Ah, Bisbee … such a pleasant getaway destination

for us. We hadn’t been there since Thanksgiving of

last year — way too long, really — when we went

down the Friday after Thanksgiving Day to join

Louis & Sergio and Julianne for the rest of the

weekend ... see our Thanksgiving 08 Bisbee Trip ... at our favorite place there, The Shady Dell with owners Jason & Jen with Jason’s Mom, Annette, and manager Ken!

So when our Airstream friends Louis & Sergio (from Phoenix) and Mark & Ron (from Tucson) invited us to join them for a weekend in Bisbee, we immediately signed on and began the planning of a great time together. We made plans to meet at Houghton Road and I-10 on Tucson’s far southeast side on Friday afternoon so that we could caravan down to Bisbee together. We threw the Girls into the truck, hitched up and go out the drive about 12:30 PM. We arrived first, about 1:00 PM and were shortly joined by Mark & Ron. We didn’t have to wait long before Louis & Sergio pulled in, and we were off to Bisbee! Yea! The weekend had begun!

We were in the middle of the caravan, with Louis & Sergio leading the way, and Mark & Ron bringing up the rear. We got lots of pictures of Louis & Sergio’s

                                 gleaming shiny Airstream on the way down … such a nice

                                     looking Airstream it is! They have worked very hard on it,

                                        and it shows. Mark & Ron’s is also a vintage unit and they,

                                          too, are working to bring it to a new level of glory ... and

                                          they are making great progress. Greg is helping with that

                                        effort, too. He’s completely redone their gaucho and

                                         dinette covers and made new curtains all around. It all

                                            looks terrific. (Unfortunately, we have not been able

to get pictures yet ... but we will.)

The trip down to Bisbee is a pleasant drive and not too long. It takes us about an

hour and a half, so we got there in the middle of the afternoon. Jason & Jen were ready for us, and they gave us sites in the lower part of The Shady Dell all together, of course. We like to travel and camp in packs, you know!

The weather for the weekend was pleasant. We had some rain and a little breeze,

but we faired well. The first evening we were there we hung out and caught up

with each other. We laughed a lot. We all brought our choice for BBQ and we did

a community grill. Saturday Ron & Mark took a day trip to Sonoita so that Ron

could photograph a rodeo that was being held there .. so they got all

cowboyed up with boots and hats and shirts and the works. We have pictures!

While they did the rodeo thing, we and Louis & Sergio did a little junquing/

antiquing in town. We found a few interesting things … Bisbee usually offers up some goodies for us to make our own.

Saturday night was a community cookout with hamburgers and brats. We provided potato salad, Ron made his cowboy beans (fitting since he was being a cowboy for much of the weekend) and Louis & Sergio and Mark all made some amazing appetizers. (Ask us about the “Martini Cherry Tomatoes!”) We put the one picnic table we had among us out in the middle of the park’s road which we had blocked off with trailers and trucks … that begame party central. Mark & Ron were on the end of the loop, we were next to them, and Louis & Sergio were across the road from us … so we formed a nice little triangle and blocked the road.

Annette joined us for dinner ... there was a ton of food ... no one went without, as usual. After dinner we adjourned to Louis & Sergio’s trailer for a variety of beverages and more … another evening of lots of laughs and great conversation. It’s times like these that we really learn to appreciate the personalities of our friends. And this crowd was no disappointment. What a group! Much fun was had by all.

Ron & Mark had planned to take off on Sunday, but we

smartly talked them out of leaving, so we could enjoy

another whole day together. We enjoyed a leisurely

late breakfast/lunch at Dot’s Diner at The Dell …

several of us had the special —wonderful bacon

lettuce and tomato sandwiches with a chocolate malt.

The Diner was lots of fun and the waitresses were

something else. We waddled back to the trailers to

digest a bit. There was a wedding scheduled at The Shady Dell for Sunday afternoon and as we left Dot’s the wedding-goers were beginning to gather and set up at the gazebo at The Dell. It was in interesting group of 20-somethings with lots of Goth attire and looks. They all looked like they were out for a good time. The group was definitely in party mode!

This was the weekend of 44th Annual Brewery Gulch Daze in Bisbee. Sunday afternoon, Greg stayed at The Shady Dell to hold down the fort and take care of the five doggies among us, and the rest of us took off to see a little of the local color in town and do a little more antiquing.

Brewery Gulch Daze is a series of events … something for everyone, really.

We witnessed a local band performing and lots of local and non-locals enjoying themselves. And oh, yes, there was the contest for Miz Old Biz. We caught pics of at least one of the contestants (who was really a Biz-Bee). Don’t think s/he won in the end, but s/he was quite colorful and in full character. We stopped at a local watering hole and had Bloody Marys, and then we took off to hit some of the antique haunts again … giving Ron & Mark a chance to find goodies, too. And they did, of course. We got our exercise that afternoon, that’s for sure. We had to work off that lunch.

Back at The Shady Dell we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. That evening, we had left overs from the feast the night before and visited through the evening. It was a great ending to a very fun weekend.

                                    Monday morning we all began packing up … always a bit of

                                       a downer but it’s one of those things that we have to do in

                                        order to get home to begin planning the next trip. That’s a

                                         positive way to look at it, don’t you think?

                                     We all left for our respective homes together … Mark & Ron

                                         and Louis & Sergio stopped along the way to do some

                                           more junquing and we kept on our way home. Got home in good time and with no problems … well one little problem. On I-10 there was a bag a garbage in the middle of the interstate that had apparently fallen off a truck … which in itself is hard enough to avoid, but a truck a couple of vehicles in front of us hit the bag and threw its contents — including what appeared to be paint cans — across three lanes of traffic. There was no avoiding it, so we had no choice but to plough through it. All the rest of the way we hoped that nothing had hit the Bambi. We’d heard something hit the underside of the truck. Happily, when we got home we could find no damage, though there was a scratch on one of the truck fenders where a can had glanced off it. We were lucky.

We are still laughing about some of the antics this crowd pulled that weekend ...

the kind of good times that will be remembered a long time. We very much look forward to sharing more good times with everone in the future. We always have a good time with our Airstream friends. We can’t help it.

We got home and immediately began getting ready for our next trip — the 4CU  Heron Lake State Park Rally near Chama, New Mexico. More on that later.

Click on the Slide Show icon below to see a few pictures from this

great trip to Bisbee and The Shady Dell. And you can go to our trip

page by clicking on the “Other Trips” button at the bottom of the photo

section. We hope you enjoyed your visit!

Happy Trails to you ... until we meet again!