a traditional 4th of july celebration

Traditions. We all have them. Sometimes they begin in a very intentional way. In our family, for example, the birthday boy or girl gets to choose their birthday dinner- and while we sometimes offer suggestions, whatever they pick is it. We intentionally began the tradition when our oldest child turned two as a way to make the day special for her.

But sometimes traditions begin without any thought or plan- like the first time we had pizza for dinner on Christmas Eve because I had to work that day and it was an easy dinner. There was no thought process to continue having pizza on that day. But for whatever reason we did it again the following year... and the one after that... and, in fact, we have had pizza on Christmas Eve for more than two decades since that first time. It is tradition. And our now-grown children have continued that tradition with their families.

So my question is: when is it no longer just something you did but a tradition?

Last year we celebrated the 4th of July a few days early in Payson with our "MR KLUD" friends. We had a delightful time playing games and shooting Peeps. As summer approached this year, someone said, "We need to go to Payson for the 4th of July. And don't forget the Peeps- it's tradition!" So, after each couple acquired pellet guns, we went. And we had another Peep Shooting Competition- guys vs gals. And we played games.

Yellow Peeps were 1 point, pink Peeps were 2 points, and green Peeps were 3 points with a bonus point for hitting more than one. After three sets, GALS RULED!!!! Tradition??

This year also went on a short hike to see the Natural Bridge at Tonto Natural Bridge State Park. It was a cool, overcast day- a prefect time to be outdoors! After a short walk from the parking area we approached the top side of the bridge. We watched lots of birds flying near, around and under the bridge. A park ranger told us they build their nests, which look like part of the bridge, on the underside of the top of the bridge.

From topside, the bridge looks rather small and unimpressive.

It started to sprinkle a bit as we set off for a better view of the bridge. 

As we walked across the top of the bridge and then around and down the trail, we could see how wide the bridge is but still had no appreciation for its depth.

I am often amazed at the diversity of wildlife that coexists- the scaly lizards and the soft butterflies, the bright red bird that stands out and the lizards that blend in with their environment. Large or small, pretty or dowdy, hardy or fragile, each one is uniquely created for a purpose. 

Beauty abounds in nature!

We soon made our way down to the observation deck on Pine Creek. From this closer vantage point, the immenseness of the bridge was apparent. 

According the the park pamphlet, Tonto Natural Bridge is "the largest natural travertine bridge in the world! It stands 183 feet high over a 400-foot long tunnel that measures 150 feet at its widest point." In other words, it's not just big, it's HUGE!!

After our hike, as we were walking through the parking area, we stopped to watch a couple of javalina and noticed a large blackberry patch. The sweet, juicy berries were a delicious and refreshing post-hike snack!

That evening, just before dark, we drove to a high clear spot to watch Payson's annual fireworks show- a truly memorable display! There was a tremendous thunderstorm earlier in the afternoon and we were afraid the fireworks show might be cancelled. Although it sprinkled on and off, the show did go on but I left my camera at the house- so no photos. 

Later that night I wondered if it would be "tradition" to not just shoot Peeps and play games but to also go for a hike and watch fireworks next 4th of July. I guess time will tell.

Arizona Eats & Treats #4... Bear Wallow Cafe

I wish I could claim that I found the Bear Wallow Cafe in the small mountain community of Alpine, Arizona all by myself. But I didn't. They were mentioned in an article listing 50 things to do in the White Mountains in the May 2012 issue of Arizona Highways. The article raved about their pie. Since we like to try "mom and pop" places and since we like pie and since we were in Alpine... we stopped in.

The unpretentious Bear Wallow Cafe is a popular hang-out with the locals.

The Bear Wallow Cafe is very much a family-owned and operated establishment. Vada Davis and daughter Nataani Harper own and manage the Bear Wallow Cafe while her other daughter, Natalia, waits tables on weekends when she isn't busy with her own shop in Springerville. And all the grandchildren who are old enough work at the cafe. That's right- three generations doing it all, including teasing each other. 

