After spending three days in Tombstone, and visiting Bisbee, we pulled out of our Tombstone rv park and began our two day journey towards San Antonio, Texas. We’d be driving clear through New Mexico without stopping to see the sights. Darlene had registered for an HDR Photography course with Ben Willmore that was taking place in downtown San Antonio, so we had a deadline to meet. It was to be a long day behind the wheel with 9 hours of driving putting us 424 miles further east and south into Van Horn, Texas.

424 miles and 9 hours from Tombstone to Van Horn Texas

Thinking about a banner photograph for the top of the blog, I wanted to get some pictures of the motorhome on Freemont street in front of the OK Corral. We were leaving Tombstone for good, and I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity.

Turns out that next to the OK Corral was Tombstone City Hall.

We made our way back through Benson, backtracking a bit before heading east. Just as we made the turn onto the ramp for the freeway, we saw a simple looking, clean shaven and dressed, elderly hitchhiker. We quickly sized him up and stopped to offer a ride. He was carrying a sign labeled “Lordsburg.”

Read our travel tip about picking up hitchhikers in the rv for more about our guest, Ken the traveling missionary.

His destination was Lordsburg New Mexico, so after dropping him off, got some fuel. We pulled in tight behind another vehicle so that the pumps would reach our tank. After topping up for $2.39 a gallon (our cheapest yet), we found out that the guy in the truck in front of us had locked his keys inside. We had to wait 30 minutes for the locksmith to arrive before we could move on.

Next stop was Las Cruces where we made use of the clearly labeled Award Winning Rest Area. Dar spotted one huge roadrunner and went over to investigate. It’s over 15 feet tall and made completely out of garbage. Very odd.

photo by some random tourist Dar gave her camera to

After a short rest, we took off again for Texas, a short ride from Las Cruces. As we drove along, we realized how close we were getting to the Mexico border. Just before crossing into Texas we began to see cows in factory farms back to back to back. We actually stopped talking and got a bit emotional.

After seeing so many cows out in the fields enjoying the sun and the grass beneath their feet on our trip through Montana and Idaho, these factory farms made us very sad. It’s the first we’d seen.

We crossed over into Texas and headed towards El Paso where we’d stop for diner. We wanted to eat close to the Mexico border, so pulled off the freeway and turned West. When roads started getting weird and buildings suspect, we changed our minds. Finally finding a little place in a mall where we could park, we stopped for a very inexpensive meal costing less than $10 for the two of us.

We left El Paso and headed towards Van Horn.

Darlene had three RV parks she wanted to check out in Van Horn, so we plugged them into the GPS and headed further into Texas.

As we pulled into the first RV Park in Van Horn, we heard the train. It was right across the street. After our experience in Tucson at Whispering Palms, we decided to continue looking. Finally finding a KOA further away from the train, but costing nearly $40 for the night, we pulled in. After 424 miles and 9 hours of driving, we were tired and just wanted to sleep, whatever the cost.

Related posts:

1. Day 45 – Parking Our RV In Tombstone Arizona
2. Tombstone Biker Bird
3. Days 49-51 – Drama upon arriving in San Antonio, Texas
4. Day 82 – Oysterfest in Fulton, Texas

After a night of karaoke at Big Nose Kate’s Saloon on the main strip of Tombstone the night before, we took the opportunity to sleep in a few hours. We wanted to make sure we saw the gunfight at the OK Corral and the Tombstone Epitaph. We had been told that when visiting Tombstone, we should plan a few days to see all of it, but we only had a single day, so we had better make the best of it.

Our first order of business was to get tickets to see the Gunfight at the OK Corral, after which, we could then wander down main street to the far end, working our way back to the corral. As I had mentioned yesterday, our first night in Tombstone, the OK Corral was quite literally a block from where we parked our RV.   Stagecoaches run tourists around town, to the various attractions, and offer tours as well. Our RV Park owner informed us quite specifically to take one color coach, and not the other (I dont remember which – sorry). Another example of Tombstone politics.

