The Residence Inn in Tucson was a vast improvement over the Inn & Suites, but it still had a couple of drawbacks--the free wireless Internet in our room didn't work, requiring a short spell in the business center in the morning, and the breakfast was way below average. Yes, you guessed it, I've become a breakfast snob. The bacon was not good quality, the home fries were dreadful, and the scrambled eggs were just plain eggs. It looked like the cook had just thrown the eggs in a pan, let them cook completely hard and then cut them into big chunks. And once again the coffee was undrinkable. When I can tell from the first sip that the coffee is going to create major heartburn, I don't go any further. It's a good thing Starbucks has locations in pretty much every city and major town in the country.
The (roundabout) drive from Tucson to Gila was unremarkable until we got off the interstate to take a side trip to Bisbee, AZ, when we passed through the small town of St. David and passed the Holy Trinity Monastery, RV Park and pecan grove. No kidding. I guess you do what you have to to make a living.
Bisbee is an turn-of-the-century mining town in the mountains in southeast Arizona, close to the Mexico border. Since many of the markers on the buildings indicated that they were built around 1900 to 1904, it must have really been booming for a while. It's still a great little town that now spreads outward from the main streets of town up into the canyons. We only walked around a little part of it, but I'm sure we'll go back and explore much more. Next time, skip Tucson and just go directly to Bisbee.
We arrived pretty early (10:30), so the first order of business was some coffee at the Bisbee Coffee Company, which appeared to be a local hangout with free wireless. We did not indulge, at least not in the Internet access. We wandered around the main part of downtown admiring the architecture and well-kept buildings. Gradually we found ourselves heading to the Bisbee Grille in the same building as the Bisbee Coffee Company. Guess what? Several of the guys who had been sitting there with laptops in the morning were still there.
Lunch at the Bisbee Grille was really good. I had the bleu burger with a side of garlic mashed potatoes, and Steve indulged in a Reuben sandwich. The menu provided its own entertainment, full of grammar and spelling errors, and complete with a confusing web/email address. Apparently someone doesn't know the difference and decided to put everything in together: www.bisbeegrille@yahoo.com. Hoo!
We doubled back the same way, since it was the fastest way back to the interstate. Past tiny villages and mobile homes and small houses with solar panels and satellite dishes. Some had windmills and one even had a fancy 3-propeller wind turbine. If I lived out there, I'd try to get some free power from the wind, too. That trip had involved two passes through Tombstone, where we didn't stop. Others had told us it was very touristy and yes, they even had the graveyard fenced off and charged admission. Nah.
The journey got more interesting and breathtakingly beautiful once we left I-10 and started heading northeast into New Mexico toward Gila. We were up in alpine forest when we crossed the border from Arizona into New Mexico. The road immediately deteriorated, of course. From there we continued up, and up, and up, into the mountains through Apache Pass. The tight switchbacks reminded us of some mountain passes in Europe. When we reached the top, there were a viewpoint place to pull off and the view from there was incredible.
From there we dropped down out of those mountains. I should mention that as soon as we had crossed over the mountains from Arizona, the vegetation changed from scrubby brush to lush grass on the New Mexico side, and it was quite lovely. I've been living for years in the city, but sometimes a place like that can make me think, "yeah, I could live here."
Once we were in Gila, we were on dirt roads the rest of the way. Several miles on one road, turn right, several miles on another, four miles on a third. And up and down and single lane.
Casitas de Gila is a lovely place backing up on the Gila Wilderness. They have 90 acres including half a mile of a creek and the cliffs on the other side. While we were talking outside, Mike fetched his binoculars and showed us about 12-13 javelinas feeding down by the creek. We had time for a very short hike down to the creek (without meeting any wildlife), and on the way back up saw a fantastic sunset on the mesas. We had no sooner returned to our casita than we saw two gray foxes taking a shortcut across the backyard right out the window.
The stars out there are so brilliant! No light coming from anywhere, so we could see not only the biggest and brightest like we do here in the city, we can also see millions of smaller ones. And it's so quiet out there. No TV, no cell phone reception.
More tomorrow on the last day of vacation--Gila to Albuquerque.
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