Friday, January 29, 2010



The other day, while staying in Hauchuca, AZ, we decided to take a little ride to Bisbee, AZ. Bisbee was a copper mining town and over 100 years old. The houses were built in the hills but no roads were built to get to the houses so they decided to just put in stairs from the town to the houses, at whatever level they were on. Many people today still live there and to get home, get groceries home, etc. they have to climb as many as 30 stairs to get home! This first photo is a tunnel we had to go through on the way to Bisbee. The next photo is Bisbee showing the houses built on the hillside.



The main street through old Bisbee is very narrow yet just wide enough for a lane each way. The street is lined with original building dating over 100 years old and featuring many art galleries and antique shops.



I had to get a picture of the B in the hillside but it wasn't a good day for taking photos plus I don't know how to get a non-blurry photos sometimes. You see the B, kind of, in the hill in the photo below.



Below is the copper mine.



Here's a photo of just one of the sets of steps to houses above. This particular set of steps had a plaque on it calling it "1000 steps" but we're not sure why because we climbed them and there were 96 steps to the top. We also needed to climb them to find a geocashe which was hidden at the top. We DID find it.



This bar, St. Elmo, is the oldest and one of the first bars in Bisbee. It's the longest continuous operating bar in the state of Arizona, too. Of course, we had to have a beer in there. Chuck couldn't wait.....here he is waying at me. AND that's not a purse. That's a Europen shoulder bag! LOL



Here's another set of steps. I thought the house at the top along with the steps would make a good photo. We didn't climb these so don't know how many there are.



This next photo, the building with the columns, is the original sheriff's office and courthouse. It's beautifully preserved.



There's a Catholic church there with about 20 stain glass windows. This one is 25' high and there were two of them. The rest were about half that tall.



We were walking down the street heading to the 1000 stairs to find our cache, when a young girl approached us with a little flyer on lunch at the theater called Curtain Call Bistro. Soup, sandwich and dessert for $6.95. We told her we'd stop by later. And we did. When we walked in we wondered if we did the right thing. There were very few tables but they were nicely dressed in white cloths and had a lovely centerpiece. We were the only ones in there! A young man, who turned out to be one of the performers at the theater, gave us our menu and brought us some coffee.

This wonderful place is run by a man that studied cooking in France! We were in for a real treat! Coffee was served in a beautiful cup WITH a saucer! I had the ham and cheese on wholewheat and a bowl of chili. Chuck had pulled pork sandwich and bean with bacon soup. It was presented beautifully and garnished with sliced strawberries and melon. It was all excellent! Then it was time for dessert! A piece of chocolate cake served with whipped cream on top, a pool of pink cream and more strawberries! It was all lightly dusted with powder sugar.

All this for just $6.95! We wanted to return Friday night for their theater presentation and dinner but we weren't going to be in town. It was to be a comical one-man story about Bisbee. Would have been awesome! We saw the dinner menu........very French but oh so delectable. Wish we could have gone. All that for only $28 a ticket!

We stayed in this RV park for only three nights. It was called Quail Ridge. There wasn't much for me to do in the clubhouse but it was a perfect place for walking. It was one mile all around the park and I walked it a couple times. We left there this morning around 9am and are now in Benson, AZ. The last city in AZ for us. We'll be here for one week till Feb 5th. Then we'll be in Vado, NM for one night and Fort Stockton, NM for one night. We'll be in Del Rio, TX the 7th. We wanted to visit Chuck's brother, Mark, in Gonzales, TX, but he won't be home at all this year. From Del Rio, we'll head to Rockport, TX which is on the gulf. We can't wait to see that.

More later.............

2 comments:

  1. What an interesting little town. Thank you so much for showing how the houses are reached by stairway rather than roads. Amazing.

    Tell me, with all of this traveling, are you getting some serious knitting or crocheting done too? I hope so.

    Take care and keep safe :)

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  2. Wow. To think I used to pass by there so much and never thought it had any reason to stop! Thank you for sharing. Looks like I've just added a new stop to our "dream itinerary". =)

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