All Boy Weekend Part 1

Saturday morning we left the city in John's '89 Chevy and drove 2.5 hours east. As the crow flies, it was only about 60 miles. However, the last 9 miles of our journey took 45 minutes as it was on a rough dirt road. That was the beginning to our ALL BOY weekend.

Finally at our friend's ranch, my eyes feasted on the beauty of these lilies. In the background you'll see a water wheel not yet in operation. Many moons ago it was operational and the current owner is working towards getting it to run again.

Mr. Intensity was definitely intrigued by it. At every opportunity he asked us to explore with him to find the "turn-y thing."

Because this ranch is in the middle of NO-where, they have to use solar power as well as provide their own water from the spring. Water is available year round; this amazes me.

Mr. Intensity was in heaven. Camping at this place was a perfect opportunity to wear camouflage...not that he needs an excuse.

To help us learn a bit of Arizona history as well as a history of the property, the land owner let us borrow a copy of Sometimes the Blues. I've read half the book and it's very well written; it reads much like a Clint Eastwood movie plus Apache Indians. Lots of bloodshed and hard times. The author decided to write the book after finding a trunk of letters from her great grandfather. He was one of the original owners of the property in 1882.

One of our discoveries this weekend was spearmint. It brought back many childhood memories for me; I loved playing with it as a child on my parents' farm in KY. Not only can he now identify this fragrant herb but he picked it in abundance. We also found some wild garlic and enjoyed it in our eggs. :)

Sunday morning we headed out on a three-hour quad ride, through the middle of NO-where, to find Indian ruins. Our friend's ranch is surrounded on all sides by Tonto National Forest.

As proof that I was along for the ride, here's a family photo. Mr. Intensity was thrilled.

Seriously, we were smack-dab in the middle of NO-where. This was our view on every side.

The scenery was absolutely beautiful. Since the elevation is a bit higher than PHX, many of the cacti were still in bloom. In the picture on the right, you can see how rugged our trail was - mostly rock and very steep in some places. (As a reminder, you can click on the pictures to see better detail.)

We didn't have a map; we relied solely on hubby's internal GPS and his memory of directions from the land owner. I must admit, I was apprehensive and nervous more than once that we would be lost. So it was to our great delight when we found our first cliff dwelling.

After a few more hundred yards of hiking we found the jack pot. It reminded me of the visit to Montezuma's castle.

In places we could even see hand prints in the adobe.

Mr. Intensity esp. loved looking through the windows, walking through the small doors and most of all playing in the red dust. We found out that this is what the natives used to make war paint. Look carefully you can also see yellow rocks (for yellow war paint.) Guess what color his clothes and (formerly) white socks were when we left?

Part Two of the weekend has the theme of metal.