drivetofive

Odometer:  474,031

My friend Kevin and I took a trip back in time yesterday to a town in southeastern Arizona that’s notorious for its history in the Wild West:  Tombstone.  It’s a town, appropriately, of  “Ghosts and Legends” as noted in this sign I had to capture during our visit.

Tombstone is home to daily gunfight reenactments at the O.K. Corral.  Today, the town of 1600 residents survives primarily on tourism since it’s so far removed from civilization and is basically in the middle of nowhere in the Arizona desert.   Not the place to break down in a 500,000 mile car!   But we made the round trip safely and in the comfort of A/C and with good music along the way.  Kevin and I belted Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” at one point and put the car’s Bose speakers to full use.  Here’s a little more light reading on the town of Tombstone itself:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tombstone,_Arizona

It took Kevin and I about 3 hours to get there from the Phoenix metro area, via Interstate 10 eastbound and through Tucson.  We enjoyed the sights and sounds of the old west for a little while (and fantastic root beer floats) and then continued on our way to Sierra Vista, Fort Huachuca, and back to I-10 for the return leg of our trip.  Here are a few photos from our half-day adventure.

Entrance to town from the north side of town on Arizona Hwy 80:

And a shot at Wyatt Earp’s Old Tombstone village:

Just prior to the trip, I got a $47 full service oil change (no coupon this time!) at Acura of Tempe with 5W30 oil.  I caught the technician JUST as he was about to pull the car into the automatic wash after completing the work.  I never have them wash the car.  I’ll handle that on my own, thank you!  The notes on my paperwork indicate that everything checks out with the exception of a burned out front left marker light bulb and inoperative washer fluid nozzles (they’ve been broken since 2008).  The tech recommended a power steering flush and a transmission service, which is odd since I just had them change the MT fluid on my last visit at 467k.

The temps in Phoenix continue to creep up and we’re into triple digit territory already this year.  Welcome to oven mitt weather!  Let’s see how the old Legend fares through another Arizona summer.  A/C blows ice cubes so for that I’m grateful.

This entry was posted on May 9, 2011 at 1:35 am and is filed under Arizona, Legend, Road Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.