March 13, 2020 Chiricahua National Monument

I started this day doing a quick stop over in Tombstone.  That place has a lot of things to do and see and honestly one day is enough to do about 80%.  I kind of wanted to take a closer peak at a few things.  I spent a lot of time at the graveyard, it only cost a couple of dollars.  It was small and less than on hour.  But it comes with a guide to the gravestones and it makes it both interesting and educational.  You get a good feel what it was like to die here.  Mostly violent deaths, but there were some woman that died in childbirth and some pneumonia or other natural illnesses.  But lots of people got murdered.  I checked into the Bird Cage theater but it was $14 dollars and that was more expensive than any other attraction.  Maybe it was worth it?  I don't know, it rubbed me the wrong way.  And money was super tight.  I also wanted to eat at Big Nose Kates but I waited for the to open and then they were only open for drinks.  I had to wait another hour for lunch.  And I was super hungry, so I was ready to leave.  It was time for me to head to Chiricahua National Monument.

Chiricahua National Monument was beautiful.  It was also fairly busy.  I expect if you have working knees the hiking here is fantastic.  I did the 8 mile scenic drive and took lots of photos.

I was being a little obsessive about the clock because I wanted to be in a position to hit Gila Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico tomorrow.  I had planned to do Fort Bowie and started heading in that direction.  Also was getting low on gas and getting a little anxious.  I followed the GPS to Ft Bowie and ended up in a satellite location.  There was an easy 3 mile round trip hike to the fort ruins.  Or ruins associated with the fort.  The wind was blowing hard and I took a facefull of sand that made my decision.  I was going to skip the hike.  I didn't want to do it.  What I really wanted was to find a gas station.  My anxiety about the gas was overriding my interest in everything else.  I should have topped off this morning before I hit the road.  But I'd never traveled throughout Arizona this long without seeing a gas station.  I kept checking Google but it wasn't showing anything close by.  The signs on the road were leading me to a town around 15 miles down the road.  That was a lot closer than what Google was suggesting.  I got to the teeny tiny town and realized that there was no gas.  So, I tried for the next town.  I was driving slow, not speeding, not accelerating or braking unnecessarily.  I come up on a ridge and I can see a town laid out in the distance.  Its a good size town.  I KNOW they have to have gas.  Google was weird with their suggestions this day, kept trying to send me in weird directions.  But it worked out.  Got gas.  Got Burger King.  Jumped on I-10.  There was more rain coming and the cow fields were blooming in color.  It was really beautiful.  I finally jumped off at a couple of exits and took photos.  I could see rain in different patches but none of it was too big or too scary.  I finally hit a sign for Fort Bowie National Monument.  This is when I discovered that the Fort Bowie location I went to wasn't the main location.  I considered veering off, but I was already in a New Mexico mind set.  I  skipped it and crossed into New Mexico.  Put myself in a good position for morning and found a place to crash.