Our Anniversary at "Shady Dells" or The Modern Day version of "The Long, Long Trailer

Those of you who remember Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz and their movie, "The Long, Long Trailer" will relate to our anniversary at The Shady Dell in Bisbee.  It is a moment out of the 50's when supposedly life was easier.  But I am not sure I believe that stuff of "live was easier when....".  I like to live in the now, think out of the box, wow over innovation.  Nonetheless, Guy (the French version of Desi Arnaz) and me (the modern day version of Lucille Ball) read about The Shady Dell and said...we got to do this!

So we drove with our new friends, the Rabens, and on the way, visited Tombstone.  You know, Doc Haliday, OK Coral, Wyatt Earp? That Tombstone.   I got to tell you, after Virginia City, Wickenburg and now Tombstone, I say "enough already with the wild west towns"!  They all look alike, offer the same nonsense in the stores and so within an hour we were "outta there"!

On to Bisbee which is a town that doesn't look like other places in Arizona.  It reminded me of a old town in Marin or Sonoma California.  There is the hippie influence, and the artist colony influence and then there are folks whose families worked in the mines.  A interesting melange of folks to give the place a distinct personality.  

Speaking of mines we also participated in the Queen Mine Tour.   Dressed in our helmets, yellow rain jackets, belts and batteries strapped to our behinds and a light dangling over our shoulder,(see photo on the left) we descended into the mind shaft on this train.  The whole time the guide tells "us guys" as he said, "what could happen while in a mine" or "what not to do while working in the mine" and I am asking myself (as I look around and am not able to see a fast escape), do I need to hear this???  But we all survived and came out into the blazing sunlight.  You do not want a job in a mine, dear reads...no, no!!!

The Shady Dell was not too far from there and so we checked in.  In there own words from their website: " Nine lovely, fully restored vintage aluminum travel trailers  await you at the Shady Dell in Bisbee, Arizona. Whether it is the 33 foot Royal Mansion built in 1951 and restored with leopard carpet, martini glasses, Diner-style breakfast booth and phonograph with a collection of 78rpm records, or the 1947 Tiki Bus Polynesian Palace, complete with hand-carved outrigger bar and your own Tiki God, the Shady Dell’s individual trailers will surely send you back to a time when freedom was just another word for jumping in your aluminum house on wheels, finding the Rat Pack on the radio and navigating the open road in search of your own slice of the American Dream."  And that is just exactly how it was.

We had a great Americana Kitsch experience....

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But to think, last year we were in Vienna...big contrast!