Thursday, June 27, 2013

Exploring Tombstone, Arizona!





    A couple of weekends ago our whole family set off on the quick trip to Tombstone.   This town is full of stories and legends.  From the longest poker game -ever, to 7 people hung at once.  From the most haunted places in the whole land, to legal night ladies that lived and worked right next to the court house.   Even the town has an awesome slogan--- "The town to tough to die!"    We really enjoyed this trip- something I hope all of the following pictures portray.   Were else can you enjoy a huge scoop of ice cream and than watch a gun fight ten minutes later?   Chicago -maybe.   This area is a huge tourist trap though---so make sure and bring more than a couple of dollars with you.   We got off when some real deals---and saw a great comedy gun fight, rode the history filled trolley all over the area, and could have played a round of mini golf.   But it was to hot to enjoy that.   The trolley also runs at night, were you are guaranteed to see some ghosts or things that go bump in the night.  But we needed to get back home long before it was dark.   My beautiful wife took many of these pictures ;)


Lots of free parking right across from the old city hall.


Another citizen or visitor that left in a box.





The old court house say lots of action in its prime.
Now it is a museum.
It is also the smallest state park in the U.S.


Every were you look -presents another great photo.


This town was founded on mining.
And was full of extra tough legends.


Including Wyatt Earp




It also housed MANY bars, during it's "hay day."


Helldorado is were we got to enjoy the fun fights.


                         The fearless town sheriff is on the right----"Yeah!"


**Spoiler alert**   The good guy wins!
And he gits his bottle of booze.





                                                 Even our oldest got to shoot an old gun.


The whole family with the stars.
Would you mess with this family??
Our next Christmas cards??

The stars made sure and flicked us lots of poo   for being from Washington  --during the entire show.
Good thing we let it all roll off our backs--like rain.




                         ...... She fought the law, and the law won!.....


Than I got caught---for taking to many pictures.

The less witnesses --the better.




Almost some more victims.



A huge rain storm came through and the streets emptied out.

Soon water was the only thing rushing down the streets.

I ventured into the down pour---which felt great after the intense heat.

And found I had the entire street to myself.  

I than soon found I was soaked to the bone.


Information filled trolley ride.









Many many legends are buried here.
And it is said to be the most haunted place in town--by far!



Have Coffee Will Travel.




        Greetings!   I am once again writing this blog post from the comforts of a motel room.   In chapter 12 of fighting with a moving company that rhymes with "Ewe Hall."   I have decided that even with free speech, maybe I should not make it as obvious of the company I am hating most at the moment.   Especially since they still have our belongings stored, until we finally get into our new home.  I find this as cleverly disguised as naming the story I am very slowly writing, about destroying the retail giant I used to work for, "Fall Apart."   Anyways, boy you are easily distracted, dear!   In the seemingly never ending problems with the above company, I have to move a good deal of our storage unit, into a new storage unit---and since it is supposed to be 114 outside tomorrow, I choose to do this moving very early in the morning.  Well, early in the morning.   So our oldest sun and I are staying the night near the storage unit to get an early jump on all of the fun!   Minus the fun.   Happily our new plan does not involve us renting a truck from the company, happily because they would get even more money from us, and because there is a huge chance the truck would not make it the 50 miles to our new house!   But we will have some of our stuff in storage yet another month.  So I have to play nice, in person to the workers, just a little bit longer.   On here--not so much! 




      Last night we all watched the movie "Warm Bodies."   My wife and I both kind of thought the movie was some off color type of porn -just from the title at first.  Is there a type of porn that is not off color?  You are now asking yourself.   I am asking myself how many more times I can type the word "porn" in this blog post.  ;)  But than I say the movie for sale on the impulse isle of Safeway, and was pretty sure they were not "that kind" of store.   Did I mention each time I say these "words" in "my head" -I use actual "air quotes?"  Anyways, YOU are again distracted, my -my, stop thinking about that "porn tape" you made, and posted America's Funniest videos on the front of.   It's to late, your wife has already found the tape, and removed your "Disney" title on the cover and than wrote the America's Funniest videos on the front of it.   The movie is nothing like a porn movie.  In fact it is rated PG 13, yo!  It is actually a very good movie.   OK a good movie.   I am not sure I can call very many new movies, "very good."   The flick is about a zombie who falls in love with a real, live gal.   The zombie eats the gals boyfriend, and after eating his brains, gains his memories.  The zombie and his dead friends through love and friendship, cure themselves and become full humans again.  