As we walked down the boardwalk, crossing intersections, gunfighters dressed in period costume beckoned us towards their specific attraction, all guaranteeing the “best gunfight in Tombstone”. Hard to say who to believe, but as we’d been to the Six Gun Saloon the night before, we thought we’d visit them first.

Caesar the Tombstone Biker Bird

We wandered past the Crystal Palace Saloon where we met up with Caesar the Tombstone Biker Bird and his owner Paul. I would have sworn that I had seen a motorcycle heading out of Tombstone earlier, with a parrot on the guy’s shoulder, and I was right.

Tombstone Biker Bird

I learned that Paul, who runs a motorcycle patches shop called Dreamwalkers, is also known as the Birdman of Tombstone and is a bit of a local celebrity. I took the opportunity to speak with him about his motorcycle riding parrot, the Tombstone Biker Bird, in this little video.

Gunfight at the Six Gun Saloon

The Six Gun Saloon was quite a different story in the daylight. The big doors on the far side of the saloon were all open, showing off the set where the gunfights were to take place, and the bar was full to capacity. Was it too early for a margarita? We thought not, and for $2 each, we ordered a couple.

The Six Gun Saloon puts on a great show, if I do say so myself. The actors were all mike’d up so we could hear the discussions between them. They played out the various stories from the town and between gunfights, the narrator explained how events unfolded. It really was good for understanding the history of this town.

Gunfights of Tombstone

We left through a side door onto the street with the intention of grabbing a quick tour of Tombstone on the trolley before catching the “official” gunfight at the OK Corral. Best as I can tell, there are three different gunfights.

• Six Gun Saloon
• Helldorado Town
• OK Corral

The Six Gun Saloon gunfight does its best to explain various portions of the events surrounding October 26, 1881. I say the “events surrounding” that date, because the actors tell the story of events leading up to the gunfight, the actual gunfight and then events that took place in the days and weeks later as a result of that afternoon. Six Gun Saloon gunfight costs a small $5 entrance fee, and the actors ask for tips when they’re done. Quite educational.

The Helldorado Town gunfight is one we didn’t see, but were told that it was more of a comedy type of gunfight and is supposedly the best one of them all. I think that depends on what sort of entertainment you’re looking for, factual or just pure fun. As I recall, Helldorado cost a bit more, and if memory serves, it was $10 to $12, but included a bunch of other things with it. If you find out, please let me know in the comments so I can correct this.

Then there’s the official gunfight at the OK Corral. $10 each, but includes entrance into the corral, the Historama, the museum buildings next to the gunfight sight and a special commemorative version of the Tombstone Epitaph, the local paper, with headlines and story describing the events that took place that day in 1881.

We already had our tickets for this one, but we wanted to squeak in a quick tour before seeing it.

Tombstone Trolley Tour

The trolley was $10 for two, but with our ticket stubs from the Six Gun Saloon, we saved $2. As he took us through town describing the various places, he made it a point to select a very specific set of other businesses and bring them to our attention. Either that they had the best food, or to save our trolley ticket as it would save us money on one of their services too. It didn’t take us long to begin putting things together, and realize that depending on who you talked to, and where you talked to them, they’d say one business was better than the other, or to direct you to a specific place.

Dar here:  the trolley guy actually mentioned a motel that his mother owned and a cafe in it I think.   That sort of referral stuff went on a lot is what Rob’s referencing.

It became so frequent and so obvious to us, that I started to refer to it as Tombstone Politics. I was to learn more about this later.

The trolley begins and returns to its starting location at the corner of Toughnut and 4th, right across the street from the Big Iron Shooting Gallery and the Rose Tree Inn Museum. You can shoot off a few rounds yourself in the Shooting Gallery and then see the worlds largest rose tree. We toured Tombstone, learning about the courthouse, the hanging tree, the haunted places and ended up at Boot Hill even. They’d drop us off if we wanted, and then pick us up on the next tour, but we had a gunfight to see, so opted out for the time being.

