Had a GREAT trip to one of my favorite weekend get-a-ways; Bisbee, Arizona.  Last time I was there over a year ago, I took the Old Bisbee Ghost Tour and learned of all the haunted locations.  One of the most haunted was the Oliver House Bed and Breakfast.  Before I get into my trip, here’s a little bit of Oliver House history…

A historical home in Bisbee, the Oliver house is haunted by several spirits. Edith Oliver built the house for executives of the various mining companies until they all merged in the Dodge Phillips corporation.

The house has also served as a boarding house for miners. The story was told that in the late 1800’s the wife of a local deputy was having an affair with Nathan Anderson, a mining employee. Her husband found out about it, went to the house and killed the both of them. Nat was shot at the top of the staircase to the second floor while entering his room. He was shot in the head, between the eyes, and in the back. After killing the two of them, the husband headed downstairs and killed everyone in the parlor.  He then drove to the edge of town and committed suicide. A total of 27 people died in the house, including those from the mass murder.

This sounded GREAT!  So I booked a room and specifically asked for the room that Nathan and the deputy’s wife were in when they were murdered.  So I got the “Passion” room and this was looking up to be a great weekend.  Off I flew to Tucson to spend the night and get an early start to Tombstone in the morning and have a late breakfast/early lunch.  After some Geocaching, off to Bisbee to see if an early check-in for a nap to escape the heat.

After some driving around to figure out how to get to the house, a narrow path (photo below) was found that lead to the entrance from a public parking area.  That was the first sign of creepiness.  Went up to the front door and it was locked so I rang the doorbell.  The “inn keeper” opened the door and was able to check in the room.

Turns out there were no one else checking in that day (or night) so all the rooms were open to, I assume, keep them aired out.  Which comes to one of the reasons I feel why there was no one else checking in – NO AIR CONDITIONING!  And it was around 100 degrees!  YEOW!  It was hot.  I went around and took several pictures of the rooms downstairs and upstairs.  As well as the hallways.  Later on after I took a shower and a nap, I went down to wait for the Ghost Tour and was looking through the pictures on my camera.  Everything looked normal with lovely pictures until I got to the picture I took at the top of the stairways looking down the hallway and my room (photo below with closeup).  There I saw the first ORB.  Here’s one definition of what an ORB is;

In the world of paranormal experts, there is cause for debate regarding the exact definition of an orb. Psychic Sylvia Browne has said that orbs are always angels, but the majority declare orbs to be a mode of transportation for spirits. The exact definition of an orb is basically a ball of energy. They manifest themselves most often in photographs. In pictures, they either look like a ball of light, or like a large see-through bubble.

As you can see in the picture, this single orb in the entire picture is right in front of my room.  The next picture I took was INSIDE my room and in this picture, you could see several orbs floating around!  So this really spooked my out.  Later on, while on the tour and we were at the location where our guide talked about the Oliver House, I mentioned about the Orbs I found in my room that weren’t found anywhere else in the house.  So everyone wanted to see the pictures and get spooked.  The guide (Renee, I think) was saying that NO one stays at the Oliver House unless they wanted to experience the ghosts.  I personally think it’s because they don’t have AC.

That night, because of the heat, I took a couple of fans from the other rooms and position them around the bed to keep cool.  Didn’t help much at all.  I also kept my camera next to me in case something spooky happened.  Nothing did.  Until the next morning…

As I previously mentioned, I took a shower on Saturday when I checked in.  That morning, I went to take another shower before checking out and when I looked up, I saw a read blotch where the tile meets the ceiling that I don’t remember seeing the day before!  And there was nothing else in the whole bathroom and bedroom that was painted red.  Don’t know how or why this got there but I had to take a picture before checking out.

This was a very spooky and exciting weekend.  So maybe the Orbs were actually reflection of dust or pollen.  But it’s still fun to think that it’s actually spirits and had a great weekend.  Found some very cool Geocaches and went on the very cool Copper Queen Mine Tour (a must do).  The Oliver House Bed and Breakfast isn’t exactly a great place to stay.  First, the rooms were small and old.  There was NO AC.  Which made it horrible to sleep.  And there was no breakfast included in the “Bed and Breakfast” part of the deal.  So if you want to stay in Bisbee, I would highly recommend just about anyplace else besides the Oliver House.   Especially at the $100+ room rate they charge.  My next visit to Bisbee will be at the haunted Copper Queen Hotel.  THEY have AC!

