Quiet Day in Bisbee

We had little planned for yesterday. I got up early and worked out with my TRX Suspension Trainer, using a tree branch to support my weight. Once Bill got up, we walked Mouse and had a rather late breakfast at the camper.

On the way to lunch, we stopped at the Queen Mine Visitor Center. They offer tours down into the Mine, but that is not something even remotely appealing to us. We just looked at the exhibits in the center and watched a video about the process of mining and extracting the pure copper from the rock. My impression is that from tons of rock, you get 99 percent waste and 1 percent pure copper. And the storage and disposition of the waste is a huge environmental problem. But the other side is: Can you imagine what we would do without copper.

We had lunch with a friend from our Santa Fe days, who moved to Bisbee about the same time we moved to Palm Springs. Before lunch, we strolled the streets and did a little shopping in the many consignment/resale stores.

After lunch, we decided to do a couple tourist things. we visited the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum.

The museum has a mixture of period photos, artifacts and video presentations on both the town history and the development of the massive mining industry here.

I was particularly interested in the video presentation of a dark period in Bisbee history. In 1917, the miners went on strike over issues of wages, safety and conditions in the mines. The strike had lasted about two weeks, when the local sheriff, supported by the mine management companies, rounded up all the strikers, asked if they were willing to return to work. Most weren’t. The strikers were loaded into boxcars and forcibly deported by rail to Mexico, a totally illegal action. However, no one was ever convicted of kidnapping 1,300 men.

Our friend, Bob, suggested Screaming Banshees pizza for dinner. The pizza was good. While we were waiting for the pizza, I couldn’t resist this photo op.

And those of you who followed our Danube bike trip last year, will remember this one from Tulln, Austria:

Or this one from taken in Dwellingup, Western Australia in 2014. I guess I can’t resist photos in oversized chairs.

That is all for today. We have a couple of travel days. I probably won’t post until San Antonio on the 27th.