Thursday 29 May – Beautiful Bisbee

We still have the little Toyota Yaris until mid-afternoon, when we will return it to Enterprise Car Rentals. Their driver will take us back to our hotel in Benson, from where we will catch the 5.20 pm train to Los Angeles.

After breakfast, we pack up, and check out of the lovely Days Inn Hotel in Benson; the brilliant receptionist ,Eva, is able to look after our luggage for us, and what's more, has arranged a lift to the train station for us this afternoon.

We are visiting Bisbee today, an historic copper-mining town built into a gorge in the mountainside, 5,500 feet above sea level. It's cooler today in Benson, and as we make our way through the desert scrub countryside, with beautiful mountains either side of us, the air becomes cooler still. As we arrive in Bisbee, we are immediately struck by how quaintly European it looks; it has shops on either side of the main street, just like any High Street in the UK.

Unlike Tombstone, which prospered on silver mining for just a few years,and now survives on “tacky tourism”, the town of Bisbee was made rich through a century of mining copper. 3 factors increased its prosperity - the end of confrontation with the Apache indians, in 1886; the rise in copper prices as more and more was needed for electricity, which developed in the 1870's; and the railways (“railroads”) being extended to the West. At one time, Bisbee's population of 20,000 outstripped that of both Phoenix and Tuscon, making it the largest city between New Orleans and San Francisco. The copper mines were finally closed in 1975, after $8 billion dollars worth of copper had been extracted; there are 2,000 miles of tunnels built for mining purposes, in the Bisbee area. Mining was done by open-cast and underground mining, and the mine, though closed, is still owned by the largest mining company in the world. Dominating one end of the main street of Bisbee is a huge, solid red brick building; now a museum, showing the history of copper mining in the area, it was once the headquarters of the mining industry in the town.

What of Bisbee now? Not only does the town have a European feel to it, it also has a great European heritage - skilled miners from all over Europe, including Cornwall, were encouraged to emigrate to Bisbee at the height of the industry. I can confirm that I have my best American latte yet, in the local High Street coffee house.

Reg and I love this little town; it's not tacky, like Tombstone, but has an upbeat feel to it. We wander up and down the High Street, and discover that most of the shops are either art galleries, shops selling high-quality original crafts and jewellery, or book or antique shops. In one shop, the retailer says to Reg (we aren't sure whether he was joking or not):

“You speak good English for a foreigner!”

He is a weather-beaten, craggy-featured, Mexican looking individual in a cowboy hat, who tells us he was a rancher for many years. He says that he came to live in Bisbee by accident; he was transporting some horses through the town when his horse trailers broke down. He liked Bisbee so much that once he had re-arranged to transport the horses, he stayed here. He shows us photos of the horses he was transporting. I ask him if he would be willing to have his photo taken with me, as he is the first genuine cowboy I've spoken to. He agrees, and won't take any money for posing for the photo. He says that would be “against his principles”, says “God bless you,” and smiles as we leave the shop.

Another art dealer is a lady who has lived in Bisbee for many years. She tells us,

“I worked in this shop when it was a drugstore; I never thought the drugstore would go, but it did”.

She explains that while there are 7,600 people living in the whole of Bisbee, (many of those living on the flatter outskirts, as it's a popular town to retire to), there are only 300 people, mainly artisans, living in “downtown Bisbee”. There is no room for any further development in this “inner area”, as the original Victorian town, with it's buildings, is still standing.

We manage a fleeting visit to the Bisbee Mining Museum, but all too soon we need to leave to return our hire car, and catch our overnight train to Los Angeles, where it will arrive at the unsociable time of 5.30 am.

As the train arrives at Benson, where 3 of us are waiting to embark, the train guard steps off and says, “Parker?” I'm so impressed by the Amtrak system, that they know who is getting on the train, and where. Not only that, on our last train, the guard came to our sleeper car to remind us that in a few minutes our train would be arriving at Benson.

Once on the train, we ensconce ourselves in our “sleeper”, and enjoy looking again at the little video clips of our grandson Arlie, sent to us regularly by our lovely daughter-in-law, Marianne, to keep us in touch with him. How amazing technology is - as soon as Arlie has learnt to grip toys and roll over, we are looking at videos on our mobile phone of him doing just that, (and Skyping occasionally), and we are thousands of miles away in America! We are also enjoying texting and speaking regularly to our lovely daughter Elaine, and being able to keep in touch with family and friends through the blog!

Our “car assistant” is on the ball, because he's reserved us a place at the 6.30 pm dinner sitting. In the dining car, we share a table with another “older” couple, who turn out to be English too - from Cheshire. They enjoy telling us about their many visits to the USA, especially California.

We are really tired after dinner, but Reg gets out the trusty red notebook computer, so that I can write up the blog in Open Office, ready to transfer to the blogspot website, once we arrive in Los Angeles. While I write the blog, Reg dozes off, lulled to sleep by the gentle movement of the train.