Day 23 - Tucson to Bisbee by way of the OK Corral

The big story for me today (or at least for the last 24 hours) has been equipment failures. While composing my blog late last night, one finger at a time, the screen of my IPad suddenly went to zoom mode. The display was over scanned where I could see a portion of the page but not all of the buttons were in-frame. I could not decrease the size of the display with two fingers squeezing, or by trying to drag the page to the side to access a button. I was stuck, and because I was stuck I had no way to save my blog.

I finally pushed the back button and the screen shrank, went to the previous screen, then zoomed in to that screen! Now I had lost my blog AND I still could not continue. Having tried to live within the realm of Windows all my adult life, the next thing that came to mind was to turn it off, wait, then turn it back on. That always seemed to work on my PC. So I pressed the "off" button and waited until I could no longer hear the demons scurrying about inside, then I powered back up. And the display came back. And it was just as big as before, meaning I could not access the "slide to unlock" portion of the screen. So now I had no blog, no control and I was locked out!

Because my phone was not able to upload my pictures I said "looks like my work here is about done" and went to bed. 

About 4 a.m. I woke up with an idea; maybe if I pushed and held the back button it would reset! Being relatively new to Apple products I did not realize that pressing and holding the back button served a different function. So in the wee hours of the morning a female voice entered the room. It was Siri and she wanted to know if she could help me!

"How do I down size?" I asked.

"First sell off your most liquid assets, then fire everyone".

Press and hold...

"How can I help you?" She asked again.

"My screen is too big, how do I reduce the size?"

"Place a matte inside the border to hi-lite the smaller details" was the reply.

Press and hold...

"I figured you'd be back. What is it now?" Siri said, clearly losing patience with me. I must have awaken her.

"I was typing on my IPad when suddenly, without warning, the type size grew enormously. The screen no longer..."

"Look, it's 4 a.m., I've got to get up in about an hour to do weather reports for everyone on the. East coast. Do you think you could get to the point?"

"Yes ma'am. Can you help me deflate the image?" I offered up.

"Tap on the screen twice with three fingers. Now I really have to get going. Al Roker can be a real pain if I'm not right there when he calls", click.

Believe it or not, that did the trick! When I was able to log in I also found that the pictorial constipation problem with my phone had been cured too! So I stayed up and blogged for another hour and a half, then called Lisa on FaceTime and chatted for awhile. 

I managed to go back to sleep for about an hour, then went to the corner store for a banana and a cup of coffee. When I got back to the inn I packed, checked out and prepared to turn on my technology in preparation for departure. It was then that I noticed that my Bluetooth was not working, or the GPS was not talking, or something. So I've been doing my own navigation all day while the Girls get a day off.

The Knights Inn was just off of I10, so starting my trip on the right foot was just a matter of figuring out what exit I was taking. When I got off the freeway at Vail I headed south took up highway 80.

It was an interesting road for a couple of reasons. First, the initial mileage clicked off on a highway that rolled up and down more than I-80 in Iowa, about every quarter to half mile. Each time it began to drop there was a sign that read something like "road drops do not enter if flooded". Apparently I was in a flash flood zone.

Secondly, the flash flood zone eventually gave way to a steady climb up and over 4,000 feet in elevation. There were mountains, of a sort on both sides of the highway and some beautiful canyons running hither and thither. It was, despite the high desert classification, quite beautiful.

During one stop I had my helmet off and, when I went to put it on, noticed that my on-board sun glasses no longer stay in the retracted position. With my travels being restricted to sun drenched skies, I should make it to Dallas without mishap, where I may be able to get it fixed.

I rolled into Dodge, re, Tombstone about 11 a.m. and bypassed Boot Hill to go directly to the OK Corral.

There were gunfight re-enactments every hour on the hour. 

Despite the show being done in a melodramatic way, with booing and hissing of bad guys and cheering the good guys, the show contained a lot of historical information, even leading to the conclusion that the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday weren't necessarily all that good. In fact they were tried for murder, although found not guilty. A lot of locals still thought it was murder. History tells us that the sherif stopped them on the way to the OK Corral to tell them not to go, that he would instead disarm the varments that called out Doc H. They refused the warning and went anyway, later claiming they were doing the sherif' job because he wouldn't. In fact, Wyatt was running for county sherif the following month and he thought it would get him elected if he cleaned up the town, despite having been run out of the Missouri Territory for murdering someone.

I spent most of the midday in Tombstone and even added another mode of transport to my growing list. Where better than Tombstone to take such a ride?

When I headed south again it was toward the old mining town of Bisbee. The historical district is an eclectic blend of restoration and artist colony.

 I'd recommend anyone coming through these parts put it on the list. There is an old (huge) copper mine

and several restored hotels from the towns hay-day when it was the biggest city between St. Louis an L.A.

I'm staying in the Castlerock Inn, which looks like an old steamboat. 

Access to my room is through the front door (for which all guests have a key), up two flights of steps, then out onto the balcony and down a narrow deck (complete with a pair of deck chairs for each room), then into your room. Each room has a theme with artists' renditions on the wall. My room is the Down Under room with surfers and fish scenes on the walls. It is between the Geronimo and Crying Shame rooms. The balcony, as well as Main Street is adorned with Christmas lights. 

In the lobby is the old Apache Spring which started the copper mining boom in town and, at one point, supplied the entire town with water. Yes, you read that right, IN THE LOBBY!

 They built the inn around the well!

Across the street is Castle Rock, which tonight sits in the dark but typically is lit with either a Superman light or the Batman symbol. Yes, this is a unique town.