As soon as we walked in, we were directed to sit anywhere and a busboy with an easy-going manner gave us water and asked where we were headed. It's the kind of place where tourists stand out. But also where tourists and locals alike feel like they are in their friend's kitchen eating a meal.

Natalia was our server and if she thought it odd that I took photos of my food and asked a million questions, she kept it to herself. She didn't mind talking about the cafe and was quite proud of the business her mom built over the decades. Although she joked about her sister being the "Pie Queen," it was apparent she was proud of her, too.

Taani makes pies... lots of pies... every single day. In fact, she makes at least 70 pies a week! They had seven different kinds the day we were there, all baked fresh that morning. Pies are tricky. The crust can become tough... or soggy... or too pale... or doesn't brown on the bottom. The dough can stick to the rolling pin. The fruit filling can be too runny... or too thick. It is why I buy my pies from Costco.

♥ Taani's Apple Pie ♥

Without a doubt, Taani's pie was the best I've ever had. The crust was golden and flaky with just the right amount of crunchiness and chewiness. The filling was rich and flavorful with the perfect combination of spices. We were both coaxing every crumb onto our forks so we didn't miss a morsel.

I think it is probably a good thing that the Bear Wallow Cafe is five hours away. But I will make it a point to stop in every time I pass by! You can't miss it at the junction of US Routes 180 and 19 in Alpine.

scorched mountains

Prior to man  discovering how to make a fire, there was no hot food, cooked meat or "central heating" or light inside the cave. And without the "discovery" of fire, we would not have iron and other ores, steam engines could not be invented and, in fact, the entire industrial revolution would not have happened. Indeed, our world would be very different.

As with most "advances," along with the ability to make or do something comes a responsibility to do so wisely. Early on man learned to control his fires by clearing away vegetation and using rocks as a container. Later, fireplaces were built to safely contain cooking and heating fire. Fires were not left unattended. Fire brigades and volunteer fire departments are thousands of years old. And, of course, in more modern times buildings are inspected, must have smoke detectors, fire escapes and fire extinguishers. The US Forest Service monitors for wildfires and coordinates efforts to contain them. They issue the fire hazard warnings and allow (or disallow) campers to have campfires.

And yet, with all the modern tools and knowledge, at least six times as many wildfires each year are started by humans than occur naturally. In 2011, for example, 10,249  wildfires (14%) occurred naturally in the US while 63,877 (86%) were man-made. And the 2010 numbers are even more staggering- 7,164 (10%) naturally occurring fires compared to 64, 807 (90%) man-made ones.

We recently drove through an area burned last summer in the Wallow Fire in the White Mountains of Arizona. A fire started when two cousins didn't ensure their campfire was completely out. A fire started over a year ago.

A fire that became the largest (both in cost and square miles burned) in the history of Arizona. A fire that burned 817 square miles in Arizona and an additional 24 square miles in New Mexico. 

A fire that cost more than 79 million dollars to contain. And 109 million dollars in damages. A fire that left vast areas of a pristine forest looking like a war zone... for at least a decade or two. And it will take about 150 years for old-growth forests (Douglas firs and Ponderosa pines) to be re-established. 

A fire that forced the evacuation of half a dozen small towns, came perilously close to the town of Greer, destroyed 32 homes, 1 cabin, 4 businesses and more than 30 barns, sheds and the like.

A fire started by carelessness. It is true that high winds, record-breaking heat, extremely low humidity and no rain made it grow... and grow. But it started because a campfire wasn't completely extinguished.

Fire season is upon us again. As Smokey the Bear (originally known as Smokey Bear) says...

100, 98 and 59/100... nature calls

Springtime in the desert is beautiful. Wildflowers line the highways. Cacti are blooming. And if we get a little spring rain, everything is green and washes may even have a trickle of water in them. Summer in the desert is a different story altogether as temperatures creep past the 110 degree mark and washes dry up- and the mountains are the place to be. A few weeks ago we were in the White Mountains in northeastern Arizona to escape the desert heat and check a few more items off my "100 Things in Arizona" list.

Although there are a couple of ways to get to the White Mountains from the Valley, going east on US 60 through the Salt River Canyon is the most direct. And, as a bonus, it is very scenic!

