V. Bisbee & The Copper Queen

Last night I stayed at the Larian Motel in Tombstone.

It was an older motel with a western movie theme throughout, but was nice, clean and well decorated. The manager who checked me in had such a thick Scottish brogue that honestly, I only understood about every 5th word. I asked him how he ended up in Tombstone, of all places, and he told me he moved here for the history. Said he'd grown up in Scotland watching westerns as a child and the history of the old west was his life’s passion. That was a neat story to hear. I ended up in the "Doc Holliday" room, naturally.

I got up early, made coffee in the room and stared at the wall for a while til my tiny brain rolled into its socket, then got dressed and wandered over to the boardwalk. And by the way, why is it that hotels always give you those stupid little packets for your coffee with two smidgens of sugar and two micro-smidgens of creamer! Grrrrrrrrr.

Being Thanksgiving Day, little was open but I found coffee and a honeybun in the general store and wandered some more. A couple of places were gonna be open for Thanksgiving meals, including the VFW hall, but I was leaning to head for Bisbee since it's in the direction I need to go for El Paso. Sort of.

Good morning mi amigo cerdo!

The Scottish manager saw me and insisted he take a pic of me saying "Ouw yer Uan MacGregggoooooor!" and laughing.

I gotta tell ya, I like Tombstone even though it's touristy. I like the feel and the folks in the area. There are more gun stores in this town than I've ever seen and that warms the cockles of my heart. I think it's sort of an upscale “Vegas” version of Terlingua.

Yet another Klar for sale

The original dual sport adventure tourer

Hot Dogs, Beans and a Pickle for $1 for Thanksgiving Dinner... Perty good deal.

Since it was Thanksgiving, I felt like taking the day easy and not pushing much. I geared up and headed south for Bisbee since I've never been there, rather than slogging it back to Texas.

It was a bit colder when I left Tombstone for the short ride south, but the view in the valley is great, with mountain ranges on the east and west.

The speed limit on Hwy 82 was 65 mph, so I enjoyed the xtra 10 mph of Arizona over New Mexico. Funny thing, yesterday when I hopped on I-19 for Tucson, the speed limit was 75, but after riding at slow speeds on back roads and 55 on asphalt for days now, 75 made me feel paranoid that I was gonna get a ticket.

It wasn't long before I was entering the hills preceding Bisbee and the rocks were a stronger color.

Just before the town you enter a tunnel, then come out the other side to views of houses and buildings perched all over the hillsides.

JJJoooosssseeeppphhh... JJJoooosssseeeppphhh... riiiiiide intoooooooo the liiiiiiiiiiiiight

Bisbee had been a rich copper mining town previously and I assume there are still some active mines around. It’s a wonderfully eclectic community, colorful and varied in styles, a maze of tiny streets and alleys, all steep or sloped with colored houses dotting the hillsides. It reminds me very much of an American version of a small European village built on the mountainside.

I rode all through the town enjoying the tight and twisted streets. There were three Native Americans wearing make-up or ski masks and protesting loudly in the downtown area, waving hand painted placards at passersby that said "Thanks-for-nothingGiving!"

Mama always said “art and alcohol don't mix”

The place is littered with shops and galleries, but only a few hotels. The nature of the streets and lack of parking make it difficult to spot any that aren't readily visible in the main section of town.

I ended up stopping at the "Copper Queen", the lush, old grand hotel from the boom era of Bisbee. There were two BMW's there - R1100R and R1150R - and I parked my dusty beast next to their svelte and shiny selves and went up into the lobby. I was hoping to get a good room and maybe a Thanksgiving Dinner in the restaurant.

Once in the door I knew it wasn't gonna work. The milling gaggle of wealthy, older folks waiting in line for the restaurant looked in disdain at my dusty, bug-stained self. I went to the check-in counter to ask for the rates and availability anyway. Let's just say the "Copper Queen" is alive and well, his name is Bruce and he works behind the counter.

Bruce wasn’t friendly and the vibe wasn’t good. Plus, I wasn't wanting to pay the high price for a room only to endure a bunch of self-centered nouveau riche for the rest of the evening, so I headed out and explored east of the old town.

You pass the massive abandoned copper pit on the east side of town to find where the working folks live. Bisbee has that dark, rusty feel of an old industrial town.

This guy’s got some cool toys and a great loft/shop

I rode back to the old part of Bisbee and found the LaMore Hotel on a higher side street. The lady managing it set me up in Room No. 7. It's an old hotel that has been historically restored. And it had wifi most importantly

My room was upstairs, down a dark hallway and the doors to all the empty rooms were open. I was the only one upstairs but got chills in the hallway. I kept thinking how it reminded me of the old hotels you’d see on shows about ghost activity. Turns out, on the way back out I did see a book by the door where guests can log their "ghost encounters". Great…

Parking was a block below, but I didn't get the feeling this is a real safe town. She said I could park the bike on the narrow sidewalk in front of the hotel, IF it was a small bike. I assured her it was tiny.

She also told me the only place open for food today was the Roma's Pizza place and that the Copper Queen restaurant would close early.

I headed down for food and being my Thanksgiving meal, I decided to stuff my face with a small homemade pizza and Coke. It was great.

From there I wandered the streets til it got too cold and headed back up to the haunted hotel. Out front, the night manager was smoking a cigarette and asked me about the bike and it turns out he collected old scooters and such. We talked bikes for a while.