Benson, Arizona
April 2-6, 2014
As I said in the previous post we left Silver City early to have some more time in Benson. Why Benson? You might be wondering. Well, you see Benson is close to Tombstone and everyone needs to spend some time in Tombstone, more on that soon. However, once we pushed our slides out in Benson we went for a soak in our resort’s hot tub. I know rough life right?
After soaking our petty little worries away, we still have no backup or side cameras (its been over a month now and yours truly has since taken the entire dashboard apart looking for fuses), the TV antenna booster is blown and has rightly been ripped out of the wall leaving only a rats nest of power wires dangling behind, and we are in desperate need of a good old fashion monster truck oil change, but we heard the calling from tombstone.
Wyatt Earp: How are you?
Doc Holliday: I’m dying, how are you?
Wyatt Earp: Pretty much the same.
So like any travelers worth their weight in silver (another mine town) we answered, jumped in the toad, and took off to make some more memories. No sooner had we arrived when a couple of guys were posing for photos with us and inviting us to pay a small fee to watch some of them die. We kindly agreed and were promptly escorted to the actual O.K. Coral. A gunfight did take place and left 4 men lying motionless on the ground. They were later buried at the Boot Hill Graveyard and we personally saw their graves to prove it. So after watching Doc and Wyatt kick some ass at the O.K. Coral Gunfight, which apparently they do on a daily basis, we headed over to the saloon to wash some of the desert heat down with some cold ones. Next up was a walk through the Bird Cage Theatre. This quant structure was used for a combination of theater, saloon, gambling parlor, and brothel that operated from 1881 to 1889. Of course we didn’t sleep with any whores (it’s ok to call them this since it is the 1880’s), because we are in a committed relationship and they were really only ghosts of the former selves anyway. Onward and upward we wandered the entire little town then said our goodbyes to the violence and intrigue of the old west, but only after having another Sarsaparilla.
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The following day we headed out to see Fort Bowie. I know what you’re thinking how much more Bowie crap can we take? Well after stopping at the small town of Bowie and stocking up on Bowie pecans, Bowie pistachios, Bowie walnuts, and some Bowie wine from a nice Bowie girl we headed off-road towards the fort. Weird. To our surprise when we arrived at the parking lot all that was there was a restroom (a chemical toilet at that) and a trailhead. This is a National Monument after all! We grabbed our gear and set out for the 1.5-mile hike into our past. The trail winds past remains of a Butterfield Stage Coach station through the Apache Pass into the fort. We did not know what to expect and enjoyed our visit immensely. We met a very nice National Park Ranger who was a wealth of information and a genuinely good soul. Great views, good people, nice hiking, and ruins, what’s not great about that? Interestingly enough this is also where Geronimo finally surrendered and was taken as prisoner.
After spending the morning rummaging through the fort we decided that we had time to see the nearby Chiricahua National Monument. This would prove difficult for our feet but wonderful for our spirits. This national monument is another little known gem in the Midwest. The park ranger compared it to Zion and we thought we couldn’t miss it. We hiked another 4 miles in the park until dusk stated it was time for us to drive out. Amazing! Again a night full of hot tubing and pooling around.
What to do after such a great day at the national parks? We decided to take it easy and have a driving/eating day. We left early for Bisbee but soon found ourselves slightly detoured by a monastery and the Tombstone Cemetery on our way. After paying our respects to the dead and the ‘source’ we resumed our journey to the little hillside town of Bisbee. We strolled its sidewalks, ate, drank, and we were overall merry around most of the little town. With Victorian and European-style homes, coffee shops, local eateries, and breweries our hearts were content to stay awhile. After eating our way out we continued to the Mexican border. I mean why not? We actually ended up at the top of the Coronado National Memorial mountain range were you can see the border wall going up for miles. That’s right the border wall. They are building a giant wall to keep the southerners out. Non-locals forget that a few hundred years ago this state was Mexico. After a painful hike to some dark caves we called it a day and headed back to the hot tub. All in all we were glad that we moved on from Silver City to have the time to do everything in this post. It was well worth it and did I mention we had a hot tub?
