Chapter 30
Thursday morning arrived. It was September 29th, 2016.
Dalton and Chrissy got very little sleep. They were full of energy, thinking about today’s adventure.
They showered, drank some coffee, and ate a bowl of Cocoa Krispies.
They had their western outfits packed in their backpacks along with their 1800s money and other items they figured they might need. They were cautious to ensure they didn’t have too many 2016 items that could raise some tough questions.
Dalton placed his cell phone in his dresser drawer, and Chrissy had her cell phone stashed in her apartment.
They got dressed in their 2016 jeans, western shirts, and cowboy hats.
They grabbed their backpacks and walked to his front door, left the apartment, got in his Civic, and drove away.
During the drive to Kent’s Desert Horse Ranch and Stables, they discussed what they could do while on their 1883 vacation.
Fifteen minutes had passed, and Dalton parked his Civic at Kent’s Desert Horse Ranch and Stables. They walked over to the stable with their backpacks on their backs. They noticed that it was starting to get cloudy.
“You’re here,” said Kent the second Dalton, and Chrissy walked into the stable. “You’re horses are ready to ride.”
“Great,” said Dalton.
Dalton and Chrissy walked the horses out of the stable and got in the saddles of their horses.
“I’ll see you on Sunday,” said Kent. “Be careful, I don’t want you disappearing in the desert,” he said. “Like what my brother did.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be safe,” said Dalton, then motioned at Chrissy that they should ride off into the desert.
They rode off towards the back gate of the ranch.
An hour had passed, and they rode up to Miners Needle.
They got out of their horses, grabbed the reins, and walked them to the cave.
The second Dalton and Christy got their horses ten feet from Crazy Hole the horses panicked and rose up on their hind legs.
Dalton and Chrissy moved the horses away from Crazy Hole.
The horse settled down after a few seconds.
“What scared them?” said Dalton.
Chrissy looked at the horses and back at Crazy Hole. She thought about that for a few seconds. Her eyes lit up. “The cave scares them. They see something spooky about it.”
“What can we do? We can’t take them back, then walk back here, then walk to Oak Creek,” said Dalton and thought that their old west vacation was now a bust.
Chrissy thought about the situation for a few seconds. “Maybe we should cover their eyes. That might calm them down,” she said, and the more she thought about it, the more she thought it would work.
“I guess it’s worth a try, or we turn around and go back home,” he said.
“I’m not going to give up on this vacation now.”
“I wonder what can we use?” said Dalton.
Chrissy thought for a solution. Her eyes widened a little. “Our shirts.”
“Okay,” said Dalton, and he started to remove his shirt.
Chrissy removed her western shirt.
Dalton glanced over at her.
“It’s a good thing I decided to wear a bra today,” she said when she caught Dalton glancing at her.
“I don’t know about that,” he replied and gave her a little smile.
“I can imagine you would have loved that little show,” she said with a little chuckle and a little wiggle of her chest.
“Probably,” he said with a hint of a bigger smile.
Chrissy liked the idea that he would enjoy seeing her topless.
They secured their shirts over the eyes of the horses.
They took hold of the reins and walked the horses toward Crazy Hole.
They got within five feet of the cave opening, and the horses remained calm.
“So far, it’s good,” said Dalton.
“Let’s get inside the cave,” said Chrissy.
“Take out my flashlight.”
Chrissy unzipped a side pocket of his backpack and removed the small but powerful flashlight. She turned in on.
Dalton unzipped a side pocket of her backpack and removed the small but powerful flashlight. He turned it on.
They slowly walked the horses into Crazy Hole.
Chrissy illuminated the cave tunnel with the flashlight while they slowly walked the horses deeper into the cave.
They finally arrived at the dead-end in the cave that had the priest carving on the cave wall.
“Ma-am, you may get dressed first,” said Dalton starting to sound like an old western gentleman.
“Why thank you, kind sir,” said Chrissy.
Dalton turned his back while Chrissy walked around to the other side of the horses. She removed her backpack off her back and opened it. She removed her old western attire and undressed out of her 2016 clothes and got dressed in her western outfit.
After she was done, Dalton went to the same place, and he undressed out of his 2016 clothes and got dressed in his old western outfit and still wore his 2016 cowboy hat.
They removed their Morgan silver dollar coins out of their backpacks.
Dalton shoved his coins in the inside pocket of his suit coat along with his wallet.
Chrissy shoved her coins in her western purse. They packed their 2016 clothes in their backpacks and zipped them up.
Dalton shoved his flashlight in the inside pocket of his suit coat.
Chrissy shoved her flashlight in her western purse.
They dropped their backpacks in the dirt under the priest carving.
“Ready, ma-am?”
“Ready good sir.”
