Hotel La More

 Bisbee, AZ 

Marilyn picked a great place to stay. It was originally a boarding house for miners. People say that the hotel is haunted but we did not see any ghosts 😞. However, the hotel creaks and squeaks enough to make up for the lack of ghost sightings. The original building burned down and the current building was finished in 1916. Truly my kind of place. Well, except for one (maybe two) major problems.

Adventure Awaits

 

Google Maps had trouble finding the hotel. We ended up completely lost up on the hillside. Not usually a huge problem, but the streets of Bisbee are not usual. They are only wide enough for one vehicle but are two way streets. My understanding is that the person going up has the right-of-way. But there are very few places for the going down vehicles to pull over. 

We finally found some people to ask directions from (3 different people, in fact) but even with their directions??? we stayed very lost. Several "streets" appeared to be dead end alleys. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown (trying to remain cool) when we ended up on a dead end high up on the hill. Only took me about ten minutes of maneuvering to get turned around. I wished I had Daisy with me because she is much smaller than Jazzy. As we were headed down the street, Marilyn spotted our hotel. I was overjoyed. 

 

The joy didn't last long because we could not find a place to park. We finally pulled into the parking lot of the hotel that was next door and Marilyn went into our hotel to find out about parking. The manager explained that they have 8 parking spots at the bottom of the hill and around the corner. WHAT??? If those spaces were taken, then it was up to you to find parking on the street somewhere. She did tell Marilyn that we could block the street (remember it's only wide enough for one car) in front of the hotel while we unloaded and then drive down and park and walk back up. We are in our 70s and 80s and Marilyn was the only one of us who was in shape to walk up and down the hills. 

Looking down the street to the parking area.

 

Marilyn, or was it Pat, then came up with a brilliant idea. Let's ask the hotel next door if we could park in their lot (which held six cars) and pay them for parking. They weren't full, so they agreed to that plan. They wanted $15 for the parking but we gave them $30 because we were so happy. 

Pat trudging up the hill to our parking spot.

However, we were afraid to take the car out for dinner because we could possibly lose our parking spot. And since I couldn't do the jaunt down and up the hill, it was decided that Marilyn, who loves to walk, would go down and pick up a pizza and some onion rings for us for dinner. 

We ate in the social room and got to say hi to other guests that came through checking out the hotel. The social area is where the miners were able to entertain their guests. We didn't find any gentlemen guests to entertain but it was a great place to hang out.

The Lobby greeters

This was my room.

Each room came with ear plugs. I didn't need them even though my room is right next to the lobby. With a very creaky front door.  (They almost look like orange circus peanuts - the marshmallow ones.)

Now, on to more exploring in the morning.

 

Hamburgers, Cowboys and Good Friends

 Bisbee, AZ   High 76  Low 41

Time for an adventure. I mentioned in my last post that Pat and Marilyn would be seen again in this blog and here we go.

The "girls" figured out how much I love to drive and we decided to take advantage of that fact. We checked the weather and figured out that going south would be a better option than looking north. So many places we could head for but after a lot of discussion, we settled on Bisbee. 

Bisbee is south of Tombstone and is 11 miles from our border with Mexico.  And as many towns in the west, it was founded as a mining (copper, gold and silver) town in 1880. 

Monday morning we headed south. Jazzy was a joy to drive. We stopped in Benson to have lunch at the Farm House Bakery Restaurant and had the best hamburger ever. Definitely worth another stop if we're in that area again.

Marilyn and Me (and cow)

Pat and Marilyn (and cow)

We also took time to stop in Tombstone and do some strolling down the streets. Not many folks wandering around because most businesses are closed on Monday. We visited with a couple of the locals and we did not improve their economy.

 

Marilyn and friend

The local hangout. They stage a gunfight here in the afternoon but we passed.

Merry Christmas

After stretching our legs and checking out the cowboys, we headed on down the road to Bisbee.

Since I was the driver, Marilyn was responsible for getting us a hotel room, and Pat was in charge of finding out fun facts about Bisbee. 

1. In it heyday, Bisbee was the largest city between Houston, TX and Los Angeles, CA.

2. Because of mining over 2000 miles of tunnels snake their way around Bisbee in the Mule Mountains.

3. More to come                              

Our adventures with the Hotel La More deserves its own blog so I am going to end this part of the adventure for now.