(click on image for high-res photo)

 Mt Saint Anne Cathedral is a BEAUTIFUL Cathedral about 30 minutes east of Quebec City along the St Lawrence River.  Inside, you will see columns with crutchs and other devices of people who were cured of their ailments.  There is usually some sort of event in this forecourt almost every weekend.

Inside St Anne Cathedral

 I snuck this picture inside the Cathedral to show the columns of crutches that you see just behind me.  

BIG Dog

On the road to Mt Saint Anne, there’s the place that has these huge dogs.  What they are doing there, I have no idea.  Here I’m taking the temperature of one of the dogs. 

Montmorency waterfall

You can’t miss Montmorency Falls when you drive up the Saint Lawrence River.  BEAUTIFUL falls with a wonderful hike and trails up to and down the falls.  And the views from the top is spectacular.

St. Lawrence River

Ile d'Orléans

Bonne Homme!

The Entrance to Old Quebec

Chateau Frontenac

Oldest House in QuebecThe Maison Jacquet is the oldest house in Quebec City and is the home of the Aux Anciens Canadiens Restaurant. Had lunch here of a meat pie consisting of Caribou, Bison, and Pheasant. YUMMMMMM!Funicular

Carnival Cruise's Elation

Carnival’s Elation is one of their newest boats.  And it’s a decent size!  I got there early and past experience with Carnival wasn’t very good for checking in.   I was surprised they let people board before noon but no one was allowed down in the cabins before 3… so off I went exploring.

Onboard the Elation

So I hopped on the ship after a REALLY quick checkin (less than 5 minutes) and hit the top deck for some lunch.  Everything was open ‘cept the cabin areas so it wasn’t that bad.  People were slowly coming on board and this gave me a chance to get totally orientated.

USS Midway Museum

Really close to the Elation was the USS Midway Museum.  If I had known it was there, I would have went over to explore that before boarding the ship… but I missed it.  Dangit.

Onboard Minigolf

Never before have I seen a mini-golf course onboard.  Here it was!  All the way on the top deck and forward.  Ok, so it wasn’t very challenging and no cool waterfalls or dog houses… but at least it was something.

Water Slide!

LOVED the waterslide into the pool.  Pretty tamed compared to the Baldi Slides in Costa Rica (see Costa Rica blog) but it was still fun.  Wasn’t open ALL the time and I didn’t bring a swimsuit… but it was still pretty cool.

Itsy Bitsy Staterooms

FINALLY got down to the cabin.  Of course it was small.  But it was clean and comfortable.  On the service, I’m used to having the room serviced all the time on cruise.  Whenever you go out, it’s serviced.  But on the day we got to Ensenada, I left my room pretty early and didn’t get back to the room until around 1pm.  And it still wasn’t serviced!  So that was pretty strange.  Even Motel 6 would have had it serviced by 1pm!  So it wasn’t until dinner that night that the room was finally cleaned and made.  Pretty bad for a cruise ship.

Lifeboat Drills SUCK!

One of the suckiest part of any cruise is the life boat drill.  You’re all comfortable and want to go out to have fun, and then everyone is herded like cattle to a briefing area, made to put on these horrible life fests that never fit, and then go find and stand by your life raft.  Take a huge chunk off the fun meter when this happens.

Won the $600 BINGO!

HIGHLIGHT of the cruise… with THOUSAND playing, I won the $600 BINGO!  Did the X!  That paid for the cruise AND the weekend! wooHOO!  Didn’t play any other bingo games on board…  was happy with that one.

Mexican Flag

Arrived to Ensenada at the cruise pier.  In back, there’s that huge-assed Mexican Flag that’s been there forever.

The Elation docked in Ensenada

Docked in Ensenada.  Wasn’t really planning on leaving the ship since I’ve been there many times.  But wanted to get a few things… like have cerviche at the fish market (below) and pick up some Amoxycillan.

Ensenada Seafood Market

BEST place to get seafood is the Seafood market.  Doesn’t seem that many tourists goes to this area.  This is where many locals and restaurants come for their seafood and there’s several little seafood counters up and down the ally with AMAZING shrimp and crab and stuff.