The two-lane road through the canyon criss-crosses back and forth down the side, crosses the river and then criss-crosses up the other side. The drop-offs are steep, the turns are tight and the views are breath-taking!

We gradually left the desert behind and found ourselves in the forest- Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, to be exact. The air is about 20 degrees cooler, clean and sweet-smelling. And at elevations of more than 6400 feet, it's also thinner. 

Although the patches of wildflowers have long been gone in the Valley, many are still blooming in the north country!

We did some exploring/hiking while we were geocaching (a blog post for another day!). From this vantage point, we had great views of the White River and trees for as far as we could see.

The little town of Greer (#100) is nestled in a valley in the White Mountains. It's a popular vacation spot in summer for folks escaping the heat and in winter for snow bunnies since Sunrise Park Resort is about 20 minutes away.

Greer's three main businesses are cabins/hotels, restaurants and antique/gift stores, most of which line Main Street. It's a doable walk from one end of Main Street to the other once you are acclimated to the altitude (8525 feet).

Most people go to Greer to escape big-city pressures. Our cell phones got spotty service and we ended up turning them off. Many of the cabins don't have televisions. So what do people do there? They hike and fish and enjoy nature. 

The Little Colorado River runs through town providing residents and tourists with a place to fish and play. Scorched trees on the mountains are remnants of last year's Wallow Fire that evacuated Greer and tanked their summer tourism. 

Wildlife abounds in Greer- loved the butterflies, not such a fan of the snake!

Greer Days, a fun-filled weekend of events for the entire family, are held annually in mid-June. Our visit was the following weekend but folks were still pumped up. Greer Days sports several shootouts on Main Street, pancake breakfasts, a Fishing Derby, an arts & crafts fair, an Old-Fashioned Main Street Parade, kids' games, a horseshoe tournament, a Run Through the Pines, ice cream social, lots of food and music. 

The Rendezvous Diner (excellent food including their to-die-for cobbler!) sponsors Horse Apple Bingo. You "buy" a square prior to the beginning of the parade (each square has multiple buyers) and whichever square has the most "horse apples" after the parade, wins. The buyers of that square equally divide the money. They know how to party in Greer!

We enjoyed walking around the town, stopping in an antique or gift shop (or two...) and eating in a couple of the many outstanding restaurants. But what I enjoyed perhaps the most was the daily afternoon rain shower. No wonder it's so green there!

RAIN!

And, of course, after the rain comes the...

RAINBOW! Or a double one!

We took a side trip one morning to the little town of Concho, about 60  miles northwest of Greer, to visit the 9th Annual Lavender Festival (#98) at Red Rock Lavender Farm. I was surprised that lavender would grow at all in Arizona- much less so abundantly that there would be a festival!

The Lavender Festival is held annually in late June-early July. The intoxicatingly sweet aroma from the lavender plants permeated the air as we walked around.

Established in 1998, Red Rock Farms is Arizona's first commercial lavender grower as well as one of the largest commercial growers in the western hemisphere. They presently grow 12 different varieties of lavender on 120 acres. 

The owners, Mike and Chris Teeple, bought the land outside of Concho to build their retirement home on as well as have an organic vegetable garden and fruit orchard. When they left California to retire here, they missed the  pots of lavender so prevalent in California and planted several bushes around their home. The plants did so well that Mike began investigating whether they could grow it commercially. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Festival-goers can pick their own lavender in several of the fields. It doesn't get any fresher than that!

Lavender is grown mainly for the production of essential oil of lavender, a product that is used in fragrances, bath products and herbal cosmetics. The flowers can be candied and used in cake decorations, crushed and used in cooking, especially baked goods or blended with teas. We sampled several foods from chicken to cookies prepared with lavender seasoning or infused with lavender. The floral taste is not unpleasant, but takes a little getting used to.

Lavender flowers produce abundant nectar which bees use to make high-quality honey. Interestingly, although there were a lot of bees, we could walk among the bushes without being bothered. Mike told us that the same calming property that makes lavender desirable in aromatherapy calms- almost to the point of sedating- the bees.

