Where is KEE~MO~SOB~EE??

Are you ready for a blog MARATHON???? I have put a lot of pictures on here because I really want you guys to see as much of what we saw as possible, so hang on, get ready.............here goes>>>>>>>>>>> We saw the sign above not long after we left Mesa, for Picket Post Mountain it was a landmark & lookout point during the Indian wars, the soldiers protected the Silver King mine, as well as Pinal City.

This is the Queen Creek tunnel, it is a straight shot, right through the mountain, really cool, yes, we did honk our horn!!

Now>>I took this for those who think there is no light at the end of the tunnel, there is, there is!! Keep prayin'.!

After the tunnel we stopped to just look around, and I saw this on a rock , so took this picture, then blew it up. It was a headstone to honor Danny 'Gus' Gustafson, Aug.6, 1954 to March 16,2003, there was a truck on the marker as well, so presume he was in an accident. Sad, only 49yrs old, but how great a place to put a tribute to him.

I LOVED the name of this Cemetery, it was quite well kept, but there were no cactus in there, just aborvita, thought that was kinda weird, maybe it's against some law or somethin' who knows?????

THEN....We came to a little town called Miami, AZ., started to drive through and saw these guys and lotz ,lotz more, it was Thanksgiving day, so of course everything was closed, but OH MY, what we found was soooo cool.....

First of all this building caught our eye, Bill & I have often said that if we were millionaires we would love to fix up old buildings like this. We snooped all around it, looked in side and saw a beautiful wooden counter, and awesome ceiling lights as well. We thought maybe it was at one time a hotel, cause Miami was once a copper mining boom town, but we were wrong, sort of,

It was a YMCA, how we would loved to have gotten inside to look around, not a chance, that's for sure, WOW!!

There has to be, or HAD to be a really good artist in town, these 2 faces were so realistic, they were both on the same building and were HUGE. There were other paintings, not quite as serious as these 2, but still just as intriguing.

This Indian fella really looks sad, doesn't He??

Now I ask you, have you ever seen a warthog dressed to kill, top hat and everthing, or a kitty in high heels & a dress? Oh yes notice the earrrings as well, me neither, but aren't they cute??

As we walked the streets of this awesome town we found all sorts of stuff, ah, thank ya, thank ya very much and lotz of good stuff too, like>>

This really cool chair, and>>>>

Zowie, would you look at this!!! It is an old fashion ice cream parlour, with the cones still in the holders and stuff still in those jars, everything you need is there, just needs a little TLC, it was beautiful and I would love to see it cleaned up and working again, what a piece of history!!!

Back to our artist, here is a fire dog with the nozzle in his mouth, and if he gets hurt he has a kitty nurse, on the spot to help him, cute!

Loved this, and in the next picture I want you to look and see what is different in it, OK???

See it?????

OOPS, SORRY, I GOOFED AGAIN!!!!!!

We were across the street when Bill spied this, isn't it awesome?? We tried to put ourselves back in time when this gorgeous machine was in use, how different life use to be. Anybody out there remember this kind of vehicle????

Then we spied this beauty. and just had to look her over, we decided that she was home made, and loved to think someone was as adventurous as we are!!

Here is the best picture I could get of her insides, not bad, but look at the tiny refer!! The cabinet looking thing just past the refer was the bathroom, we think anyway! LOVE IT!!

How many of you remember this, and 6 party lines where you had to know your own ring or get in trouble, or if you were careful you could snoop in on someone elses conversation? I remember the one my Gramma had, it was more the color of the other one there, but I loved it, wasn't allowed to use it tho.

How about this? I didn't learn to type on one quite this old, but pretty close. These things were in pristine condition, that alone amazed us, and there were so many things we couldn't see, just like these. If we lived in a stick house we would be in reeal trouble, we'd have to open our own antique store, HAHA!!

This stairway was right next to the antique shop, and the sign at the top said "Don't even think about coming up these stairs, this is a PRIVATE residence!" Don't think anybody has lived there in a while.

This building reminded me of New Orleans, I could just see it with huge ferns and lots of color, can't you?? Ruby, you'd have this building colorful in no time, I can just imagine!!

Many, many years ago, this was the car that Bill & I both loved, believe it or not, I spotted it before he did, there were so many old cars in this town his head was spinning, and he actually would have missed this. It was in good condition, basically, but need TLC and a good paint job, could use tires too!

This use to be the school building, it was built in 1923, quite an awesome building, it is now a museum.

Now this I took for the fellas, how cool is this. Both rigs were used in the mining, and now this sits just before you leave town. The truck in the truck bed looks like a toy!

This is one of the houses we saw as we drove up and down the streets, it was one of the better ones, honest!

