Since we stayed here another day we had to move to another site. The RV park is filling up for the upcoming Presidents Day holiday weekend and the pull-through site we were in was reserved for someone else. so, we moved to a back-in site this morning. Not a big deal, since we were unhooked anyway and planning on sightseeing today.
As it turned out, today wasn't a better day than yesterday for sightseeing. It started out clear and breezy, but as the day developed and the cold front arrived, it became very windy, cloudy and cool. I'd say the temperature was in the high 40s/low 50s most of the day with a pretty good wind chill.
Nevertheless, we headed into town to watch the O.K. Corral Gunfight reenactment. We arrived at the venue around noon and first watched a historama presentation about the history of Tombstone that was included in the gunfight ticket. Kind of hard to describe, but it was a rotating display of models of people, buildings and terrain features with moving parts and flashing lights. Also, every now-and-then a movie screen descended and showed films and pictures of Tombstone events. It was narrated by Vincent Price, an old movie actor and personality some older people may remember. Judy described it as having the largest number of adjectives in any historical presentation we have ever seen.
The gunfight reenactment location is in the historical district. You enter into a gift shop where you also purchase tickets. The gift shop has many different kinds of cowboy hats and souvenirs of all types with the O.K. Corral logo. You could also buy a stuffed rattlesnake and Indian jewelry and baskets. I was going to ask if they had any scalps, but was restrained by Judy from doing so.
When it is time for the gun fight show you walk outside past several exhibits and reproductions of buildings near the site of the gunfight. There are five of these buildings: The Cowboy Bunkhouse, The original Corral Office, the Prostitutes Crib, C.S. Fly's Photo Studio, and Fly's Boarding House. Next you walk bya reproduction of the gunfight site. There are mannequins representing each of the gunfight participants, their reported positions during the fight and reproductions of what they were wearing. Each figure was also identified by name.
Next you go into the gunfight stage. It is an enclosed area with bleacher seats and a town front stage as a background. The presentation starts with some background interaction between the protagonists, The cowboys, the Clantons and Mc Laurys and law enforcement - Morgan, Virgil, and Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. The presentation was well acted and pretty much historically accurate. The presentation location however is not exactly at the same place as the gunfight but close. The gunfight actually took place at a vacant lot near the old O.K. Corral.
Here is more information about the gunfight:
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral - Wikipedia
The presentation was well done, a little hokey, but O.K. The ambiance, not so much, it was windy, cold and we even experienced a few raindrops as the cold front arrived.
We then headed backed to Big Nose Kate's for a late lunch/early dinner. It was another great meal, they even had live music and we topped it off with excellent Bloody Mary's for dessert. On the way back to the truck we stopped for a hot mocha at Undertakers Coffee Shoppe to warm up a little. It was then back to the RV to defrost and relax. By sunset the weather had moved through, the skies cleared, and the wind died down a lot. We even had a dim rainbow and an excellent Arizona sunset.
It is off to Las Cruces, NM tomorrow. The weather and wind forecast look good.
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