On our way back to the Valley, we found the Arrow Tree (#59) south of Alpine on US 191- also known as the Coronado Trail- near milepost 223. I first read about this unusual tree in a book by Wesley Treat called "Weird Arizona" and was instantly intrigued with the idea of trying to find one particular tree in the middle of a forest... 

There are several legends about how the arrows in the dead tree first started including one that has a group of Boy Scouts playing a Native American game. The one that seems the most reasonable to me is that hunters shot an arrow into it for luck as they began their hunt. However it began, the game now is to have your arrow pierce the tree closest to the top- and there are dozens hundreds of arrows in the tree.

You really need an extra pair of eyes besides the driver to spot the tree- then pull off the road and enjoy the silliness of it!

While the wildflowers in the Valley have all shriveled up and blown away, flowers of every color and description are blooming in the high country. We drove along roads lined with flowers and saw patches of wildflowers as we hiked. 

"Oh Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. 

The earth is full of Your possessions-"  

Psalm 104:24 NKJV

We spent a very enjoyable weekend in the White Mountains. What a great place to escape the heat... and the busyness... and the "always on-ness"... and to just R-E-L-A-X!

Thumb Up or Down: Up, up and up!

Miles Round Trip: 742.3 miles

Miles To Date: 7471.6 miles

Percent of List Completed: 66%

Date of This Trip: June 22-24, 2012

94/100... petrified forest national park

Which one of these things doesn't belong?
A. the Black Forest (Germany)
B. the Redwood Forest (California)
C. the Petrified Forest (Arizona)
D. the Kelp Forest (off the Australian coast)
The correct answer is "C", the Petrified Forest in Arizona, because it is the only forest listed where the trees are no longer living. The idea of a forest without living, green trees/plants intrigued me so Petrified Forest National Park (#94 on my "100 Things in Arizona" list) was our last stop on our way home.

The Painted Desert "runs into" Petrified Forest National Park at its northern edge. After entering the park, we stopped for one more look at the array of colors in the sandstone.

Laurie, Kristin, Ursi 

Once upon a time, the dry grassland of northeast Arizona was a vast floodplain criss-crossed with rivers and streams. Majestic conifer trees grew along the banks until a cataclysmic event occurred toppling trees and washing them down to adjacent floodplains. A mix of silt, mud and volcanic ash buried the trees, cutting off oxygen and slowing the decay process. Silica-rich ground water seeped through the logs and, over time, replaced the tissue in the wood with silica deposits which then crystallized into quartz. The end-result was petrified wood.

In some cases, the petrified wood is slowly being unearthed. This petrified tree sits encased in sandstone.

Many scientists believe that the process of replacing tree tissue with minerals took millions of years. Other scientists believe it could have happened more recently (thousands of years ago) during the Big Flood of Noah's time. I think it's impossible to look at these huge "rock trees" and not see the fingerprints of God.

The landscape is so flat and rocky, even sandy in many places, that it's hard to imagine towering pine trees ever lived here. The mineralized tree trunks are magnificent to look at and seem quite delicate- but they weigh tons!

Park rangers tell you when entering the park area that removing even the smallest piece of petrified wood from the park is a federal offense punishable by a substantial fine, imprisonment or both. While we were law-abiding citizens and didn't remove any petrified wood from the park, every year thousands of visitors do take "just a tiny piece" to the tune of tons of missing petrified wood. In the late 1800's, territorial residents realized that the supply of petrified wood was not endless and wanted to protect it. President Theodore Roosevelt set aside certain areas as the Petrified Forest National Monument in 1906. A little over 53,000 acres of the Painted Desert was bought and added to the monument in 1932 and then in 1962, Congress designated the national monument as a national park. 

This is the park's largest log, "Old Faithful", with a width of nine and a half feet. 

From a distance the logs look like they would be rough and maybe even splintery but upon closer inspection, they are smooth. 

Mike, Richard and Doug

Petrified Forest National Park is the only park in the national park system containing a section of Historic Route 66. Most of the road has been destroyed but the road bed is still visible and some pieces of asphalt can be found. What we thought was funny is that there is also "historic trash" (rusted cans, old coke bottles and the like) which is federally protected- and you cannot remove it. Yep, it's against the law to pick up the litter! 

