Religious Sites/Cemeteries

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Tombstone, AZ

I am really into the history of the Wild West and the characters that inhabited it. So you would think that visiting Tombstone was a must for me. Not in the least. Afraid of a tourist trap, even copious numbers of people telling me to go there weren’t enough to make me believe that this iconic western town would be worth a detour. If it hadn’t been kinda sorta on the way to Nogales from Tucson, I would have definitely given it a pass.

I spent an enjoyable day there and do not regret going, but I feel that my initial misgivings stand. Lots of fun can be had in Tombstone and if you’re a history buff you’ll get your fill of artifacts, but if you want a more genuine-feeling Wild West town experience there are lots of better choices.

Before I get into my narrative about the day, I have to explain the lack of pictures. You can take as many pictures as you want in Tombstone of anything, but you cannot post anything about paid attractions online without express written permission, which is apparently difficult to get. So you’ll just have to take my word for a lot of this. 🙂

My first stop was the courthouse museum, admission $5. It was full of history about Tombstone and its colourful inhabitants.

Tombstone courthouse.

Tombstone courthouse.

I learned about the card game faro, the most popular game at the time, but which is now outlawed in the US because it gives the house a 67% chance of winning.

One of the more ghastly exhibits was a reconstruction of the gallows. I believe they are the second gallows I have ever seen (the first being in Ottawa!), and let’s just say they’re not nice to look at. 🙂

I learned about a Chinese man who was born in Virginia City, MT, where I was just recently, and the Chinese population of the town.

One exhibit that I found quite impressive was two large walls full of all sorts of different types of barbed wire. I didn’t realise that many exist!

The courthouse museum was a good start to my day. I then headed for Allen Street, the main kitschy touristy drag with a faux Western look (go to Dawson City for a more realistic one!) and lots of shops selling tchotkes.

Allen Street. I liked the Earps standing in the middle of the street. :)

Allen Street. I liked the Earps standing in the middle of the street. 🙂

I encountered a man who loves the outdoors and doesn’t let his physical disabilities stop him from going off the beaten path. Picture taken with permission!

Impressive wheelchair!

Impressive wheelchair!

My next stop was the Bird Cage Theatre, admission $10.

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This was a theatre/brothel/gambling hall/saloon that operated from 1881 to 1889 and has been preserved intact, one of the few original Tombstone buildings that survived the fires. Admission gives you all the time you want to wander the rooms. This was a wow experience for me. So much history, and preserved almost exactly as it was 125 years ago! I was able to use the incredible zoom feature in my camera to see details in the wallpaper of the viewing balconies and details of the ceiling.

The Bird Cage Theatre was totally worth the admission price also. Buoyed by my success thus far at avoiding tourist traps, I took the plunge and went to check out Big Nose Kate’s Saloon, named after Doc Holliday’s girlfriend. The saloon was once the Grand Hotel.

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The saloon was a little loud, but the music was good old classic country sung by a lively entertainer, so I decided to stay for a bit. I ordered a beer and perused the menu. The food was really inexpensive (!), so I decided to try their ‘Stampede’ burger, with cheese, bacon, and BBQ sauce. Surprise, the burger was excellent and they even made frozen fries taste good somehow! I tipped the server and singer generously, and still came out of there at less than $20 for a beer, lunch, and a show!

Before I left, I took the twisty stairs down to the basement into yet another shop so I could see the room of the man who did menial labour at the hotel and tunneled his way from his room into a silver mine in his downtime. Seriously!

Yup, my day was going well! So well, in fact, that I decided to jump into the tourist trap and buy a ticket to see a recreation of the OK Corral gunfight. I ponied up $10 and for that got to see the show, the OK Corral museum, the Tombstone history movie, and I got a free copy of a reproduction of the Tombstone Epitaph newspaper with the article about the shootout and subsequent inquest!

The gunfight show was amusing. The acting wasn’t great and I thought that it was hilarious that they cast an old guy to play Billy Clanton, who was 19 when he died at the hands of the Earps. What I got from the show was a better sense of the unvarnished truth about the fight and where it happened exactly. One of the most memorable parts of this whole part of the day was seeing the map Wyatt Earp drew in the 1920s showing what he remembered about the placement of people during the fight. He had bad handwriting!

The movie dated back to the 1950s and was narrated by Vincent Price! It was a little bizarre in that most of the action was in a diorama and occasionally a screen would come down to show reenactments of certain things. I learned a lot about the history of the town. The founder was told when he went to the area that he would only find his tombstone, hence the name he picked for the settlement!

