---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lynn Kirby <lkirby39@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 9:04 PM
Subject: Arizona 1/12/17
From: Lynn Kirby <lkirby39@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 9:04 PM
Subject: Arizona 1/12/17
Yesterday we drove from our house to Central Wisconsin Airport. It was not a fun drive, because it had snowed a LOT the day before, and the snow was not off the roads. Instead, it was packed down and slippery. We drove at 40 mph all the way, and it took about twice as long as usual. But the flight had not been canceled, and when we got off the ground on time, we were pretty sure we'd make it to Phoenix. We did!
We did all he usual things: got our car, found our motel, and checked in. Then our friends Phill and Nancy Berg came and picked us up, and we went out to dinner together. It was a lot of fun to see them again. They moved away from Stevens Point a couple of years ago, and we miss them.
I don't want to forget to tell you that we ate outside, although the area was somewhat heated, and we did get chilly by the end of the time. But that certainly wouldn't have happened in Point on January 11!
This morning we got some groceries and a charger for charging the iPad in the car. We needed that charger because we use the iPad as our GPS, and we would have more trouble finding our way without using it.
We drove over to Papago park and walked around for about 45 minutes. It was lovely. The temperature was in the 60s, and we really enjoyed that! The park is right beside the zoo, but we didn't go in the zoo because it cost too much ($40), but also because we really went there to walk. The scenery is very, very different than in Wisconsin. It's dry, speckled with mountains, and mostly brown. We did walk by a pond that had a lot of waterfowl in it, and we watched a great blue heron eat a large fish that it had caught. Wow!
Our goal for the day was to get to Bisbee. It is a small town in southeast Arizona, and we drove through part of it in 2005 too quickly to really see it, but it stuck in my mind as a place to go. It's about 200 miles from Phoenix, and we took our time getting there. First, i'm not especially comfortable driving at 75 mph, so i stayed behind trucks most of the time that went a bit under 70. We stopped at a rest area and ate the groceries I bought, rested, and made plans for the rest of the day. Then we stopped in a town called Sierra Vista--not an especially interesting town, but it was a good break. We went to a coffee shop and a park, and then drove the last bit to Bisbee.
The scenery between Phoenix and Bisbee was gorgeous in parts, and varied--mountains and a wide variety of types of desert. But when you're on an interstate you can't stop to be taking pictures. Well, you can't on very many roads, for that matter.
We finally made it to Bisbee and found out that the old part of town is on the historical register. The streets are narrow and steep, and the buildings are old. We got a room at the Copper Queen Hotel, a place that they say is not modern. But it has an elevator, individual modern bathrooms, TV, and internet. But except for those amenities, it really is like a hotel from the early 1900's. Very charming.
We had a great, very modern dinner at Bisbee's Table. When we got back to the hotel, we met 3 couples from Maryland and had a little conversation. Two of them went to Towson State, where we went, and one of them knew Bob Anastasi, a good friend from college.
The pictures are from Papago Park.
[Sorry, not available with a poor internet that we have right now.]
