QUOTABLE: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Gonna start this one by cleaning out a few more tidbits:

  • Actually saw this on the internet on a Hervey’s Tire sign – “Always be careful when you follow the masses. Sometimes the ‘m’ is silent.”
  • Wall sign in a restaurant in Colorado – “God doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies the called.”
  • Sign in Fort Nelson, British Columbia – “All those who hate speeding tickets, raise your right foot.”
  • North of Whitehorse, Yukon, we saw an ad for a company named Sourdough Sodbusters – “Instant grassification.”
  • They must get a lot of deliveries in Winnemucca, Nevada. There we saw a triple tow FedEx truck! We also caught sight of a long railroad car going down the highway on a flatbed semi truck.
  • Painted on an overpass in Duffield, Virginia – “Just one life, it will soon be past. Only what’s done for Jesus will last.”
  • Church sign in Payne Gap, Virginia – “Easter is more than something to dye for.”

On Monday, May 13, we pulled up stakes and continued west. We took US-70 southwest retracing our steps to White Sands and beyond into Las Cruces, New Mexico. There a slight detour south was called for to see another national site, the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. Including the Robledo Mountains, Sierra de las Uvas Mountains, Portillo Mountains, and Dona Ana Mountains, the peaks rise up out of the flat Chihuahuan Desert. Its 500,000 acres is spread out in three separate areas around Las Cruces. There is a Visitor Center that is landscaped to identify local desert flora, and at higher elevations, you run into the ponderosa pine forests. During this time of year, a lot of plants are blooming, and it is just beautiful. Birds are everywhere, and this park is also home to some pretty horrendous bugs, spiders, scorpions, snakes, pronghorn, mule deer, bobcats, coyotes, and mountain lions. The Camino Real brought the Spanish, and several native cultures also inhabited these mountains. In fact, there are petroglyphs from three separate Native American tribes. There are also wagon and stagecoach tracks from the influx of settlers later. The best things to do in this park is hike, bike, and ride horses, and there are miles of trails from beginner to expert, to do it on. There are even some pretty isolated routes where you better take additional supplies just in case. Depending on the direction of your feet (or car in a couple of cases), you might see the ruins of the Boyd’s tuberculosis sanitarium from the late 1800s, the old Hermit’s cave (the second person in the last couple weeks who was found dead and the murderer never apprehended), waterfalls, abandoned homesteads, aircraft training targets from World War II, and many other archaeological sites. Possibly the coolest are Geronimo’s Cave, where he and his warriors escaped the U. S. Cavalry, and outlaw rock, where Billy the Kid hid out and watched the movements of the Cavalry from high above. There are also quite a few rock climbing opportunities (not on my “best” or even “ever do” list LOL), as well as hunting. We looked around the gardens and checked out the visitor information. It was a little too warm to hit the trail at noonish, but we enjoyed the amazing views.

By the time we left the park, lunch was on our minds. We stopped in at Butter Smith Kitchen & Pies, which does breakfast and pies with a little bit of other food thrown in. The food was good, but the service was a little slow. I had a fancy grilled cheese on sourdough bread with soup and learned something new…

Back on the road, we took I-25 north to Butterfield, then side-stepped to NM-185. The area was still part of the Rio Grande valley and there were lots of planted fields and groves. At Hatch, home of the famous hatch chiles, we turned southeast on NM-26. The final leg was US-180 up to Silver City, New Mexico, and the Rose Valley RV Ranch. We were just saying a couple of nights before that we were surprised at the lack of wildlife on this entire trip so far. We saw a deer here and there in the east, lots of dead armadillo in several states, and of course, birds, but that was really about it. After leaving Hatch today, MW spotted a pronghorn, then we saw a couple more a few minutes later. Maybe our luck was going to change! It had been an absolutely gorgeous day, although a little hot. Thankfully, the next few were projected to be beautiful, slightly breezy, and around 80. Yay!

INTERESTING SIDE NOTE: We stopped along the way at a rest area and found a plaque dedicated to Carlotta Thompkins Thurmond. Yes, I had no clue either. Apparently she was a Kentucky native who spent much of her childhood in gambling houses in Europe with her father. The result was a woman well versed in the art of taking people’s money at the tables. As Lottie Dino, she was well known in Texas. This tough woman had an icy reputation, yet when she relocated to New Mexico, she left lots of her belongings for the needy. She lived in Silver City until she gave up gambling and relocated to Deming. There she co-founded St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. Why did I find this interesting? She was the inspiration for Miss Kitty in Gunsmoke.

