Dec 11 - Silver City, NM, and Tombstone, AZ

We woke up really early today so we could spend some time checking out the town where Billy The Kid was born, lived, went to school, robbed his first bank and was jailed - Silver City, NM. When we got there, the lady at the visitors center was new and did not know much about where too find these historic sights. We read the brochures but nothing was very clear. We did see the site where his boyhood home once stood however. There was a replica of his cabin on the site that was donated by Ron Howard from his movie set from the "Hiding". Billy the Kid's mother is also burried in the cemetary here. We still had a a bit of a drive to get to Tombstone, so we made sandwiches in the RV and ate in the parking lot at the visitors center.

On our way to Tombstone, we crossed the Continental Divide at an altitude of 6388 feet. We stopped at the site of the McComas incident. This was where Judge McComas and his wife were killed by Apache Indians, and there son was kidnapped and never recovered. Tombstone is a one block area that is closed to vehicles and allows you to stroll among the historic buildings. There are markers that tell the history, and exact locations of famous events including The O K Corral, Wyatt Earps home, Boothill Graveyard, and the Bird Cage Theatre. We looked in a few gift shops and took pictures of the stage coaches and wagons. Things were starting to close up, so we decided to have dinner right there in town at the Crystal Palace Saloon. On our way back to the car, we heard Christmas Caroling at the Historic Courthouse, so we stopped to listen. As luck would have it, they were having their annual Holiday cebration that included the lighting of the Christmas Tree, carolers, the Old Arizona Brass Band, refreshments and the lighting of luminaries that encircled the whole building! Mom really enjoyed the band!! Inside there were some exhibits about the O K Corral, a gift shop and display cases with Indian and western artifacts.

We headed to our campsite in Bensen, AZ for the night. Had a little difficulty finding it, got caught in a parking lot and couldn't get out without unhitching the car! Oh well, I followed Rich in the Honda and made it to the camp by 8:30pm, a pretty early night!