Letting the destination come to you

This weekend Shelley and I had the chance to breakaway from the heat of Phoenix and spend some time in Bisbee, an old ghost town in the high foothills of southeast Arizona. It was once a thriving mining community, reportedly the largest city between San Francisco and St Louis at the turn of the century. Once the mines played out it was abandoned. But like many of the abandoned mining communities, it was later claimed by the counter culture. These hairy hippies, with the help of some enterprising historians, have turned Bisbee, and a few other ghost towns in the state, into quaint artistic, cultural, and historical places to visit.
We pulled in around 7:30pm. A intense thunderstorm and car wreck delayed our arrival by an hour. We chose to stay in a bed and breakfast, one time mansion of some big wig at Phelps Dodge. It was pretty dark so we spent our evening in the well lit part of the old down town. After an nouveau italian dinner, something you'd expect in Park City or Sedona, we retired to our quiet place. Without TV we had to rely on, ghast, conversation and old back issues of "Arizona Highways" to pass the time.
Our morning was somewhat rushed. After a great Eggs Benedict breakfast Shelley's back started to act up. Our six hour itinerary turned into 45 minutes of browsing through shops on main street. We were soon on the road again, a scant 12 hours after arriving. While the visit was worthwhile, we didn't even stratch the surface of this place. Moving onto the opening statement that inspired this entry.

I'm guilty of "checklist traveling". I visit destinations merely for the joy of saying I've been there, another sticker to put on the bumper. I'm afraid that many other people our guilty of this practice. We pull over at the side of the road and take the 15 minute tour and all of the sudden we are experts of whatever place we are visiting and we get in the car and move to the next place. We all need to take a deep breath and let the trip come to us. There are myriad things to do in Bisbee, simple things that require alittle effort. Like most places, you can't truly visit Bisbee from the back seat of a car. You need to take a hike to view some of the rare bird species. You need to spend a couple of hours at a local cafe to observe the ecclectic and eccentric locals.
This trip we weren't able to do that. We saw enough of Bisbee to know that this is a place that we want to truly explore. Next time, when Shelley isn't 7 1/2 months pregnant, we will spend a few days and patiently let Bisbee come to us. That way we will have truly felt its charm.