It has been a beautiful week and an even nicer weekend. Temperatures in the very high 70s with nice cool evenings. On Friday, we along with 27 other people from the park in seven vehicles took an all day drive and went to a little town called Young.
Young is pretty remote and hard to get to during heavy rain or snow. To get there from Queen Valley, we drove east on highway 60 to Globe, then north on highway 88 toward Roosevelt Lake. We then turned toward Young on highway 288 and drove for 44 miles. The majority of the road is paved, but there are sections that are dirt/gravel, narrow and twisty. We even had snow on the sides of the road at the higher elevations (6,700 feet).
Young is where one of Arizona's bloodiest and most savage feuds took place. The feud lasted five years and all efforts by the law to restore order during that period failed. It didn't end until all of one family (the Grahams) were dead. To read more about that "war", you can click on this link: Feud
Our destination in Young was a small Cafe/Bar that has great food. Space is limited, so having 28 people show up all at once can be daunting, but we called ahead and they were expecting us.
We even stopped at the local cemetery on our way north out of town. This is where the feud victims are buried and is still in use for current burials.
Instead of going back the way we came, we drove 25 miles north on hwy 288 through the mountains to highway 260, then west to the town of Payson. Of course we ran into deeper snow, but the road had been graded and there was no problem of getting through.
Once we got to Payson, we all stopped at the local Dairy Queen for a sweet treat. After that, we headed back to Queen Valley via highways 87, 88. and 60. All in all, we drove 260 miles and had a great time.
Today, Sunday the 18th, we along with our friends (Pat & Dave) hosted our neighborhood pot luck. The main dish was BBQed Salmon that Ken & I caught in Alaska last September. There were 42 people in attendance who also brought a huge array of food to go with the Salmon. We do have great cooks in our neighborhood!! Needless-to-say, we all "stuffed" ourselves.
After dinner, we had a White Elephant gift exchange. Everyone got to pick a wrapped "gift" and open it. That gift then had to stay on the table so everyone could go around and "inspect" what was "available" for exchange...that is IF they got the opportunity to "swap." When all had viewed what was available, we had 10 minutes of passing the dice in hopes of throwing doubles so we could go and swap for what we wanted. It got pretty exciting as everyone at the tables were hurriedly passing the dice in hopes for that "rare" chance. Of course, there were some "hot" sought after goodies and some not so hot that many were trying to palm off on someone else. We all had a fun time and those pour souls who got the not so good stuff, said there will be another time next season (grin). Some of those items have strangely "reappeared" year after year.
Today turned out to be a SUPER DAY because after we got home, we finished watching the Arizona Cardinals BEAT the Philadelphia Eagles for the NFC Championship and the opportunity to play for their very first time in the Super Bowl. In February, It is going to be the Arizona Cardinals against the Pittsburg Steelers in Tampa for the Super Bowl. Hopefully, it is going to be a good game.
GO CARDINALS!!!
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