A Time to be Grateful

 AJ AZ   Highs in the 70s lows in the 50s

Saying goodbye can be hard sometimes.  But it can become a necessity. And it was time. I had to say goodbye to Daisy. It was really a sad event for me. Daisy helped me get through those first months after Jim died and I had to sell his truck. Then she stepped up to the plate and took me to Montana twice to visit family and friends. But she struggled more and more on those trips north. She had trouble climbing mountains and her lack of cruise control gave my foot and leg cramps. 

I asked my friend Jylan if she would help me sell her. She got Jim's boat sold and several other items for me. She agreed to list Daisy on several sites. She listed it Tuesday morning and she got 30 responses to the listing immediately. The first person who looked at her bought her and away she went. I sure hope they take good care of her. She is a great car and I miss her sometimes.

One of our friends who has a park model here in our park, is fighting  breast cancer in Washington and probably will not be able to make it down here to be with us this season. Her birthday was in November so her Pink Team went to lunch to celebrate for her wishing she was with us. We all have pink hats to show our love and support.

On the Saturday before Thanksgiving I was invited to Tacey and Shane's for a Thanksgiving Family Dinner. It was amazing. There was absolutely nothing missing on that counter from turkey and ham to three kinds of pie for dessert. 

I come from a small family and we seldom had a large group for the holidays when I was growing up. This was definitely a new experience for me and way out of my comfort zone. But I must admit I had a really great time.

Tacey and Shane

After stuffing ourselves the family played games. They have a pickleball court in their back yard as well as lots of jungle gyms and slides for little ones.

The Three Musketeers which includes Marilyn, Pat and me, watched and laughed a lot. No, we did not play. We value our bones more than that.

Marilyn and Pat

PSST - you're going to see more of these two in my next blog post.

 
Pat is Tacey's grandmother so she joined in for the picture with her beloved turkey hat on.

  

 

A wonderful time was had by all and I came home with leftovers. Perfect.

 

Once again Blogger is centering my typing so enjoy. I am now going to include my family pictures. I really miss them during the holidays. I also really really miss Jim.

 

 

 

And a sunset picture for your enjoyment.

 

 

Finally, A Blog Post

 Apache Junction, AZ  High 76   Low 51 Finally Fall has arrived

I know it's been forever since I last posted a blog and I really have no excuse other than I've been living with day to day stuff and I don't find that interesting enough in my world to blog about.

I do have some beautiful sky pictures I like to include and some Elias pictures, of course.

Arizona Skies

 

Most of our snowbirds are back in the park and it's nice to hear the sounds of people visiting and seeing them at donuts on Tuesday mornings.

Now for my big news. Meet Snazzy Jazzy

Yes, I bought a new car. Well new to me anyhow. Daisy served me well but she is getting tired of trying to make the trip to Montana. For use around town, she is a perfect car. I hope to get her listed for sale shortly and I hope to find someone who will love her as much as I do.

Jazzy is a 2023 Toyota Camry. Paul went car shopping with me and gave me advise when I asked for it. I know Jim is not happy with me buying a Toyota because he worked for GM/Chevy/Pontiac all his working career. I did look at a Malibu but it had several things that I did not like and it wasn't as comfortable.

Going from Daisy to Jazzy is a real challenge for me. Paul suggested we take a ride up to Payson to see how she handles on the climb and to get me used to a car that wants to take over driving for me. This is going to be a real learning curve for me. 

We did make it to Payson and had lunch at Rim Country BBQ. Really good. As you can see in this picture, Paul is reading the owner's manual and trying to explain it to me. Thanks for trying Paul. 

In other news, I got to meet up with Jeri for lunch. We met Jeri and Terry in Florida in 2009. We had lots of great times together through the years and they are still RVing. Catching up with good friends is definitely a highlight in life.

 Time for Elias overload.

 Lunch with Dad

He is spending way too much time with the cats.

Take time to smell the flowers

Halloween. Michaela drew the design on the pumpkins and Todd did the carving. Very talented.

It's hard to believe it is almost Thanksgiving. Time is just flying faster and faster. Hope all is well in your world. Be sure to tell your friends and family how much you love and treasure them.