It was getting warm as we packed up the bikes and the cloudless sky gave us a clue that toiday was going to be a scorcher. We headed out of Safford on the US 70 and the long road led us towards the mountains and passed through the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. The whole area seemed to be one of deprivation and small huts made from corrugated steel littered the roadside along the main highway. We stopped for gas on the reservation and one of the native American guys in a car produced a bottle of Apache whisky and asked us if we would like a sip but we politely declined his rather generous offer.
The Arizona desert lands also brought with them the stereotypical cactus that is so often seen in desert cartoon pictures and it was strange to actually see them towering above the dusty surface of the barren landscape. In fact the licence plates of the cars in Arizona have the cactus as an emblem on them.
Arizona Desert Cactus
We finally reached the town of Globe and a change of highway to the US 60 and a change of scenery as we started a climb up into the mountains on the road that would take us all the way to Gold Canyon, near Phoenix in Arizona to visit my cousin Penny.
Mark enjoying an unscheduled stop in the mountains
We found Penny’s house easily and spent the night boring Mark to death whilst we caught up on family things. We had a couple of drinks outside on the patio whilst Penny gave us an Arizona guide to the type of creatures that we may expect to find in the immediate vicinity including her own garden. These ranged from wild pigs called havolinas to several species of snake (including rattlesnakes), desert rats, bobcats, mountain lions, oh, and we must not forget the very venomous scorpions. We knew this to be true because we had seen a snake slither across the road near to Penny’s house whilst we were out in her car being given a tour of the neighbourhood.
Me, cousin Penny and Molly the lovable dog
We retreated to the comfort of the indoors away from all the potential nasties and Penny looked after us very well with a lovely meal, so well in fact that we were soon totally cream crackered and we took to our beds and slept like babies.
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