A granddaughter is getting married on a ranch in Northern Arizona next week and I decided to drive down rather than fly to a big city, rent a car etc. Don't know if I will drive straight home after the wedding or wander. Lotta great country to see.
Wander!
Definitely wander.
Enjoy yourself, be safe.
Or as Crocodile Dundee would say, "Go for a walkabout." Which really means just wander and have a good time at the wedding.
Crikey!
Take your calls, Clyde. I hear there's a kiyotee behind every cactus in that state. :laf:
Yep, calls already packed! I take a hand call with me everywhere. Also have my stabilizing binoculars.
I am not likely to hunt but want to be prepared. The young man who is marrying my granddaughter doesn't hunt, yet, but wants to. He's ahead of most men his age: good job, owns his home in the city plus a small ranch with 8 or 10 cattle and he wants to learn to hunt and process his own meat. So much so that last Fall he came up and helped my son and me cut and wrap a deer and elk.
I think my granddaughter found a good one, and know that vice versa is true.
Since I'm on a roll: The granddaughter is a top notch nurse from a top school. When she was 4 she dictated the script for a Christmas play to my wife, assigned roles to family members and directed the play when the extended family gathered for Christmas. She did it all firmly, confidently and without hesitation. Right then I said that this gal would either be president some day or a scary strong CEO of something.
Re coyotes in AZ and the SW: one of my grandsons went through a three month Federal LEO training in New Mexico. He called coyotes every weekend with a friend he made from Oklahoma.
Great trip driving solo through WA, OR, ID, UT and AZ. I took back roads from Salt Lake to here in pine forest on the Mogollon Rim. Sunrise near Moab was garnished with antelope and great red rock walls. It rained recently and the desert is all green, like springtime.
Awesome!. I always said I was going to head out west someday and still have it on the list.
Home again after 3464 great miles. Fabulous road trip, alone, rarely even turned on the radio. I'm really tired, not yet recovered enough to post a few pics.
I drove mostly state and county roads. Cameras just don't do justice to the vast sage flats, dry lakes, red cliff walls, dry mountains and I didn't try. Antelope, mule deer, whitetails, wild burros, a few coyotes.
Granddaughter's outdoor wedding was an extra pretty setting, 5400 feet elevation in the pine forest of the Tonto Basin, with Tonto Creek running through the middle. A grassy bench beside the creek held the guest seating and dais. Dance floor was on a smaller bench a few feet downstream. A bridge across the creek led to refreshments, a mechanical bull etc. Fun wedding.
Did you happen to spot the Lone Ranger anywhere near the Tonto basin? :innocentwhistle:
Quote from: nastygunz on September 04, 2026, 12:11:40 AMDid you happen to spot the Lone Ranger anywhere near the Tonto basin? :innocentwhistle:
No Lone Ranger, but lots of Zane Grey. :laf: He had a cabin somewhere there and the area is the setting for many of his books. The Tonto Rim formed the skyline on one side of us.
Love his books, him n Louis Lamour.