As we exited the trolley and headed towards the OK Corral, I noticed a couple of motorcycles on the side of the street. Very innocent looking to the average person, but having seen both The Long Way Round and The Long Way Down, round the world motorcycle trip excursions by Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman, they caught my eye.

In 2004, Charlie and Ewan set of on a 19,000 mile trip from London to New York by motorcycle, taking… well, the Long Way Round. Taking three and a half months to complete, they drove through Europe, Asia and Alaska before driving through Calgary Alberta, into the US and then straight across to New York

In 2007, they decided to do another one, but this time from the northern tip of Ireland to the southern tip of Africa, hence the name Long Way Down.

I’ve seen both of these documentaries and encourage you to rent them from your local video place, or find them online as they’re an excellent way to understand a journey of this nature.

Seeing literally hours of footage of the boys, these two motorcycles I now saw parked innocently on the side of a Tombstone street set off flags for me.

taken by Rob

taken by Rob

It was them!

They were doing it again. This time they were calling it East to West and they were obviously going to be spending more time in the US seeing sights here as well. I thought of blowing off the gunfight at the OK Corral and instead setting off on a mission to find the lads, when I realized that they too could be booked into the same time slot we were for the gunfight.

I couldn’t expect to stop what I was doing to search them out, and as I believe in the powerful power of intention, I set one in regards to finding them and left it to the Universe. How was not important, only the “what”.

Gunfight at the OK Corral

As we lined up for the entrance to the stage area, we filed past life sized replicas of Doc Holliday, Virgil, Morgan and Wyatt Earp facing off with the Clantons, the McLaury’s and Billy Claiborne. Great positioning of the replicas because it shows how close they really were to each other. In what took about 24 seconds, the gunfighters who were between five and ten feet apart, open fired on each other leaving three dead, three wounded and one to run away.

The show started, and through it all, I kept an eye out for Charlie and Ewan. After a very good display of storytelling, we were invited to the original Oriental Saloon, across the street from the Tombstone Epitaph, later in the day for lessons in Faro, by Doc Holliday himself (photo above). Faro is the game of cards that was played in the old west and one which caused Doc to be run out of town (several different towns actually) on more than one occasion (several different towns actually).

Our vantage point in the bleachers offered very few opportunities for good photographs of the action, and the shooting was over too quickly for Dar to capture the action.

C.S. Fly Photography

Leaving the stage area, we toured C.S. Fly Photography studio where Big Nose Kate and Camillus Sydney Fly, the only known witnesses to the shootout, hunkered down. C.S. Fly, or “Buck” as he liked to be called, was known for the many photographs he took of the Tombstone area during that time, and more notably for taking the only know photographs of the Apache, Geronimo, as a free man. He’s also known for his photograph of Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, and Billy Clanton in their caskets before being interred at Boot Hill Cemetery, west of town.

If you like photography, then make sure you spend the extra time to tour the C.S. Fly studios there on the property.

OK Corral Blacksmith

Tucked away in the far corner of the property is a working blacksmith shop. I ventured over for a look and met Grizz Mace, the OK Corral Blacksmith. We talked for over 30 minutes as he made a few items in his forge and Darlene photographed him. He’s new to Tombstone, but worked as the blacksmith at the Ponderosa previously, and now both of his boys are blacksmithing too.

I though I’d dedicate an entire page on this blog to him, so check out the OK Corral Blacksmith and video too.

Grizz can repair any of the items or implements in the Corral, or make anything they need if required. While not working on Corral specific jobs, he’s creating items to sell to folks who wander by. While we were there, he made a steak flipper in front of us, but other items are available as well.

We eventually made our way out of the OK Corral property and Dar wanted to shop. I remembered someone telling me that the whiskey that Doc Holliday drank was available at the Crystal Palace Saloon, so I made my way there, telling Dar to meet me when she was done.

