Tombstone, AZ is steeped in history (and more than a bit of kitsch)
I’m sure we’d have enjoyed our stay a lot more if it hadn’t been so blasted cold outside!
Despite the weather, we made the best of it and finally found a place to warm up with some Irish Coffee.
As a part of our 2016 mission to explore Arizona more fully than on previous trips there, we visited Bisbee – once a thriving mining town, and now a tourist destination with a fascinating history.
Shortly after mid January 2016, we stopped in for a visit with friends from here at home in Canada, who own a winter home on an acreage in Maricopa County, AZ.
Our friends treated us to a day trip with them to the 26 Bar Ranch at Casa Grande. This was, at one time, 14,000 acres of John Wayne’s total 50,000 acre cattle ranching operation in Arizona. The Casa Grande location was the headquarters for 26 Bar, and was where the Duke operated his feedlot. His feedlot was, at one time (at 85,000 head), the largest privately owned feedlot in the USA.
When we visited, it was still an operational commercial feed lot with thousands of head of cattle, so between the sights, the sounds, and the smells, it wasn’t a stretch to imagine what it was like when the Duke owned it.
In early 2016, we were in Las Vegas twice within a few weeks – once in mid January on our way to Arizona, and again in mid February (on our way home from Arizona) to pick my cousin up at the airport and tour her around on her first visit there.
Hubs and I had visited “Sin City” several times before, so we enjoyed showing my cousin what we considered to be some of the highlights.
While searching my Amazon photos app (by year) to find when we visited Old Tucson, AZ … I arrived at 2016 and said “Wow!” right out loud.
That year was an absolutely crazy travel year for us!
It may have had a wee bit to do with the fact that this was our first full year of retirement together, so we were in “yahoooo” mode.
For the next unknown number of Wednesdays I’ll recap some of the many hilights of that year, through a feature photo and a brief description.
This feature photo was taken in Old Tucson, AZ … in … you guessed it … 2016!
Yesterday, I was reading a fellow blogger’s hilarious reply to my reply to a comment he’d made on one of my recent posts (clear as mud, right?), and a fun memory came back.
I immediately recalled my ride on this mythical creature, while road tripping in 2008.
How many miles are “you” from Wall Drug? It’s 496 for us😉
Before we took my parents on their first road trip vacation with us, a cousin recommended getting a little handheld tape recorder to record the entire trip: conversations in the vehicle, what we were seeing, weather reports, time of day, hi-lights from each day, as well as interviews with strangers like waiters, bell staff, locals and other travellers.
I took her advice and what a treasure these recordings are now. Listening to the conversations and the laughter is just like doing those trips all over again.
This past week, I hauled out the box of tapes and the original tape player/recorder for the first time in years, and so many memories are flooding back. It’s amazing how much one forgets while remembering the hi-lights. These tapes bring back every single detail.
Priceless.
This past week, we were away for a few days, visiting friends and family in the place we called home for over 20 years.
Whenever we round the curve in my feature photo, I breathe a big sigh of relief and have the same sense of “home” that I had when we first moved to the area.
Even though I was raised on the southern prairies, I’m sure it was the proximity to the northern tree line that welcomed and comforted me.
This photo was taken from the Statue of Liberty with NYC in the background.
Our “East Trip”, as we refer to it, was one of many wonderful road trip vacations we were blessed to take Mom and Dad on.
Dad’s comments, made with awe and wonderment in his voice, as he saw things he had thought he’d never see in his life, make up a big part of my fondest travel memories.
At Madame Tussaud’s wax museum in Las Vegas, most of the figures are so life-like, that I actually excused myself when I bumped into one, thinking it was a real person.
I knew that this guy was real in memory only, but I still enjoyed striking a pose with his wax doppelgänger.
Radically Retired 