This old, rusted-out car and "Kodak Picture Spot" were at a section of Historic Route 66 as we left the park. Can't you just imagine driving down "America's Main Street" and coming across the petrified forest in that car? What an adventure!

Thumb Up or Down: Up!

Miles Round Trip: 788.9 miles

Miles To Date: 6729.3 miles

Percent of List Completed: 63%

Date of This Trip: June 15-17, 2012

90/100... fantasy or reality? (Wigwam Motel)

Route 66, the Mother Road, changed towns across America as road trips became "the family vacation." Motels popped up all along Route 66, many with a "gimmick." Gas stations, cafes, diners and "tourist spots" joined them.

Disney-Pixar's immensely popular children's movie, Cars, takes place in Radiator Springs, a small town on the primary highway across the country. Once the interstate is built, Radiator Springs all but dies until the main character (Lightning McQueen) and his "girlfriend" (Sally) save it. Sally lives at the Cozy Cone Motel where the rooms or units look like orange traffic cones.

The Disney-Pixar people visited towns all along Route 66 to see and experience it for themselves, to talk to folks who had businesses along it during its heyday as prep for the making of Cars (released in 2006). Radiator Springs is a conglomeration of many small towns on the Mother Road as it crosses America. For example, the fictional Ramone's Body Art looks just like an old 1930's gas station/cafe in Shamrock, Texas.

We visited the Conoco Tower Station and U-Drop-Inn cafe on Route 66 in Shamrock, Texas in April, 2010 as we drove across America. We expected to see Lightning McQueen come around the corner any second!

And the Cozy Cones Motel in Radiator Springs is modeled after the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona (#90 on my "100 Things in Arizona" list)- and our overnight destination.

This cozy motel is right on Route 66 and is also home to some fabulous vintage cars.

Each room is its own teepee! Fifteen teepees make up the Wigwam Motel. There were quite a few families there the night we stayed, including a family from Europe.

And here I digress for a moment. The name of the place is Wigwam Motel but the structures are clearly teepees... which made me wonder what the difference is, if any. One would think that having grown up in Arizona I would know this but that was not the case. And none of my traveling companions knew the difference either. So, for clarification, both are conical dwellings used by Native Americans but that's as far as the similarity goes. Indians in the northeast built wigwams, permanent structures with a frame made of arched wooden poles. The frame was then covered with roofing materials such as grass, reeds, bark, mud, animal hides, or cloth. They are difficult to assemble. The nomadic Plains Indians built teepees- easily assembled, portable structures made of wooden poles and animal hides. They are the only structure to have an opening at the top and smoke flaps to allow the occupants to have a fire (for cooking and warmth) inside and control the smoke. 

Sleeping in a teepee, albeit a concrete one, is an experience not to be missed! For starters, the room is ROUND! It's a little disconcerting to be in a round room, especially one where the walls slope inward to the ceiling. Hanging things on the walls (like a mirror) is a challenge- and using it is even more of a challenge! 

Our cozy room was small but functional. 

Statues and sculptures of dinosaurs are common all across northern Arizona where many dinosaur remains have been found. This little guy, standing right outside our teepee,  reminded me of "Dino" in The Flintstones. (*Notice the ONLY window in our teepee!*)

In the light of morning, we noticed the many vintage cars parked around the motel. We had fun trying to find all the characters from Cars- Lightning McQueen and Sally were noticeably missing!

Tow Mater, Doc Hudson and Flo (left to right) hangin' out at the Wigwam/Cozy Cone Motel!

I remember as a child driving through Holbrook several times on our way to Denver and asking my dad if we could puleeeze stay in the teepees. We never did. Finding it on the original list in the Arizona Republic (Oct 2011) of 100 places to see in Arizona was just the motivation I needed to do it. We had a fun time and definitely recommend it. It's an experience just waiting to be had!

Thumb Up or Down: Up!

Miles Round Trip: see next post

Miles To Date: see next post

Percent of List Completed: 62%

Date of This Trip: June 15-17, 2012