I ate oatmeal again this morning and it was good. This may become a habit. One of my good ones.

Our first stop of the day was a visit to Fort Huachuca, or Kombucha for Diane, to see what it was about. It’s an enormous Army base in Sierra Vista and it’s one of the nicest bases we’ve been on in a long time. I took a lot of photos as we drove around the base because there were trees. The base housing units look pretty nice. Many of the ones we saw appeared to be empty.

One thing stood out for us was that none landscaping for any of the buildings involved tons of rocks. Davis-Monthan AFB is nothing but rocks for yards, but Fort Huachuca has actual grass yards. They were brown, but they were grass. There are also tall trees on the base.

One of the reasons for the different kind of landscaping is probably the altitude difference. It’s about 2,000 higher than the Bone Yard. Yeah. That’s it. The elevation.

Turns out there’s an RV park on the base which has reasonable rates and is very nice. We took a look see and really liked it. It’s well away from the main base in a very quiet corner. I took Max for a walk and encountered Paul, an Army guy. He said he’s been staying the winters in Fort Huachuca for the past 3 years. We got along nicely, and he let it be known that if we’re there in the next few weeks, for the Army vs. Navy game, he’s going to give me some s**t. He was an officer, too. What a guy. I really liked him.

From Fort Huachuca, we drove to Bisbee for the day. It’s only about 20 miles away and is a mile high city. Diane labeled this trip a “Foodie Day” on the calendar because Bisbee has a lot of places to eat. It’s a town built in Tombstone Canyon near the Copper Queen Mine which is the reason there’s a town.

Before lunch we stopped at the Visitor center for the Copper Queen Mine so this was really our first look at what the town might be like. The visitor center was also the place where excursions into the mine begin. I wandered around outside and saw the vehicle that takes people on the mine tour. It’s a very narrow-gauge rail track about 18″ wide. The vehicle people ride on are the same one’s used by the miners before it closed in 1975. We didn’t take the tour because we’re not fond of delving into large holes in the ground. We’d rather stay outside and just look around, which we did.

The visitor center was also a very large gift shop featuring mostly geological items. They also had a movie about how copper is mined and the entire process of making sheets of copper for making everything copper is used for. It was very interesting.

Getting to lunch required a drive almost all the way through town. It’s a curvy road through the canyon with buildings growing up the banks on both sides. It’s quite an amazing town. When we found Thuy’s Noodle Shop, there was parking right in front which was awesome because the town is narrow, and parking is sparse.

The restaurant is small, but they had outside tables which worked for us because we had Max along. Many places won’t let 4-legged animals inside, only the 2-legged animals are allowed. We didn’t see any of those today. Sitting on the patio was nice until the food showed up and the flies were waiting. They were a nuisance, but not terrible. The big thrill was when an enormous wasp landed on the table in front of Diane, and she darted away at least two feet, while I broke a chop stick killing it. All the other patrons were well entertained. I’m really glad Diane didn’t get stung.

The dish on the left is Beef PHO and the one on the right is a pork salad. These are actually two meal choices so you can probably say I over ordered a little. But I ate almost all of it. One thing for sure, to Diane’s delight, I got my share of protein today. Vegetables too. I’m sorry I don’t have a picture of Diane’s catfish. She said it had an orange flavor to it, and she liked it a lot.

After lunch we went down the hill to Patisserie Jacqui for a couple of their world class croissants, but it was closed. So, we won’t have world class croissants tomorrow. Dang.

Next, we tried to get dessert at Pussycat Gelato. It was closed, too. So, only 1 of 3 locations were available for our use. Thankfully, lunch was good.

After missing out on dessert, we headed back to Sierra Vista. As we made our final pass through the town, Max saw a cat run across the street. He was sitting in his throne on the console between our seats and launched his little self almost out the passenger window. He only made it halfway because Diane grabbed one hind leg, and I grabbed the rest of him. We managed to get him back inside, but I about broke Diane’s shoulder in the process. He was going to get that cat, by golly. It was pretty exciting. We can only assume that chasing cats was something to do with his past.

Once back in Sierra Vista we stopped at a DQ where I got Diane a Peanut Buster Parfait and myself a chocolate malt. Then we returned to the hotel for our last night.