Day 24: El Paso, TX

What a day. I bid farewell to Tucson and continued east for a while until heading south on highway 80. Tombstone was incredibly disappointing. Aunt Betty & Uncle Ron tried to prepare me for it, but it was absolutely horrible. I'm becoming convinced that Americans have no respect for their own history. It's more of an entertainment spectacle than historic landmark. I was annoyed by the children in the Boot Hill Cemetary treating like an amusment park rather than an actual cemetary, but I suppose there was nothing about the place to indicate to them otherwise. Apparently the town is in danger of losing its historical status because they've spent all their federal money building up tourist attractions rather than trying to preserve the historical character of the town.

Bisbee, on the other hand, is a beautiful and still vibrant mining town further south from Tombstone. I stopped for lunch at the Grand Union Hotel & Saloon for some local refreshment and also gained some local wisdom from an old timer riding an old Honda 200 twin. The town itself is built along the walls of a ravine, with a majority of its buildings still standing from the 1880s to 1920s. The Copper Queen mine still sits just outside the town, and has to be the biggest hole in the ground I've ever seen. I couldn't even see the bottom of it from the road.

I crossed into New Mexico for the first time. It's very much like Arizona, but they have dead grass instead of dirt, and weird little palm bushes instead of cacti. I also broke 3,000 miles on the trip meter, and got my very first speeding ticket on a motorcycle. I got tagged going 70 in a 55. I had no idea how fast I was going, or what the speed limit was. The road was straight and flat and there were no cross streets within 100 miles. But rules is rules I guess, and you gotta pay to play. Overall it was a very nice ride, though I'm a bit tired of looking at desert. Which I guess is bad news since I have about 700 more miles to cover before I get to the swamp. Maybe tomorrow's desert will be different.

I like Texas so far. I've never been here before. El Paso is a strange town. I got here just after seven and all of downtown was locked and shuttered. It seemed like if everything had been open it would have been an exciting place, but apparently everything shuts down right at six. I couldn't even find a restaurant open. I saw the border crossing. It's very different from the Peace Arch at the Canadian crossing. The outskirts of town seemd nice enough, if you like suburbs. El Paso's historic district is quite nice though. It reminds me of Queen Anne, but without all the yuppies. And a lot more dirt and dust. The whole town smells a bit off though, probably from the huge mill outside of town.

I've heard that the girls in Texas are very friendly, and so far it's been true. I finally found a place that I thought was serving dinner, but was, in fact, only serving drinks. The bartender was a very sweet lady who offered me free popcorn and helped me find the cheapest motel in town, then gave me directions to it.

The only place to eat within walking distance of the motel is an Arby's, so I have yet to sample any authentic Texas barbecue, or chili, or even any honest Tex-Mex.

Today I saw two jack rabbits and one tumbleweed, and an enormous hawk that looked like it had a four and half foot wingspan. The heat wasn't nearly as bad as the ride from San Diego to Tucson, or even crossing the Mojave. I wonder if I've started acclimating to it.