Anyway, John comes to my house at 7am so we can hit the road early. Naturally, I tried to semi dress up to look cute. I packed minimally (I really did for a girl!) as to impress John with what little I really needed, but it was still a small sized luggage that he hauled in the bed of his truck. The parents take a few pictures and then we hit the open road.
John just loooooves when I take pictures of him. You can see him beaming in this picture:
So we start heading down the 51 and connect to the 10 which connects to the 60. I know where we are going and I am quite excited too! In one of the proposed ideas, John suggested for us to go to Tombstone. Why you are probably asking? Well, let me tell you. John LOVES the story of Tombstone, loves the old Wild Wild West, loves Doc Holiday and loves history. I, on the other hand, have no clue about the story of Tombstone minus the fact that we own the movie and have watched it, oh about 50 million times. My history is a little rusty. So, I've always mentioned to John that we should do historical excursions so we could learn about history and do something unique-opposed to sitting on a beach getting cooked to a lobster shade of red and getting drunk off of margaritas (I am not judging getting drunk off of margaritas-read previous post please).
So I start bouncing up and down on the seat in my childish joyful way spouting off how we have to buy a cowboy hat and boots to fit in and smoke cigars and drink beer in the saloons and MOST of all take those old fashioned pictures-ya know, where it's all sepia toned and the guy is dressed as a cowboy and the girl is dressed as a floozy-I mean saloon girl.
We make a pit stop in Tucson for breakfast at John's favourite diner called Bobo's (If that ain't hick enough-I don't know what is). To be honest...it was DELICIOUS! And the food portions were ginormous and I even admired the utter hatred/rivalry they had with ASU. John went to U of A and I went to ASU...
Aren't we just gaggingly adorable?
There was too much food that I couldn't finish. Don't hate me Africa!
Poor Sparky
After the diner, we put the pedal to the metal. I was anxious to get to Tombstone. I had all these visions in my head. Dirt roads, saloons, horses, people fanatically involved in this place as people who dress up as dames, knights, jestures, kings and queens and paupers at the Renaissance Festival. I was thinking I'd see a gun show! Finally, I see the sign I have been waiting for!
Now I am REALLY excited. However, John tricks me and we make a turn off the road and pull into a dirt lot with a giant wooden store and behind the store is more dirt, rocks and cacti. I squint to read the giant lettering on the sign and it reads "Boothill Graveyard". John opens the door and mumbles something like "let's go" and we both hop out. He explains that this is the town's official graveyard for Tombstone and I feel a bit more at ease. Interesting. I graveyard. If Mayra and Patrick were there, I could only imagine their utter excitement. Don't get me wrong. I was totally stoked. I was just a bit confused for a few seconds.
We walk into the store, make a "donation" and walk to the back where rows and rows of graves were. Okay, let me just tell you how hostile, disturbed and backwards civilization used to be back then. People died over the most mundane things! For example, these two cowboys who were herding cattle got into an argument about the pace of herding. Meaning one was arguing to herd the cattle faster and the other was arguing to herd them slower. Well, their argument got so heated that they shot each other dead. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Another was wrongfully accused of something and was hung. A lot were just plainly murdered and some were unknown deaths and/or unknown bodies. How sad :(
John's favourite headstone:
When you make a "donation" they give you a booklet that explains each grave, that's how we were able to know the history of that grave. Here's John reading about one:
Here's me reading about something and by the look on my face-it was probably an absurd story:
Here lies the McLaury brothers whom were involved in the Wyatt Earp/Doc Holiday Tombstone shoot out. That famous gun fight.
When John say those gaves, he got this twinkle in his eye and got really quiet, then really talkative about the story. It was precious. He was like a kid in a candy store. Or like me in a camera store. Or like Mandie in an apparel store. You get the picture.
