Road Trip to Bisbee and etcetera

Sunday the wind was blowing the dog off the chain; between that and my ribs it was not a good riding day. So we decided to drive down to Bisbee. It's an old mining town and is the home of the Lavender Pit, which is a huge open pit copper mine. Active mining stopped in the early '70s, resulting in an immediate exodus of most of the people from the town. All that empty real estate attracted hippies and artists and the town reinvented itself as a tourist mecca. The anchoring structure of the town is the Copper Queen Hotel. The Copper Queen was build in 1890, it's been completely renovated. We don't recommend eating there, however.


Spring is sproinging in Arizona.


One of the many artistic touches in the town. It's a pretty cool fence.


Rooms for rent.


This is Brewery Gulch, tourist central. Arizona was the 48th state, it achieved statehood on Valentine's Day 1912. It took quite awhile to convince the rest of the nation to accept AZ, the overwhelming impression the easterners had of the territory was of desolate expanses of wastelands populated by gun slinging desperadoes. Cleaning up areas like Brewery Gulch, ending gambling and prostitution, were key to AZ's acceptance into the Union.


The Lavender Pit.


Monday we hiked. The wild flower display at the Genser Trail Head was just magnificent.


The yellow flowers are Mexican Poppies. This is from the web, so you can see what they look like.


An early blooming cactus in the park.

Last night's sunset was very nice.

This morning we got up early and rode up the east side of Gates Pass. I had to walk one of the steep sections because I can't stand on the bike yet. The worst part was people I know saw me do it. Arrrrrrrggghhhhhhhhh.
This afternoon I saw the ear surgeon; it's official, my surgery failed. I have very narrow ear canals, and he was unable to see around the corner of one of the bony things in the ear. He attempted to tuck in the graft in the obstructed area by feel, but it was unsuccessful and it did not adhere. A second surgery could be attempted, but it would involve drilling out bone in the ear canal. I'm going to have to think about this one for awhile. So in the meantime, I'm still deaf as a post. Showering is weird, water runs in my ear, and through my head into the back of my throat.
Other than that, I have nothing much to report. It did hit 90 today.