Bisbee Breakfast Club on Erie Street Next to the Pit

 I really need to get us out of Bisbee and back home before Christmas. Actually we got home before Thanksgiving. I'm just really slow about getting my blogs done. Anyhow, this is going to be a long post with lots of pictures. So enjoy.

After sleeping with ghosts wandering around the hotel, we woke hungry. That definitely means a trip to the Bisbee Breakfast Club on Erie Street. Everybody finds their way to this place. The food was really good with large portions and very reasonable prices.

The restaurant was opened in 2005 in the historic Rexall Pharmacy building.  They then expanded into the defunct glass factory next door. But there is sad news in their future. Their lease expires in September of 2025 and the landlord is not going to renew that lease because the age of the building makes it unsafe. The lease is held by Freeport McMoRan who also owns the mine.

 The manager of the BBC has said that regardless of what happens with their lease, the restaurant will remain in Bisbee.

Erie Street provides a glimpse of the past in a town frozen in time. The streets are lined with 1940s and 1950s vintage vehicles including a Greyhound bus.  It is one of the most photographed streets in Arizona. 

 

 

Erie Street sits right on the edge of the Lavender Pit. 

 

The Pit is a non-working copper mine and was named in honor of Harrison M. Lavender. The Pit covers an area of 300 acres and is 900 feet deep. The pit was opened in 1950 and mining operations ended in 1974.

 

 

There is also a WWII Memorial at the Pit viewing point. The monument is for 77 Bisbee area residents who lost their lives during WWII. 

Our last stop was at the Mining and Historical Museum.  It's a small but really interesting museum which is also an affiliate of the Smithsonian. Definitely worth a stop if you are in the area.

We needed fuel and the woman at the gift shop told us about a Circle K that was on our way out of town. I have never been at a gas station that only had one pump before. A new experience for me. I enjoy the simple things in life. 😃

This shrine is a few miles north of Bisbee.

As we got closer to Tombstone, I mentioned to Pat and Marilyn that the largest rosebush in the world is in Tombstone. It is a white Lady Banksia. The original root came from Scotland in 1885. From the one trunk it has grown to cover 8,000 square feet.

They wanted to see it and we were in no hurry, so I dropped them off. There was no place to park and I had seen the roses with Jim several years ago. So I wandered around the town until they were ready to head out. 

The weather was perfect and there were still trees hanging onto their fall colored leaves. 

The rest of our journey back to Apache Junction was uneventful which is always a good thing. We are in the process of planning another trip in 2025. Good times ahead.