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Published: April 6th 2011
From Las Vegas towards Apache Junction Arizona we once more had to endure the hardship called Greyhound, never again if I have anything to say about it! But it brought us where we wanted to be, Mesa Arizona where Mike and Linda left us a Chevy pick-up truck to get to their house, directions included. At first I felt like a boy scout, Arizona you must know is a big empty place and a wrong turn in this place will lead you to the middle of the desert 😊. But the direction given to us were perfect and without any delay we arrived in the middle of nowhere, at Mike's range. A very cool place with (It was dark so we couldn't see that yet) a view on Superstitious Mountain.
According to the legend of Superstitious Mountain “The lost Dutchman” found him self a large amount of gold and after cashing a small amount of that gold he went back up the mountain never to be seen again, hence “The lost Dutchman”. The legend also dictates that “The lost Dutchman” buried most of his gold somewhere on the mountain and for the last 100 years men (later this week to
be titled “The losers” by a cowboy who doesn't to be a cowboy but despite that still was one) have been trying to find this buried gold. There is even a book written about it, but more about that later.
The next morning we would sleep in late but I (Joost) was up early and couldn't wait to get outside because it was SUMMER!!!! clear sky and even at 7 in the morning the temperature was 20 C and rising 😊. I immediately loved the place, although dry and dusty the landscape is beautiful. Cactus-es everywhere (The ones you see in cowboy movies) lots of open space giving you the freedom to do everything you would want to do and I recon that that is precisely what people that live there do, although what they choose to do with it is not always what I would do with it😊
Arizona is still pretty much cowboy country, with the Mexicans on one side and the gringos on the other. Every American that lives in Arizona is allowed to carry a gun, you don't need a license and you can keep it on you loaded and all. So here you
can still see the cowboys walking around with their guns although no longer with their Smith and Hanson but with their Glock or any other modern gun, interesting. And if you feel like firing your Glock without killing an illegal alien you just drive up to the desert and empty your magazine, I LIKE IT 😊
After I got familiar with my new surroundings and pretty much felt like a cowboy we were ready to broaden our horizons with the help of the locale cowboy and girl Mike and Linda.
After getting our bearings with the help of the sun (that's how they do it there) we set of with Mike's German horse (more like an accumulation of 400 horses trained by AMG) to get some breakfast at a place called Tortilla Flat. Arriving a little after high noon they were no longer prepared to serve us breakfast so we could either risk a shoot out or choose to order from the lunch menu card, us being new bees we chose the latter. After a good break-lunch it was time to inaugurate me and Dari as real Cow people and we were going to do so in a real
old western town called “Ghost Town” specially build for new bees A.K.A tourists. Ghost Town is a cute little town build around an old gold main which is still more or less in operation. It has it's own saloon, gale and bordello where Linda and Dari were offered a position but after a short trail period declined. Every hour or so they would have a good old shoot out up main street after which only the ladies from the bordello were still standing.
We wanted to do a tour around the old gold main by horse and wagon, but before you could do so you would have to talk to a gunslinger wannabee who after selling a bunch of lies (come on dude the “Lost Dutchman” not dutch, you can't sell me that story) and trying to sell us the famous book about the whole “Lost Dutchman's” gold he was prepared to sell us the horse and wagon ride.
Although there was not a whole lot to see during the ride, the driver made it all worth while. His first question was if “they” had been trying to sell us lies 😊 And although most of his family had been
looking for the “Lost Dutchman's” gold, he called all men that did ”Them LOOSERS” and making very clear although he was wearing the clothes he is not and never will be a cowboy, well dude in my world you are and always will be exactly that 😊
This is turning in to a long story, sorry about that but Arizona is cool as were our hosts!!!!
The next morning the alarm went at 5am, but that was ok because today we are going to the GRAND CANYON!!!!
We have been looking forward to this for a long time and finally we were going. After having a good Amish breakfast (yes those people that use no modern equipment and both men and women grow beards) we continued our journey to the Grand Canyon. Being almost there Mike took a unexpected turn and brought us to an air field. Mike surprised us with a Helicopter ride.
Mike if you read this we can't thank you enough for this!! It was an unforgettable and super spectacular ride and probably the only way to really see the awesomeness of the Grand Canyon. So once more THANKS MAN for showing us that
big hole in the ground!!!!
The Helicopter ride was awesome!!!! There is no picture or story that will prepare you or can show the awesomeness factor of this place. Hundreds of miles long 15 mile (24km) across and at some places more than a mile (1,6km) strait down, try to make a picture of that. And only from the air can you get any idea on how big and awesome this place really is.
