The Journal. Los Angeles to Daytona...

Day 4 – Street Fighting Man – Gila Bend to Tombstone

With day-light saving time requiring a change to watches and clocks and moving across time zones combined with high mileage that we need to pile in, early starts will become more of the norm as we continue our journey Eastwards.

Today marked that start. With a breakfast at 6.00am we picked up Highway 8 and headed towards Tucson Arizona. The number eight highway is a fantastic road; two lanes of black top through the most spectacular cactus laden scenery and with a rising sunrise, many pictures were taken.

Stopping at Casa Grande for an early morning coffee at the Cook e Jar (a recommendation from a local garage owner) served by Beth aka “Psycho Lady”, more to warm up and see real America, we soaked up the warmth from the sun, there’s no wind chill when you are stood still. Picking up the I10 briefly we headed towards Tucson, by passing the city and taking the back roads, the 80 to Tombstone, arriving just about lunch time.

We checked in at the rustic Trail Riders Inn, two blocks up from town, a delightful place owned by a couple of Brits who now live here. Tombstone, famous for a notorious shooting and the Ok Coral, is a lovely town. This scene is enacted out daily and is very entertaining as it is educational – go see. Clearly a shadow of its former self, with residents leaving, the high school is now closed, but it’s fighting, a town that is “too tough to die” it is capitalizing on its history, but not in a cheap over the top tourist way.

Lovely restored wooden boardwalks outline the old town as it was, the Crystal Palace, Long Horn Saloon and Big Nose Kate’s, to name a few are clear land marks, but so is the town hall and Masonic lodge and the numerous shops.  By the way the Masons were eating in the Crystal Palace that night and were so welcoming and talkative, coming over to say hello and thank you before heading off to their lodge business.

Please do visit Tombstone, spend some time absorbing the history and look beyond the shop frontages to see how the town came about, it’s mines, it’s street fires and late nineteen century demise, but now see its growth and be part of its fighting spirit. Oh if you drink in the Crystal Palace, the Milk Stout is number one drink.

Laner
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