Flat, Not Flats . . .
I spent a little while this morning putting up Reflectix across the full front windshield and it quickly made a difference in the heat coming in. It was supposed to make to 99 today, 100 tomorrow, and 98 on Wednesday, so our AC’s are going to need all the help they can get.
About 1:30 Nick and Terry showed up and we were off on our trip up into the Superstition Mountains along the Apache Trail and all the way out to Tortilla Flat. And yes, according to their website, it’s Tortilla Flat, not Flats.
Leaving our RV park, we headed northeast on SR88 for about 6 miles and stopped off at Goldfield Ghost Town, an old 1890’s mining town turned into a tourist attraction.
But the first thing you notice here is the great view of Superstition Mountain, a really imposing piece of rock.
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The town is built up the side of a hill, and reminded Jan and I of Calico Ghost Town over in California, near Barstow.
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And like Calico, they have hourly gunfights in the streets.
What started out as an argument over a money strongbox, progressed though a shootout, complete with a stick of dynamite, and ended up with a lot of bodies in the street, finished off by a shotgun-toting bordello madam.
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Down a side street we did come across this old, rusty Linotype machine, used in making up lines of type from molten metal, which are then assembled into printing plates for printing.
Of course the first thing Nick wanted to know was did I think I could get it working again.
I told him, “Of Course. Just find me a manual for it.”
Heading out again another 6 miles down the road we stopped at the overlook for
Canyon Lake, one of four lakes up in this area. You don’t think about lakes like this in this part of Arizona, but there’s a lot of boating going on up here.
While we were at the Canyon Lake Overlook, Nick noticed his Explorer was leaking antifreeze from around the bottom hose of the radiator. The engine wasn’t overheating, and there was still antifreeze in the overflow tank, so we decided to continue on to Tortilla Flat and check it out again.
A few more miles down the road brought us to Tortilla Flat.
And after you’re there, you find out that Tortilla Flat consists of 3 building, 6 stores, and has a population of 6.
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But there is a lot of pretty scenery in the area.
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After checking out the stores and gift shops, we had some ice cream, and then watched the other visitors come and go.
While we were there, and again before we left, I checked the antifreeze leak again and found no sign of it. Still don’t know what happened, but it didn’t reoccur the rest of the trip.
Getting back to Apache Junction, we tried to decide on a place for dinner. And after a lot of back and forth, and “I don’t know. Where do you want to go?”, we ended up trying out Black Angus Steakhouse. Nick and Terry had eaten here in the past, but it was a first time for Jan and I. They have 44 restaurants in 6 western states, including Alaska, but neither Jan and I had ever heard of them.
And as it turned out, it was pretty good. Jan and I, and Nick all had steaks, while Terry had the Grilled Salmon. My steak had those slightly-charred edges that I like so much, so I was happy.
And after all, that’s what matters now, isn’t it.
Tomorrow starts our last two days here in Apache Junction, so I need to finish up a couple things on both Nick’s and our coaches.
Busy, busy, busy.
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Thought for the Day:
Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Nothing.
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