Pretty Arizonan Sunset

I texted this photo to Brandy and R.J. on Friday night. It was the sunset reflecting off the mountains and I was lucky to snap a shot with my phone before it went away.

Chloride, Arizona

I don't know what the word Chloride means, but it's the name of an old mining town north of Kingman where we go each year in September. We participate in an antique truck show that attracts a whopping seven vehicles from across the state, creating a grand display of one whole row of trucks. Some years I take pictures of the entrants, but since it's the same guys every year I really didn't need to go to the trouble. So I checked out one of the neighborhoods.
There are some nice modern homes, and there are old shacks that belonged to the miners back as long ago as the late 1800's. The author Louis L'Amour spent some time working the mines in Chloride during the Depression (not THIS Depression, mind you) and in his autobiography mentioned his working on a bucket brigade during a big destructive fire there.
Maybe this was his house:



Or maybe this was one of his old haunts:



Here's a view of our hotel room. Can't see the room, just the water tank above it.



We didn't need to stay overnight, since it's only a ninety minute drive from home. But for years we've wondered what it would be like to stay in one of their old rooms.
And we found out.
It's an old hotel. No air conditioning. No television. No insulation in the walls.
We'll stay at home next time.

It was neat to poke around in the old houses, though. A little scary, because I never knew if a badger or something was gonna pop out of a hole and hiss at me.

1. I don't know if badgers even live around here.
2. I don't know if they hiss.

But we do have those lovely rattlesnakes and that's a considerable danger.

Here I am in a kitchen that probably hasn't been occupied in sixty years:



I took a photo of this old structure, thinking it was a storage shed:



But then I saw the pile of stuff underneath and figured out it was an out house. Yay, Shawna's got detective skills!!

We enjoyed some time with the other truck owners down at the little restaurant, then headed out at 2:00. Soon we were back home where the thermometer read 107 degrees. Dang it! When will Fall be here??

Blog Envy

I just finished reading the book "Julie and Julia," which of course many people know of as a movie but it started out as a blog. Then the blog became enormously successful and eventually there was a book deal. Then a movie deal.

If you're not familiar, then bear with me. Julie Powell was a secretary in New York City, and she was terribly unhappy with the direction life was taking her. She hated being called a secretary (I can definitely understand that one) and she was disappointed that she was nearly 30 years old and hadn't accomplished anything that could be considered amazing.
So she accidentally came up with the "Project." Her husband suggested that she chronicle her Project on a blog, which she did. And the rest is history.

And it gives me a raging case of blog envy.

Here's a link to her blog:
http://juliepowell.blogspot.com/

In two weeks I meet the Pioneer Woman at her book signing, and I'm sure I'll be looking at her with the starry eyes of an admirer who knows she's on the brink just like Julie was while she was writing her blog. How exciting!!!!!

Primm Nevada Off Road Race

Shay hasn't been to a race with me in several years, mostly because it got too dangerous. He was little, and it was becoming very difficult to keep an eye on him while working with race trucks speeding by in the choking dirt and dust.

It's long hours. It gets hot. And there's thousands of numbers to keep right and keep in order.

Since Shay's birthday was a little less than stellar, I decided to take him along to the race in Primm, Nevada. I couldn't believe how excited he was, even after I told him we needed to get up at 4am.

Saturday, 4:30am. Shay says, "Hey, I'm not tired at all!" We took a photo of us out front of the casino that was hosting the race.



6:00am. The start/finish line is ready to go, and the race vehicles are firing up and getting in line to start.






9:00am. The race has been going for nearly three hours. Still lots of enthusiasm out there next to the race course:



10:00am. Nearly 100 vehicles have started the race, and the dust is as thick as a good fog. Shay wants to know when the race is over...



Skip forward to 9:00pm. Shay is truly astonished that I wasn't exaggerating when I said we'd be at the start/finish line for at least 15 hours.



He went inside to the casino where he decided to either wish Zoltan for a shorter race, or maybe he was wishing to be BIG...

Californians Ruin Everything!

Including our air. A couple of weeks ago the wildfires in California managed to blow their smoke over here to us.

Ruined our view.

Normally this:


Looked like this:



And the view that is usually this:



Was reduced to this:



And oh, boy, did it smell like smoke. Luckily the haze drifted away within 24 hours, but it certainly did a number on our air quality.

Shay's Not The Karate Kid

I entered Shay into martial arts classes to help with his self esteem. I saw him as a young Ralph Macchio (The Karate Kid) who wanted to learn the art but lacked the formal training.

What I realized a couple of weeks ago is Shay doesn't look just a little bit like Johnny the bad guy from The Karate Kid movie, he looks like him a LOT!!





Okay, maybe there's not much resemblance in that photo....

But how about this one...

Things Aint So Bad

I wish I had saved this newspaper myself. A dog sitting customer of mine has it framed in his house, and I had to share it with everyone.

These headlines were the start of a very huge problem for our community. It reached 128 degrees (and I had an outdoor job then) and the beaches had a poor water-quality reading because of an e.coli pollutant up river. When the water heated up at the beach areas (it doesn't circulate like the rest of the water in the lake) it made the e.coli worse. So our main attraction for tourists, the beaches, had to be closed.
Up river, we have casinos, Indian housing, and all sorts of industry that was likely dumping waste water into the river. The exact source was never publicized although I truly believe the authorities knew who it was.

The horrible heat persisted, so the beaches stayed closed.

And then came CNN. It made national news, that the waters of Lake Havasu were unsafe to swim in.
Tourists cancelled reservations at the hotels, the boat launches were empty, and everyone suddenly had no job. Who buys houses? Visitors from elsewhere. And locals who had jobs. So the realtors and construction workers were on unemployment along with the rest of us. We only had one major manufacturing company and it opted to move to Mexico to take advantage of cheap labor. So there went a BUNCH of jobs.
It was a busy time at the unemployment office.

This persisted for a while, and our little town basically shut down for several months. The weather cooled off in the winter and the lower water temperatures did away with the e.coli problem. Oh and I'm sure whoever was dumping in the river figured they'd better stop doing that.

The following March, Mtv showed up to do their Spring Break series of shows from one of the very beaches that was shut down due to the pollutants in the water. They only joked once that the water was unsafe, but other than that they showed people having a good time. They held free concerts for anyone who wanted to come, and I enjoyed quite a few great shows. It was an alcohol-free environment, and everyone had a great time. Guess what happened then?

Tourists and boaters came back. We all had jobs again. Houses began selling, and construction picked up.

With everyone making money once again, it was apparently forgotten that Mtv was the reason for our re-birth. When it was proposed that Mtv come back the following year for spring break, the older more vocal citizens said, "No way, that's trash tv!!"
Mtv kept trying. The very loud older folks in our community fought back, including our stupid newspaper and City Council, making it impossible for the spring break show to happen again.

So they went to Florida.

And here we are again, no tourists and no Mtv.