Flagstaff, Tombstone and Bisbee Tours

We finally got to see the Grand Canyon and I'm floored by the beauty of the rock colors. I couldn't believe how hot it was too. We did the sunset tour and boy was it so romantic. We did get a lot of information about the tribes that live in the area. We got to go to a "Trade Post" which I was hoping for more interesting foodie things but they had tons of art that was just amazing! I think we did end up buying Prickle Pear Cotton Candy. We also got ourselves some drinks for that night. 

Emory did not feel so great in the morning with as much drinking as he'd done. I had a much smaller headache. We had a hotel in Flagstaff so that was really nice. We did an underground tour and then a ghost tour. I love Flagstaff because it was such a hippie community when I went to university there. That was a LONG time ago. I did buy some medical tea from an herbalist this time.

No ghosts on the Flagstaff tours, but we learned a lot about the red light district and the saloons and the tunnels that brought in liquor during prohibition. 

We made it back to Phoenix for two reasons: Motley Crue concert. (It rained on us but boy was the whole thing a blast!) And to see the High Priestess and to get her blessings. 

We left for Tuscon which was also pretty hot. We did a cave tour in the middle of nowhere. You'd think caves would be pretty chilly. Not this cave. It stayed a comfortable and muggy 71 degrees. Very warm. We had so much fun with that. 

Next tour was a walking tour of downtown. We got EMFs and walked around watching the world light up. Arizona has a very interesting history. 

Our next stop was Tombstone and Bisbee. Both were amazing. 

Tombstone seems like a fairly small town. The people are so friendly. We had such a great time dressing up for photos, seeing the largest rose bush and doing a little shopping. 

Bisbee is a hippy town. We were right next to the Mexico boarder where a lot of hippies ran to get away from the draft "way back when". That was a long time ago. Now, there is a stupid partial wall to keep Mexicans out, but I personally think it's to keep U.S.A. citizens from running. I won't go into my personal thoughts about it....

So Bisbee used to be an active copper mine. We went into buildings that had copper doors, copper light fixtures and copper mirrors! The Copper Queen hotel is said to be pretty haunted. Steven is taking his girlfriend there for a few nights. I'm so excited! I think they'll have a really good time. The food is so good. There are coffee shops, you can still take a tour in the mine and best of all!!! It's such an artist town that everything you look at is just creative.  

We headed back to Phoenix, picked up Ann and brought her out here to the Calfornia commune. 

Kayak, Casinos and Writing

The drive to Arizona felt incredibly long with our two new dogs. We left Mr. Mozie with the commune out here in CA since he's old and needs more care. Watson tried to play ball in the car. I think if we had the windows open, all the toys we brought would have been thrown out. 

We went to a baseball game. It was a children's game so it was a lot of base walking. I don't know baseball as well as I know soccer. My brother played baseball for a little bit, but I spent most of my time at the snack bar and I sat on the bleachers long enough to be super annoying. Now, the kids have their own "walk" song. My nephew's walk up song was "California Girls" which I asked why, and I guess it was a dare from my niece (his sister). He's such a freaking cutie. 

We went to Cottonwood to kayak. I was hoping we would have a shared kayak, so imagine Emory's relief when he realized he wasn't responsible for my lazy butt. Some of the little currents got a little scary, but they were so minute! Honestly, Emory got stuck on a rock and the stream kept carrying me away. He caught up. It was so fun. I was soaking wet.

Emory saw the tiny sign that marked the path we needed to go. It was a little scary because it was super tiny. It reminded me of the crossroads where one path is sunny and perfect and the other is dark and overgrown with brush and trees. Yep, that dark path was OUR road. So we went down it. We saw some really awesome birds. Does Arizona have exotic wetland birds? We couldn't name any of them, but I've seen birds like this in Florida.

Afterwards, we went to listen to live music while we tried a wine tasting. I went with all reds except one white called "Sex on the Beach" which tasted super fruity and perfect. 

Cliff Castle Casino was our hotel choice. We were right next to the pool and at first, we were the only two people in the vast pool area. Then others came in and we sat on a chair to dry off. Emory won back all the money he gambled with and actually had enough to tip the people that cash out the papers. He didn't win more than $3.00 more than what he spent.

Writing Update:

Editing/writing B.L. I still don't know what I want to do with this. 

Handmaid's Tale, Dread and Writing

Should we move back to Arizona? Not sure we really want to move back to a red state though. There are more communes out there than out here. There is only one that we travel between out here in California. The commune out here has two homes, so we sometimes go to both. 

