No more of this posting things in the actual order they happened. It just isn’t me. So here, in no particular order, are some stuff I saw in Old Town Albuquerque, and some horses.
Because I went to Old Town, and I met some horses, and rode on one of them.
There is a cat in that picture.
That’s Elsa. She had to lug me around for two hours.
Weird stuff.
Horses.
Weird stuff.
Horses.
Okay, that isn’t weird. Just Old Town.
Same with that.
I found a fancy mirror in the hotel on my first day on this road trip… so… uh… yeah.
Our younger daughter Mollie started nursing college at the University of New Mexico.
They have a great nursing college there. Also, Mollie’s boyfriend Ben lives in New Mexico, near the college. Coincidence? I think not!
Mollie is going to be a great nurse. Since she was young, she always healed anyone or anything that was sick or injured. She is a natural. They have a ceremony for new students called the ‘White Coat Ceremony’, where the faculty welcomes the students and present them with their first official white coat. We rented a house to see the ceremony live… and… uh… covid.
So we all watched it on a live stream. Check out the official Albuquerque decorations.
Mollie, taking the nurses oath.
It was pretty awesome. Also, we could drink margaritas, which they wouldn’t have let us do in the presentation hall, I suspect.
Mollie rocked it. She was the only one to pull off the double arm simultaneous sleeve entry gambit.
Yay, Mollie!!!
The excitement was palpable, as you can see by this photo of her sister Jessica and her brother-in-law, Jason. (Just kidding, this was taken earlier, before the show started).
So, yeah.
Go Mollie.
And it snowed one night. Which is probably more exciting to us Southern Californians than to some of you.
It is time to say goodbye to historic Tombstone, Arizona… with a quick stop at the Boot Hill cemetery on the way out of town.
So, adios, Tombstone, with your weird mix of history and tourist trap.
I enjoyed my little visit. I love history. It explains how we ended up as we are.
Real history happened in this town.
And now people are making money on that history. Which is fine. Without all those famous Western figures and what they did in Tombstone, I doubt many people would take the time to detour over and visit the town.
So you have to pay to get into Boot Hill.
Which I didn’t.
I took some photos over the fence.
I supported the local economy by paying to get into the Birdcage Theater.
But all those people under that sandy, rocky ground, they were a part of history. Now, with no other words to distract you, some views of the desert in Arizona and New Mexico…
That poker table in the foreground holds the world’s record, according to Guinness, of the longest running poker game of all time, For nine straight years the game ran. You had to sign up at the bar for a place at the table, when a player passed out, went off to sleep or eat, visit with one of the ‘ladies’ or was gunned down for cheating. I didn’t actually Google that to fact check it, but that is what the guy at the Birdcage Theater told me.
Wait, that photo is missing something…
Ahhhh, much better.
This is the basement of the Birdcage Theater.
This is real Western history.
There are still unopened barrels of wine and bottles of whiskey down there.
You could smell the past.
Back upstairs once more, and we see a famous Faro table.
So, if you turn around to look at the piano, you are looking over the sight of a short-range shootout. Let’s do that.
Alrighty then. I didn’t Google this ‘famous’ duel, but I bet Doc won.
This is the actual hearse that took the dead to Boot Hill.
It is inlaid with real gold.
That is an actual viewing casket from the 1800’s. Once people had paid their respects, the body, if there was no money to pay for a real coffin, would be put in a pine box, and transported to Boot Hill.
Oh, the opulence of the private boxes.
Goodbye, Birdcage Theater. It is time to head out of Tombstone… with one short stop on the way out of town… and get back to our adventure.
I mean, pretty much everybody in history ends up dying, one way or another.
See, this is why I get up early on my adventures. There was a short while where I had the streets of old Tombstone almost to myself. The history felt closer then.
Weirdly, the most historic place in Tombstone, in some ways, is the Birdcage Theater. It is one of the few buildings that didn’t burn in the fire that came after the town’s heyday.
Pretty much every famous cowboy that you can name ended up here at one time or another.
This place reeks of history. There are still hundreds of bullet holes in the walls and ceiling.
Famous actors, actresses and musicians came from all around the world and somehow ended up here, on that very stage. And it wasn’t easy to get to Tombstone back in the day. Hell, it ain’t easy to get there now.
The private boxes were much sought after.
I wonder how long he has been hanging around?
This is supposed to be one of the most haunted places in the United States. They have nightly ghost tours.
Stay tuned to the next post, where we will delve even more deeply into the history of Tombstone.
Since I had to pass through Arizona to get to New Mexico, I set out from the hotel in Tucson early and ended up taking a detour to see Tombstone. I didn’t actually get to see the O.K. Corral. You have to pay to see it, by buying a ticket to the reenactment of the famous shootout. I didn’t want to stay in Tombstone that long. I had miles to go. So I saw the wall around the O.K. Corral.
What I am saying is that Tombstone, a real part of the real history of the American West, is now mostly a tourist trap.
That is not to say that it isn’t worth stopping at. I got there early, and had most of the town to myself at first.
And I really enjoyed my short stay.
There were places where you could almost forget the tourist trap element.
You could almost imagine the town in the late 1800’s.
You could squint, and imagine what it was like, with horses and wagons and stagecoaches and cowboys and sheriffs.
But the illusion was transitory. That isn’t a bordello. That is an ice cream shop.
There are constant reminders that history did indeed happen right where you are standing.
Uh, that is not a real stagecoach.
We all know that the real Tombstone cemetery is called Boot Hill. That is a miniature golf course.
I am on a little road trip/adventure, which is why I have been too busy to post. I am seeing parts of America. I left San Diego, California to head to New Mexico… where I am posting this… to celebrate my younger daughter, Mollie, starting her nursing college courses.
That first picture was out of order, taken back in the big Saguaro cactus country of Arizona, later on my first day of driving. I suppose I will do these in order for a while, just to mix things up. First, the mountain range behind (East) of San Diego, and the crazy rock formations. If you have been here on the blog a while, you remember this stuff from previous visits to my older daughter, back when she lived in Arizona, before moving to New York.
Once again let me say… DO NOT take photos while you drive. I was a professional driver. Also, I have gotten good at keeping my camera on the seat beside me, picking it up, flicking it on, and just pointing it out the window and clicking a few shots. Later, I clip the good images and discard the bad ones. Don’t do this. It is stupid.
Also, you end up with window glare, and motion blur, and other problems.
Heading down the back of the mountain range, descending into the real desert.
You pass real sand dunes.
And wide open spaces where the tumbleweeds grow. It was windy for lots of the drive. I saw a lot of tumbleweeds.
I saw a really big dust devil.
Some of the drive is boring. Some is awe-inspiring.
But I do love the giant Saguaro cacti.
You really get a sense of how big America is when you drive through the dry parts.
In front of the hotel where I stayed at the end of the first day, there was a Saguaro in front of some palm trees. That sums up the South West pretty well. Okay, see you soon with the next leg of the journey. And it will be more interesting than you think.
Pouring My Art Out by Arthur H. Browne is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.Based on a work at https://pouringmyartout.wordpress.com/. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Pouring My Art Out 