Tombstone AZ

For those readers of my vintage, you will recall watching westerns on TV as a child.  I grew up with Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Gene Autry and the rest of the gang.

I wanted very badly to be a cowboy when I grew up and cried for days when my Grandmother informed me that I would have to be a cowgirl.  This was just not right!  I did not want to ride side-saddle!  It was my first brush with gender inequality.

This is the bar at Big Nose Kate's
 

So when the opportunity came up to visit Tombstone, we simply had to go!  They have a shoot out at the OK Corral, but the times didn't work for us.  But it's not so far away that we can't revisit that.

We did visit a reenactment of some of the shoot outs in this little bar.  Try as I might, I could not get any action shots because when the gun went off my arms jerked upwards.  I never have liked the sound of guns.

There were several cool old buildings in the area and I just had to take photos of those, being in love with old run down things.  These looked like stage sets but are actual buildings still in use in Tombstone.  I'm thinking I need to check out the cowboy church sometime just to see what it's like.

This experience would have been so much more fun when I was a child, it seems a bit cheesy to me now.  Left Brain and I were pondering how tough times must be for several grown men to make a living doing shoot outs several times a day.

Along the way we saw this large open pit mine and had to stop to take a look at it.  It was huge and deep and made me cringe to think of working somewhere like this. 

This is a close up of the edge of the odd lake at the bottom of the mine

 Then there was the matter of the little "lake" at the bottom that had some odd coloration to it.

But I do applaud the use of alternative energy down here.

One thing this area has is lots of sun and wind and they utilize it well. 

I thought this solar powered trash compactor was a great idea. 

I'd never seen one before.

So, even though my visit to Tombstone was a few decades too late to be truly awe-inspiring, it was still a pleasant outing with my sweetie.

Long Live the Queen of "Hell No I Won't Ride Side-Saddle"