The Colors and Flavors of Bisbee

Patagonia to Bisbee

(Editor Note: Lots of photos and color which is the theme of this long post. Best to click on a photo to expand, then go left or right to see them in better view.  Enjoy.)

After Sraddha returned from the Patagonia lake bird walk, we ate lunch, I dropped off the recycling, bought a couple groceries, then drove to Post office to return something from Amazon.  Yes, we shop online and have various packages and mail shipped to a destination we know we will be during a certain window.  Could be an RV park, or a state park with permission, or just General Delivery, City, State, Zip.  I don't do this in big cities (yet) but have a number of packages sent to Rodeo, New Mexico to pick up later this week.

Parking out back of Fry's in Sierra Vista

We headed east to Bisbee through Sierra Vista where we stopped at the food coop for some fresh produce.  Memo to self: next time buy the Avocados in Patagonia.  They have a better selection.  We also found a Fry's grocery store.  We pulled into the back of it where we could unhook on a flat section without crowding so I could go fuel up Mr. Toad while Sraddha shopped for Avocados, Bananas and my favorite bread.  She found nice selection of organic goodies and my bread so we are stocked up for at least the next 7-9 days when in Sunny Flat Campground in Chiricahua's.

Off to Bisbee for a night.  Only 68 miles total travel.  Our kinda day.

Our campsite at Queen Mine RV park in Bisbee

The old Open Pit Mine in our back yard

 We arrive in mid afternoon, set up camp. and Sraddha took off on a little walk.  As mentioned yesterday, I have a little soreness in heel so am not walking distances right now.  I ventured over to Old Bisbee Coffee Roasters to get some more of their delicious Ethiopian Queen City Harar blend.  We had discovered this little business when a friend sent me a link to their site.  Small coffee roaster with excellent tastes.  They roast daily and ship everywhere.   We ordered a pound a while back and loved it.  Sraddha usually buys Peet's Coffee special roasts, but they are growing big so we were thinking about possible alternatives and we love to support small businesses.  We just give them our general delivery address and they ship within 24 hours.

High Desert Market (from their website)

Sraddha took off for a walk and we made a date to rendesvous at the High Desert Market Cafe for the dinner special I had reserved earlier in the day by phone.  Glad I did as when we arrived at 5:45, they were sold out of the special:  Wild Salmon over Pesto cream pasta.  YUM!!  No more pasta for 2 weeks minimum.  hehe.



When I got to Old Bisbee coffee roasters, I discovered they were sold out of that days roast of Harar.  Eek.  I had called ahead and emailed and was assured of supply so Jacob said he would have some for me tomorrow and gave me a pound of another Ethiopian blend to try for free.  WOW.  That is customer service!

While driving around Bisbee in search of photographs, I found a parking place and wandered into a local place where i got to visiting with one of the locals who lives in a vintage 1968 Airstream. We talked about the nomad life and the east coast where he is from and the Boston Red Sox then a woman on next table chimed in about the Red Sox because she is from Maine.  Megan and I began to talk and turns out she had visited Ananda Village several years ago for Yoga Teacher Training and knows Elizabeth, our good friend in Tucson.  WOW.  Imagine that.  She lives in central Maine where she manages a ski resort (really?  in Maine?).  Anyway, we exchanged info and plan to visit here this fall when in Maine.  There are no coincidences are there?

I have gone on long enough so here are some photos.   I was using my new Olympus OM-D EM-10 camera.  More on that later.

Yes, there is 1000 steps to walk No, we didn't walk all of them this trip (Shot with Olympus)	Someone's outdoor living room (Shot with Olympus)
Front door to county courthouse (Shot with Olympus OM-D EM-10)	Bisbee Coffee Roasters Supply Room (Shot with Olympus) Bisbee Coffee Roasters front Window (Shot with Olympus)

All these wonderful paintings on the walls were shot by Sraddha's on her iPhone.

Wall Painting in Bisbee (iphone) The artist show painted this wall Front Bumper on The Car	More of that Garden Wall New Roosting place for owls
Rock floor outside the market where we ate dinner The Wheel on The Car The Car!	More of that garden wall Sraddha meets a new freind High Desert Market outside table

These night shots of downtown Bisbee were photographed with my new Olympus OM-D EM-10 and the amazing 12-40 f2.8 lens on a tripod.  Amazing.  This is now my go to camera and lens for street photography.  Still will use Canon for wildlife and birds.  I think

Downtown Bisbee at Night. Tombstone Street (Shot with Olympus OM-D EM-10)	haberdashery.  I want one of these (Shot with Olympus OM-D EM-10)
A little song called "Tune Up" (Shot with Olympus OM-D EM-10)	155 of the 1000 steps (This is Sraddha iPhone)

One last photo here of the Tombstone roses hanging down Tombstone Canyon.
We head out today for the Chiracahua's and will have limited internet.  I will have to go to the Portal Cafe, have a chocolate milk shake, and use their internet to post more.  Oh Darn.

Bisbee Part II

We had heard of a really cool old time area and a very creative, original RV park nearby so we drove Mr. Toad (the jeep) east down the hill past the open pit mine to find a really fun area of BIsbee called Lowell.  At one end of the main street was an old grocery store converted into a food Co-op where we shopped for some goodies.  The main street had all kinds of old time gas station pumps,  storefronts from the 40's and cars.  I spent an hour photographing with the big camera and will post more later on that.  Here are some pix from my iphone

Notice the signs and old Greyhound bus

This Indian set a land speed record of 140 mph on bonneville salt flats.
Remember the movie, "The World's Fastest Indian"?

Shady Lane RV Park filled with vintage trailers set up as a motel

Of the many fun things to do in Bisbee is walk the Bisbee 1000.  Here is the map of the 5K walk (or run for some) that is used in October for their event.  We had it open on iphone to see route.  We walked about 700 of the steps but didn't complete the route due to darkness.  I noted where our RV park is in lower right and also the top highest point from which I shot the photo below.  Was really fun.

5 K walk isn't bad.  Glad we live at elevation because bisbe starts at 5160 ft

one of the stairs.  to the highest point.  you can see 5 on map above

here we go.  whew

Creative metal sculptures masquarading as fence

View from the Top.  you can see our RV way down on middle right if you squint.

Bisbee Part 1

For us, as RV'ers the really neat thing about Bisbee is the RV park right next to Queen Mine and overlooking downtown Bisbee.  Several years about we had driven through Bisbee but spent no time here. (Ask Sraddha about this one).  Anyway we originally intended to spend one night and ended up spending 2.  We were able to walk around the town enjoying the unique creative, architecture and hills.  Glad we live at elevation in the Village because we climbed a lot of steps and made it through.  Here are some pix.

Our back yard - The open pit copper mine

A creative take on downtown retail store.  Wonder what is inside?

In the middle distance is our RV park

Our Front Yard at RV park. Downtown Bisbee in background

Next to RV park is the Queen Mine.  Daily tours are conducted by former miners so we took the undergound tour that goes back 1500 ft into mountain.  Quite fun and informative.

getting dressed for trip underground.  Quite the fashion hound!

 Did you know this mine produced 8 billion pounds of copper during its life.  Shut down in 1975 due to copper prices, there is talk of re-opening.  Also produced 2 million pounds of gold.

Interesting bicycle undergound for shift boss to ride around

 The miners were quite inventive and humorous.  The carts were never on level ground.  they used little blocks to hold in place.  Imagine some prankster......

And you can guess what this is for right?