So we leave that graveyard, which is on top of a dusty hill and make our way down, down to the pit of that graveyard's existence-Tombstone! Oh how we arrived. I was just like the picture. A straight dirt path with two walls of stores and saloons that tunnel it's way down. However, I was a bit disappointed. I thought that Tombstone would be perhaps more reserved from the actual city of Tombstone. See there's the HISTORICAL Tombstone and then there's a modern day CITY named Tombstone and the historical Tombstone is literally smack dab in the middle of the city, like a park almost. So we pull into a parking lot (yes...a parking lot) and park next to touristy stores that are all decked out in Western gear, going along with the Wild Wild West theme. When I saw this decor...I had to take a picture with it. You're going to love it:
All I have to say is YES!!!!!! You know you love it and want to be in the picture. Don't lie to yourself.
Behind this building is where the fight apparently went down. Duh duh duuuuuhhh!
John decided to save that site for last so that we could enjoy the rest of the place. Sort of save the best for last kind of thing. So we walk down the wooden slats of their makeshift sidewalk and we gander at the stores. There were tons of gift shops. All trying to sell random junk and to be honest, back in the day I might have been a sucker and gotten trinkets, but I was a principlist now and I a) didn't want to support the fact that they have sort of ruined a historical place and b) add to the crap I already have at home. I know they are trying to make a living too, so don't get all hippy on me. I just think they can do that OUTSIDE the freaking historical zone. I mean, you don't see stores selling junk at Yellowstone Park. You see stores selling junk right outside Yellowstone, which I am completely complacent with. Anyway, we walk around and see the store owners all dressed up, which I totally dug, however no one else was dressed up. I was saddened. I truly expected to see all the Tombstone freaks strutting their costumes and gears like the Shakespeare weirdos do at the Renaissance Festival (which includes me-so hah!) I also couldn't find cowboy hats that weren't designed for kids-kind of the way they made Mickey Mouse ears at Disneyland. However, I told myself it was probably a sign. After all, I am a 24 year old woman now.
I really felt at peace and in awe of the place. I kept thinking how crazy it was that literally 100 years ago a man and a woman just like John and I were walking down these SAME wooden steps, looking at the SAME dirt, feeling the SAME weather. Well, not exactly the same, but you get it. Same, same, but different. I was admiring the history. How people lived back then. How grateful I am to be living in my modern era. How grateful I am to be living in such a civilized, lawful time. How grateful I was for A/C.
We decided to check out the Bird Cage Theater. Any theater buffs would have heard of this place. This venue was the Bees Knees for cabaret, theater, music, boozing and schmoozing back in the day. We also just walked in right when the tour guide began his speech about the place. Awesome! A lot of things went down in this place. Shootings, gambling, shows, etc.
I thought this was pretty darn funny:
This was interesting:
For Danny and the Buffalo Bar:
Yuck, wouldn't want to be on one of those. The sign is hilarious though.
This was pretty amazing. This is one of eight that was created ever! It also carried every single person to their grave minus six people. That's pretty nuts. Hearse was pretty busy, I must say.
Then downstairs from the venue was another bar and of course brothel rooms.
Brothel room #1:
Brothel room #2:
As we were exiting of course there was a gift shop attached to the venue where I purchased a postcard for my buddy Silvia :) I remember her telling me that she never ever received a postcard before, so a) I wanted to send it to her and b) wanted to let her know she was missed and that I was thinking about her. She's so freaking fun. More about her later.
As we entered back on the road we saw Big Nose Kate's Saloon, which was Doc Holiday's lady's place. Naturally, we went in for a drink.
We walked around some more, talked to an old geezer trying to get us to go to his store and saw the place where we can get cigars. So we bought a darn cigar!
The signs inside were HILARIOUS:
We saw the place were we could get our picture taken, but John wasn't ready yet. He needed another drink before he felt relaxed enough to get it done. So we found the legendary Oriental Saloon, where if you watch Tombstone the movie, you'll see the drama that happens there.
