CA-AZ-NM-(AZ-CA)

Today will be our first full day of being engaged!

We started off the morning, after delicious in-house roasted coffee and freshly made pastries at Bisbee Coffee Roasters, further exploring the strange town of Bisbee.

Look at us, we are so relaxed...

You would never know that we had an eight hour drive ahead of us.

Bisbee has done an amazing job at preserving the town's original architecture.

Luckily we had previously made a reservation for the Queen Mine Tour because the 10am slot was sold out and numerous groups were turned away.  

Our docent, Benny, has done this a thousand times.  He used to work in the mine until it closed in 1975.  During the 100 years that the mine was open over eight billion pounds of copper was mined here.

Safety first!

We lucked out getting seats at the front of the train.

This train track bicycle was used for supervisors to get around, as to expedite their supervising...

but apparently some of the miners thought it was funny to constantly ride the bike to a far away location after their bosses stepped away from it.

I can see it now...

Benny shared all sorts of interesting stories with us.  He made pretty good money (about $1,000 per week) working overtime in the mine.  He used the money to buy a brand new car (which he had to give to his first ex-wife) as well as put himself through college and the police academy.  After he finished his education he returned to Bisbee to become the first and only detective in the area, a title he held for over twenty years.

Benny shared more mining antics and the portable/rolling toilet.  

When there was a new employee using the "sh!#er" (as they called it) they would release the brake while they were relieving themselves.  Then they would yell, "quick, turn the wheel to stop" which would just release the contents onto the tracks, which they then had to clean up.

This explains why there wasn't a lot of women in the field.  

After our tour we started the trip back, but since we were driving right through Tombstone we decided to stop.

We got barbecue at Puny John's (Eric was a happy camper) before walking around town.

I have to say, I am so glad we are only here for an hour.  I was completely unimpressed.  With all of the sheriffs and robbers and guns in holsters it felt like we were at Knott's Berry Farm, and I would rather be at Knott's Berry Farm...

Although many of these buildings and businesses have been here for over a hundred years, they have been remodeled and do not seem authentic.

We were glad to come and happy to leave.

Just 7.5 hours left in the drive!

Okay, we didn't get very far.

In just 4.5 days we drove over 2,000 miles.  It went by quickly but we saw and did so much (luckily we were in a Subaru and not a covered wagon).

Yes, more time would have been more relaxing, but we surely made the most out of the time we had.

We visited three new National Parks, walked around inside a nuclear missile silo, took a train into a 

copper mine, and got engaged! 

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do." -Mark Twain