy legend, but have decided that it's mostly wrong, the west and the planet would be far better without those large foul smelling beasts tramping all over.  Better to let the Buffalo roam !

Lots of hats for sale

Along with Coors beer and Jack Daniels Whiskey

I missed the sign in the center, No photos please ?

Typical Rodeo crowd

Lots of horses

Getting some air time

The rodeo crowd

A young cowboy all duded up

On the way to the Rodeo Parade looking for a parking place I came upon a park area with the Julian Wash cultural walk.  It is an unexcavated archeological site.  This area has been home to Mexican, Chinese, O'odham indian and Yaqui indian families for generations.  The park area is adjacent to the Julian Wash and there are many colorful tile murals and a children's play area.  Across the street is a weird intersection marked with Hells Angels street signs in front of a gated expensive house ?  So many picturesque cultural neighborhoods in Tucson.

Tile art in park

Beautifully painted house

Nice walkways

Interesting Church next door

Hells Angels in the neighborhood ?

Saturday night I return to the Monterey Court which is fast becoming my favorite venue for live music.  The opening band, "Quarter Royale" was very good, but I only heard about half of their final set.  I was there for the main band, "Solomon King and the Chosen", that was hyped up to be a real hard core rock/blues act.  They were in fact an excellent band who lived up to their hype and then some. Solomon King is from LA via Detroit and is obviously quite a character after checking him out on the internet via a "blueskunkrecords.com" site and watching a couple of his "Cocktails with the King" videos on You Tube.

Solomon Kind and the Chosen

Sunday was a campground birthday party for Judy and Hughes, a couple who celebrate birthdays a few days apart.  It was also a celebration for several other people leaving in the next week.  Lots of food and cake and of course BYOB.

Cutting the cake

Monday morning I am at AMMCO for a transmission and Transfer Case oil change service on the Jeep.  I also checked the front brake pads for wear (still good) and installed a tow bar mounting plate.  I ordered new front shock absorbers  for the RV, which at the moment are missing, Fed X claims they were delivered, but they didn't get to me ?  Also in the plan for the week is to flush the hot water heater, clean the RV batteries, change the RV fuel filter and install a new bathroom sink faucet.  I need to get busy, only two weeks left before we hit the road 

The Tow plate being installed

That all the news that fits,
Twinkle sand Slick