Benson AZ Day 2

This morning we woke up to warmer weather but cloudy skies. We decided to visit the town of Bisbee Arizona, about 58 miles from Benson. We had just passed the little town of St. David when we spotted a very large and ornate cross and we just had to investigate so we turned the car around and discovered the Holy Trinity Monastery and RV Park. It is a Benedictine Monastery founded on Sept 3, 1974. We found a small grave yard, a book store, the Bishops quarters, and the beautiful Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, and of course the RV park.  We did meet a gentleman who was kind enough to take a picture of us in front of the church and in talking to him we found out it was also a retreat center.  As we were leaving we found a flock of peacocks that live on the grounds and they posed for some photos for us.

Bisbee is an old mining town copper, silver, gold, zinc, lead, and manganese were all mined in this area but in 1974 the mines were depleted and the town started to shut down.  Everyone involved in the mining industry was moving out leaving a very affordable housing market so smart retirees and hippies started to move into town and eventually started turning the town around. Now it is home to many interesting artists and a lot of very interesting characters. We had lunch at a little Brewery in town and had some very good beer and brats.

Our next stop was Tombstone, we had stopped here last year but the weather was so cold and windy that we really didn’t get to enjoy the town as much as we would have liked. We shopped and people watched for the rest of the afternoon.

 On our way back to Benson we found a car wash and scrubbed and vacuumed the layers of desert dust off my poor little car, what a difference, it even drives better now that it is clean.

Main Street of Bisbee

More main street

Bisbee is in a small valley and a lot of homes on build in the hills

Bisbee theater

Hotel

Old jail

One of the many stairs going to the homes above main street

Local brewing company

Looking out from the brewery patio where we had lunch

Excellent stout

Local art work

One of many antique stores

We shopped many of the stores, like a large swap meet

Upstairs and downstairs a lot of junk

Annies Place, main street Tombstone Arizona

 Big Nose Kate's

Main Street

 The Longhorn

 A very nice Taxi

Going through a border patrol check point

Back home at the Pato Blanco campground, Benson Arizona