July 5th, 6th, and 7th

A small corner of the hole

 Hwy 80 out of Tombstone, through the historic town of Bisbee, down to the border, and back up to Lordsburg passes http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=211651657169317628289.0004a75bb01c7433ec030&msa=0 through some pretty rough and hot desert. The Valentine copper mine is just past Bisbee, and claims to be the 2nd largest open pit mine in the US. Prrrrettty big hole! The whole area here and into New Mexico seems to be a  big mining area as we saw a lot of them up in the hills. There also a few cattle around, though not as many as we expected.

 From Lordsburg, we did a small detour of 185 miles to see the Gila Cliff Dwellings. (pronounced Hila) These were adobe dwellings built in natural caves in the cliffs of the canyon by the Mogollon people around 1280AD. They were only there for one generation. The one mile hike was a partially  staired pathway with an incline of  about 180 feet, and the elevation (8000 ft) combined with the heat almost killed us, but was well worth it.  The last 40 miles to the cliffs and back out again, had the guys grinning from ear to ear. It was heard said "to hell with The Tail of the Dragon, it can't possibly be any better than this". Then on to Deming,New Mexico for the night.

Typical Desert View

Thursday, 7th, was a transition day, trying to get closer to the Rio Grande river and out of the desert. We drove along the Mexican border, and much of the time were the only cars on the road, except for dozens of border patrol vehicles. They have all kinds of surveillance equipment, and security checks along the highways complete with sniffer dogs. The guards were more interested in our cars than what we had in them. Then at the end of the day as we came back to our hotel from dinner, a Texas policeman followed us into the parking lot, lights flashing. Oh no!! what were we in for?? Our licence plate has a plastic cover which is illegal in Texas! So we said "no problem officer we'll take them off. Besides you have a big gun!" He said "not so big" and then felt embarrassed he had stopped us at all. Richard asked if he was getting a ticket too, and the officer said he didn't need to do the paperwork twice. He ended up helping us take the plastic covers off and then gave Steve a warning ticket. It was kind of fun changing this very serious, no nonsense cop into a regular kid we could chat to.   This all happened in Van Horn TX wher we spent the night.



Steve's Warning Ticket