I have to say that I find it distasteful that there’s a sign on Allen Street at the back of the corral saying that the fight happened there when the true location is on now super busy Fremont Street, several doors down from the corral. There’s a sign there, too, but I think a lot of people would miss it. I only knew to look for the spot because of my own knowledge of the event.

The real site of the OK Corral gunfight.

The real site of the OK Corral gunfight. There’s just a little sign next to Fly’s photography studio and boarding house.

I went to the actual fight site while munching on an ice cream, found for just $2 for a decent-sized cone. When I was done with that, I went to the Epitaph office to pick up my free paper. By the way, I love the name of that newspaper!

There is a free exhibit in the newspaper office about the man who founded it and quite a lot of history about his and Wyatt Earp’s connection to the Chilkoot Trail and the Klondike gold fields!

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My free paper would have cost me $3 and I would have bought one, so I really got my money’s worth out of that OK Corral show ticket!

My final stop of the day was the Boothill Cemetery. Access is free through yet another gift shop. I paid the $3 to get the booklet that gives info about all the graves.

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Billy Clanton's grave.

Billy Clanton’s grave.

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I was surprised to find Tombstone to be relatively inexpensive and good value if you spend your money carefully. I never once felt that I was paying a ‘Tombstone tax’, a premium just because of the location.

I’m glad I went to Tombstone and found the experience worthwhile, but this wasn’t a wow day for me at all. What I enjoyed most were the artifacts. I’d say the two best parts of the day were my first steps into the Bird Cage Theatre and seeing Wyatt Earp’s gunfight map!

Two pictures from the trip to Nogales:

This pest control's car was decorated like a mouse, complete with tail, whiskers, and ears!

This pest control’s car was decorated like a mouse, complete with tail, whiskers, and ears!

According to my GPS, Nogales is the end of the world!

According to my GPS, Nogales is the end of the world!

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Casa Grande Ruins National Monument

In 1998, I was fascinated (okay, obsessed) with Scottish medieval history and took a month to backpack around Scotland. In my world, the oldest ruins I could visit dated from the early 17th century. In Glasgow, I stepped into a cathedral that dated back to the 12th century. Weeks later, I walked through Cawdor Castle, built in the 14th century, and continually inhabited since.

I had absolutely no idea until today that sometime between the building of these structures, the ancient peoples of North America’s Sonoran desert were constructing equally impressive structures that would endure through the centuries. One of the most impressive remains of this civilization are the Casa Grande structure and surrounding village site, preserved as the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument.

In one of the harshest environments in the world, these ancient people built the kind of civilization that existed all over the world at this time. Why am I so surprised to find such evidence in North America? The well-constructed buildings, impressive system of irrigation ditches, and beautiful artwork, in the form of jewellery, pottery, and weaving, point to a civilization that had evolve well beyond basic subsistence levels.

It is not known exactly what the Casa Grande structure was used for, perhaps as an administrative centre or food storage facility. It is so well constructed that no repairs or maintenance have needed to be done on the structure since it was deemed a protected site in the late 19th century!

This morning’s excursion to the Casa Grande ruins was a revelation. I’m thrilled that I took the detour!

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An Adventure En Route to Flagstaff

From Pipe Springs, I returned to Utah so I could take route 89 through the southern edge of the Grand Staircase – Escalante Monument, an area famed for its beautiful multicoloured hills. I pulled over at an information sign that indicated that the ghost town of Pahreah and an abandoned movie set from the 1930s, as well as the Paria cemetery lay six miles away in an isolated valley. The sign warned that the road is only passable to high clearance vehicles in dry conditions. Well, this was certainly not something I could do with Miranda or my old toad, a subcompact Accent!

Off I went down the twisty clay road and it was good going at first, but the road became very twisty and steep. I came down one twisty slope into sandy and got the first niggle of worry that maybe my plan wasn’t such a good idea. This is the kind of feeling I was expecting to get on the Angel’s Landing hike, but never felt once. I continued on for a long while and finally got to something, a sign indicating that the ghost town lay ahead and that the old movie set had burned down and what’s there now are replicas. There was also, to my surprise, a clean pit toilet.

I continued on and found the cemetery. There were names and dates on a plaque, but all the gravestones were unmarked.