Old Overholt Whisky

It’s called Old Overholt and it’s been distilled since 1810 by Jim Beam in Clermont Kentucky. Doc Holliday is said to have drunk this stuff, and from what I had been told, was only available in one place. Pretty exclusive for Tombstone, so had to go there to sample a shot. Well I did, and got some video drinking Doc Holliday’s whisky at the Crystal Palace Saloon.

Take a moment to watch the video inside the Crystal Saloon. Let me know what you think.

Dar eventually caught up with me, and we had one of the burgers we heard had rated as “fair” and it was plenty fine. Maybe it was the whisky?

Politics play a big role in Tombstone, and whiskey isn’t the least of it. Maybe we’re just more aware of what’s going on in the town, but it seems pretty blatant if you ask me.

I thought I’d write up a little piece about the politics of Tombstone for your information.

Tombstone Epitaph

The next natural progression was a tour of the Tombstone Epitaph, the local newspaper, founded in 1880 by John Philip Clum. One of the first writers for the paper was Bucky O’Niell who I’ve mentioned previously in our adventures from the Grand Canyon.

Not a lot to see at the Epitaph, other than historical printing presses and such.

However, once leaving the building, we noticed that Doc Holliday from the gunfight was opening up the door to the Oriental Saloon across the street and ushering in a few people.

We scooted over and joined them.

Over the next hour (at least), Doc Holliday taught a few players including Dar, how to play the game of Faro. Not only did he show how to play it, but how to catch the dealer cheating at it (which was always, and the usual reason why Doc was run out of so many towns by angry mobs). While he taught the game, he regaled Doc’s history through dentistry school, his time in Texas, coming to Arizona and his eventually alleged death.

Fascinating to say the least. And I mean the cards, the cheating AND Doc’s history.

If anyone from the OK Corral corporation is reading this, let it be know that whomever is playing the part of Doc Holliday does a fantastic job at it. It’s with ease that we can say that one of our best experiences in Tombstone was our interaction with this man.

It was late. We headed back to our motorhome at Stampede RV Park to get the car so we could head up to Boot Hill ourselves.

Boot Hill Cemetery

With minutes before closing (yes, the cemetery closes), we headed out to Boot Hill to see what was there. The victims from the gunfight at the OK Corral were buried there (C.S. Fly took the only photo of the boys in their caskets you know), along with a few other notables. I’m still trying to figure out how the cemetery became privatized and are able to charge an admission. We had 5 minutes till close. We could “browse” Boot Hill, but when we heard the bell, we’d have to leave. Dar got some quick shots, but nothing worth sharing, while I ran around seeing what I could see.

The best photo’s came when we left the property.

Just off the entrance was a fantastic old hearse that seemed to catch the light just right as the cars drove past on the highway.

This is more of that HDR Photography that Dar has been experimenting with. It’s working out as far as I’m concerned.

Dar here again:  this one’s actually not HDR, sorry Rob.  I learned this new little layering technique from Ben Willmore at his workshop in San Antonio and it applied perfectly to this series of images.  I combined about 5-6 images into each of the shots above, to get the final image.

She wanted to end the night with some homework for a course she was taking and I thought I’d spend some time back at Big Nose Kate’s.

By the time I got there at 9:00 Saturday night, they were closing up shop for lack of business. I moseyed over to the Crystal Palace Saloon, where there was a live band, and had a few more Overholt, washed down with beer, just as it was hundreds of years ago. A full day in Tombstone it was indeed. Tomorrow – Bisbee.

Epilogue: as it turns out, the motorcycles I had seen with the East to West website address were in fact NOT Ewan and Charlie, but rather a couple of other blokes raising awareness for Dalit Children of India. While I was at the Crystal Palace Saloon (which had free wi-fi), I looked them up on my blackberry. Turns out their time in the US was paralleling ours and they had been to the same places as us. Very surreal. Have a look at their around the world motorcycle travel blog as well. I’ve got their website as a permanent tab in Firefox and check in on them every day.

Images in this post are available for purchase on the Her View Photography online gallery at Zenfolio.com.