“We wish to go to September twenty-second, eighteen eighty-three,” said Dalton with that echoing in the cave.
“Ladies first,” said Dalton.
Chrissy walked her horse in that tunnel to the right.
Dalton saw that blue plasma light that illuminated the inside of that tunnel. He heard the horse cry, and Chrissy yell out in a little pain. The tunnel suddenly got dark.
Dalton walked his horse into the tunnel. Blue plasma light flashed and illuminated Dalton and his horse. It stung.
“Ahhhh!” Dalton cried out in pain while he walked through the horse through the tunnel.
Dalton exited Crazy Hole and saw Chrissy waiting for him on her horse with her shirt removed and tucked away in her saddlebag.
“Took you long enough to get here,” she said with a light smile.
“I know, about one hundred and thirty-three years,” said Dalton while he looked up at the clear blue sky, knowing they arrived back in 1883. “Looks like it’s high noon,” he said while he got in the saddle on his horse.
“Look at you sounding like a cowboy.”
“Let’s go, ma-am,” he said.
Chrissy smiled.
Dalton removed the shirt off his horse and tucked it in his saddlebag. He got up in the saddle.
They galloped off and followed the train tracks and headed north.
Some time had passed, and Dalton and Chrissy stopped their horses. They saw Oak Creek five hundred feet to the north.
“This is going to be so cool,” said Dalton.
“You know it.”
“Let’s first get a room at the hotel, then we can walk around the town and check it out,” said Dalton.
“Sounds good.”
They trotted their horses off to Oak Creek.
They entered Main Street on the east side of Oak Creek. It was the main entrance that the majority of folk in that area used.
They first noticed all the wooden buildings were of board and batten construction. A five-foot-wide wooden sidewalk was in front of all the buildings of Oak Creek. It helped during those rainy days, and the street was a mud puddle.
Off to their right they saw the Oak Creek train station. The train hadn’t arrived yet.
Off to their left across from the train station they saw Harvey Robbins’ Cabinetmaker and Undertaker Shop. Way off to the south, about five hundred behind his shop was the graveyard of Oak Creek. There were a few wooden tombstones for the final resting place of some of the Oak Creek residents.
The town folk milling around the town saw these two strangers arriving on horseback. They looked happy to see them since it meant additional money into their economy.
They rode a little farther down past the train station and saw a Barbershop to the left of the station where Fred Boone was the barber.
The music of wood being sawed and hammered caught their attention. Dalton and Chrissy saw the wooden gallows in the middle of the street across from the Barbershop and the two-story Gus Master’s General Store.
Workers were banging away and sawing on planks of wood for the finishing touches on the wooden structure.
Dalton and Chrissy glanced at each other and knew that this was meant for the Kissing Bandit.
They rode a little farther down the street and saw the Marshal’s Office to the left and the Court House across the street to their right. Inside the Court House was the office for Mayor Mason.
They rode a little farther down the street and saw Doc Bartholomew’s Office to the left and the Oak Creek Restaurant across the street to the left.
They rode their horses up the Oak Creek Hotel off to the right.
They rode their horses to the sidewalk at the hotel.
They got off the horses then tied the reins to the hitching post.
They glanced around and saw the town folk milling about town in old western suits, Victorian-style dresses, and they all wore hats. Dalton winked at Chrissy. She winked back.
They walked across the wooden sidewalk in front of the two-story hotel.
Dalton opened the door for Chrissy. She went inside the hotel, and he followed right behind her.
The inside of the hotel lobby was plain and simple. There were a couch and three chairs in the small lobby in front of the small wooden front desk. One hotel guest sat on one of the chairs, reading the latest issue of the Weekly Phoenix Herald newspaper.
Off to the right of the front desk was the wooden stairs leading up to the second floor.
“May I help you?” said Jacob from behind the front desk.
“Yes sir,” said Dalton while he and Chrissy walked up to the desk. “We would like two rooms.”
“You here for the hanging of the Kissing Bandit?”
“Yes, sir,” said Dalton.
“How many nights would you like to stay here?” said Jacob.
Dalton looked over at Chrissy. “Four nights.”
“Yes, four nights would be grand,” she said. “We’ll need two rooms.”
“That would be eight dollars,” said Jacob.
Dalton reached in his inside suit pocket, removed eight silver dollars, and handed them to Jacob.
Harold dropped the silver dollars in the cash drawer. “Ma-am, you’re in Room one, and sir, you’re in Room two,” he said. “All rooms are upstairs, and the outhouses are out at the rear of the building.
“Thank you,” said Dalton. Then something felt odd. “No room key?”
“Oh, you won’t need to lock your rooms. Nobody here in Oak Creek will bother you,” said Jacob.
Dalton and Chrissy gave Jacob a little smile.
