A Bright Sun shining Day

[JimT]

in Phoenix, Arizona ... enjoying Memorial Day with family. We pulled out of Tucson yesterday and drove to Oracle. Visited with friends til the afternoon and then drove to Phoenix. We went up through Winkle man and Hayden, passed through Kearney and Superior and Apache Junction. Missed crowded I-10 going that way and a much more scenic route. I had not been through there in 40 years! While it has changed some, it hasn't changed all that much. A really nice drive.

We will be here for a few days before heading back home.

[oldebear1950]

in 1999, after visiting my family in California, we drove I 80 to RENO , NEVEDA, and spent the night. We left RENO, and instead of taking the interstate drove the old US HIGHWAY 50. through the Neveday countryside. It is an old 2 lane highway, and goes thru a lot of old mining country, and along the way a herd of mustangs, about 50 head crossed the highway. There must have been about 15 cars on both sides of the highway pulled off to watch them pass.
Now this was a long time before the era of cell phones, so unless you had a camera along you were out of luck.
Don't see things like that on the Interstates.

[Walt]

Enjoy your visit, Jim....and have a safe trip.

[Bill in Oregon]

Hotter here in the Big County Jim, at 103 and still heating, but storms return tomorrow. Like Walt says, stay safe.

[GunnyMack]

Was in Phoenix once. I was 8 or 10 , being a desert rat at heart I loved it! Had some thunderstorms come through that caused flash floods, amazed by how fast that could happen!
Hiway 50- spent some gas on that too!
Boy I miss the west...

[Bill in Oregon]

Make that 106.

[jeepnik]

Terrible weather here. Hey, folks are always complaining about their weather so I will too.

So it's in the low 70's, sunny, slight breeze blowing a few white puffy clouds around. Perfect day for the BBQ.

So, what's my complaint? Being Fleet Week their are too many tourists in town. The darned sailors are hogging most of the seats at the local bars.

[gamekeeper]

I spent a couple of days in Phoenix before regrettably flying back to the UK.

[Grizz]

That's a great road trip Jim. There's some good moto grooves on the AZ 2 lanes. US 70 back to Lordsburg is amazing and beautiful and has its own tone, a different vibe, its own narrative perhaps, if there is such a thing . . .

[Grizz]

Make that 106.

got all the way up to 68 in the PNW yesterday. glad for the aircon.

[JimT]

That's a great road trip Jim. There's some good moto grooves on the AZ 2 lanes. US 70 back to Lordsburg is amazing and beautiful and has its own tone, a different vibe, its own narrative perhaps, if there is such a thing . . .

I like not driving the interstates .... the "back roads" are much more pleasant and usually there is much more to see. And most times these days I ain't in much of a Hurry.

[earlmck]

That's a great road trip Jim. There's some good moto grooves on the AZ 2 lanes. US 70 back to Lordsburg is amazing and beautiful and has its own tone, a different vibe, its own narrative perhaps, if there is such a thing . . .

I like not driving the interstates .... the "back roads" are much more pleasant and usually there is much more to see. And most times these days I ain't in much of a Hurry.

That piece of I10 between Tucson and Phoenix is my least favorite drive in Arizona. Last trip down there I did exactly the reverse of your trip -- Superior, Winkelman, Mammoth (you had forgot to mention Mammoth). Mammoth is where my Great-Grandfather brought the family out of Texas, apparently because he had a cousin there who was running a ranch and also (I found out from a post card stuck in the old family bible) acting as postmaster for the city of Mammoth. This woulda been mid 1880's when Mammoth was quite a going concern. Yep, whole different atmosphere taking that route. Hard to believe a few miles west of there folks are gnashing teeth and jockeying for position at 85mph on that miserable freeway.

[JimT]

We had lunch in Mammoth at La Casita. Met with with old friends and had a great time. La Casita for authentic Sonoran cooking.

Over the years I had some of THE BEST javalina hunting just a mile or so down river from Mammoth.

[Bill in Oregon]

Earl, looking up Mammoth on Google, I see a marker for the "McKinney Cemetery" a couple of miles to the west of town. Surely these are your people?
My own grandparents had a ranch about 160 miles north of there from about 1910 to 1928, in the Tonto Basin.