Shortly after the cemetery, there was a sign that said, ‘High clearance 4×4 vehicles strongly recommended beyond this point.’ The ugly feeling returned to my stomach with a vengeance. It was surprising to feel it there and not at all on the hike the other day. The scenery down into the valley had made the drive worthwhile and I made the decision to trust my gut. It was late and I didn’t even feel like walking the route to see what I might be getting myself into. I had to reverse almost a quarter mile before finding a place to turn around. I have no idea why the sign was placed where it was. 🙁

The trip back up was something! Sure enough, I came this close to getting stuck at the bottom of that steep sandy slope. It was really tricky because I had to make a run up the hill in very low gear and turn at the same time to avoid going over the edge of a cliff. After that, it was smooth going.

Even though I did not make it to the ghost town and movie set, I am very glad I took the detour! The scenery was so beautiful and I got to see what my truck is made of!

From there, I pushed on to Page where I got fuel and discovered that… someone stole my brand new gas cap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I bought fuel yesterday before going to Kolob Canyons and I most certainly remember putting my gas cap back on. I am not impressed. 🙁

Page has a really impressive dam. There was even places to park around it for photo ops.

From Page, route 89 was closed and I had to take a detour that was very, very, very slow going . I was glad when I reached Flagstaff as I was started to feel a little faint from hunger. I pulled into the Cracker Barrel at 5PM local time. BTW Arizona is like SK in that it does not change the clocks, so right now it’s on Pacific Time. Cracker Barrel is a guilty pleasure and this was only the second one I encountered on this trip. I enjoyed their apricot glazed pork chops with pecan wild rice, the special of the day, which made for an inexpensive meal.

It wasn’t even six when I got done with dinner and the evening stretched on ahead. I found a Starbucks where I did the last blog post, but didn’t realise that they closed at seven! I thought to go see a movie, but Flagstaff has only one cinema and there was nothing appealing playing. It was way too early to crawl into my bunk for the evening.

So I went to Walmart to kill some time and picked up some fleece pants since it’s going down to almost freezing tonight and all my warm PJs are in the laundry basket. Yes, it wouldn’t have killed me to wear smelly PJs tonight, but I could afford $8 for a clean new pair. 😉

From Walmart, I drove around for the better part of an hour looking for an overnight spot. Flagstaff has a dizzying amount of motels and hotels, but finding one that met my requirements took ages. I’m happy with what I found, although the train that passes frequently might be an issue.

I’m not sure what I’m doing tomorrow. There’s a few things in Phoenix that are of interest, so I might head there. There isn’t really anything around or in Flagstaff that I particularly want to stick around for, plus the weather here is quite cool since we’re at almost 7,000 feet of elevation and I put away most of my warm clothes! 🙂

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Pocatello, ID to Hurricane, UT

I didn’t plan to do a long day today. So when I awoke at 6:00 to rain in Pocatello, I promptly went back to sleep. The weather had not improved when I finally got up two hours later.

Last night, my GPS insisted that there was a Starbucks near my overnighting spot, by the McDonald’s, but I couldn’t find it. In the light of day, I had an epiphany, the Starbucks was likely in the Fred Meyers (a store like a Super Walmart) that I had spotted. So I headed there in the hopes of getting decent coffee, breakfast, and munchies for the road. Success! I found some nice Oscar Meyer ‘protein packs’ with lean meat, a few nuts, and cubes of cheese for dirt cheap, and one of those was the perfect breakfast, along with a grande dark roast from Starbucks.

I then hit the road, sticking to I-15 to make sure that I wouldn’t miss the Utah welcome centre. It was very dark almost all the way to the Utah border. It was weird to driven I-15 in that direction, although I do believe I’ve drive the Idaho/Montana portion of the highway as well. I just associate it with the long drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. 🙂

I wasn’t sure if I was going to stop in Salt Lake City or not. When I finally came to the welcome centre, many miles into the state, and got a ‘SLC highlights’ map, I knew that a stop would not be a good use of my time. SLC is a planned community established by the Mormon Brigham Young and the highlights of the city all have to do with the LDS church. I’m all for learning about different faiths, but I’m on an increasingly tight schedule. One thing I can say about the Great Salt Lake, you can smell it from a distance!

I stuck to I-15 through the city (not for the faint of heart and glad not to have done it in an RV!) and then took back roads, most notably route 6. At first, it was painful going, lots of stop and go and slow speed limits, then the road opened up and I was glad to have made the decision. The drive was incredibly isolated, with almost no services, much like the drive through the Sierra Nevadas and the Mojave Desert. I would not recommend getting off the interstate in Utah unless you trust your vehicle! My truck is running great, by the way. 🙂

There really wasn’t much to stop at and the landscape was all the same, so I didn’t take a lot of pictures. I was very grateful to find a small rest area south (or was it west?) of Elberta (not a typo), and I got fuel in Delta ($3.35, I think, compared to $3.19 at Fred Meyer). I didn’t fill up completely, hoping to do so at cheaper prices later.

