It’s a rare event for us to leave an RV park when we still have a couple of paid nights on the books. But, that’s what we did in Benson. We paid $50 for a discounted week in a full hook-up site, then we changed our plan and pulled out yesterday after five nights. There wasn’t anything wrong with the SKP Saguaro RV Park – we just felt like we should move on so we could have more options as we make our way to Austin, Texas for the Moto GP race weekend.

We finished packing at a leisurely pace, then I dumped and flushed the holding tanks and packed away our water filtration system. There were dry-camping pull-through sites across from us and they were empty. So I pulled forward into one of the sites and loaded the Spyder in the trailer. We were on our way around 10:30am.

We traveled down AZ80 for about half an hour and entered Tombstone – AZ80 runs right through town a block off of the historic downtown district. We found a great place to park in front of the old school – now closed and the building is up for sale – right on the highway which is called Fremont Street in town.

Tombstone was an old west mining town founded in 1879. When silver was discovered in mines around the town, the population quickly grew from around 100 to 14,000 in less than seven years! Most people know of Tombstone from movies which depict the shootout between the Earp brothers – Virgil, Wyatt and Morgan along with Doc Holliday. They killed murder suspects Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton. This took place October 26, 1881 at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone. The Earps and Doc Holliday were cleared of any wrongdoing after an investigation.

The main thoroughfare in the historic district is Allen Street. Three blocks of Allen Street from the O.K. Corral to the west and the Bird Cage Theatre to the east are closed to vehicular traffic, other than a stage coach which you can ride – for a fee of course.

The Bird Cage Theatre was a theater, saloon, gambling parlour, and brothel in Tombstone. It operated continuously 24 hours a day year ’round from 1881 to 1889. This was the wild west!

We walked down the boardwalk along Allen Street and saw something I didn’t remember from previous visits. They had a few placards that described historic action that took place at that particular spot. As always, you can click on the photos to enlarge and read the placards if you wish.

We walked over to the courthouse a block to the south on Toughnut Street. We wanted to see about dry camping there – Donna said she saw a sign on the highway that boondocking was available in the courthouse area for $10/night. The girl at the courthouse knew nothing about it. Maybe Donna missed some info on the sign.

While we were at the courthouse, I saw a sign for a new brewery down the street about a block away. We walked in that direction and I could smell boiling wort – they were brewing. They opened last year and have the brewery open to the public from 11am to 7pm daily. We stopped in for a look and had a taster of a couple of their brews. They have a 15-barrel system, so they’re able to brew upwards of 450 gallons per batch. The brews we tasted were unique and very good.

The guy at the bar was only on his second day working there and didn’t have much information. I saw the brew master emptying a mash tun – I wish I would have spoken with him and taken a few pictures. We bought a few brews to take with us. I tried one last night – it’s called Another Exercise in Mediocrity. I think the name is hilarious. It was taken from a troll post on their website when they announced the opening of the new brewery. It’s actually a very good beer made with advanced techniques. The brew master utilizes hop oil and lupulin powder. These concentrated hop extracts allow higher hop utilization without some of the vegetation side effects from extreme use of whole hops. It seems that brewing is moving into a new phase.

We continued south on AZ 80 after spending about an hour in Tombstone. Tombstone sits at an elevation of about 4,500 feet above sea level, so we climbed from Benson to get there. As we rolled south it was mostly uphill to reach Bisbee which is at an elevation of about 5,400 feet above sea level.

It’s about 25 miles from Tombstone to Bisbee. Along this stretch of AZ80, I saw a Jaguar XKE roadster from the mid-’60s. Then I saw a DeTomaso Pantera from the early ’70s. They were both heading north. Then I saw a couple of Ferrari 250GTs from the ’60s, another Jaguar XKE and another Pantera and an Alfa Romeo Giulia Spider. I knew something was up when I saw a Ferrari 512 BB come by. Then it occurred to me – the Copperstate 1000 rally kicked off on Sunday in Tempe.

The Copperstate 1000 rally is an annual event for cars made before 1973. Participants apply for entry and if they’re one of the 80 entrants chosen, they pay $7,000 for a four-day, 1,000-mile rally through Arizona. It’s not a race – it’s a joy ride for car enthusiasts to take with like-minded individuals in a unique caravan. The entry fee includes hotel and food for the driver and co-driver along with mechanical assistance if needed. The route varies every year and is kept secret – they don’t want gawkers lining streets along the route for safety reasons. The route usually takes either a northern swing from Tempe or a southern loop. The drivers get the route information when they sign in. Obviously, this year they took a southern route and that’s why I was seeing all of these cool old cars on the road. By the way, the proceeds benefit the Phoenix Art Museum and the Copperstate 10-90 Foundation.

We drove through Bisbee and continued south a few miles to Double Adobe Road. This took us to the Desert Oasis Campground where we booked two nights. With our Passport America discount, it was only $20/night plus tax for a pull-through full hook-up site. Passport America annual membership already paid for itself!

We’re in the middle of nowhere in the desert about 11 miles from Bisbee and about six miles from the US-Mexico border. Today we’ll go to Bisbee and explore. Tomorrow we plan to head into New Mexico. The weather forecast looks good – it’ll be dry and warm. I’m keeping an eye on the wind forecast – it looks like it should be in the mid- to high teens. If it isn’t gusty, it shouldn’t pose a problem.