5in29: Day 8

Dec 24, 2024

Attraction #1: O.K. Corral Gunshot

When we got in town last night, it was dark, yet we could see lights on houses and signs of closed streets.
With daylight, we saw a small western town in the middle of the desert. The main streets were not paved (on purpose), and the dust was humongous with even the slightest breeze. After walking a short distance, my black sneakers and the lower end of my black pants were all covered with brown dust.
Just as we turned into the main street from the famous O.K. Corral Gunshot site, eight men were in front of us, all dressed up as those in the movies. I asked who Doc Holiday was because I wanted to have a picture with him. A gentleman with a cane came over. He did look like Doc Holiday in some photos! Roman snapped a few shots. The rest of the gentlemen stayed around, one asked, “Do you want us all in your photo?” “Sure!” I said.
Doc Holiday was next to me. Then the rest of the crew joined for pictures.
Turned out, these were actors in a show. We promised to attend the show at 11 AM. As we walked around, we were stopped by multiple men asking us to attend their shows. There were at least five or six shows!
About 30 people attended the live show. I finally figured out which men were good guys and which were bad. In 25 minutes, these guys showed the historical events in quite an engaging and entertaining way. We thoroughly enjoyed the show.

We had lunch in the Crystal Palace. We were told everything was pretty much original. We ordered bong bong shrimp (very different from the ones in Bonefish), roasted chicken salad, and hamburger with onion rings. All were gone because we did not have breakfast.

Most people know Tombstone for its famous gunshot event that appeared in so many movies (Google or Wikipedia it and you’ll see). But Tombstone became a place for good and bad people because of its silver mining blooming. There was a saying: “The cowboys made Tombstone famous, but the mines made Tombstone rich.”
We took a tour of the second silver mine in town, not far from the main street. It was a slow day for the tour company, and we were the only tourists and had the full attention of the tour guide who was a miner in many places across the U.S. and Canada and is doing this job as a retirement.
The place got its name because the quality of the rock was not as high as the rock from the first mine, which was three miles away. The man who discovered this mine said, “Well, it is good enough for me to invest in it.”
We went down deep into the ground and saw the working conditions and the results of mining.
There were still silver rocks around, and many other minerals—the tour guide had found 34, and the last one was discovered just the day before. However, none of the silver mines in the U.S. are being mined because it is not cost-efficient to mine.

The morning temperature was 37 degrees. The huge parking lot was almost empty this morning, with only two camper vans and a truck that had a tent on the top. No wonder it was quiet because virtually no one came after us.
Roman had Zoom meetings. But the WiFi was unstable, even with the new battery. We drove around and found a Circle K gas station. There was no room inside for us. I found an outlet outside the building behind their ice machine and plugged in the WiFI device. We parked the van nearby and the WiFi worked!
While Roman was having his meetings, my laptop battery went low. Our converter could not handle both laptops. Lesson learned: get a bigger converter.
I took my coffee, laptop, charger, and folding step (which functions as a stool) to the inside and found an outlet by the bathrooms. As I worked there, a staff member kindly offered me a chair, which was much more comfortable.
Around 10:10 AM, Roman was done with his meetings. We packed everything and parked the van at a public parking lot and started our exploration of Tombstone town.
Even though the new battery seemed to work better than the old one, with our experience this morning, we wanted to be cautious and keep it charged regularly. So, we decided to stay at a campsite one night and boondock the other night. This will also allow us to maintain a healthy routine of showering and doing laundry.
Tonight, it is at a campsite outside Las Cruces, NM. I’ll cover Las Cruces in tomorrow’s piece.