Leaving this Friday afternoon shortly before 3:00 p.m., our expectations of what we’d be able to accomplish before arriving at our destination in Douglas, Arizona, this evening were quite low. As a matter of fact, they were diminished even more because I was adamant that I was going to avoid a long stretch of the overly busy Interstate 10 by taking the AZ-87 south to Picacho Peak and meeting the I-10 there.

To our astonishment, this late day turned into an amazing day.

Initially, we passed this guy selling ammo next to the road and were flabbergasted. After so many roadside fruit and jerky stands, this was a first for us. We had to U-turn and U-turn again to get into position to snap the photo while hoping the guy wouldn’t have a problem with people driving by taking photos. After all, if he’s loaded with ammo, he might also be armed. To our foreign readers, can you believe this?

While there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and we were in the middle of the desert south of Benson, Arizona, the clean orange glow of sunset demanded we stop for a photo before it grew too dark.

Getting into Douglas down in the southeast corner of Arizona, just a hop, skip and jump from Mexico, we easily found our hotel and fell in love with it. At 115 years old and only $110 a night, the historic Gadsden Hotel ranks as one of the cooler places we’ve stayed. The aspiring young woman named Marina, who’s training to be a firefighter, checked us in, gave us a solid dinner recommendation, and offered to give us a tour of a few features of the hotel after we returned.

We stowed our things in the room and headed out on a short walk in the cold air to a place just around the corner called Chatita’s Mexican Restaurant. Anticipating that we’d tip Marina for her gracious offer of giving us a tour, we made our way across the street to a Circle K as we needed an ATM. I’ve said it countless times here on this site: we always forget something.

We’d walked over 10th street to the Pan-American Avenue to get to dinner but decided to walk up 9th street to G Avenue, where the Gadsden is. What a stroke of luck, there were some people inside a storefront, mind you that it’s after 9:00 p.m. in this small town. Of course, I opened the door and asked for details about a couple of things we could see, this Beetle wasn’t one of them.

We were welcomed inside and offered a quick tour of this funky joint called Art Car World. We didn’t have long to truly admire these works of mobile and drivable pieces of art, as we had our other date and had to get back soon. We were graciously offered the opportunity to return Saturday or Sunday, and Hunter, the guy showing us this showroom of the extraordinary, even offered to open up early Sunday morning if that worked better for us after he heard we had to return to Phoenix that day. We settled on meeting him there at 8:30. I can’t wait to grab more photos and share some details and some of their plans.

Back at the Gadsden Hotel, Marina took us into the basement and showed us the space that was a speakeasy back in the 30s during prohibition. The bar is well stocked because it and the lounge can be rented for private parties these days. Around the corner from that were some working-girl quarters and an old smoking lounge for the guys. Drinks, cigars, and happy endings, what could be better?

How about a ride on an ancient Otis elevator? This is the original from 1907. There was other information shared, but it’s nearing midnight as I put these words down when the original idea was to wake early so we could drive up to Chiricahua National Monument for some hiking, but now we’ve added a walk on the Willcox Playa and a visit to the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area in McNeal after learning that there’s a bunch of Sandhill cranes staying over there. A seriously surprising day compared to the idea that we’d drive south, grab some dinner, and go to sleep. I’m certain that tomorrow will be 872 times greater.