Related posts:

1. OK Corral Blacksmith
2. Tombstone Biker Bird
3. Doc Holliday Drank Old Overholt Whisky
4. Day 45 – Parking Our RV In Tombstone Arizona

Old Overholt whisky has been distilled since 1810 at the Jim Beam distillery in Clermont, Kentucky. During our RV travel adventure in Tombstone Arizona, we learned that Doc Holliday drank Old Overholt whisky at the Crystal Palace Saloon. Being one to fully experience history, I had to saddle up to the bar and have a shot.

Tombstone Related Video

• Tombstone Biker Bird – Learn about the parrot that rides around Tombstone on the shoulder of his owner.
• OK Corral Blacksmith – see and virtually smell inside a working blacksmith shop at the OK Corral. Only one man can call himself the OK Corral Blacksmith, and that man is Grizz Mace.

Related posts:

1. Tombstone Biker Bird
2. OK Corral Blacksmith
3. Day 46 – Gunfight At The OK Corral
4. Day 48 – Tombstone to Van Horn Texas

Tombstone Arizona was next on our list of places to visit.  After three nights listening to trains go by while we tried to sleep in Whispering Palms RV Park, we unhooked our utilities, stored the RV legs and loaded up the toad.  I’ve always wanted to be able to say I lived in Tombstone, so we had pre-booked an RV park for three full days of sight seeing.  Famous for it’s gunfight at the OK Corral, Tombstone was home to lawmen Virgil, Morgan and Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the law breakers Frank and Tom McLaury, Ike and Billy Clanton.  October 26, 1881 was a day that would go down in history.

Tucson to Tombstone is a short 2 hour drive, so we took the opportunity to stop at the Colossal Cave Mountain Park on the way past.  For the most part, the mountain park is located on the east side of Tucson, out past the Pima Air and Space Museum.

Colossal Cave Mountain Park

They found the cave entrance in 1879. It was first used by Hohokam Indians about 1100 years ago, but then “rediscovered” by Solomon Lick in 1879. Original tours of the cave began for a brief time in 1917. Then in 1923, Frank Schmidt reopened the Cave for tours, which have run continuously (even, on a limited basis, during the 1930s while the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed the flagstone bridges and trails and installed the lighting) since then. Colossal Cave is one of the oldest established tourist attractions in Arizona. It cost $5 to enter the park and then $11 each to go inside the cave itself.

As we had 45 minutes to wait until the next tour, I got to talking with our guide.  It was cold in Tucson today and Dar and I were both wearing jackets.  Our guide however was wearing shorts and a vest.  Not really suited for the day outside, but inside however was another story.  Inside the cave it’s like summer, a balmy 70F or 21 degrees Celcius.

Colossal Cave map and temperature

Inside the cave, your standard stalagmites and stalactites.   First time I’d ever been in this type of cave.  Very cool actually.

Great Salsa at Magaly's in Benson

We stopped in Benson at a little place called Magaly’s Mexican Food for lunch / mid afternoon meal and were pleased to find some of the best salsa of our trip so far. Our waiter grew up in Chicago, moved to Mexico City and then Los Angeles. After living in very large cities, he moved to the small town of Benson, population ~5000, to raise his three daughters. I told him that this was in the Top 2 of salsa we’ve had so far and he said “well, you’re pretty close to the Mexican border!”

Thirty more miles and we pulled into Tombstone RV Park.

Then we left.

After registering and pulling into our spot, we were on a slope and didn’t have full services. We had water and electrical, but no sewage. We tried to get the free wifi but couldn’t find a signal.

We drove into Tombstone, about a mile up the road and saw Stampede RV Park a block off the main strip. We inquired and they had room. We said we’d be right back.

Tombstone RV Park offered a refund when we told them we were going to be moving to another park closer to town. Even though they offered some sort of free shuttle, they were further away than we would have liked. I wanted to be able to say that we “lived” in Tombstone for a few days, you know?

Stampede RV Park in Tombstone was 2 blocks from Big Nose Kate’s Saloon and 3 from the Crystal Palace Saloon, easy walking distance for sure. We pulled in, put down the legs, leveled out and walked into town.

