Nogales and Tombstone and the drive home

Dean and I walked around in downtown Nogales. Nogales is even closer to the Mexico than El Paso – that sounds weird , since they are both border towns. The difference is that here we have the river bed between. There, all that divides is the border fence. It is almost like they came in and built the fence right through neighborhoods or in the middle of a shopping center.  Roads just end at the fence. The pic below shows the fence rising up behind the town.

 Loved the old Woolworth's sign. It is my gold pic for the photo challenge, too.

 Not thinking the owl did much good.

 The fence again. Below is the museum.

Walking downtown reminded me of walking downtown El Paso in a lot of ways. There are the same kinds of stores. The attitude is different. It is hard to put into words, but there was a difference. 

After we walked around downtown, we headed east. We were going to check out the small towns along the border.

 I guess it was being a Monday, as there were not as many things open until we got to Tombstone. We walked around and enjoyed the local flavor. Dean was pretty disappointed as he wanted it to be a real ghost town- sort of like the Bradys found on their summer vacation. Nope, Tombstone is a bustling town.

I am a historical romance junkie. I like them from all time periods. I do enjoy Westerns – school marms, saloon girls, ranchers, horses, gunfighters.  Yeah, I like them. While we were walking I was soaking the sights and sounds. I enjoyed listening to Dean’s boots hit the board walk. I liked the bustling crowds and the occasional jingle of spurs- it would have been better had there been more boots, rustling calicos, horses and wagons going by in the streets, people calling to their friends, hats being tipped – can you actually hear that? I still enjoyed listening to it and imagining what it would have been like back in the day. 

We went back to the cemetery and browsed around. Interesting. I missed the original stones- all of them were reproductions. I was hoping to at least some in a museum type exhibit with some of the originals. Oh well, it was still interesting to read the history of the people who are buried there.

We headed further east. I wish we could have stopped at Bisbee. It looks like an amazing little town to visit. I think Dean and I will try to figure out a time when we can go back. I wish I could describe it – built on a hill that is full of copper. Copper has been mined here for so long. The colors in the earth surrounding it are unbelievable –  imagine all the colors of all the patinas of copper melded together on the hills. Beautiful.  I would love to have been there on a beautiful day. We should have stopped even for one or two photos, but honestly, it was too overwhelming. I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop. I decided it was better to plan a trip back, where I can spend time and enjoy it.

There was beautiful scenery everywhere. I wanted to stop so many times, but there are no shoulders. A good portion of the time, we were very close to the border in very deserted areas. For miles and miles and miles the only vehicles we saw were border patrol. Not the most comforting place to stop. 

Once again, those old historical romances came to mind. I could just imagine the cowboys and indians riding over the hills. The ranchers and the rancher's daughters. Yep, I could see it all as we drove.

 This only has a small amount of flowers - some were completely covered in flowers, but I couldn't stop.

We didn't hear anything about the job in Nogales. We called several times, but we didn't even get a call back. No news ever. It gets so frustrating. 

As for the 17 day diet, I didn't do wonderfully, but I did better than I would have had I not been on the program. I will be back on it full time when I am back home.