Featured Rideout Tombstone: A Ride To "the Town Too Tough To Die"

Tucson, Arizona to Tombstone, Arizona: 211 miles round trip doorstep to doorstep

Our Sunday ride group departed Tucson this morning bound for Tombstone, Arizona, nicknamed "The Town Too Tough to Die" and the location of the shootout at the OK Corral. The backroads to Tombstone are wonderful motorcycle roads that wind their way through rolling hills, small towns, and minor mountain ranges. The eight of us found ourselves riding in near perfect weather and on nearly empty roads. Tombstone itself was reasonably busy today. Autumn is the beginning of tourist season in southern Arizona since temperatures have become lovely--lows in the 40-50's ºF and highs in the 70'sºF. Tombstone is a short 34 miles to Naco which is right on the Mexican border.


Our first stop was for food. Live to ride--ride to eat! We ate at a place I'd never been to that came highly recommended. Down home comfort food and less overtly touristy than some of the other places in town. I thought the buffalo head perched above our heads was a little much but it certainly was unique. And they do serve buffalo burgers.




There are probably more saloons per capita in Tombstone than almost any other small town in Arizona. That's our ride buddy, Greg's, 1998 Honda Valkyrie to the far left. The rest of our bikes are parked elsewhere. Parking is usually at a premium in Tombstone in the fall--even if you're on a motorcycle.


There are real horses in Tombstone in addition to lots of "iron horses". These two are waiting patiently and sleepily to take some tourists for a ride.


Several times each day there are mock gunfights a la "Shootout at the OK Corral" style on Allen Street. In fact, one of our riding group buddies used to be one of the shootout players about 15 years ago! These two guys are waiting around for the next show time.


Here I am at the OK Corral gunfight site taking photos for my Triumph Forum friends!


And contemplating a purchase at the H-D tee-shirt souvenir shop. Amazingly, I didn't buy a thing.....this time.


Mr. Sandi and me getting ready for our ride back to Tucson. Today I was on my 2017 H-D Dyna "Low Rider S". Next up in the ride cue is my Speed Triple. Lest you think I never post rideout threads where I'm not on one of my Harleys, check out my thread sharing my ride up Mt. Lemmon on my Speed Triple. There is a reason I'm a member of the Triumph Forum, you know. It's not only because of all the cool and shall we say "unique" forum members.

 

Fantastic!
Not like any ride out I've ever been on!

 

Looks like a fun trip! Thanks for another ride report, seems for the past month I’ve not been able to get out for a ride. Been a busy month for me.

 

Love it Sandi
Love the pictures, I thought it was just a film, didn't realise it was based on reality!

 

Good report and nice pictures again Sandi.
It's raining here yet again (probably one of the wettest and most miserable autumns we've had for a while) - so jealous of the blue sky and minimal gear. Should have seen me on Saturday and the state the Tiger is in now!

 

Hi, @Bikerman
Glad you enjoyed my pics and stories about our recent Tombstone ride. Route 66 is an interesting phenomenon in the U.S. The old parts of it are, for the most part, more history than reality. But there are places that really do relish that history and try to preserve it a bit.

While I've not done all of Route 66, I've ridden parts of it. I'm not sure whether you saw the thread I started back in October about our Las Vegas Bike Fest adventures in early October. But if you're interested there's a post with several Route 66 photos in Las Vegas Bike Fest on my (non)Triumph in Post #12 on Oct. 9th. My hubby and our two riding buddies purposely detoured off of Interstate 40 to a tiny town called Seligman which is a mile or so off the freeway. I-40 and Route 66 are now the same road for all intents and purposes over the much of what originally was Route 66. On other trips we've run across and talked with groups from Europe who were riding Route 66 in its entirety starting in Chicago and ending up in Los Angeles. Pretty cool trip! Maybe we'll do that trip one day--since it's essentially in our back yard! If we do decide to ride it, you'll be (one of) the first to know!

 

Brilliant,

rode there a couple of times while based at Davis Monthan [on a hire Harley] well worth a visit thanks for sharing the ride

 

Thanks, Curly! So fun--and right in our back yard!

 

You're welcome, @OsteKuste! It was a super fun trip! Hope you can get back out on your bike soon. Count it as "necessary therapy".

 

Thanks, @Bad Billy! Glad you my trip post. Yep, Tombstone is definitely based on reality. Here's a photo from the Old West days and a link to some interesting history about the Shootout at the OK Corral if you're interested in a bit more Western Americana.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunfight_at_the_O.K._Corral

 

More rain, @steve lovatt? I truly am sorry to read that. My brother, the farmer, who lives in Minnesota is in the same boat (no pun intended). They are a whole month behind on the harvest because they had a very wet spring and couldn't plant crops on time and now it has been wet when they're trying to get the crops harvested. Looks like those of us in the desert are the only ones who aren't getting wet most of the time. What's up with the Tiger? In need of a bath, I should guess?!

 

Hi, @Don the Don and welcome to the forum! I think you'll enjoy this place a lot. Great members that provide lots of advice, info, and laughs. What do you ride? When were you asked at Davis Monthan?

 

The old wild west is quite interesting history. The cowboys after working all season without pay, and get one giant paycheck when the cattle were driven hundreds of miles to market and sold. Cowtowns were loaded with saloons, brothels, opium dens, gambling house's, outfitters, etc. Once loaded with, money, liquor, drugs, etc things got wild indeed. There is a christian cowtown about a hundred miles north of me where all of this debotchery occurred in city underground and out of sight ,with a maze of tunnels, and businesses. Still a bar/steak house speakeasy still operating underground.

 

Thank you Sandi T,

I ride a 2007 Speedmaster, I was deployed to Davis Monthan in 2007 and 2010 love Tucson, we also visited the old Tucson studios where a lot of old westerns where made.

 

Well I'll now consider myself educated on the History of the Gun Fight at the OK Corral ..... mostly anyway! I read a couple of pages! What can I say, low attention span!

 

Well, Billy, I'm sure you're now educated "enough" about the OK Corral. Low attention span, eh? I work with lots of kids with low attention spans. So my professional suggestion is called chunking which entails breaking big assignments into smaller chunks. Sorta like not putting the whole steak in your mouth at once. Or you can just do what you did and what most of those kids do. Just stop whenever.....

 

More educational coaching Sandi!
I am familiar with Chunky he's is the fat lad that works at Burger King up the road, he puts a whole burger in his mouth in one go! ..... is this the same theory?

 

Not quite, Billy! But darn close.

 

Dang, I wish all of my recommended educational interventions worked as well and as quickly as this one! Perhaps Billy is more coachable than the other "kids" I work with??

 

Many have tried and failed to 'educate' Bad Billy , but if you enjoy a challenge then fill ya boots!