Tuesday started late thanks to a rough headache, but I made it out of bed by 8 AM. Our first order of business was fixing Priscilla’s front storage door. You may recall our rookie mistake from a couple of weeks ago. As we were preparing to leave the Texas RV Park, I apparently didn’t push the soft-close tailgate on Big Jake hard enough. It fell open somewhere between us pulling out of the site and going out of the front gate of the park. Thankfully MW had to get out to throw the trash away, so he saw it before there was damage to the tailgate. The storage door, though, was another thing altogether. It was scraped, punctured, the lock broken, and the body was popped out of the frame. I got on the phone with our dealer, Campers Unlimited in Gadsden, Alabama, and Tyler was on it! Grand Design would ship a new door out to an address I gave him in Alamogordo. It actually arrived in 5 days!! In the meantime, MW and I man-handled the body back into the frame and fixed the lock so it would work temporarily. This morning, we took the old door and frame out and installed the new one. The process didn’t take long and was not too hard, but did require four hands and occasionally a shoulder and hip! LOL

Later we headed out to run a couple of errands and check out Silver City and the Visitor Center. Flooding has played a big part in sculpting this town. When the original streets were laid out, the founders didn’t have any experience with the local weather. Unfortunately, Main Street was put right down a natural drainage route. Every spring, water from the Pinos Altos Mountains on one side and the Continental Divide on the other flows down into the valley during the summer monsoon season. The water, while good for the desert, wreaked havoc on the main road in Silver City every year. For a while they cleaned up and repaired the damages, but a little bit of Main Street was washing away with each flood. By 1895, it was basically a ditch. That year the flooding was MUCH worse than normal. According to the Silver City Enterprise from July 22 of that year, “…an immense wave twelve feet in height and three hundred feet in width, carrying with it everything movable in its path…” blasted through town. The raging waters took out six or seven large trees and the front and side walls of the Enterprise building fell. After that one, the townspeople threw up their hands and built a foot bridge over the gulch that was once Main Street. In 1902 a second devastating flood carved it even deeper. I’m not sure how deep it is now, but it looks to be at least 30′ or so to the bottom. After looking at the exhibits, we walked across what was once Main Street. It is technically San Vicente Creek, but the locals just call it “the big ditch”. Downtown we found the Little Toad Creek Brewery for lunch, which was very good. Then we walked around town a little bit, popping in to see the offerings at the Ice Cream Emporium. They make all their own stuff, and we were both suckered in by the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie flavor. It sounds weird, but tasted delicious…just like a cookie, but cold. After running a couple of errands, I spent the afternoon writing.

While at the Visitor Center I saw a sign about Dangerous Dan. It piqued my interest, and you know that means a little research. LOL. Dan Tucker was a Canadian who ventured into New Mexico in the 1870s. It is amazing to me how many men back then were of seriously questionable repute, some even likely murderers like the guy from the last post, yet became lawmen. Of course, those times were rough and Johnny Laws were few and far between, so I guess needs must. In Dan’s case, the man of few words was suspected of having fled Colorado after stabbing a man to death. It’s all about who you know, though, and Harvey Whitehill (a famous NM sheriff in his own right) took a liking to Dan, hiring him as his deputy. It didn’t take long for him to start working on his future moniker. He shot a Mexican man who was fleeing after stabbing another man. A year later he shot another drunk Mexican man who was throwing rocks at passers-by without ever saying a word to him! No charges were ever filed on that one, and the legend of Dangerous Dan was born. A little later, he shot a fleeing thief and killed two people in a gunfight (a third escaped). In 1878 while still a deputy sheriff, he also became Silver City’s first Marshal. He was effective in reducing the crime rate, mostly because he did not hesitate to use his guns and people were afraid of him. He patrolled the streets with a double-barrel shotgun in addition to his sidearm, and tossed many more bodies on the pile over the next few years. He was never convicted, but was arrested for a shooting in 1882. He later worked as a shotgun messenger for Wells Fargo, as a Special Officer for the Southern Pacific Railroad, and even owned a saloon in Deming, New Mexico. In 1885 he was appointed a Deputy US Marshall, a position he held until resigning in 1888. In 1892 Dangerous Dan left Grant County and rode off into the sunset, never to be seen again by any of his acquaintances. Some historians say this virtually unknown was more dangerous than many of the names we all know, like Wild Bill and Wyatt. Who knows, but it makes for an interesting story.

