When I got to Tombstone was really unsure of where to
go. I had an address for Tombstone from
the internet for Allen Street; I got a little ways into town and saw a sign
that read Allen Street this way. I
followed. Then I saw Allen Street and it
was closed to cars. I found parking on a
side street right across from the Tombstone Courthouse which is touted as the smallest
state park in the west; one more small thing to log in on my BIG adventure.
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| Photo- Stage coach waiting to give a tour for visitors in Tombstone. |
I walked over to Allen Street and walked along the board
walk sidewalks where here and there cowboys were decked out down to their
spurs. They would say howdy ma’am as I
walked by and tip their hats. I wandered
in and out of a few shops as I went along.
At one intersection the cowboys were talking about a shootout that was
going to occur at Helldorado Town if you weren’t too much of a yellow belly to
watch it then you should go down the street to it. Of course, I wasn’t and off down the street I
went and purchased a ticket for the next shoot out show.
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| Photo- Board walk sidewalks in Tombstone. |
I found a sit among the cowboy hatted group and watched the
show. It was some interactive fun. The sheriff was introducing the good guys
(Yeah!) and the bad guys (Boo!) and the ugly (laughing booing!). Then, they started a skit and one of them was
tossing his gun up and around; doing all kinds of fancy gun works. Some balloons got shot out, and then the ugly
guy got shot. Then, a miner who was a
good guy (yeah!) showed up who was looking for his donkey that one of the bad
guys had sold. Well, some more
entertaining fun came along with this part of the skits and I think a great
deal of it was adlibbed because periodically they would say that wasn’t in the
script.
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| Photo- A bad guy (Boo!) whose showing off his with his gun at the shoot out show. |
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| Photo- The inexperienced miner, a good guy (Yeah!), at a shoot out. |
When the show was over they introduced everyone and said
that unfortunately for their families this was how they earned their living and
if you enjoyed the show to please tip generously on your way out. Also, they said that our ticket stubs were
good for discounts at the Helldorado restaurant and for the tour trolley car
ride. I walked across the street to the
trolley and asked when the next tour was.
It was in 20 min. I bought a
ticket which I was told was good for discounts at other places in Tombstone and
that our trolley ride guide would point out where those places were. Yep, there was a bit of marketing racket
going on in Tombstone but then again was that any surprise.
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| Photo- Tombstone's famous newspaper. |
The trolley tour ended up being filled to the gills but it
was a good tour and there was a fair amount of colorful history in the
area. We sat for the first bit of the
trolley ride at the main stop while the driver told us how Tombstone came into
being. It was silver mining that out it
on the map and its height it had 7000 male residents. He said that the census back then did not
take into consideration anything other than white males; that didn’t include
the woman working in the brothels or the Chinese that also lived in the
area. We were taken along the edges and
back and forth across Allen Street that was closed to cars because the streets
have tunnels underneath them. When it
was really rainy, they were discovering that the weight of the cars was causing
the streets to collapse just a little bit.
So it’s only the horse wagons that are allowed on Allen Street.
Half way through the tour they drove out to Boothill Cemetery
where you could get off the trolley and then catch the next trolley in about 45
min. I stayed on because I was hoping to
find a place to eat shortly after the trolley car tour was done. The driver said that Boothill was the second
most haunted place in Tombstone and that it closed before dark because it was
too haunted for even the employees to stay past dark. I don’t remember where the first haunted
place but he kept on talking about how many were killed here and there in gun
shoot outs as he drove us back through the rest of the tour. There was plenty for the driver to talk about
and he wasn’t the short winded type anyway.
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| Photo- The inside of the Crystal Palace Saloon in Tombstone. |
With the tour done, it was now time to find a place to eat
but first I went to my car and grabbed my warped cowboy hat. I told myself it was for the shade and to
keep my hair out of my eyes; not because I was at Tombstone and wanted to
semi-try to fit in, of course. I walked
by a couple of bars and a restaurant.
The restaurant had closed because they were just open for a short lunch
hour. The 2nd bar that I came
to was the Crystal Palace Saloon. I went
in and sat at the wonderful wooden bar area.
I ordered a Blue Moon draft and asked for a menu.
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| Photo- The Crystal Palace Saloon's signage outside. |
While waiting for my burger on rye, a couple of women walked
in. One of them has this southern slang;
she’s yelling and waving obnoxiously across the bar about getting shots of tequila
with salt. They have their shots and
then discover that their husbands are down the bar a ways. They get up, move down the bar, order more shots
and proceed again to get salt all over the bar while they have their
shots. Then shortly after that they
leave, the bartender clad in a black bustier old saloon attire with fish net
stockings ended up wiping and wiping to get all of the salt off the bar. I laughed and told her that she needed a
little mini vacuum. That would be really nice to have right now
she said. We strike up a conversation
and I discover that she owns 5 horses.
She breeds them but most of the time she really has a hard time selling
the young ones because she gets attached to them. She really seemed like a nice gal.
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| Photo- A sign outside one of the shops along Allen Street in Tombstone. |
After lunch I walked along Allen Street more and I went in
more shops. I was on the search for
postcards and possibly an inexpensive t-shirt.
I ended up finding postcards in one shop and a t-shirt in another. Then, I got to looking at some of the
sterling silver rings that were priced very low and reasonable. Oh, why not I thought to myself. I ended up going around to 3 different shops
and found a stainless steel one I really liked.
Now, it’s about 4pm and I still have a three hour drive to Phoenix where
I’m meeting my friend Laura at a hotel in the downtown area.
I drive north on I-10W past Tucson and continue to
Phoenix. I watch the sunset as I drive
north. It’s dark by the time I get to
the turn off exit in Phoenix. I find the
hotel and end up seeing my friend Laura for just a short bit as she takes a
break from the nuns’ retreat she is attending.
She’s had 6 diet cokes and is just bouncing up off the walls; cracking me
up.
The guy at the front desk recommended a restaurant that was
kitty corner from the hotel. The name of
the bar/restaurant is called Switch. I
walked across to it; and it’s pretty busy.
It’s a nice bar/restaurant with dim lighting and under lighting done in
blue which is kind of cool with the décor.
I asked the hostess if I could just sit up at the bar.
I end up sitting between a guy and a pair of friends. The pair of friends is a younger slim sorority
type black haired gal that went to Ball State which is where the guy on the
other side of me went. They talk
together for a short bit and I think Cassie, her name, thinks that he and I are
together. Because she keeps on trying to
include me in the conversation and she’s quite the talker I tell you! Then she starts talking with her “buddy”, her
married friend that she’s out to dinner with; who can’t seem to keep his hands
off of her.
She and her “buddy” leave after one drink. I look at the guy next to me and told him I
wanted to yell to go get a room. He
laughed and said I don’t treat my female friends like that. We end up talking and watching the
Washington- California college football game.
The game has had 8 turn overs and about 6 flags in the 25 minutes that
we’ve been sitting there. I teased
Logan, the guy, that it’s a new game called Ping-Pong Football because the
football has been going back and forth over and over with in the same 20 yards
on the football field.
We talked for a while longer. Logan is currently on call for his work which
is as the I.T. person for the 20 floor office building across the street. I gave him a bit of a hard time about having
three phones and that’s when he explained his on call status. I teased him about I just figured he was one
of those guys that likes his greatest and latest toys. I ended up wishing him a good night and went
back to the hotel with my left overs.
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