Pullin' Chocks

Benson, Arizona

We are enjoying the cooler weather in Benson, which is about 3,500 ft higher in elevation than Yuma. Benson is a small rural town, which also attracts a small retirement population as a result of the low costs, great winter weather and beautiful mountain desert scenery surrounding the area. Benson is also convienient to Tuscon and various tourist attractions such as Tombstone, AZ home of the famous OK Corral Gunfight. We have been recovering from the high levels of activity at Yuma so have taken a much slower approach in Benson so far. We did make a day trip to Tombstone, AZ and incorporated a hike in the nearby San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. There we saw a few more petroglyphs and had a little picnic at the San Pedro River. We were given a tour of the park here by member Stella. Stella gave us a fantastic tour of the park. We like this park as much or more than any others that we have seen to date.And we had a special bonus, many cactus bloomed while we were in Benson.

On the way to Benson a stand of Saguaro cactus

Coming douwn the hill into Benson.

All set up on Site #73

We don't eat out often, but we decided to try the local Mexican place Mi Casa that we had heard good things about. Well, it turns out this is one of those places that looks scetchy on the outside but the food is excellent on the inside! It was like beining in a little Mexican adobe home, and the food was fresh, good quality, seasoned delightfully and presented with a flair.

When we came out after the meal the large planter pot out front was run over! Below Deputy Dog Gari is on the trail of dirt.... the guy in a pick up parked two spots down from us. We looked over our truck for damage, luckily found none and got the heck out of there! You can see the big smashed pot below, and that pickup truck went right over the big pot and between our truck and that car on the right. What a nut!

On our day trip to Tombstone, AZ we stopped at the Boothill Cemetary at the edge of town on our way in.

Below are the graves of the McLaury Cowboys killed by Wyatt Earp and his brothers with Doc Holiday at the famous OK Corral gunfight.

Another view in Boothill.

Period stagecoach in front of the OK Corral on Allen St.

Here comes another stagecoach, Tombstone is working the tourist angle hard.

Big Nose Kate was Doc Holiday's girlfriend. This was the place to come many years ago. In fact the cowboys killed in the OK Corral gunfight stayed here the night before they died. Look.... here comes Kate now... oh wait tha's Gari!

There's Steve tempting fate outside the Bird Cage Theatre... This was a famous brothel of the day.

A work wagon on the edge of town.

Tombstone was a mining town, much like Castle Dome it was a silver mining area. This is a pit mine right in town on the coner of Toughnut and Good Enough streets.

This old miniing town was established becase of a determined miner named Ed Schieffelin. The local folks told Ed all he was going to find out there in the desert was his tombstone. It turns out Ed found silver, lots of it. The city fathers later erected this monument in Ed's honor. We drove out in the deseret to check it out