On June 8-11 we were able to visit with our friends Mike and Magda Miley (from Florida) who we originally met at the Southern Hills RV Park & Campground in Hermosa, SD last year (June 27 - July 26, 2017). They were driving through on their way to California, but stopped in at our Arizona Legends RV Park for 3 days to visit. We managed to get them a great rate for a lay-over visit... just $5/night with full hookup (a benefit for residents to be able to have their friends visit). They arrived on a Friday and left o Monday, and during that time we were able to visit, check out their new luxury 5th wheel (a new 40 ft. Keystone Montana High Country 381TH). Mike and Magda love to ride their big motorcycle so this fiver was perfect for them as it is a toy hauler without sacrificing the wasted space of traditional toy haulers occupying 25%-30% of the trailer for the cargo. This one, below the Queen bed (believe it or not) has a small (but large enough for a Golf Cart or a Gold Wing MC) garage. Inside, the bed lifts up to allow the driver to drive it in, secure it and then exit the 'garage'; then the bed goes back down to its regular position. In back a 59" wide ramp is a breeze to lower and raise, so much so that Magda did it all by herself. It's a beautiful rig, so anyone needing livability plus needing garage space to take a golf cart or large motorcycle the size of a Gold Wing and such, you will want to consider the 40 ft. Keystone Montana High Country 381TH.
On Friday we stayed at the campground visiting and catching up as, though we stay in touch via Facebook, texts and such, we had not seen each other since our stay at Southern Hills RV Park & Campground in Hermosa, SD at this same time last year. Mary had prepared a Shepherd's Pie for dinner so they wouldn't have to worry about cooking, while having to set their rig up when they got in, as we were not sure at what time they would arrive. The next day, on Saturday, they said they wanted to go to Tombstone, which is about 25 miles from here, so we drove over there. There we walked through the town, took in the Gunfight at the OK Corral show, and had lunch at Big Nose Kate's Saloon.
Famous Big Nose Kate's Saloon
Magda, Mary and Mike in the background
Magda and Mike Miley
This was the men's bathroom with beer kegs converted to urinals.
You think they really recycle it?
Visiting Tombstone Consolidated Mines Company's Good Enough Silver Mine.
It is one of the 25 active working silver mines in the Tombstone Mining District.
One of the elevators to raise the rocks containing different metals, quartz, copper, sulfides and other metals. In the heyday of silver mining (founded 1877) rocks containing signs of silver content are exploded below ground and the rock chunks are placed in rail cars (as pictured below) rolled to the elevators and brought up to the surface that way.
Here is a "Crib" (not the baby kind) from 1880. It was popular to have buildings that looked like outhouses but were actually the place of business for the local prostitutes. All there was room for in it was a bed (see below), but considering what it was for, is anything else really needed? A hook perhaps to hang up one's clothes? Hey, maybe that's where "Hooker" comes from? LOL!! During this period, Prostitution was legal in Arizona.
The mounted Arizona Rangers (usually retired volunteer
law enforcement officers, though mostly for tourism.)
Actors of the Tombstone famous show of Gunfight at the O. K. Corral. The good guys in Black and the bad guys wearing traditional cowboy clothes.
Originally from Woonsocket RI. His parents owned a Guest Ranch there, but due to the ill health of his mother, they were forced to relocate West and settled in Tombstone, Arizona. There his father did odd jobs until he was hired as the Chief of Police in Tombstone (1954-56). Then moved to Tucson where we served as a Range Deputy of Pima County, and as a consequence of that job he would also do Security for the actors and sets when many movies (not all westerns) were filmed at the then popular (now famous and also a theme park) 'Old Tucson Studios' originally built in 1939 and later restored in 1959-60. Many classic movies were filmed there (not all Westerns) such as:
Anyway, as a consequence of being a Range Deputy and doing security work for the Old Tucson Studios, Jay's father got to know many of the actors and became friends with them, and even did personal security for them while there filming. Jay was a young guy still in school at the time, but as a consequence of his father's work and association with these famous movie actors and stars, he also got to know and become friends with themand the movie directors and producers, and in some movies, like "Rio Bravo", "McClintock", "El Dorado" and others young Jay even got a part (as an extra). Later in his late teens, he would assist his father as a body guard for stars, including Ava Gardner. So over the years of his growing up he has amassed a wealth of knowledge of the movie business and built a personal knowledge of the different actors and stars of the silver screen.
These experiences, coupled with his love for the Old West, stirred Jay's interest in film production and prompted him to dream of owning and operating his own movie location set. In mid 1970s while exploring the high desert country of Cochise County (near where Cochise himself had his stronghold) Jay found a 10-acre parcel of land which seemed perfect to develop a movie set that would give the directors what they seemed to be missing in the then growing Tucson... a wild landscape synonymous of the Old West. So he purchased it and began to build the set one building at a time. He spent many years constructing it and traveling all over the country collecting old items for the buildings and 'ghost' town he was building. By 1992, when he met his wife Joanne, with the help of friends and donations of old western artifacts, Jay had built quite an impressive town which started to be used occasionally for movie productions, sometimes entirely on location and sometimes for isolated scenes for other movies being filmed at the Old Tucson Studios, requiring a more unspoiled location.
Today, Gammons' Gulch is also a museum of the Old West, and given its remote location is available to visit by appointments only. However, it is well worth the visit. Jay Gammons is a wealth of information and has countless stories about the Old West and moviemaking in Arizona, plus first hand experiences with dozens of actors and actresses, to tell you what they are like when a film camera is not pointed at them (i.e. when they are not 'working'). And then there are all his jokes and sense of humor. All in all it was a fantastic day outing close to home, which we may not have gotten to see had it not been to take our friends Mike and Magda. Now it is on our list of favorite places to take friends to. 
That evening we had dinner with Mike and Magda in their new fiver and the next morning they continued their travels westbound.
Since they left we have been shopping for floor and shower tiles, appliances, lamps, fans, etc. for the casita, and waiting for the plans to be finished by the draftsman; then getting the plans approved by the City of Benson.
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