Anyway, last weekend, Shane planned a fun little adventure for our 3-year anniversary. With our apparently crazy lives, we couldn't actually celebrate on August 12, but we took comfort in knowing we could look forward to our Southern Arizona adventure.
I'll try not to give too many details...I know many of you hate to listen to my stories due to the unnecessary tangents and extra information, but here's a quick (or my version of quick) overview of our adventure (DISCLAIMER: After finishing the post (which took me quite a while to compile due to the time it takes to upload pictures), I realize that this is in no way a quick recap of the story. I apparently don't do quick. Feel free to keep reading, but know that you've been warned):
We planned to leave on Saturday by 7 AM. This would put us in Tombstone (site of the O.K. Corral...you know, Wyatt Earp?) by 10 AM, giving us plenty of time to wander around and get our fill of the wild west before we had to check into our hotel in Bisbee. I set my alarm for 6 so I'd have time to shower and pack any last minute things we'd need.
Well, I woke up on Saturday morning at 7:30... Apparently I set my alarm for 6 PM. This should've been an indicator of how the rest of the trip would go, but we paid it no mind. We rushed around and were on the road by 8:30. Just outside of Phoenix (well, technically Chandler, but it's where the city ends and the reservation begins), Shane realized he forgot a sweatshirt. One of our excursions was into an old mine where it's only 45 degrees on a warm day...so we decided a sweatshirt was needed. Just before Tucson, we called Shane's mom to have her look up all available Walmarts on our route. We found one was in Benson, a town just before Tombstone, so we stopped there to find something (which ended up being a decent sweatshirt, minus the random skulls on it).
We made pretty good time and were in Tombstone by 11 AM. Apparently they had extra activities (including a costume contest) for Labor Day weekend so the town was pretty full, but it added to the excitement.
We wandered up and down the dirt roads, ate in an old saloon (where Wyatt Earp owned a few poker tables), and watched a few gun fights (one of which was recreation of the incident at the O.K. Corral, which didn't really happen at the O.K. Corral, but down the street...but I won't get in to historical correctness right now).
Overall, it was a fun trip, but around lunch time I started feeling achey and strange. I just figured I was hot (there's no AC in the old west...) and my body was angry at me for sitting in strange positions in the car for 3 hours. But around 3:30, I told Shane it was time to go, but not before I took a picture with some nice town folk.
We got to Bisbee pretty quick, which was BEAUTIFUL! We rounded a corner in the road and saw this view (the picture doesn't do it justice, it was awesome):
Once we got to our hotel, I got in to my pajamas, bundled up in socks and my sweatshirt and climbed into bed. Deciding that I had a bona fide fever, Shane went out wandering to find me some ibuprofen. Sadly, there was no store within walking distance that had medicine, but some shop owner was kind enough to share his last two Motrin with him. Once the medicine kicked in, I was able to wander around town and get some dinner with Shane. The town is old (settled in the 1880s or so) and sits in a little valley, so it's a lot of narrow, windy streets and stairs.
The next morning, I felt just fine so we got up early and wandered around before everyone else was up and about. The town was really quiet, like we were the only ones there. We ate at the Labor Day pancake breakfast in town and then went to our tour of the Queen Mine, which was opened in 1890. They decked us out in coats, hard hats, battery packs, and lights! It was quite an experience...
After our mine tour, we decided that we'd head down to Douglas, which is a border town, so we could walk in to Mexico for lunch. We got in our car to go, but it wouldn't start...so we found someone with jumper cables and the car started right up. We figured the 20+ mile drive to Douglas would be enough to recharge the battery and we'd buy some jumper cables in town so we'd have them just in case. Right as we got to Douglas (or the Chevron just outside of town), the car died again, but while we were driving! Luckily, Shane was able to coast into a parking spot. We connected the jumper cables again and waited for a while, but it wouldn't start. After a few consultations we decided that it must be the alternator...So, we were stuck just outside of a very small town on a Sunday of a holiday weekend. Everyone in town told us we wouldn't be able to find a mechanic until Tuesday, so we decided to at least get a tow back to Bisbee so we'd have a place to stay. We got back to Bisbee, only to find that there was absolutely no parking in town anywhere. Luckily, the tow truck driver had family that lived just outside of town...where the people who "work for the cartels across the border" live (that's exactly what our driver told us...no joke). It was quite comforting to leave our car in that neighborhood... Anyway, we were saved by Roy and Chance, who drove into town at about 10 PM with our truck in tow. We loaded up the Honda and they turned around and headed back to Phoenix. (Apparently, they got home around 3 and had the car off-loaded by 3:30. Poor Roy had to be up by 5:30 so he didn't even go to sleep... We're blessed to have such loving family so close by!).
We left Bisbee the next morning and stopped at Kartchner Caverns state park on our way home. While waiting for our tour, we researched cave life and practiced our spelunking skills... They wouldn't let us take cameras on the tour so we took pictures of the fake stalagmites in the museum...
We finally got home Monday afternoon to find that our car was already fixed. Apparently the battery was dead and wouldn't hold a charge...so no alternator to fix. Now you may wonder why we didn't think of that on our own. The cause of all the problems was the cheap jumper cables we bought for $12 at Chevron! They did absolutely nothing (we tested them later).Needless to say, the weekend was full of adventure, but I wouldn't have traded any minute of it! Despite the unexpected issues, we had a great time together and we'd really like to go back to Bisbee again sometime soon.
To sum it all up, here are the lessons we learned on this adventure:
- Never buy cheap jumper cables...if they feel cheap, they probably don't work.
- Some car batteries require water. If the water runs low, your battery dies.
- Motrin can be a life-saver.
- I could never be a miner. The darkness and the metal toilet cart would probably drive me insane.
- I could not have lived during the 1800s...long dresses, layers of clothing, no air conditioning--not a winning combination.
- Sometimes it's nice to get up early in the morning so you can have the world to yourself for a while.
- Dads are smart. Somehow they seem to know everything about everything...
- Being family means you go above and beyond...just because you're family.