After the helicopter ride we went to the Grand canyon by car to stand on the ridge on different places to take some more awesome pictures, which you can do with your eyes closed and the pictures would still be awesome! After an hour or 2 and after almost having been pushed into the Canyon by my loving Cus we set of to see some other beautiful places. Monument valley, Red Rock mountains and Sedona were next on the list.
We took some beautiful pictures on these places. We were there just before sun set when these red rocks seem to glow which made for some gorgeous pictures(between the 4 of us about 900 of them). The girls did their poses for the pictures
what made thing complete! Never have I seen so many beautiful places on one day.
Tired but satisfied we set of for Jerome, an old little town build on a mountain and where the ghosts of many of the killed people still linger around because of unfinished business. Here was it where we had dinner in a nice little restaurant and asked the waitress if she knew one of Mike's relatives who lives in Jerome, a guy whom everybody knows but will never say so, the answer was of course “No, sorry never heard of him”............
The next morning we were to sleep in late, except for me (Joost) of course, I wanted to climb silly mountain as a morning workout.
According to the legends silly mountain (a hill really) was the place where the locale Indian kids played and rode their horses also as an exercise for the real thing later in their live. but now it was my time to play, I took the Chevy truck to the foot of the hill and did my thing (boy am I out of shape)
When I returned everybody else was awake. Most of the day we just relaxed, later
in the afternoon we went up superstitious mountain a bit to a nice place where we will go and sell gold seeker bowls next year to oblivious tourists😊 We took Linda along to attract the rattle snakes and after a few screams we finally found one that wanted to stay for a picture.
That night we had dinner together with Mike's mom who was wondering if we in Europe have started using computers already “comp what, no idea what that is” 😊 Isn't Holland a part of Belgium and Czechoslovakia belongs somewhere to Romania? 😊) Anyway it was a very nice dinner time 😊
The last day already 😞 but it promised to be a good one, we were going to visit Doc Holiday and Wyatt Earp, we were going to Tombstone Arizona, the epicenter of cowboy country, ground zero.
But first we made a small detour to the Bio-dome 2. It was on our route and didn't want to pass it by.
The tour started with a movie about saving the world after which we all had to sing cumbaja and hold hands. It was really interesting to see how this place was build and how a
bunch of people manage to live in it without any assist from the outside world. They don't give you the official story on why it finally ended, one story is that they weren't getting enough calories and were slowly starving and the other story is that the organism in the soil inside the dome were using up to much of the oxygen. In the end the insiders called it a huge success and the outsiders a failure, the truth is most likely somewhere in the middle. But we have been to Bio-dome 2 period.
Before going to Tombstone we went to a small mining town called Bisbee. Before they closed the main they mainly mined copper from the main but now they only give tours through parts of the main. The tour was lead by a retired miner with a real good sense of humor and a lot of cool stories on what mining in those time was all about and his favorite target was Dari the Finlapper (for insiders only) (and Joost being there for Russian) 😊)
After our mining adventure we headed for Tombstone, we couldn't make Wyat Earp and Doc Holiday wait any longer.
The
Birdcage was the first thing we visited in Tombstone. The bar (that is what is was) is haunted by the ghost of the 23 men and 1 woman that died there during its glory days and everything in the place is original including the barman (according to him self) A whole lot of bullet holes can still be found “and the mirror behind the bar you are looking in now is the same mirror where Wyat Earp and Doc Holiday once looked in too!” I am a believer! Dari believed it before they even told the story.
Before we got to “Big nose Mary's” bar we stopped in a store to buy a fridge magnet for Dari and a double barreled rifle for Mike (antique but still working)
There he was Mr. Earp at the first table after we entered the bar overseeing everything, “Howdy folks, please check your guns in at the door”, “Howdy Mr Earp, will do”.
After having a couple of drinks in the saloon we head across the street to get something to eat and some more drinks and ended the night right there.... NO wait, I forgot to tell you about the Karaoke 😊 Dari
and I did a duet as did Linda and Mike and we all sang together, about the good old days and something like “Take a chance on me” originally from some Swedish people I do believe. That was the end of yet another great day
Linda, Mike thank you guys so much! We had a great time and although I am sure we will get to see a lot of other great stuff I am sure that Arizona will remain in the top 3 favorites. I am a sorry that we are leaving but I am sure we will be back, after all I have to dig the hole for your swimming pool Mike 😊 I hope you guys come over to Prague soon so we can show you with the same hospitality as you did to us!!!! I (Dari) just have to agree with completely everything what Joost wrote and hope will really see you soon guys in Europe, thank you!!!
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Linda
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Joost & Dari, Love all the blogs, We had a great time with you guys traveling The state of Arizona and hopefully some day we will be traveling Prague and doing it all over again there. Have fun!!! Linda & Mike