Wednesday we were up and out early for the long drive over to Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in Mimbres, New Mexico. Although it is only 44 miles from Silver City, the winding mountainous roads make it at least a 1-1/2 hour drive. NM-15 north, part of the Trail of the Mountain Spirits National Scenic Byway, would be totally worth it, though, even if the cliff dwellings weren’t the objective. The scenery was amazing, and we saw more wildlife than we have in months including dozens of mule deer, rabbits, mice, lots of lizards, and squirrels, plus some free range cattle. The first mule deer herd was a bit perplexing. There were about 5 or 6 standing in the middle of the road as we rounded a bend. They looked up briefly, but then most of them just kept LICKING the pavement. We inched up slowly, and finally they walked off of the road, but were clearly waiting for us to pass so they could get back at whatever it was. There was nothing noticeable on the pavement, so we speculated maybe saline, although how would it have gotten there??!! Odd! We stopped at the Copperas Vista, with wide open views of the Gila River Valley and some beautiful tile work on the overlook. Then made it to the national monument, for which, like so many others parks, we can thank Theodore Roosevelt. While these caves have surely been used by many cultures in the past, archaeologists call the most recent the Tularosa Mogollon, who they believe arrived around 750 years ago and lived in the caves for approximately 30 years. Why? There is really no way to know for sure, but there is evidence of a great drought in the same time period, so maybe they escaped the heat of the desert. In addition to being a perfect location to keep out of the elements, there is a nearby year-round stream and plenty of plants for a variety of uses, including food. There is evidence that they grew corn, beans, and squash, and that mule deer, elk, and bison were hunted nearby. Just as there is uncertainty about their arrival, the reason they left is also unknown. I found it fascinating that they carted slabs of conglomerate rock, wood, and clay up the steep slopes to build FORTY rooms in the caves. There are several opportunities for hiking in a range of distances where you might see many different animals including javelina, beavers, and mountain lions. We hiked the 1-mile loop to the cave dwellings, which you can only do if the Visitor Center is open and you’re willing to go up and down a few stairs. Well really, more than a few. Before heading back, we met Jerry and Barbara from Beaumont, Texas, who were spending a month on the road making a big loop in their U-shaped pull-behind. I can definitely see MW using something like that to go without me! On the return drive, we went east on NM-35 to Lake Roberts to see if the store was open, then went back to NM-15 and headed back to Silver City. On the way back into town we stopped at W & Z Asian Bistro & Sushi Bar, which was pretty darned good and a local hot spot. Later, after dropping MW off at Priscilla, I headed up to DQ Grill & Chill and parked myself in a corner to write. After being there only a few minutes a woman and her 9-year-old niece sat down. The kid immediately started asking me questions…what are you working on…where did you get your computer cover…do you live here? She was very sweet, and I ended up talking to both of them while they ate their ice cream. So…didn’t get as much done as I would like, but did spend some time with a sweet kid. You know, sometimes people just need to talk. On the way back to the campground, I picked up a burger from Blake’s Lotaburger for MW.

You know it isn’t often that we give a private park two thumbs up, Rose Valley RV Ranch & Casitas really was awesome. Plus, we got to take a trip down Memory Lane to get there. Not looking back at our lives…just a road that ended in a cemetery. This park, which was originally the 430-acre Rosedale Jersey Dairy, offers a park office, gathering room, laundry room, walking trail, a group facility, and a clean bathhouse. Lodging options include casitas spread out in the campground, and 69 RV sites, both back in and pull-through, with full-hookup and free wifi. What sets it apart from many private parks, though, is the 20 feet of green space between the sites. There are walls to block some sun and sitting areas, too, plus some kitschy, western-themed decorations. We saw lots of rabbits and Gambel’s quail, too. Although it is a bit on the expensive side, we would definitely stay here again. For this visit in May 2024 we paid about $58 per night.

