Today was Mark’s birthday, so I took a personal day from work (with Victoria’s blessing) and took Mark to Tombstone.
Before we could go to Tombstone, however, Mark needed some boots. He accidentally left his cowboy boots in Wisconsin, and no self-respecting man would be caught dead in Tombstone without his boots on! (Excuse the pun!)
Trying boots on at Cowtown
Armed with “gen-yu-ine” cowboy boots, we headed down to Tombstone.
Stagecoach
Our first order of business was to find a place to eat.
I told the man at the bar that it was Mark’s birthday. He brought Mark a cup of ice cream with a candle in it for dessert. Mark had half the bowl eaten before I could get my camera out to take a picture!Mark also needed a new cowboy hat. I put on his old hat and we took a selfie in front of a wooden Indian.There were some colorful characters there. This guy was covered with bangles and beads that he shook in time to some recorded music. You might say he was Mr. Bojangles!I had checked before we went to see if Tombstone was open even with the coronavirus scare, and on their FAQs, they said, “Remember, we’re the town that’s too tough to die!”This is the OK Corral where Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday shot three cowboys. We didn’t pay to go in because we had done that last year when we were in town. “I’ll be your huckleberry” was an expression Doc Holliday used before the shootout.We did, however, go in and have our picture taken. These were our own clothes except for the hat on my head.The man in black. What a handsome devil!From Tombstone, it was only a short trip to the Boothill Graveyard which is on the National register of historic places.Remember me mentioning the three cowboys that the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday killed? This is where they are buried.Not all the tombstones were serious… I was commenting to Mark as we went through the cemetery that 1882 was a very good year for the undertaker in Tombstone. I’d say at least half of the graves in the graveyard were from that year, most of them violent deaths.
At least those resting in the cemetery have a beautiful view!
