The Adventures of Kinky Reggae: A Vagabond for Beauty

Bernie and I went on a little adventure this weekend. Our goal was to find Sibley Mansion, the remains of a 20 room mansion built in 1908 in the Galiuro Mountains. We drove down 177, stopping to see the Gila River and an abandoned house. We saw a memorial for miners in Mammoth and then drove and drove on dirt roads through the Galiuros, stopping so Bernie could take a dip in an old water tank. When it got dark, we made camp on top of a mountain with a view of Mt. Lemmon in front of us and a lightning storm behind us. We listened to the blues and sat by the fire, just enjoying the peace of the moment. This morning, we explored the Copper Creek mine ruins and attempted to hike to the Sibley Mansion. Sadly, we did not find it. We don't think we hiked far enough. We hitched a ride in the back of some guy's pickup back to my car, which we had to abandon when the road got too rough. The scenery reminded me of Colorado- mining roads everywhere. It was confusing and took us quite a

Well, I finally feel like I am home back here in Phoenix. I know I haven't blogged in a while and there's a lot to say, so I'll try to catch up. As of last weekend, I kind of just feel like I slipped back into my old life here, and I mean that in a good way. I went hiking up near Prescott on Saturday to start training for the Summit Challenge in November. (1 day, 26 miles, 7 peaks- eek!) Then I ce back to Phoenix for Amanda's birthday celebration, which ended up being quite an evening. We started with drinks at Gallo Blanco and then had pizza at Cibo. There was a man across from us who kept taking our picture. The flash was going off so much, it was like paparazzi. One of the girls politely asked him to stop, and he said no. "Well, it's just that the flash is kind of annoying," she said. "Your VOICE is kind of annoying," he replied. Long story short, he would not stop taking pictures despite requests from us and the server. Finally, the o