Tombstone & Pillsbury Winery

When we were warned that the historic town of Tombstone was a tourist trap, we should have listened. That, in a nutshell, describes our short-lived experience in the town that – like Old Tucson studios – looked like it had been plucked straight from a western. Boasting attractions spanning from gunfights re-enacting the infamous O.K Corral shootout to museums dedicated to famous outlaws, practically everything came with an entry fee – which we decided was not worth the cost. We considered getting lunch at one of the old fashioned saloons, but soon decided otherwise when we were left waiting in a queue with nobody offering any service or time frame as to when we could expect to get a table.

The thing that stood out to me the most, however, was the hypocrisy I’ve come to realise often surrounds attractions such as these; whilst souvenir shops contain items that display the “Cowboy’s Ten Commandments” (most notably including “no killin”), the entire town is essentially based on the celebration of murderous, gun-fightin’ outlaws, not too dissimilar to Australia’s own arguably bizarre obsession with Ned Kelly. Something about preaching Christian values whilst simultaneously hailing infamous criminals as “badasses” and “heroes” is a really strange concept to me. Additionally, the aforementioned O.K Corral re-enactment begs the question: whose side is the audience supposed to be on? Are we expected to support the upholders of the law, who bravely face a band of deadly criminals wreaking havoc upon the town, or the fearsome, rebellious outlaws themselves, who are perhaps the ‘underdogs’ in the hierarchy of Tombstone? Put simply, to an outsider such as myself, the O.K Corral seems to be just another historic event that would be bizarre to re-enact for the mere purpose of entertainment. But hey, that’s just MY personal opinion.

Moving on from the mixed-bag that was Tombstone, we soon encountered something perhaps even more out of the ordinary – border patrol! Though we were still miles away from the Mexican border, and travelling parallel rather than towards it, we still got stopped at the checkpoint. As the patrol officer approached our vehicle, we prepared to hand over our passports as documentation, perhaps even the RV’s registration too, and answer any questions they were bound to ask with honesty and calmness. So you can imagine our surprise when the officer asked “How many travelling with you?”, and let us pass the second we smiled and replied “Just us two.” Well, that was anticlimactic.

Arriving at our third and final destination of the day was not without its speed bumps (credited to the misdirections once again offered to us by the GPS), but altogether, was pretty smooth. This HH Winery was particularly special, as the owner (Sam Pillsbury) was a director/writer/producer for 40+ years, which gave me a good opportunity to gain some insight into the industry. After Mum did her wine tasting – during which we spoke to some other travellers who were also staying the night, as well as Terry, the wine-pourer, and her chocolate lab, Gus – Sam kindly invited us to stay for dinner, together with Chris (the wine-maker). We had a great time, some good laughs, tasty food (goat stew and roast potatoes), GREAT wines and interesting conversations sharing our opinions on some of the latest films we’ve seen (we found that we didn’t discuss a single film that we could all unanimously agree was either good or bad). It’s always nice to meet new people, and Sam, Chris and Terry were no exception.