We didn’t have too far to go on Thursday, so hung around at the campground until about 10 AM. Then we headed northwest out of town on US-180. At Glenwood, we stopped for lunch at the Trading Post, a cute little gas and gift stop with a few options for lunch. Back on the road, we continued northwest crossing into Arizona and the gorgeous area of Alpine. Did you have any idea that there was a town in the mountains in SOUTHEAST Arizona that is green, lush, and covered with trees? Me neither! That whole trip on US-82 over the mountains was beautiful, but I was enthralled by this little town. Sitting at a bit over 8,000′ in Bush Valley, it reminds me of the mountain communities in Colorado or Tennessee. Surrounded by the woods of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, it has a full-time population of just under 150 people. Thanks to the altitude and weather patterns, it is much wetter than the locations on either end of that drive in New Mexico or Arizona. Summer daytime temps are moderate, and there can be a frost at night even in July and August. (Doesn’t that sound like my kind of place?) Here are the problems, though, as MW sees them: 1) In the winter it is very cold with temps below zero often. 2) They average around 45 inches of snow every winter, and the record is 114ish in a season. Try as I might, MW just won’t get on board with that. I REALLY enjoyed that, despite it being hotter than blue blazes at the lower altitudes, it was a heavenly 51 degrees as we passed through!! Also, although I wasn’t able to catch a pic, we passed a herd of about 30 elk in a field at the edge of town. Honestly, if you get a chance to take that drive, don’t miss it. A little later we passed through Eager and Springerville and ended the drive north of town at Lyman Lake State Park. The weather was beautiful except for a little smattering of rain for a few minutes in the mountains. The atlas wasn’t lying with that scenic drive marking, either. We passed west of the Mogollon Mountains, the location of the cliff dwellings we visited on Wednesday, and then east of the San Francisco Mountains. It doesn’t get more beautiful than that! Upon arrival at the park, we were told that there are wild horses that frequent the acreage right next door to our site. They showed up in the evening, and it was awesome!

Friday I, once again, headed out to do the chore at the OK Laundromat in Eagar. It was a small, but clean place and I was able to get in and out pretty quick. There I met a lovely couple from California who were making a big circle in their Airstream and headed to Lyman Lakes. (We saw them again later at the campground when out for a walk.) When the job was done, I stopped in at the X A Bar & Grill in Springerville for lunch and a bit of writing before picking up a few groceries and heading back to Priscilla. Of course, I took MW some supper, too.

Saturday we checked out the Springerville Visitor Center and Museum, which was pretty cool. A few things I learned:

  • Chief Alchesay was the last chief of the White Mountain Apache Tribe. When he was not yet 20, he enlisted with the Army as an Apache scout. He served for 2 years and received the Medal of Honor for his part in the campaign to get roving bands of Apaches to the reservations. He served as an advisor to General George Crook, both on his march into the Sierra Madre in Mexico while still in the Army and later in his surrender talks with Geronimo. He met with Presidents Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, and Warren Harding in Washington, D.C. to discuss Indian issues, and converted to Christianity with the help of the Lutheran Apache Mission Church. His link to Springerville was merchant Gustav Becker, a friend he met through negotiations and trade while at Fort Apache. He was known to come visit, leading a large contingent of wives and other Indians and camping at the edge of town. Later Becker would honor his friend by naming his new hotel on Main Street the Apache Chief Hotel. A large copy of the photo below hung in the lobby. He was a good looking man!
  • An interesting fellow named Allen Grant Wilson once served as the Springerville Town Marshal and the Apache County Game Warden. Originally from the Detroit area, this lawyer had a good business there, but realizing that some of his clients were tied to the Mafia, left it all behind and hitched a freight train west. He ended up in Springerville after marrying a girl from town. Al was a real straight shooter and truly believed that “whatever applies to one person, applies to everyone”. So much so that he once arrested his wife for busting the limit when she was out fishing with their grandson. I wonder who slept on the couch that night?
  • Mrs. Bertha Wahl was part of a well known local family who came to the area from New Mexico to raise sheep. The story goes that Mrs. Wahl promised a sheep herder that if he would work for her for seven years, she would give him her daughter, Bertha. In any case, the sheep herder worked out the time, then demanded the daughter. Mrs. Wahl refused, so the man waited outside one night and shot her through the window. Some say she was joking with the original commitment, but it sounds pretty biblical to me. The lesson…don’t make promises you don’t intend to keep, even if you are joking!
  • Okay, this was just too funny not to include. This was on a display and is exactly as told by Milo Wiltbank: “As a lad living at the old ranch, we children had to ride six miles each day to school, so come rain or shine old King and Dot was under saddle ready to make the trip. One day I came riding home before noon. Of course Pop wanted to know what the trouble was. He finally got it out of me. I had been kicked out of school, so he said, ‘Get on that horse and we will go see what the trouble is.’ So away we went six more miles to that little pole and mud schoolhouse with corner fireplace and dirt floor – seven grades and twenty-nine students. On reaching the school we tied up our horse. Mr. Sherwood, the teacher, asked Pop what he wanted, ‘Want to know why you kicked my kid out of school!’ said Pop. ‘I kicked him out because he was such a smart aleck”, said the teacher. ‘What did he do?’ asked Pop. ‘It was not what he did, it was what he said’ said the teacher. ‘What did he say?’ ‘Well, I asked him who signed the Declaration of Independence’ said the teacher, and he looked up at me and said, ‘I don’t know who did, but I sure as hell didn’t.’ ‘So you see Pacer (my father’s nickname) I just had to get rid of him.’ Then Pop reached over and tapped Sherwood on the shoulder and said, ‘Now look here Sherwood, my kid seldom lies and if he said he didn’t sign the damn thing, I don’t think he did either.’ Well, Pop had no more to say to the teacher, but my heart swelled with pride for it was the first time Pop had ever stuck up for me. So home we did again ride, at last coming to the last gate to the home pasture, I got down to open it and he looked down at me and said, ‘Now you mean little devil, you tell me the truth, did you or didn’t you sign whatever that fool thing was?'”
  • The Duke has a link to this valley, too. John Wayne purchased around 4,000 acres outside of Phoenix, Arizona, as an investment. Originally planted in cotton, he paid a company to farm it for him, but soon realized they didn’t know what they were doing. On visits, he noticed his neighbor’s crop was amazing. When asking around, he learned that Louis Johnson brought in more cotton per acre than anyone else in the area. Wayne flew Johnson out to California to talk (he was in the middle of filming and couldn’t get away) and a lifelong friendship began. At first Wayne paid Johnson to manage his farm, too, with generous bonuses for higher production. It wasn’t long before he decided they needed to be partners. The two ranches were merged and became one of the largest spreads in Arizona. Although not doing most of the work at the farm, Wayne was a frequent visitor. Johnson’s wife helped him get in shape for new film roles, and he often brought his family to visit. In the 1960s, water allocations in Arizona caused issues with growing cotton, so the farm became the Red River Ranch Cattle Company. They added a feedlot in Stanfield (that eventually grew to 85,000 head) and then added more than 50,000 acres right near here in Eagar. Called the 26-Bar Ranch, the property was once owned by the Mars Candy family and was a portion of the Milky Way Hereford Ranch. Wayne loved coming to Arizona and working with Louis. He felt his kids learned valuable lessons on the ranch and away from Hollywood. Arizonans also loved Wayne. Today a portion of AZ-347 is named the John Wayne Parkway. The partnership and friendship between John Wayne and Louis Johnson lasted for the rest of Wayne’s life. With his friend and partner gone, Johnson decided it was time to retire from the cattle business. We took the short ride out to see what we could of the ranch. It is now owned by the Hopi Tribe of Arizona. Sadly, the surrounding valley that was once all cattle is now a lot of houses.

Back in town we had lunch at TrailRiders in Eagar, then made a quick grocery run. On the way back to Priscilla we noticed one of those yellow, school bus stop signs and cracked up when we looked down the road where it was located. See the pic below.

Sunday started with a bike ride around the campground. That’s really not smart, because it takes me forever to cool back down, but I wasn’t thinking. After I managed to get myself together, we went to services at the First Southern Baptist Church in Springerville. There the pastor, Acey Martin, was very welcoming and talked about checking our owner’s manual…the Bible. For lunch we headed down the street to Safire, which was a little Mexican and American. (Slow service, good food.) Before heading back I needed some eye drops, so we happened in to Western Drug. Wow! That place has a little bit of everything! It required some wandering around. Back at the campground, we went up to Rattlesnake Point Pueblo, which is the ruins of a village of Pueblo Indian ancestors occupied more than 1000 years ago. It was HOT, but the views of the Little Colorado River were awesome. We also got pics of the rest of the campground before heading back to the campsite. I sat outside in the shade writing and watching the animals until the wind got the better of me. The heat isn’t bad at all in the shade, though.

