I was a little disappointed to be back in Phoenix, but it worked out well because my friends Todd and Veronica were in town and wanting to go hiking, so we did a New Year's Eve ascent of Vulture Peak. I love this mountain! It's so close to Phoenix, and relatively easy for the payoff you get when you summit.
Our New Year's Eve was pretty low-key. Bernie came over, and we kissed at midnight and watched the Best of Will Ferrell on SNL. A highlight of the evening was when Bernie came in yelling, "Ghetto bird! Ghetto bird!" and dragged us outside to see the helicopter circling about a block away with its spotlight tracking someone on the ground. (Phoenix frequently uses this method to catch criminals.) I've heard the helicopters a few times, but never noticed them so close to home. It did not help my case for my neighborhood being a safe and happy place...
Nancy wasn't feeling well on New Year's Day, so she spent the day relaxing on the couch while Bernie and I went for a little dirt road adventure in the Sierra Estrella Mountains. Things got a little TOO adventurous... We weren't lost exactly, but we were having trouble getting back to a main road. Our dirt road finally reached a dead end at a 4-lane road. There was NO WAY we were going back the way we came, so Bernie waited till no one was coming, then drove right over the sidewalk and curb onto the parkway. It was pretty great.
The next day was a wasted day for reasons which I will not disclose on the Internet. However, I will say that after what Nancy and I went through that day, we will most likely be friends for life. We had a fabulous dinner at the Public Market Cafe that night and watched We're the Millers, which was perfect since we were heading for the Mexican border the next day.
On Friday we headed southeast past Tucson. After a visit to Coronado National Monument, (yes, THE Coronado, the famous explorer, visited this area with an expedition in 1540!), we did some exploring on our own of a dirt road along the Mexican border. I didn't realize how different the landscape is down there! It was so beautiful and peaceful and fun to just enjoy the scenery.
I felt bad that we didn't see a lot of exciting things, but Nancy seemed to just enjoy the experience of being all alone out in the desert, surrounded by beauty. Which is good, because I love that, too.
We began Saturday with a visit too Tombstone. It was a little too touristy/gimmicky for both of us, but we agreed it would be a cool place to take your family someday. Since we had no interest in taking a tour, watching a show, or buying tacky souvenirs, there wasn't tons for us to do. But we did enjoy visiting the courthouse museum. It had a lot of really great artifacts, like the original bar from the bar Doc Holliday was at right before the shootout at the OK Corral. Tombstone is a fascinating part of history that I'd like to know more about.
Our final stop on this trip was Bisbee, the former mining town that has been taken over by hipsters and artists. What a great town! We did a little shopping and had lunch at the Whyld Ass Coffee Shop, which was delicious and served bright green water. (The chlorophyll is supposed to help your body absorb nutrients. I'm pretty sure this will be the trendy new thing.)
It was so hard to write about this trip... These are all the major things that happened, but the best parts of this trip were the little moments. I was so happy to spend 8 days with one of my best friends. (How many people get to do that??? Well, unless you count married couples...) Anyway, this was a trip we will always remember. And I'm sure we'll have many more fabulous road trips in the future!
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