I had a lot of time to think today, even with the radio blaring the whole way. It’s 10 days to the end of the month and I really want to get to Mexico the first week of November. I have four days’ of work in my queue and ideally need to do another three to be in good shape for November. I hadn’t planned on a canon ball run to Zion, but it suddenly made sense to push on tonight and stay there a full week, giving me time to alternate work and exploring days.

It got really, really hot by mid-afternoon and in an act of desperation, I turned on the truck AC, which has been dead as a doornail since I left Quebec in late 2012. Whadya know, it started blowing cool air… Not super cold, but just perfect! WOW.

I stopped at a McDonald’s in Cedar City to check out the hotel situation in Springdale, the gateway community to Zion National Park. Hotel prices were out of my price range. It makes no sense to sink nearly a day’s income into a hotel room. Might as well not work and truck camp instead! Prices in St. George were much more reasonable, but St. George is a full hour to Zion. Priceline clued me in that there might be a compromise, the city of Hurricane, 30 minutes from Springdale. Online prices weren’t great and I decided to go door to door at each hotel in Hurricane until I found one with a decent weekly rate.

It was coming on seven when I pulled into the first motel on my list. No weekly rates and the daily rate was $50 for weeknights, $90 for weekends. PASS.

Next motel had a weekly rate of about $33 plus tax per night. Amenities included an onsite laundromat and a pool. Suspicious, I asked for a key to a room on the second floor away from the main road so I could inspect it. The room was large, clean, and newly renovated, had yet another super comfy bed, a microwave and fridge, and a decent table and chair setup for work. SOLD. I booked for the week and was assured that I can renew for a few days at the same rate if I want to as I may decide to just hang out if I get work for next week early in the week. We shall see.

I lugged about 50 billion pounds of luggage into the room. I hadn’t planned to get on the road so late and therefore hadn’t expected to be in HOT weather quickly. I really need to switch out the fall clothes with more summery ones!

Dinner was from a well reviewed fast food Mexican joint, Alberto’s. My enchiladas were made with corn tortillas and were not smothered in cheese and sour cream, so even with the beans and rice, it wasn’t a heavy meal. It wasn’t a wow meal, but it hit the spot.

I got some groceries after dinner from a nearby supermarket and noticed a frozen yoghurt place on the way back similar to the one I went to in Salem, OR, where you pay by the weight and can add toppings. I got a small portion of yoghurt with a few toppings and was shocked when it weighed in at over $10! I could have bought several Ben and Jerry containers for that price! It was outrageous and I would have complained had tonight not happened to be ‘fill your container for $3 night’ and my price got reduced to that! Phew! I had a yummy pineapple yoghurt with fresh fruit. Very refreshing!

So now, the plan is to work tomorrow and go exploring on Thursday and Sunday. Andy Baird is camped just minutes away, so I’m hoping to meet up with him while I’m here! This is the guy who gave me a vision of the RV I wanted when I was shopping way back in 2008 and who has been an incredible mentor. It would be the proverbial cherry on top of the sundae to cap off a trip to Zion with a meetup!

So Zion… The LAST item on my American bucket list! Sure, there are other things I’d like to see, volcanoes in Hawaii, the Everglades, the Black Hills, Arches National Park, and Monument Valley come to mind, but nothing absolutely pressing that I’d want to make an express trip to (post edited on July 20th, 2017, to note that I’ve been to the Black Hills, Arches National Park, and Monument Valley since then!). I started traveling as a grown up at the age of 17, starting with my trips to Colorado and NYC in the fall of 1996, and it has taken me less than 20 years to make my way through my list of must dos. My Canada list has only two things left on it. I think it’s high time for me to get to Mexico, and then the world beyond, no? 🙂

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A Sad Parade

Yesterday, I noticed a big mechanical shovel being carried by a flatbed truck along the road I face from the office. I didn’t think too much of it.

Today, I failed to notice a long line of cars going north on that road, but the parade out was unmissable. I didn’t count, but there had to have been at least 30 cars.

The answer to these strange sights was quite obvious, but I still did a quick Google search to confirm. Just as I got the expected results… the hearse drove by, returning from the cemetery at the end of the road.

It’s rather sad that the only business still active in this community is the graveyard.