Thursday 24 Jan
The Sonora Desert Museum is a zoo, natural history museum and botanical gardens all in one place and has displays of living animals and plants native to the Sonoran Desert Region. There are almost two miles of paths traversing 21 acres of desert. We were told by our landlady, Sharon, that this place was a "must see" for all visitors to Tucson and it definitely was. But, we hadn't been at the park long, when we heard an accent we recognised from a lady talking to her husband. And, speaking to the couple, we found out the they were from Leeds, our UK home town. We chatted for a while, talking about the things we had in common and then decided we should really move on and we walked the rest of the park with John and Ann. We saw bobcats, an ocelot and margays, native birds in the walk-in aviary and other native animals, reptiles and cactus and desert plants. It was good to meet John and Ann and amazing to meet someone from Leeds in the middle of the desert. At the end of our tour we said farwell to John and Ann but promised to give them a call on our arrival in the UK.

Friday 25 Jan - Tuesday 29 Jan
We said farwell to Sharon and thanked her for making us feel at home at her wonderful B&B and were back on the road, this time to Bisbee. Now bisbee is only just over one hundred miles from Tucson (and only less if you don't take the scenic route as we did!) but is might as well be a million miles away; no fast food joints and the highway signs that go with them, no interstat5es, no highways or large intersections. The words that come to mind to describe Bisbee are quaint, historical, friendly and laid-back. Founded in 1880, Bisbee was a booming mining community with one of the richest mineral deposits in the world. At that time, it bustled with miners, shopkeepers and even it'w own stock exchange. Today the town reflects that old world charm and culture and staying in Bisbee is taking a step back in time. Our lodgings for the next few days are at The Gardens at the Mile High Ranch, owned and run by the Hohanek sisters. We have peace and quiet again, although don't think we will be taking advantage of the colon therapy also offered at The Gardens! Gill is told that she looks cute in her bike gear, twice, but is assured that none of the sisters are gay!!

During our stay in Bisbee we take a ride in Tombstone to learn about the gunfight at the OK Corral. We ride into town around mid mornin' and hitch our mount at the roadside. We mosey 'round town a while to acquaint ourselves with the town and find out where can get ourselves some vittles. Later on in the afternoon we meet up with our old friends Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp to hear about the happenings on October 26 1881. OK, so Tombstone is mainly a tourist town but it is pretty much how it used to be in the 1800s when the town was at it's heyday. Just a short tide up to Boothill to see where the unfortunates from the gunfight were buried and it was definitely a very interesting day in Tombstone.

During dinner that night at the Olde Tymers Restaurant and Saloon in Bisbee we are entertained by a guitar duo who perform both kinds of music - Country AND Western (a quote from the film "The Blues Brothers". Of course we listen to songs about "leaving town in a 40 tonne freight liner heading for Wichitau Falls in Kansas to leave all my troubles behind" as well as the usual standards about crops failing, the dog dying and the house burning down etc.

As was the case when we did our tour of Northland and the Coromandel in NZ, we are always having people coming up to us to ask what we are riding, where to and from and where we come from. Our visit to Tombstone and Bisbee is no different and in Tomb stone we have two guys from CNN, who were travelling across country in a bus. They were very interest to hear our story but unfortunately did not ask us to appear on camera! We also get the usual people stopping to talk to us in the supermarket carparks and shake our hands when they find out we are from New Zealand and to welcome us to Bisbee.

A visit to the Mining and Historical Museum gives us more of an insight into the history of Bisbee. In it's heyday as a mining metroplis. Bisbee was the largest city between San Francisco and New Orleans along the Southern Pacific Line. It's immigrants were citizens of the world including England - including, for some reason, a number of people from the Isle of Man - Serbia, Switzerland and of course Mexico. Bisbee started as a copper mining camp in the 1880s and the copper beneath the town made it the richest, rowdiest copper mining town int eh US. but prosperity helped to quieten the miners in the early 1900s and they became more respectable and Bisbee cleaned up its act. The building that now houses the museum was originally the Head Office of Phelps Dodge, the owners of the copper mines. Mining finally stopped in Bisbee in 1975 and many of the families left to find work in other mining towns. Bisbee seemed to be on the verge of becoming a ghost town but the cavalary arrived in the unlikely form of hippies seeking an escape from the City. and that is how we find Bisbee today, filled with a mix of ex-miners, artists, writers, jewellery makers and travellers. And the reason why Bisbee is called Bisbee? Orignally called Mule Gulch, a judge in 1800s San Francisco decided to invest in the town, having never seen the town beforehand or after his investment. Because of the size of his investment, the town was renamed in the honour of Judge Bisbee.

We have really enjoyed our few days in Bisbee and we even found Sam Smith's beer, a local brewery back in the UK, of course a bottle had to be purchased for trial. Bisbee is also home to the first roundabout we have seen in the US - and that was really weird going round a roundabout the "wrong" way round!