Tombstone to Douglas

We biked from Tombstone to Douglas, AZ, a distance of 50 miles.
Tombstone elevation 4541
Mule Pass tunnel just west of Bisbee, elevation 6024 feet
Bisbee elevation 5566
Douglas, AZ 4006 feet
This was a day that was really pretty. We biked through a series of steep canyons with red colored rocks.
The climbs didn't seem terrifically difficult although the last section up to the tunnel took my lowest gear. This was for about 8 miles and I was using my now familiar breathing technique. It is almost a Lamaze breathing where I forcibly exhale after a deep inhale.
Bisbee is a great downhill after the tunnel, dropping almost 500 feet. It is an old copper mining town and it has still kept the great old time storefronts. We had lunch there and when we got on our bikes we continued descending. The old open pit mine is on the edge of town and is immense.
It started to rain just as we got to the outskirts of town so Dave and I stopped to put on our raingear. We then continued with about a 23 mile downhill most of the way to Douglas. The rain wasn't pelting except just at first for a few minutes so it was a pleasant ride.
In Douglas we stayed at the Gadsden Hotel. It is a big old hotel with an immense marble lobby. There is a large chip in the marble on the seventh step that was supposedly made when Pancho Villa rode his horse up the steps. (We will be learning  more about Pancho Villa when we visit the Pancho Villa state park in Columbus, New Mexico).
Because of the rain, Bubba made a last minute change and asked if the hotel could cook for us, instead of having Chef Ann and Serge have dinner for us out in the parking lot. The hotel scrambled to find enough staff to cook dinner and managed to give us a choice of several entrees.
It was very nice to be indoors on a rainy night. The prior night in Tombstone we were also indoors in a motel and it rained as well. We have a refrain for Bubba, "how does he do it?!" He worked out an eight day stretch where we are indoors. These arrangements are done almost a year in advance and coincides with a rainy period!

This is a goathead thorn which has resulted in many flats for the skinny tired bikes. Our bigger heavier tires have been fine, no flats.

Halfway up the 8 mile climb. Front to back: Dave, Don, Barb

Dave entering the Mule Pass tunnel.

Me standing in front of the copper mine pit in Bisbee, AZ

The lobby of the Gadsden Hotel

A note to encourage us on the climb written by Ron and Nancy (nicknamed the "Reagans")