San Diego Skyline

Back in San Diego.  There are some great things to do here that I need to make a return trip for.  Mostly the San Diego Zoo.   Gotta do! Gotta do!

St George Airport

My trip into southern Utah started in this really small commercial aircraft.  Being a pilot, I’ve flown in a 2 seater Cessna but this is the smallest I’ve ever flown commercial.  We didn’t get above 22000 feet and it was actually nice.  St George Airport is a really cute municipal airport that’s really easy to fly into and out of.  And there’s even rental car companies open at the airport.  I think United and Delta are the only 2 airlines flying in and they share the same counter.  VERY cute place.

Utah HWY 12

Hwy 12 is classified as a “National Scenic Byway” and an “All-American Road.”  I drove thru the entire length of Hwy 12 and it IS an amazing road.  Almost every turn brought in new sites and places to explore.  A person could spend a week on or near this road and still not see everything.  A VERY cool place to spend a weekend on a motorcycle.

Red Canyon

At the beginning of Hwy 12 on the west end is Red Canyon.  Beautiful sandstone formations that signals the start of an amazing drive.

Red Canyon Drive-Thru

This is 1 of 2 natural bridges that spans hwy 12.  Not as cool as driving thru a redwood but still pretty cool.

Bryce Canyon National Park

The first of 3 National Parks, Bryce Canyon.  The drive to Bryce Canyon reminded me a LOT about the drive to the Grand Canyon.  Same kind of trees, pastures, and road.  And ya just gotta love the little tourist town that’s at the entrance to almost every national park.

Bryce Canyon Hoodoos

One of the main areas of Bryce Canyon are what they call hoodoos.   This picture doesn’t really show the pillars but the hoodoos are a striking formation that towers from the floor of the canyon.  There are some wonderful trails going down into the canyon but, alas, not enough time to take them.

Bryce Canyon Natural Bridge

Halfway down the road the runs the length of the park is this Natural Bridge.  I think this is one of the most photographed point in Bryce Canyon.

Capital Reef Twin Rocks

At the east end of hwy 12 is Capital Reef National Park.  Most sandstone mountains the runs miles and miles east to west.  Twin Rocks is one of the first cool formation you get to when you enter the canyon.  I took more pictures but it was near sunset so they didn’t come out ver well and there was a 4 hr drive back to the cabin.

Zion National Park

Zion National Park was the 3rd NP to visit and it’s on the way to the St George Airport.  Even at the entrance to the park, you can tell you’re in for a very special treat.  The canyon that runs north to south in Zion is off limits to private vehicles unless you’re staying in the lodge.  But there’s a very frequent and comfortable shuttle that takes you to all the view points and places of interest.

Court of the Patriarchs

The Court of the Patriarchs is a BEAUTIFUL set of 3 peaks: (from left to right) Abraham Peak, Isaac Peak, and Jacob Peak (barely seen behind Mount Moroni).

Great White Throne

One of the more beautiful view spots shows the Great White Throne in the background and you can you can see part of Angel’s Landing which offers the parks more challenging and popular hikes to the top.

Zion Canyon Panorama

One of the really cool features of my new Olympus Tough 8000 is the automated panorama mode.  You click the first frame then move the dot to a square 2 more times to have a 3 frame panorama picture created automatically.  With the high canyons, instead of going side to side, this went down to up.  Turned out GREAT!

This is the end of the road up Zion Canyon called River walk.  The canyon gets too narrow for the buses to continue but there is a trail that goes up the canyon that offers great views and areas.

Out of the 3 national parks that was visited, Zion is definitely my favorite because of the diversity of geographical formations, trees, wildlife, and things to do.  There’s a really cool lodge right in the middle of the canyon that would be a great base to spend a weekend or more to hike the trails that runs all over the park.  And this is exactly what I have planned.  Seems like Spring would be the perfect time to do this.

AIRMILES – TRIP: 694 TOTAL: 75,883

Gilroy Garlic Festival

At long last, something I’ve been wanting to do for YEARS is the Gilroy Garlic Festival!  The day was beautiful when I arrive and was intimidated by the huuuuuuuuuuuuuge parking lot.  Even tho’ it was only partially filled, I was fearful of the crowds.  But as you can see, the festival was so spread out, crowds wasn’t really an issue.

