A R I Z O
N A R O A D T R I P 2 0 0 6 |
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Do Not Disturb signs should be written in the language
of the hotel maids --Tim Bedore |
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Road Trip Through Arizona
(Phoenix, Tucson, Bisbee, Etc) |
explored by:
Shady
& Lobo, March 2006
We took a road trip across Arizona, to explore and photograph some
AZ weirdness on
behalf of Weird
US for the upcoming book, Weird Arizona. Here, some snapshots from the road...
You never know what you will find out
on the road. Above, I
hold hands (or, umm, clawed forelegs?) with a new friend made
along the Arizona highway. I call him Mr. Bitey. ROWWR! |
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We stumbled onto (fortunately not into)
this humongous hole in the ground just outside of Bisbee, Arizona;
it's called the 'Lavender
Pit' and a total of 380 million tons of material (copper ore)
was removed from it over the years, leaving this immense pit
behind... Lobo says
'howdy' at the super-windy edge of the enormous hole (huhhuh
huhhuh she said 'enormous hole')... a view of the desert
wilderness in Arizona (note mysterious blue dot shining way back
in the distance, on one of the hills... oooh!)... and looky- a
real-live non-cartoony honest-to-goodness Roadrunner!
(and not an anvil-toting, rocket-powered-roller-skatin' Coyote in
sight. Meep, meep) |
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An old wrought-iron lantern hanging
from a dead mesquite swung slowly in the desert breeze... alien-like
cacti blooms grace the rolling desert hills...
we saw this abandoned
place out in the middle of Nowheresville, with no apparent way
to reach it (or you know I woulda been all up in that! Heh.
Luckily, my zoom lens rules)... and, I shot this
view from a gas station parking lot. Purty, ain't it..?
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The odd, quaint (and slightly
mysterious) little town of Bisbee, Arizona sits hidden away in hills
of red, red rock (as you can see in these pics, above & below,
Bisbee is filled with very unique and strange sculptures and
carvings)... cacti surrounds the tiny, old-fashioned church that
overlooks Bisbee from atop a hill, and a black Iron
Cross decorates the gate leading to it...
and an unusual metal
tree sculpture glimmers with glittering golden leaves...
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As usual, I explored some very
interesting old cemeteries. Some of my finds: one of the most
intriguing graves I have ever seen- a heart
literally carved atop the grave itself is lined with glittering
garland (and blue crystals line the gravestone)... the name on the
next one (of course) caught my eye, but the wolf prints really
intrigued me (and on the back, there were some beautiful engravings of
wolves as well)... I seem to find this
(Masonic?) symbol on a lot of old gravestones, interestingly, this
person was born on Halloween. Brrrr... then, this is one
of the most unusual (and yet, sad) grave markers that I have come
across in my cemetery explorations... and, someone ran over this
grave with some sort of vehicle- so disrespectful! Who would do
such a thing, and how? (and, WHY?)
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