First Night In Tombstone Arizona

Dar said “lets take 30 minutes and walk down the drag”. Ya right. A photographer loose in Tombstone with a camera is not going to be just “30 minutes.”

We walked past the Ok Corral (closed for the night and quite literally a block from our RV park), down the boardwalk to the next corner. We stopped and got our bearings, looking up and down each street at the corner. The nice man in the cowboy hat and boots offered a smile and some history.

Oh, and he was packing.

I found it fitting that someone in Tombstone actually wore a real gun with their hat. We asked if we could take a picture. He said “Lets make it official then” and took of his coat. He was wearing a Marshall’s badge. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the hammer was cocked on his weapon.

See how the hammer is cocked on that six shooter?

Walking down the street, we saw more of this historic town of the old west.  We thought of all the history, the gunfights, the deaths and I remembered that Bucky O’Niell had gotten one of his first editing jobs working for the Tombstone Epitaph.  Bucky O’Niell was the guy who had the first building on the edge of the Grand Canyon, remember?

The Longhorn restaurant. We were told to eat here AND stay away from it at the same time. Who do you believe? The Longhorn became our first taste of Tombstone politics.

Sign on one of the business establishments

We continued down the street to the Bird Cage Theater and Saloon. It’s haunted we’re told, so went in to take a look around. A very nice lady (in period costume) was explaining the history of the place. A fee was charged to go any further inside, which we didn’t want to do at the time. We left.

Walking past the Six Gun Saloon, we noted a sign for $2 margarita’s and popped in for a drink. Part saloon and part gunfight show, the Six Gun Saloon has a mock up of Tombstone in an open area behind a covered bar. With multiple shows during the day, they tell the various stories of the events that took place in Tombstone back in the 1890’s. By night, the locals come in for beverages, including the Marshall from earlier.

It was the Six Gun Saloon where we first began our experience with Tombstone politics. There are two parts to the saloon. One area, closed and covered, looks to be the oldest part of the building while the new part with the outdoor stage, saloon and roll up garage doors being the newest and catering more to the influx of tourism. The bar was dead, save for a few locals and a couple of kids. I asked our waitress what it was like to work in Tombstone and her answer was not what we expected. At the present moment, she was dealing with a couple of clients from hell in the next building. From her attitude around us, it was easy to see that she had created the situation, attracting it herself. She lived in Sierra Vista she told us, not Tombstone and she simply was not having a good night.

The Marshal offered some advice about where to eat. Stay away from the Longhorn and favor the Crystal Palace for food. Oh, and of course, the Six Gun Saloon had great burgers too. We had heard earlier that the Longhorn had an award winning chef, but the Marshall informed us that it was like the Denny’s of Tombstone. Good advice we thought. We were to find out that this might not be the case at all. Again… our first experience with the politics of Tombstone.

Big Nose Kate’s Saloon

One $2 margarita and we headed back the other side of the street to our RV park. Our 30 minutes in town our first night had easily passed an hour. We walked past Big Nose Kate’s Saloon and decided to pop our head in for a look.

Karaoke!

“lets sing a song” Dar said, so we pulled up a stool at the bar and ordered an $8 beer.

Soon enough, Dar and I were up singing “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson which we thought was fitting and then Dar sang a Shania Twain tune “Who’s Bed Have Your Boots Been Under” solo. Her first ever solo Karaoke and it occurred in Tombstone. I was so proud of her.

Photo credit: Rob Cooper

Apparently the patrons enjoyed it too as they got up and began to line dance.

Our first night in Tombstone was awesome. We headed home for some sleep.

Images in this post are available for purchase on the Her View Photography online gallery at Zenfolio.com.

Related posts:

1. Day 48 – Tombstone to Van Horn Texas
2. Tombstone Biker Bird
3. Day 46 – Gunfight At The OK Corral
4. Doc Holliday Drank Old Overholt Whisky