Durant's The Reformation, page 246
Miles Walked: 205.6
Fossilfreak index: -.24
Rosaries: 403
high 70s, nice
April 30: Lizards and Cactus and Caching in Deserts

---these are a few of our favorite things.

Tucson, AZ.

Today we drove to Tombstone in the morning. En route, of course, we picked up a cache or two (three, actually) including one where I left the Cannonball racer... good luck, little VeeDub Bug! When we got to town we drove through to get a feel for it, and south of town picked up another cache.

Our first stop in The Town That Would Not Die (mighod, it's amazing they didn't, what with the fires and the gun battles) was at a real tourist trap. At least he gave us a map! We went down and found on-street parking (we were very early) and then walked everywhere. We went to the Bird Cage saloon. They had a t-shirt I'd have liked, but it was only in black. It featured a variation of the famous picture of the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday heading toward the OK corral, and has Rumsfeld, Powell, Cheney and Bush, says "we're coming." If there had been a version in white, I'd be wearing it now.

We walked along Allen Street, and this is what Old Sacramento should do... there are only horses, no cars (except for the UPS van, and one handicapped place)... gunfights here and there, mostly in pay venues, horses ("don't step in the souvenirs that horse left! You never know, some tourist may want to take it home" "No, we have enough of that stuff in Oklahoma." (and California's capital, yes!)) There's a cache in a hole in a wall along the way, which I spied and Rich retrieved and put back.. I probably shoved it back in too far again. There was another down by the free lot overlooking the mine. The final cache was a virtual, just get a picture of the OK corral sign. We decided not to pay the big bucks to see inside. They don't even know for sure that the fight was there and not along the street.

The museum is quite nice. The coroner made this report on a guy who was lynched: "I find the deceased died of emphysima of the lungs, which might have been caused by strangulation, self-inflicted or otherwise."

We had a very nice lunch at Big Nose Kate's. She was Doc Holliday's mistress, at least as long as she could stand it. I was surprised to know Holliday was only 29 at the time of the OK Corral fight. The Earps were in their early-mid 30s. I just always pictured Doc as being the stereotypical drunk older doctor of the movies. In the basement at Kate's is a peek into a mine with, maybe, a ghost.

Then to Boot Hill. Besides the famous graves (the Clantons, "foully murdered" by the lawmen, "Here lies Lester Moore. Shot by a 44. No Les. No Moore." and "He was right. We was wrong. But we hung him anyway and now he's gone") there are a lot of others who were shot, killed by Indians, drowned... it looks like the big weekly social event was the funeral. "Where were the respectable people buried?" Rich asked. "There weren't any."

It's very touristy and I never have to go back, but I really enjoyed it.

We looked for a couple of other caches on the way back into Tucson, including the moving Cannonball Run transporter. It got its start in Sacramento at the party we missed the day before Easter, and I'd hoped to see it before it got too far away, but it was picked up yesterday. Rats.

We went to the Rincon Mountain side of the Saguaro National Monument. Rich and I saw this monument on our honeymoon, but I think it must have been the other side. There's a virtual cache based on the teddy bear cholla there, so we logged that, then drove the cactus garden circle. I begin to be jaded about cactus, then see some amazing sight or another and get stunned by their beauty again. What I really want, though, is a beanbag saguaro, to fit with my farm... I picture something like Larry the Vegetales cucumber, only with arms. Surely I can't be the only person to think of it! We spied a nice big lizard.

Then we cached our way back to the motel. We even picked up a multi. The final one was a virtual about the Millenium time capsule, which will be opened in 2040... people are a lot less patient with time capsules these days!

Again, I thought it was too cold (!) to swim. Maybe tomorrow.

Highpoint: lizard

Low spot: no Cannonball Run cache



Yesterday
April Index
Today

Tomorrow


Get your free homepage from Geocities!