Harold watched Dalton and Chrissy walk away from the counter and head up the stairs. He thought it was a little strange they didn’t have any suitcases, but this is the old west, and strange things do happen quite often.
Dalton and Chrissy went upstairs and walked down the hallway. They stopped at their rooms.
She opened up her purse and removed four silver dollar coins. “Here’s for my room,” she said, handing him the coins.
Dalton shoved them in his inside suit pocket. “Let’s rest for ten minutes, then we can walk around Oak Creek and check it out?”
“I would like that.”
Dalton opened up his room door. “No locks on the door. I remember my grandparents saying they never locked their doors at their home when they grew up.”
“Can’t do that in our time,” she said, then her eyes widened when she remembered something. “Outhouses out back?” she said. “I forgot about that.”
“There’s no indoor plumbing here. We’re in the real old west. Living like they did.”
“This will be an experience, said Chrissy, then she opened up her room door, went inside, and closed the door.
Dalton went inside his room and closed the door. He saw a bed, a wooden armoire, and a small table that had a Kerosene lamp and a small basin with a pitcher for washing your face.
There was a window with curtains. The window was open, allowing the breeze to cool the room. But it also permitted dust to enter the room.
Dalton walked over and got on the bed. It was very comfy, and he just relaxed.
Ten minutes had passed.
Dalton and Chrissy met in the hallway outside their rooms.
They went down the stairs and left the hotel.
Once they got out of the hotel, they just stood on the wooden sidewalk and glanced up and down Main Street.
“Look at this,” he said.
“Look at what?”
“A nice and quiet street. No cars racing around in a hurry.”
“No car running through red lights, almost crashing into you,” said Chrissy.
“I’m loving this so far,” said Dalton.
“Me too.”
“Want to head down that way?” said Dalton while he pointed to the west.
“Sure.”
Dalton and Chrissy walked away on the sidewalk.
They walked by the Oak Creek National Bank.
“Hello,” said Dalton to an older couple while they walked out the bank.
“Hello. Don’t know you?” said the old man.
“Dalton Trevor and this is Chrissy Barron. We just arrived here in Oak Creek.”
Dalton and the old man shook hands.
“I’m Lester Lincoln, and this is my wife, Edith Lincoln. Where you hail from?” said Lester.
Dalton and Chrissy looked at each other. “Back east. Pittsburgh,” said Dalton.
“What brings you all the way here?” asked Lester.
“We wanted to live in a place without snow,” said Chrissy.
“Are you to going to be married?” asked Edith.
Dalton and Chrissy glanced at each other on how they should answer that question. “Yes, ma-am. We’re engaged and plan on a wedding after we get settled here in Oak Creek.”
“We own the tailor and dressmaker shop across the street. It would be an honor to make your wedding dress,” said Edith.
“Or I put you in a new suit for your wedding,” said Lester.
“That would be very nice,” said Chrissy while she eyed their store and saw the Lincoln Dresses and Suits Shop to the left of the Prickly Cactus Saloon.
“You came to our town at a good time. Tomorrow morning is the hanging of the Kissing Bandit,” said Lester, and he looked excited on seeing a hanging.
“The Kissing Bandit?” said Dalton playing dumb.
“Yes, he robbed banks, stagecoaches and hooked up with outlaws Bart Stone and Charlie Chandler. He kissed women after he robbed,” said Lester.
“But not me,” said Edith, and she looked a little disappointed. Chrissy picked up on her disappointment.
“We need to git, Edith. Nice meeting you and see you around town,” said Lester.
“Please stop by our shop,” said Edith to Chrissy.
Lester gave a good-bye nod, then he and Edith walked across the street, heading back to their shop.
“We’re engaged to be married?” said Chrissy while they walked away, heading toward the church that was to the right of the bank.
“I know, I had to think of something since we’re here together. You know, with the way the folk of this time view single people,” he said. “I hope I didn’t say anything wrong?”
“Oh, no. It sounds like a perfect cover story,” she said, but inside she loved the idea.
They walked up to the small white church.
“I guess we could get married there,” said Chrissy in a joking manner.
“Yes, ma-am,” said Dalton with a warm smile.
They both chuckled while they walked past the church.
They walked upon the one-room schoolhouse that was to the right of the church. They stopped and looked it over.
“Wow, it’s so small. I forget how our schools had thousands of students were in these times, they probably only had ten at the most,” said Dalton.
“One teacher for all the grades,” said Chrissy. “Must have been challenging back then, or right now.”
“Plus, you don’t have to worry about the students becoming threatening,” said Dalton.
“That’s probably true.”
They walked away from the schoolhouse, and at the west end of Oak Creek, they saw what appeared to be a residential area. There were approximately thirty small wooden homes. Some had the typical small white picket fences. Some of the houses were shabbier than the others.