Pyro Chefs

The signature dish at the festival was the stir fried garlic chicken down Gourmet Row. And a long time tradition are the “Pyro Chefs.”  This is what they do!  They have these HUGE stir fry pans and to get it all going, and to get the crowd going, they have these flameups.  The crowd goes CRAZY!

Garlic Ice Cream

Garlic EVERYTHING.  Lots of food vendors and the garlic ice cream was one of the longest lines at the festival.  I tried the chocolate garlic ice cream… yummmmmmmmm.  One thing that was lacking was the condiments!  I really wanted to go shopping for unique garlic condiments but there was only a small sampling at the official festival tent.  This was the only disappointment I had all day.  Nothing to bring home but a lousy T-Shirt…. and my fridge magnant.

Celebrity Chef Stage

There were 3 music stages with great music but the Celebrity Chef stage had the largest crowd, by far!  I watch this guy, the head chef of The Franciscan on Fishermans Wharf.  He was the total stereotypical Italian Cook!  With accent and everything.  He was cracking everyone up and made clam dish that smelled AMAZING.  But too many people to have a tasting, dangit!

BIG pot of Paella

One of my most favorite dish is Paella.  And they had a Paella booth at the festival.  They were simmering this dish n these huge pans outside the booth.  The smell was to die for.

Olympus Stylus Tough 8000

One more thing I want to mention is that I got a new camera after mine broke in Costa Rica.  While in Costa Rica, I missed some great shots when it was raining, or at the Baldi Hot Springs, white water rafting, and even snorkling.  So I spent the $300 and got the Olympus Tough 8000.  Has some AWESOME features, can go up to 33 feet in the water, in the rain, and can stand dropping and sitting on it and all kinds of things.  I loooooooove my new cam!

AIRMILES – TRIP: 889 TOTAL: 75,189

Multhoma Falls

So after the Gilroy Garlic Festival, I headed up to Portland, OR to do some work.  I’ve always heard about Multnomah Falls so I got in early on Sunday and headed out.  Only about 20-30 minutes east of the airport.  The falls was AMAZING!  And the whole Columbia River Gorge was absolutely stunning.

Multhoma Falls view from bottom

This is at the very bottom of the falls.  The falls is actually 2 levels and you can see both from here.  See that pedestrian bridge on top?  There’s a trail that runs from where I’m standing all the way to the top of the falls.  The trailmap near me states that the bridge is .2 miles away and the top of the falls, 1.0 miles away…. so off  I went!

Switchback 9 of 11

So the falls is 600+ feet high.  And the trail is ALMOST all up hill with a total of 11 switchbacks and a marker at each turn.  This was a pretty grueling hike.  The funny thing was, remember how I said that the trailmap said the top of the falls was 1.0 miles long?  Well… they LIED!  Just before this marker, was the 1 mile post!  So people were seeing that and were CURSING because they were already exhausted from that 1 mile uphill hike.  Most turned back.  Not me!  The GOOD thing is that at the switchback 9 marker, it’s all down hill from here.

Switchback 11 of 11

Made it to the final switchback!  After going down hill from #9, it wasn’t nearly as exhausting at this point then when you reach #9.  Only a little bit to go before the top of the falls.

View from the top

FINALLY at the top.  Wonderful views and the platform is directly over the falls so you can look down.  Really cool.  And after 1.25 miles, a really fantastic hike.

Mt Hood

The falls is part of the Mt Hood Scenic Byway loop.  This is a 100+ mile loop around Mt Hood with amazing views and historical sites at every turn.  On the hwy 35 leg, you’ll find all kinds of produce farms.  I stopped and picked my own cherries at one of them.  They were goooooooooooooooood!

This is definately a return trip for me.  I could spend a LONG weekend there just seeing all the historical sites.  Not sure if I would want to do this in the winter unless I go specifically for skiing.

AIRMILES – TRIP: 834 TOTAL: 74,300

The Caribbean from the house

Right off the plane, it’s off to the Caribbean for some sun and fun in the clean warm waters of Puerto Viejo.  Instead of staying in the hotel, I found a great house right on the beach called Casa Fiesta.  This is the back yard of the house with the very private ocean in back and as I always do, the first thing is to jump in.  Wonderful house and AMAZING beach.  Nice to hang out after a long day.

