Over The Mountains And Through The Woods

One of the things about me that drives my husband and daughter crazy about me is the fact that, I never consider myself lost. Sometimes I end up on the wrong roads....However...THAT is the reason I always carry an Atlas with me. I don't care how smart Mapquest thinks it is...Nothing beats having a good, old-fashioned Atlas. As long as I can see a road heading in the general direction of where I want to go...I'll go that way. LOL. The hubby and Meg...They are not fond of that mentality. ;-)

I made it past Holbrook and stopped in St. Johns for the night. Normally, in the summertime I prefer to drive at night. However, I was in country I had never seen before and driving at night kind of defeats the purpose of taking the scenic route. LOL

Mapquest kept trying to send me to Show Low, then Globe, down to Safford and back toward Benson.  That is not the way I wanted to go. I wanted to stay on 191 and drop straight down to Safford. I asked the desk clerk at the motel I stayed at what that road was like and he told me, 'mountains'. Okay, so is that like 'Colorado mountains' or 'normal mountains'? He failed to see the humor...I guess it was because he has never had to pull a 40' LQ horse trailer through 'Colorado mountains'. Hahahahaha.

I wasn't worried about 'mountains' though. I had the 'baby' trailer on, not the LQ. It's so light and maneuverable that I sometimes forget it is back there. :-/. LOL...

Again, I was absolutely astounded at how green the country was down here. It was obvious the whole way that they have been getting A LOT of rain. It was absolutely gorgeous around Springfield...

Springfield had a big, beautiful fairgrounds as well, although I do not remember ever seeing any of the associations I belong to having rodeos there. I will have to check that out a little more closely next year. :-)

Not too far out of Springfield, I started climbing into The White Mountains. I don't know when the fire went through here, but it must have been a monster...

There were miles and miles of burned out forest. The forest service was actually out in full force through this strip and you could see they have been doing a lot of work cleaning up the burned out area.

Somewhere along the line I missed a turn though and instead of going around the majority of the mountains, I ended up following a road that went right through the heart of them. I didn't mind that too much though...It was beautiful...

The wildflowers were blooming all over the place...

I will say one thing though...50-60 miles of 'scenery' is cool...One Hundred And Twenty-Two???...That is a little much. The road I was on was a twisty-windy sucker...and about the best I could do was 35 miles an hour. This little 'by-way' was killing my traveling time. It was only 245 miles from St. Johns to the ranch...and it was taking me ALL DAY to get there!!

There was a lot of camping sites and trails up in the mountains and several places had permanent pens set up for horses. I thought that was pretty cool. The funny thing is....about half way through there was some road construction and I had to stop and wait for a pilot car...I hadn't seen a single vehicle besides myself on this road, so I asked the flagger about it. He told me I was his first car of the day. It was almost 1pm. :-o. Well, I guess if you are ever looking for someplace to get completely away from people...This is a great spot. LOL

I finally dropped out of the mountains and into the red-rocks that told me I was about to hit the desert floor...

And I was like, 'Thank freaking god!!'...I'd had enough mountains for one day. LOL. I know I kinda go on and on about the whole 'mountain' thing, but you have to remember I'm a born and raised 'flat-lander'...We have hills in SD...not mountains and with Nebraska and North Dakota as neighbors...Well, you get the idea. ;-)

I was finally able to use my phone and called my hubby to let him know everything was okay...He worries when I am off on my little excursions alone and can't get in touch with me (LOVE that man!!)...and I told him, I think there is some kind of dam up ahead.

But this was no dam. I came out at one of Arizona's many copper mines. Ever wonder where your copper comes from?...

This mine was gargantuan! It went on for miles and miles. In a way it was cool...But at the same time disturbing. They are literally tearing apart mountains. I mean, I'm not a big environmentalist or anything...But I have to say...This made me a little uncomfortable. Especially when I think of all of the hula-balloo that goes on in my husband's occupation. It just kind of makes me shake my head in wonder...Spill a gallon of anything in the oilfield and tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands are spent to clean it up and the EPA is all over you...and yet it's okay to rip the guts out of the earth like this? Kinda creepy!

Finally though...I was getting close to my destination. FINALLY!!!...