“What did these people do for a living around here?” said Chrissy.
“Mining from what I read in the history books. Or shop owners.”
“That’s right. I remember from the textbook. They mined copper, silver, or gold from this area,” said Chrissy.
“As did most of the towns around Phoenix.”
Dalton and Chrissy walked across the street and wanted to check out the northern part of Oak Creek.
They saw a stockade way out in the northeast side of the town about five hundred feet away.
They saw cows and pigs in a large pen and what also appeared to be a slaughterhouse.
This helped supply the town and restaurant with fresh meat.
They walked past a bathhouse.
They walked by the livery stable and blacksmith shop.
Dalton saw a man beating on a horseshoe on an anvil with a hammer inside the blacksmith part of the stable. “He must be Roger’s great grandfather, Felix Willoughby. Remember him telling us about this guy when we were at Home Depot?”
Chrissy thought for a few seconds. “I remember.”
“We should ask him about keeping our horses in his stable,” said Chrissy.
“Good idea.”
They walked into the stable and got lucky as Felix had two stalls available. Dalton paid for four days.
They left the stable and saw a small building next door where carcasses of skinned cows hung. They both knew this was part of that stockade, and this was food for the restaurant or the homes of Oak Creek.
They walked past it and saw the Oak Creek Restaurant. It looked quaint.
They walked past the restaurant and saw the Prickly Cactus Saloon. They heard talking inside.
They walked past the Prickly Cactus Saloon and saw Lincoln’s Tailor & Dressmaker Shop. She saw Edith and Lester inside working on a dress and Lester working on a suit.
They walked past the Lincoln shop and walked past the Court House, Barber Shop, and then the train station.
“Well, that’s the whole town,” said Dalton.
“I think it’s quaint,” said Chrissy.
“I agree.”
“Plain, simple and quiet. Not with all the traffic and noise like our Phoenix,” said Chrissy.
“I agree. Peaceful. I love it.”
They saw two female cowboys, nineteen-year-old Angie Dawson and thirty-year-old Alicia Hernandez riding horses into Oak Creek. In the saddle in front of the two ladies were two bald men. And these two guys looked pissed.
Dalton looked. His eyes widened. “That must be Bart Stone and Charlie Chandler.”
Chrissy looked. “Are you sure?”
“They’re bald, but history has them being brought back to Oak Creek by two mysterious women. Today.”
Chrissy thought for a few seconds. “I bet I know where they came from.”
“Me too, but I wonder how they were able to capture those two outlaws?” said Dalton.
Chrissy thought for a few seconds. “Must have caught them in the future.”
Dalton thought about her response for a few seconds. “The only explanation.”
They continued walking.
They stopped and watched Angie and Alicia ride their horses up to the hitching post at the Marshal’s Office.
Other town folks also stopped in the street. Town folk like Sally Burns, Ernie Woods, Annie Nelson, Zeke Cooper, Rodney Adams, Winston Moore, and Bucky Younger also watched the female cowboys.
The sound of a train was heard.
They looked to the east and saw the Southern Pacific train coming down the track bellowing out black smoke out of its stack.
Winston ran off toward the train station. He had to get back to work.
Dalton and Chrissy walked closer to the Marshal’s Office to witness this historic moment.
Alicia and Angie stopped their horses at the Marshal’s office. They got out of their saddles and tied the reins to the hitching post.
Alicia looked up at Bart. “You're home,” she said, then removed a small penknife from her pocket. She cut the tie wraps from the stirrups, then she reached up and tugged hard on Bart’s arm. He fell off the horse and smacked into the ground with a thud.
“Ahhhh!” he cried out in pain.
“Oops!” Alicia said while she pretended it was an accident.
Angie chuckled at the sight while Alicia walked over and cut the tie wraps on Charlie’s stirrups. She reached up and tugged on Charlie’s arm. He fell off the horse and smacked into the ground with a thud.
“Ahhhh!” he cried out in pain.
“Oops! I did it again. Clumsy me,” Alicia said.
Angie chuckled again.
They grabbed Bart and Charlie by their boots and dragged them up the stairs with a thump, thump, thump while Bart and Charlie’s head banged on the steps.
Dalton and Chrissy left when Angie and Alicia took Bart and Charlie into the Marshal’s Office.
They headed to the train station.
When they got to the station, they got a closer glimpse of the train. From where they were, they could see lots of people in the passenger car.
“Looks like people are coming here to see the hanging,” said Dalton while they watched the train slow down while it headed to the station.
Dalton’s stomach growled. “Maybe we should eat at the restaurant before it fills up,” said Chrissy.
“I agree. I am hungry from our trip.”