Loved this sign, at the bottom the date was July 4, 2000

Man O Man, if you had to climb this every day to get home, you would be in the shape of your life, for sure, but it didn't look like it had been used for awhile, lotz of junk at the top, a site most common in this town.

How about this baby? It was a GMC PU with another GMC PU added, then made into a camper, will the imaginations in this town ever cease? As amazing as this town was, it was really different. A lot of old cars and about anything you could want or be looking for, but so many empty buildings, a lot of them gutted, the neighborhoods looked a lot like Mexican villages, tiny house with lotz of junk in their yards, sad.

Next step, we is goin' lookin' fer the Lone Ranger, after all, this IS Tontos park!!

One thing for sure, there were a LOT of cactus, just look up that hill!

Ratz, the dad gum government got a hold to Tonto and took his land, but at least they left his name on it! And NO it wasn't very windy, just a nice breeze, but guess it can get pretty bad sometimes.

How about this for a view, isn't it something???? A picture just doesn't do it justice, it was amazing!

Ya gotta admire Tonto, he made sure his name wason a lot of stuff, howeveer...my Gramma always to me "fools names and fools faces, always appear in public places" she was usually right folks!

Bill and I were fascinated with all the caves in this mountain, there were some pretty good size ones, look at that big one on the right.

This is what they call a 'Salado cave', because 500 yrs ago the Salado people lived in here. I'm told they made beautiful baskets, cooking pots and beadwork, probably not what we call beadwork today. Didn't see any of their work, just read the brochure, HEY, I'm not that old yet. (snicker)

This is a picture of the Salt River, how I would haved LOVED to have you all along to see the real beauty, it was grand.

This was the river before they put the dam up, it was wild and unpredictable, and folks were glad when they added the dam.

This is the Salt River Dam, smalleer than a lot of dams, but it does the job.

Isn't this bridge a beauty?? The day was so warm and clear, and so was the water. You see Bills hand?, he was being the normal Grampa and pointing out fish in the water below to some youngsters that were there.

There they are, these guys had to be a pretty good size, because we were even with the top of the dam and could still see them, the kids were thrilled to see them, but think their Mom was more amazed, it was really cute. We saw about 6 altogether, and some were even larger than this.

Here we are on the back side of the dam, thought it made a good picture, wish water was flowing out of it but maybe next time,

From the dam you hit 22miles of dirt road, with no guard rails or nuthin'. It was so pretty, you hardly noticed, but we did discuss the fact that it wouldn't be fun in the rain!

Sorry, but I LOVE the cactus down here, and this one seemed to be holding a little one in it's arms. Altogether now::::::AWWwwwwwww

Here shows where our dirt road was going, it was soooo cool up here and Bill & I talked about doing this again.

Can't ya just see Tonto & The Lone Ranger standing up there??? Great Mountain!

We went from sand and catcti to lotz & lotz of rock formations, still on dirt road.

Another cave we had to stop and look at, I tried to get Bill to walk up to it, it was waaayyy up there, but..................

He opted to climb just so far & look up at it. He is so fun!

I loved the shading on these mountains, as you can see, the sun is going down. This was almost as amazing as the Grand Canyon.

Cactus, again, when they die, the inside of them is wood, sorta like the stucco houses down here, they start out as wood.

Another view of the same mountains, sorry if I got carried away, but they were so beautiful I just couldn't resist!

We are bumping along on this washboard dirt road, look out to our left and wa~lah a motorhome, nothing else was around, amazing!

About a mile further along there was a whole village of RV's, it was only about a half mile later that we ran into blacktop again, so guess these guys aren't such foolhardy folks as we thought!

How about this Arizona sunset, AMAZING!! Dot E., you know just what we speak of! Right?

Yah, a ghost town, BAwww, we took this trip on Thanksgiving day, and of course it was closed. SNIFF!!!!!

This was one of the buildings there, but what is below is what caught our eye. It was getting dark, so it isn't the best picture.

There they are, aren't they great? We spent so long there that security came out to see what we were doing, so we vamoosed, and headed home. What a wonderful day we had, stopped at a restaurant called 'Judys Diner', and got a turkey dinner with dressing, cranberry sauce, I got both of them cause silly Billy doesn't like it, mashed taters, roll, and a good size piece of pumpkin pie, and all for $7.99. It was real turkey too, only bad thing was, NO LEFT OVERS......probably a good thing really!

Well, I told you this was gona be a mega blog,and it was. There will be another one soon, who knows, maybe even tomorrow! So enjoy this one until I see you again, and NO, never did find The Lone Ranger, actually I never got to see Tonto or a silver bullet, or nuthin' bummer!

So "HI HO SILVER, AWAY"! Love Prayers & smiles, Arlette & Bill too, & the happy Sassy, she got to go with.