Havin' fun...


... in Bisbee. Well... in the Lowell district.

Lowell was once a separate town next to Bisbee but as the mines closed there was consolidation in order to survive. Bisbee was once a major mining center for all sorts of things but is best known today as the site of the Lavender open pit mine. The huge site is still just as it was when abandoned decades ago.

The Lavender pit mine

The pit was mined till it's closure in 1975. It is 900 ft deep from the parking lot elevation to the lowest point. During its day they extracted 76,000,000 tons of ore from the pit. Not of much use to anyone today, the pit is now just a hole in the ground.

When I knew that the adventurers and recent custom-built van owners Michael & Layne were arriving I wanted to be sure they saw something more interesting than the re-enactment of the gun fight at the OK Corral in Tombstone. Lots of choices here in AZ (first stop was Mi Casa in Benson for lunch!) but they had just been toured around Tucson by Layne's cousin David so I thought Bisbee might be a little different. 

The mine above is a 'gee-whiz' site with holes in the chain link fence for photo ops. But another popular stop is the less well known Bisbee Breakfast Club - the BBC - in beautiful downtown Lowell. And yes I do have my tongue in my cheek. But the food is good and the place (as Michael put it) is an outdoor museum.

The original BBC in Lowell district of Bisbee, AZ

The BBC in Lowell proved so popular that there are at least 7 additional locations in Arizona including Tucson, Chandler and Marana (all in the Tucson area). They're open for breakfast and lunch and (this was important) they had increased table spacing which helped Layne feel safer as she struggles with immune deficiency.

The food was great and had some strange effects on certain of the crowd and Michael-the-photographer Beattie got it on record!

Guess the Admiral likes her breakfast!

Pretty much everyone thinks highly of the BBC...

 

Breakfast is a winner at the BBC but they also have great coffee!

We had a great time poking around Lowell and Michael made sure Rusty-the-travel-king enjoyed the visit.


 
For the record, Rusty is a rescue from Homestead, FL and is of a breed called a Carolina Dog. He had been abandoned and left to fend for himself on the farms outside Homestead. He made it on his own for something like 1.5 yrs, even surviving being shot at by farmers who wanted to be rid of stray dogs. Now he's in his forever home traveling the world.

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