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