Sloth Rescue Center

Sloth Rescue

Buttercup

One of the first places I went to was the Sloth Rescue.  New since I’ve been there last and it is such a wonderful place!  They have many orphans and adults for rehabilitation.  In the pictures about is Buttercup, the center’s first rescue and mascot.  I learned a LOT about sloths while there.  And learned they are VERY loving and social animals.  They just reach out to you and try to get you to pick them up.  VERY slowly.  This is a MUST SEE in Costa Rica.

Jungle Canoe

Banana with seeds

After the tour of the rescue, there’s a HUGE area behind where you can take a canoe cruise.  The guide and paddler was very friendly and showed all kinds of things, including a species of bananas that has black seeds.  He grabbed one from the tree to let me taste.  It was DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELISH!  But the seeds were pretty annoying.

Roberto

On to Cahuita, my favorite little town.  I hooked up with Roberto who runs Roberto Tours and set up a snorkeling tour and guided hike through Cahuita National Park.  Roberto does everything.  Set up tours, does fishing trips, and is even a cook at his restaurant.  Dunno how he does it.

Cahuita National Park

Didn’t have an underwater cam to take snorkling pics but this is where they dropped us off for a pineapple snack and the hike back to the town.   The snorkling was nice and saw some great tropical fish and wonderful coral formations.

Cahuita National Park Bridge

I’ve hiked Cahuita National Park many times before but this was the first time I took a guided hike back from the snorkling area.  Towards the end, the guide pointed out sloths and monkeys and inguana’s that I would have never spotted myself.  Those suckers take a trained eye to spot.

Fruit Brains

Upon returning to Roberto’s pace, he had lunch of Shrimp with these fruit brains that he grows with there on his property.  This are little fruits that has this brain-like meat inside.  WEIRD looking but it was YUMMY!

Bocas de Toro

Cosmic Crab

The Cosmic Crab was recommended by a local.  It’s located on the next island over so it was a $1 water taxi trip over.  Unfortunately, the Cosmic Crab didn’t have any crabs at all!  But their crabs cakes were AWESOME!

Arenal Lodge

Me and Parrot

Arenal Volcano

Butterfly Path

Baldi Hot Springs

Vieux To Do!

Ok, so I wanted to go to New Orleans FOREVERRRRRRRRR!  And I DID!  Booooooooooooooy it was AMAZING!  Not only that, but the weekend (June 13-14) that I went was the Vieux to Do Festival weekend that combines THREE festivals in ONE:  The Cajun Music Festival, the Cajun Tomato Festival, and the Louisiana Seafood Festival.  Each one would be worth the trip!

Le Pavillon

One of my favorite sites is Hotwire.com where you can get AMAZING deals at AMAZING hotels.  I saw a great deal ($75) for a 4.5 star hotel near the French Quarter and booked it.  Turned out to the the AMAZING Le Pavillon Hotel.  It was funny in that when taking the cab (LATE at night) from the airport, I saw this building and asked… WOW! What’s THAT?  And it turned out to be the hotel! COOL!  The rooms were BEAUTIFUL, the facilities AMAZING…. BUT… do NOT do the Sunday Brunch.  Totally overpriced and it really REALLY sucked!  There are way too many amazing places to have breakfast, lunch or dinner within walking distance to the hotel.

Cajun Music Festival

Everyone knows that New Orleans is known for music so when you add the Cajun Music Festival, well, it’s just totally amazing.  Out of the 3 festivals, this was the smallest.  2 stages but lots of music with people dancing on the streets. Some was slow and sounded like square dancing but most of the music was very fun and lively.  sweeeeeet.

Cajun Tomato Festival

The other end of the festival was the Cajun Tomato Festival.  As with the other festivals, there was a ton of food vendors all around you.  Alligator seemed to be a favorite and yeah, it was DEEEEEEELISH!  A Cajun Tomato looks like a beefsteak tomato but to be honest, doesn’t really have that great of a taste.  But, a fried green cajun tomato that I took a bite out of was really really good!  Just like mom used to make.

French Market Place

The whole festival is centered around the French Market Place, which is a destination in itself.  THIS is the place to buy your souvenirs, food, clothing, and just about anything you want.  Several blocks long, a not-to-miss visit in New Orleans any day of the year.

