Jen’s Journal – November 21, 2019

Day 145: City RV lot, Tombstone, AZ

Raining like crazy, windy.

We went out to breakfast in the town of Tombstone and had sausage gravy and biscuits. I don’t intend to ever get it again. It always sounds so good, but the taste just isn’t for me.

I went to the Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone by myself – Tom wasn’t interested. The Bird Cage Theatre has lots of dusty, real relics from the old days and lots of stories about individuals who lived or worked or spent time in Tombstone. Mostly the stories were about the working girls in the bird cages. When I was told that the actual bird cages where the ladies entertained were still here, I thought they were actual cages, like cage fighters in the movies use. These bird cages were something like private mezzanine boxes in a theater.

There were well over 100 bullet holes in the building from the old days. Apparently several people were killed at the Bird Cage. So there went my theory that the Gunfight at the OK Corral was so famous because gunfighting was unusual. I suppose it was so famous because Wyatt Earp was involved and he was the only fighter unscathed when the shooting was over.

I found the museum and all of the stories fascinating. One story that touched me was about a young Russian man who was really a nice guy, but wanted to fit in Tombstone, so he stole a horse. He was hung for the offense and the townspeople felt bad for him.

We left Tombstone and headed for New Mexico. The first thing in New Mexico we did was stop at a visitor center for a map. If I wasn’t so excited about going to New Mexico, I would’ve turned around and gone back to Arizona. The lady in visitor center was so uninterested in me and in New Mexico that I gave up on her and quietly, and slightly seething, looked through brochures by myself. Tom said I should’ve asked her how her day was going. Perhaps she was just having a really bad day. Next time I will try that tactic.

We decided to go to Rock Hound State Park for the night. When we were about a mile from the park, the road was covered with water and we could not tell how deep the water was. There was no one else around so that we could watch them go through the water and gauge how safe it was. We saw tracks going in the mud around the road but we were not going to do that with Arvi. So we turned around and drove another hour and a half to Caballo Lake State Park. It was very dark and we had to register online for our campsite. But it all worked out fine and we are thankful for being here.