Wild Wild West

I’ve had that song by Wil Smith stuck in my head all day today . . . and for good reason. We rode out of Scottsdale early this morning and it didn’t take us more than an hour to get to the Wild West. It’s amazing how you can go from so much over-developed congestion to vast barren wasteland. I felt like a spec on the universe as I looked in every direction and saw mountain ranges hundreds of miles away. There is just so much nothing out of the city limits.

Our first stop was a nice lake in the middle of the desert. I think it was called Pleasant Harbor and besides the fact that it was about 100 degrees, it was pretty pleasant. People flocked to ever speck of land around this lake. Whether they had boats or not, they still camped on the banks of the lake just to catch a glimpse of water. I guess that’s a big deal around here. We take for granted the fact that lakes and rivers are everywhere at home. The biggest excitement at the lake was nearly running over the biggest snake I ever saw (out of captivity). It just barely slithered its tail by our front wheel as I squealed on the back seat.

Our next stop was a real abandoned gold mining village. It was a total ghost town and we were allowed to walk around and go inside the dilapidated buildings that looked like they may fall down on us. It was pretty interesting to see how this operation worked in the 1800s. Karlo found the work shop and quickly got to work. I was just trying to keep my feet from bursting into flames as we walked in the sun from one building to the next. I would not recommend hiking in the desert in tall black leather boots!






From there we headed north and it was a wild ride. We had to go up and over these mountains:


And I have to say, it was a bit scary on the back seat. Miles and miles of S turns, each of them had a speed limit of 20 m.p.h. Luckily I trust the driver and held on tight. The air instantly turned cooler, the landscape changed to our more familiar pine trees, and the amount of golf ball-sized bugs lessened. The ride up to Prescott was a great one.

Once we got to Prescott we found a big outdoor art show on the town green. We strolled around looking at beautiful art and strange people. I got inspired by art, fell in love with another dog, had some ice cream, and just relaxed. We rolled into our hotel with just enough time to swim in the indoor pool, sit in the hot tub, and go to sleep. ZZZZZZ