I tell John that it's time and whether he's relaxed or not, we are taking this darn picture. He complied like a good boy and we headed over to the photo shop and got dressed up. First of all...I don't remember the name and I am too lazy to look it up, but I was slightly frustrated because it was utterly empty in there, but I felt like she was rushing us. I didn't get to choose my outfit and neither did John, but he's a dude so he didn't care. I didn't get to look at myself in the mirror to make any adjustments, I couldn't do my make up or my hair, she just herded us to the background (which was a cool set design) and she posed our bodies and said "1..2..3" *snap* and only took one picture. I didn't get to even see if to see if my eyes were closed, or I had a crooked smile or anything. I was peeved to be honest. However, John gave me that reassuring pat on the back, which reminded me it's all about the fun of it, not the perfection. So she handed us the printed pictures and that was that.
I have a tiny scanner and I couldn't scan the entire picture, so I scanned what was the important parts. This was the final outcome! :) Watch out Doc, watch out Kate! There's a new pair of badasses in town!
Finally we had basically seen/done everything there is to be done in Tombstone, since it's a rather small site to begin with. We headed over to the gun fight arena, where history went down.
I just realized that I took a lot of pictures with my film camera and not just my digital, so there are going to be missing pictures until I develop them. Since I am rather lazy and basically poor at the moment, that's on hold. When I get around to it, I'll re-edit the pictures in or something.
Anyway, this is the area of the OK Corral.
Nothing really fancy, this is where they kept horses and cows and such. They also had a brothel, surprise surprise. What's crazy though it that on payday, the women would have a line of men waiting out their door and would "service" easily 80 men a day....eeeeewwwwww....
We went to the area where the gun fight went down and I was crushed. First of all, they had rickety old pieces of rubber dolls that were ugly replications of human beings. They moved brusquely and really old fashioned. What comes to mind is the Goofy Movie. Remember when Goofy and Max goes to that Possum show and the dolls moved sharply and almost broken down? Yeah...it was like that. The voice over was lame and I just felt they could have had it more schnazzy. I mean, this is HISTORY for goodness sakes. Or don't even HAVE those mannequins, but have a live show there every hour or at a specific time. The dolls were pathetic.
We left Tombstone to head to where we'd be sleeping. Again, being part of the surprise I had no idea. I figured it was a hotel or a bed and breakfast place. No. John pulls into a dirt road driveway and starts hauling us up a mountain. We turn then turn again and the next thing I know, we are on top of a mountain and we parked right in front of a quaint house. I'm quiet because I am observing what's happening. He gets out and disappears through the tree covered patio. Then re-emerges and says "come on". I get out and start to get sweaty with excitement. HE RENTED A HOUSE ON A FREAKING MOUNTAIN. WHOO HOO! The place was amazing! The patio was almost like a wrap around, large and the entire length of the house. The house was spacious, two bedrooms, two living rooms and a kitchen. The owners were sweet too because they left us a bottle of wine and chocolate because they knew it was our one year. Oh my gosh...I get excited all over again thinking about it!
Sorry, had to fudge out the telephone number because I doubt they'd want that advertised!
We were so amped up, we decided to smoke one of the cigars we got on the porch, like what you see in the movies. Neither one of us are cigar smokers, so we had a little bit of trouble igniting the blasted thing. However, with persistence it finally lit and we took a puff or two from it. I don't know if you've ever smoked a cigar, but it's just plain messy. The end gets soggy then breaks off on your lips and in your mouth. You can't really puff it AND you get whoozy afterwards. We called it quits after a few minutes because it just wasn't what we imagined. Nonetheless, it was fun attempting to do it, especially in the beautiful weather we were in, after the day we had and with the view we were looking at.
After we got settled in, the exhausted also settled in. It was barely 7o'clock and we were tired puppies. We were hoping to go out in the "town" because it was a Friday night, but we had plans scheduled for the next day and felt like it was better to stay in. We ordered pizza from a place about 2 minutes away, opened the bottle of wine, snuggled on the couch and watched Shrek 2 because that's what was playing on the television. And I'm not going to lie-it was a perfect night. It was a perfect first day of our trip.