River Front

And there’s many other things to do in NO.  This is the famous river front area where you can stroll for MILES to see things from the HUGE Harrahs Casino to even MORE amazing restaurants.  Don’t miss the aquarium.

Bourbon Street

Of course, a visit to New Orleans isn’t complete without going to Bourbon Street.  Forget Mardis Gras, this is the place to be 365 nights out of the year!   The street is amazing but the whole French Quarter which extends for several blocks  on either side of Bourbon Street contains many many many amazing restaurants, museums, gift shops, clubs, bars, etc… etc.. etc…  Any night of the week is a wicked night out in the French Quarter.

New Orleans is one of those places I would visit over and over again.  I had such an amazing time there and didn’t even scratch the surface of things to do.  Even tho’ Le Pavillon was only a few blocks away from the French Quarter, next time I will definitely get a place IN the French Quarter, even if it’s only a 2 or 3 star hotel.  The area is just electrified.

New Orleans…. any day, any time, any way.

AIRMILES – TRIP: 3,340 TOTAL: 68,026

Arriving in the afternoon, it was time to lunch.  And EVERYONE recommends Mama’s Fish House.  And now I know why.  If you want to go to what seems to be a completely authentic Hawaiian restaurant, this place is a must go!  Kinda expensive but the food is AWESOME!  And, as I soon find out, is prolly the best beach in Maui.

Papaya Crossing

Heading down the Hana Hiway 360, I saw this really cool “Baby Papaya Crossing sign.  Prolly the only crossing of this kind in the whole world.  So I had to take a picture of it.

Lava Cave

Almost all the way to Hana, I come across this Lava Cave.  It was around 4 or 5pm and were aout to close, but the owners of the property let me go anyways.  Didn’t get to go far into it because they wanted to go home.  But it looked pretty fun!   I love Lava Cave.

Hana, Hawaii

Finally made it to Hana.  A really quaint town at the far east end of Maui.  Not touristy at all.  If I were to spend a few days of relaxing, THIS would be the place to go.  Even all the way here, Mama’s Fish House still had the best beach.

Hwy 31 Waterfall

Ok… so everyone said to not take the southern route back.. so that made me HAVE to take it.  And beside that, it was getting late in the day and pretty dark.  If I had listen to everyone’s advise, I would have missed this great waterfall and a lot of beautiful Maui country.

Haleakala Visitor Center

One of the more popular things to do in Maui is to wake up at 3AM and head up to the Haleakala Visitor Center to watch the sunrise at 10,000 feet over the volcano.  And so, here I am.  It was SOOOO cold.  I think around 20F!  about 75% of the people arriving wasn’t prepared at all.  The REALLY cool thing to do is to rent a bike and coast the 10,000 feet down the road back to town.  Unfortunately I had a plane to catch so I wasn’t able to do this.  SUCKS!

Haleakala Sunrise

Here’s the famous Haleakala Sunrise and some of the crazy people facing the FREEZING cold.  It was nice… but I think I would have rather stayed in a warm bed.  Still would have loved the bikeride back down.  Dangit.

Sugar Museum

On the way to the airport, I had a little time.  So I stopped at the Sugar Museum.  Pretty interesting stuff inside.  The history of the Island, how sugar is processed, etc.  A must see while in Maui.

Maui is… ok.  But compared to Kona, not much to do.  I drove around looking for a good snorkeling or cliff jumping spot but just couldn’t find anything.  Not sure if I would do a repeat trip back to Maui.  Maybe give another chance.  Not sure.

AIRMILES – TRIP: 4960 TOTAL: 47,574

Ghost Town Trail

A long time ago I visited the Tombstone area of Arizona and never forgot about it’s beauty.  So, after trying to decide what special trip I could go on, I came up with a cool idea of visiting ghost towns of Cochise County of (southeast) Arizona.    So off flew to Tucson, rented a car, and headed to Tombstone.  I flew out on Jan 1st and back Jan 3rd.  The actual touring was done on Jan 2nd.

Petroglyph, Millville, Arizona

I got in late on the 1st and stayed in Tombstone that night.  And as usual, I couldn’t sleep because I wanted to get out and start.  I woke up just before dawn and headed for my first destination; Millville.    Millville was a town that milled (hence Millville) all that silver from Tombstone.  There’s a really cool BLM maintained trail that goes up to the ruins.  Also in that area, are these REALLY cool petroglyphs from the ancient indians.  This is just one I was able to get close to but there were hundreds more all around.