     I used to work with a bunch of punks that spent hours explaining how they would survive when Zombies took over.   And for the most part --they would actually make it about ten minutes.   Americans in general are amazingly weak, and these folks were all rather large, maybe from watching to many Zombie survival movies.  I take that back, they might have all been beyond safe, because Zombie's want brains!

      For those of you that did not yet get the memo---- I posted this morning about exploring Billings Montana.   And I hope to knock out another exploring post tonight about our family's trip to Tombstone Arizona.      And now for some laughs!:


 
 
 
I have takin' a few anger management classes--and I have to say they just made me more angry.
I do really enjoy the movie -Anger Management though!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Me this morning:......
 
 
                                                            I need the above pin in real life!

                                                Wait!   That ones not funny!

 
 


Exploring Billings Montana



I have noticed in my travels that MANY people do not know were Wyoming is.
But if you say the square state right under Montana, they always know of Montana at least.  
**Please note:
This trip was last month---the date stamps on the pictures are very messed up.
I am not passing off old pictures to make a "new blog post"   At least this time. ;)


Flying out of Bellingham, WA
I have never flown over B-Ham in the day time.  
This picture out the plane window, loses most of the amazing beauty.
There are hundreds of islands and water every were.


           Last month, before our big cross country move, I took a very short trip to Montana mostly to visit with my parents.  With packing and all, it was not the best timed trip, but we found it better than just moving to a new place, and leaving my family for a few days in that new land.  Plus we had bought a discount flight voucher a few months before, and it was about to expire. Additionally, upon arriving in Arizona, my flight plan would have left the evil city of Phoenix --to Seattle, and than down to Billings.   I did not grow up in the state, but it is much cheaper to fly into Billings than the po-dunk airport in Sheridan, Wyoming-were I grew up.  Plus there is much more to do and explore in Billings, it is "the big city" with a mall and such!  It was a very quick trip---but still enjoyable for sure!   Along with cheaper flights, seems to come layovers.   On this trip I flew right out of Bellingham, Washington direct clear to Seattle.   I than had five hours to explore and attempt to do some blogs at the airport.  I have a couple of  blog posts about exploring Billings--type "Billings" into the search if you are so inclined and or that bored.  ;)

     Bellingham airport is very small and boring.   I arrived there much to early, and had lots of time to sit.  As I mentioned I had lots of time to explore the large Seattle airport.   And watched many a plane take off.  



Again out the plane window.
Descending into Seattle.
Two of the stadiums are in this picture.  Both in the heart of downtown.
Just beyond is the waterfront-- with hours of enjoyment and exploring.



Soon after landing I decided it was time for some caffeine.  This being Seattle-- even in the airport--a Starbucks was never far away.  


A perfect presentation for a Washington cup of coffee.


The airport is full of art work.  
I am not sure what this is---but it is purdy.
And shiny, I am easily distracted by anything shiny.



                                           A huge canoe on one terminal ceiling.         

Happiest person in the airport!


                                                             Still waiting!


      Five hours is a long time, even in the most exciting of places.   I took full advantage of the free wi-fi through out the entire airport.  And believe I finished a blog post or two.   But I soon grew tired of sitting.    I do not sit well.   I have long ago learned that airport bars are overly expensive.   You could rent a car, and go buy a six pack of beer for the same price as one brew.  




