Wednesday, August 2, 2000

Another great day! We enjoyed the morning around our lovely Spartan trailer. Vienna and I sat and watched the hummingbirds and sparrows eat from the bird feeders. They were wonderful. We took a great family shot and then took off toward Texas. We drove through Bisbee and noticed what a quaint and lovely old town it is. Built against the hills, it reminded me of a small European town.

Heading back toward Hwy 10 we made a stop in Tombstone, AZ, a nice surprise, since we didn't even realize we would be going through the historic town. We were not able to take advantage of the most touristy parts like the OK Corral itself and the gunfight.

We were not there at the right time and just had too much ground to cover to hang around. We did check out Boothill, the cemetery housing the burial sites of many famous Tombstone residents, including the three killed in the famous gunfight at the OK corral. This was our favorite part, plus it was free. After buying a few trinkets, we continued on our journey.

On our way out of AZ, we stopped at one of the most famous tourist traps: THE THING! Now, because of the pact our family made, I am not able to divulge what the thing is, but rest assured, you have to see it to believe it. The gift shop did not have nearly enough "Thing" souvenirs, though.

After a long drive through New Mexico and stopping to take a couple of motel photographs, we finally arrived at our days destination, El Paso. We were able to find a few nice motels to photograph including the Coral Motel, which was nice enough to stay at.

We came in a little later than we had hoped but managed to make it 30 miles out of town to the Cattleman's Ranch Steakhouse. This restaurant and zoo is well worth the extra driving we did to get there. We were seated next to a large window wall, which looked out into a natural looking habitat with a coyote eating his dinner and seeming very skittish. He would run off into the brush periodically, only to come back minutes later to work on his obviously planted dinner some more. The zoo was pretty neat although, because we started late, we were not able to see as much of it as we would have liked. The food was awesome! Excellent grilled steak and beef dishes but not a whole lot of variety. The atmosphere was also superb. We would definitely go again if in the area. We finally settled in for a nice rest in the Coral Motel, looking forward to the coming days' adventures.