Millville, Arizona

This is what’s left of the owner’s house, Richard Gird.  There’s a BLM information slate that had a picture of the original house.   You can see most of the foundation of the house.  There’s also a LOT of retaining walls all around that held up the mills.  The trail around this area is about 2.5 to 3 miles long.  When I started just as the sun rose, it was around 20 degrees.   Really brisk to wake anyone up.

OK Corral, Tombstone, Arizona

After Millville, I headed back to Tombstone and had breakfast.  This isn’t really a ghost town since it’s still a very active community.  It was still morning so everyone was just getting up.  The stagecoach tours were just arriving while I was near the OK Corral (in the background) and thought this would be a great picture to grab.  There was a whole lot of activities to do in Tombstone including gunfights, these stagecoach tours, walking tours, and other stuff.  But, I was on another mission so I didn’t do all these things.

Bird Cage Theater

The infamous Bird Cage Theater.  If anyone has seen Tombstone or Wyatt Earp, the interior looks just as it does in the movies.  It’s now a museum of artifacts of the era but still really cool to spend an hour or two.

Fairbank, Arizona Gravesite

After breakfast in Tombstone, I headed to Fairbank north of Tombstone.  Before going to the ruins, I headed to the cemetery about .5 miles away on a nice trail that lead to the cemetery on top of a hill overlooking the area.  Most of the graves are marks with what I assume is the original cross which were almost all deteriorated away.  There was only a few grave sites that had recognizable markings.

Fairbank, Arizona

Back in Fairbank, there were a few buildings left.   Behind me is the school house which has been converted to a mini-museum and gift shop.  Out of view were several picnic tables and BBQ pits.  And a few other ruins.  This seemed more like a park then a ghost town.

Gleeson, Arizona

About an hour east – via the round-about way, was Gleeson.  Gleeson still have a few residents living in the area but there were many ruins.  This one still had much of it’s adobe walls still standing.  Next to it was an old well that was adobe lined.  In the background, you see a mountain that had the area mine.  You can see part if it through the window.

Courtland, Arizona

North of Gleeson was Courtland.  The elevation was about 5000′ and beautiful.  Ruins were pretty spread out here and behind me was one of the more complete.  I believe it was the jailhouse… not sure.  It seems to be a popular hangout for kids and was filled with Graffiti.

Pearce, Arizona

Still further north was Pearce.  Pearce still have people living there and an active store.  But ruins were everywhere.  From what I understood, this was a jailhouse.

Bisbee Ghost Tour

Finally, I ended the day with the Bisbee Ghost Tour, guided by the lovely lady above.  This was a walking tour of old Bisbee with tales of ghost, spirits, and other spooky stuff.  About 1.5 hours long.  Learned a lot about the area and also heard first hand experiences from people who live or work at the places we visited.   Many of these places are hotels or B&B’s.  Would LOVE to stay in some of the spook’d rooms someday.  I really don’t believe in ghosts and there were a few overly zealous people taking the tour… but when we were at the playgound which told of tells of spirits, when we were leaving I lagged behind to take a picture of the area of the playground the spirits were suppose to be seen.  For some reason, I couldn’t get my camera to take a picture.  I held the button down several time but nothing.  Then finally when I pulled it away, the camera took a picture while pointing at the sky.  So, I just gave up and headed back to join the group.  About 20 feet away, someone else was trying to take a picture of the same area and he was getting pissed at his camera.  HIS wouldn’t take a picture either!  OMG!  Then the tour guide said that for some reason, digital camera’s don’t work about 80% of the time.  CREEEEEEEEEEPY!

I had a great day doing this self guided ghost town tour.  One of the things I wanted to do, but didn’t, was to go to Johnny Ringo’s grave site.  I couldn’t find the dang place!  I also made a stop across the border at Douglas to Sonora, Mexico.  Talk about a sleepy town… there weren’t even beggars when you crossed the border.

This is an area I would like to return someday.  Spend a whole day or two in Tombstone to catch all the shows and tours and stay in Bisbee at one of the haunted hotels and even one the exact haunted rooms.  Dunno if I would wanna do this one by myself.  Hmmmmm.

AIRMILES – TRIP: 900  TOTAL: 42,614