      Because of the long lay-over, I did not reach Billings until Midnight on the first day of my voyage.   A quick trip to the motel, and off to find something to snack on, and call my wife before bed.   I was instantly to impressed with the store clerk bagging my purchase.   Because there is an annoying bag ban in Washington.   I thought I could go right to bed, but with the boring day, and the time difference, I was up till way to late in the AM.   It is only a one hour time difference, but that is more than enough to change my entire body's clock.   I do not see how people can fly across the sea.  It would take me two days of just sleeping to catch up.   Both ways!  Just down from my crummy motel the next morning I found coffee!   Lots of coffee.   City Brew is huge in the Billings area.   I rambled out another blog post and than planned out my day.   My buddy lived in the area, but had to work till about five and he was my tour guide for the day.   My parents were not coming up to visit until the following day.   Being from a much bigger city- I was surprised to learn two things, the bathrooms in the coffee joint- and much of the town, were not locked.  And the coffee place and most businesses, including my hotel-did not have a password for there free wi-fi.    I know these are little things, but very nice.  Plus having grown up in Wyoming, I am very easily amused, thanks for playing!

    

This restaurant is connected to the motel I stayed at. 
And I have heard and am sure it is a fine place to eat.
The name just makes it far from appealing to me.
Although it is talking about the near by rock formations, that lead to some great exploring--and the airport.

I had a good part of the day to roam --so I took off for a near by trail I had heard about.


So many trails---so little time.

I had thought that the trail would lead me up the rocks, but soon found this was wrong.  
I soon grew bored with this trail and headed down town to explore.

A few shots before jumping off the trail:


This really is an impressive area although it is hard to capture the large size, in these pictures.
Several very nice houses are nestled up in the hills.  
The formations in the rock are equally as fascinating.








One of the many great sights in down town Billings.

I worked for one of the biggest casinos around while living in Washington, so while exploring I decided to visit what looked like a large casino in Billings.  When I opened the door, everyone stared at me.  All five customers.  There was a lot of empty space, and about ten "slot" machines.   Slot machines in MT mainly consist of Keno and card games.  Both lame in my book.
Although the following night we ended up at a "Casino" and I got very cheap drinks as I pretended to play the slot machines.


This patriotic greater stands in front of one of the huge Army Surplus stores.
I also found a huge antique shop to roam through.


I would recommend not visiting the art museum.  
This rotating sculpture sits out front. 
It is a very large space, with not much actual museum.
And it is expensive.  



I found this very amusing and jumped in the middle of the Burger King parking lot to get this picture.
There was no one around, and it was like the person did not know he could actually take the wheelchair inside instead of parking it between two handicap parking signs.

This could easily be yet another case, were only I am amused. ;)



This sign reminded me that it was lunch time.
I walked to a grocery store and something suitable for a sacked lunch.
Than called a cab- and had them take me up the rock rim to another hike spot.
Because I was more than tired of walking.
I must say here that the cab call centers are very rude here-and it took 50 minutes to actually see the cab driver.  
But it beats walking.




I ended up at Zimmerman Trail.

Very nice area filled with trails and look outs over the city.
I was a little alarmed to find signs every were to watch out for rattle snakes. 
Because I am overly afraid of all snakes. 
But I did not see the signs, until I was done with my lunch and hike. 




Among all the trails  lots of huge areas of flat rock can be enjoyed.

By than it was time for my buddy to be off work, and he played tour guide. 
Sadly my trip was in the middle of the week, and there was not much to do. 
We ended up at Wally World first off.
I have known this man since middle school, and had the privilege of attending his wedding two years ago, so we were soon lost in catching up.
And he saved me some cash by letting me stay at his very nice house.

The next morning I was dropped off at a coffee house, and than meet up with my parents for the day. 
We explored some, and had some issues with my hotel.   But it was a great visit with them for sure!






                                                                Me exploring!


     Next exploring blog post will be a picture filled post about our family's awesome trip to Tombstone, Arizona.

                          Gun fight action in Tombstone    The "Town to tough to die!"