SIDE NOTE: MW noticed something while he was fixing his sandwich:

Monday, May 20, we broke our regular routine and stayed parked at Lyman Lake. With the holiday weekend coming up and one of our Boogers flying to meet us, we needed to jostle the timeframes a bit. Instead we headed out mid-morning to drive the big loop from Eagar over to Show Low, then up to Hunt, southeast to St. Johns, and back to the campground. Wow, what a drive! It runs through parts of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest and a corner of the White Mountain Apache Tribe reservation. The drive is a climb up into the mountains high enough to be in the forests and require a LOT of snow fences in open areas. We passed the entrance to Sunrise Park Resort, a large ski area that offers mountain biking and other activities in the summer. Up there the temps were in the low 60s…heaven! At Pinetop-Lakeside we stopped at Red Devil Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria for lunch. (Excellent pizza!) Similar to the place in Eagar, they had a table set aside to honor POW-MIAs. That really makes me smile, especially near Memorial Day. Back on the road I was pretty surprised that the urban area basically ran from there all the way to the other side of Show Low, which was much larger than expected. Where the drive up had been fairly uncrowded, after leaving the urban sprawl, we were pretty much in traffic for most of the drive back. That was a bummer, but the scenery was still gorgeous. I just love the wide, open spaces!

INTERESTING: The town of Show Low was so named because of a fight for control between ranching partners Corydon E. Cooley and Marion Clark. Together they owned 100,000 acres, but decided that the community just wasn’t big enough for both of them. To settle the issue, they played poker. Of course, whenever you have a monumental decision to make, you should always play a game, right??!! After going all night without a winner, one of them said “If you show low, you win.” That became the town’s moniker, and the main street is Deuce of Clubs.

Lyman Lake State Park is pretty darned amazing. The 1,200 acre park sits at about 6,000′ elevation and encircles the reservoir on the Little Colorado River. St. Johns is about 15 minutes away, and Springerville is just a little further, providing a few restaurant and shop alternatives. Facilities include a Visitor Center with a well-stocked park store, picnic areas, shelters, boat ramp, docks, and swimming area. The reservoir offers the full range of water activities and has one end set up as a no-wake zone for fishing. There are lots of hiking trails leading to expansive views, petroglyphs, and ruins. Non-campers can opt for the furnished camping cabins with picnic tables and grills. There are two bathhouses and several other bathrooms that are well kept and easily accessible from the cabins and campground. Camping options include a group area and the regular campground with 56 sites (13 full-hookup sites, 25 water and electric, and 18 primitive). Any length RV can fit, and some of the primitive along the water accommodate rigs, too. NOTE: Their water is not drinkable, so we filled our tanks before arrival. It is fine for showers and restrooms, though. The views here are amazing, and the noise, minimal. Sites are level, graveled, and spaced well apart. We would definitely come back to this one. For this stay in May 2024, we paid about $31/night for an electric and water site.

Tuesday it was finally time to head on west and get ready for some fun. We retraced our route up to St. Johns from Monday, then headed due west over to Snowflake. There we caught AZ-277 to Heber-Overgaard, where we popped in at June’s Cafe for a late breakfast. Then it started getting really pretty as we continued west on AZ-260 over to Payson, and south on AZ-87. The final leg was south on The Bush Highway down to Usery Pass Road and our new, temporary home at Usery Mountain Park. This was another beautiful day for a drive. We went from desert grassland to grass with cedars, then climbed up through the mountains. About 30 minutes before we got to the campground we came upon hillsides filled with saguaros. Did you know that they are 75 to 100 years old before they sprout the first arm?! This is another drive that I highly recommend taking. After getting set up at the campground, we sat outside and enjoyed the wildlife. I LOVE this spot!

Wednesday thru Friday were filled with a little cleaning, a few errands, and of course, laundry. I worked hard on getting the writing caught up, too, but mostly, we relaxed in preparation for the upcoming marathon adventure that you’ll read about in the next post. We also spent a lot of time sitting outside enjoying the view and wildlife. Oh, and I almost forgot, if you are near Apache Junction, Arizona, and looking for barbecue, Papa Bears Texas Barbeque is danged good.

Well, that’s it for this post. Next up…West Coast Loop: Little Booger’s Great Adventure, Exhaustion, And Lots Of Fun! See you on the path!!

Talisa

P. S. Thank you so much for reading! Use the buttons at the top right or bottom to be notified of new posts, and please SHARE, SHARE, SHARE on social media!