We were invited to hang out at the commune in Oxnard, but we had way too much to do, which still didn't really get done, so now we have even more to do in so little time. We have to wash clothes, pack, I need to find EVERYTHING I bought for the different communes. I have things going to a lot of people. What can I say, I love shopping.

This should be good right? So why do I feel so sick? 

Every time I watch the news, I'm just full of dread. What can we keep doing? Nothing being done is really making a point. I'm waiting for the sign to jump in and protest again. I'm so upset with how America has turned out. Where did all these horrible people come from? 

Ann is reading The Handmaid's Tale. I told my favorite bartender and she said that book hits too close to home and she didn't think I'd like it. Ann said the book was originally published in the 80's. That's nuts! But Ann says it's pretty graphic so it's horror in its own right. She said she watched an interview with the writer and she has a pretty dark personality. I think most people think stoic is dark.

I have a lunch date with Sue. That should be pretty nice. I haven't really been out of the house since we got these little dudes. They have the biggest fit. 

Hey, stay safe peeps. I just got a scam call. Ann isn't too happy that I laughed at the people, but their scare tactics were just something I'd seen hundreds of times on YouTube so I really just wasn't falling for the urgency. They called me 7 times in three minutes when I kept hanging up on them. They left me such a funny voicemail and I kept it for Emory to listen too so we could laugh again. NEVER ever!!! Give personal information over the phone. It's a scam! 

Ann thinks I should get tickets to the Marvel Ass-semble show that came out from Europe. I really want those tickets, but I think I missed my chance out here in California and I don't think we'll have time in Arizona, because that's where they are playing next. 

Writing Update:

B.L. Not getting much done. I have so much to edit on this. I have 11 chapters written and each chapter is almost over 5000 words. I'm cutting that done so now it's roughly double the chapters with the smaller word count. I'm a little worried now that the word count per chapter is pretty low, but it was too long before. 

Book Club BBQ, Recluse and Writing

Sue has a book club BBQ so I haven't seen her all week as she's been busy preparing for it. I'm pretty sad about that. She's a really great friend. She brought me dinner when I was stuck at home with my new dogs. I love going to get her wines, but now that she cancelled everything, we haven't had that time to travel up to Solvang. I do want to bring my dogs up to Solvang and see how that goes. 

Ann bought me a different type backpack for Sherlock so I have a different way to carry him. I'm a little nervous bringing the dogs to the commune. I think Watson will be fine. He just want to play and chew on toys. Sherlock needs to be with someone and he gets under your feet. He already tripped me. Yeah, it kind of hurt when I went down because I tried catching myself and jolted my bad shoulder. I laughed through the pain because I was more worried about comforting Sherlock. He's okay. It just scared him. 

I really think Watson could be trained to be a service dog. I don't faint all the time. It's been a few months now, but I think he'd warn me or something because he's so incredibly observant. Such an incredible boy. 

I need to get everyone out of the house though. Just because I'm a recluse, doesn't mean that I want them to be scared leaving the house. We've done a good job taking them out. Watson is getting better at walking on a leash. He realizes that a walk means sniffing and time to mark. 

Goddess, my life has been dogs, dogs, dogs....

We're getting ready for Arizona. We still have a few more things to plan and then we're good to go. Emory wants to do this 4 hr hike that is good for beginners. I hope it is because I'm not super strong to pull myself across the river, but it does look like a lot of fun. 

We're also going to do a kayak tour in Cottonwood. I hope we have time, because we're really running from one point to the next.

Since this is my birthday season.... (yep!!! a whole season!) we're going to get some vegan/gluten free desserts to take to all the parties. That's going to be such a busy day, because my best friend's theater show is that day so we're going to that. I always send her flowers, so this time I can give them to her in person. 

Writing Update:

B.L. I'm now working on chapter 6. There is so much I'm having to delete on this chapter. I want it to not be as kinky as I originally wrote this. It had some major kinks that might need to be softened a little for actual publication. When I wrote this, I wrote this for a certain crowd. Now, I'm cleaning this sucker up. I think I'll have to go through this one more time. Also, I wonder how big the book is actually going to be. 

Puzzle Swap, Cat Lady and Writing

So the puzzle exchange in August is a little HOT. It started at 10am. Sue was smart. She brought a sun hat and sunglasses. I forgot my sunblock. I'm really taking a chance here, considering skin cancer is such an easy thing to get in this sunny weather. 

I found some kicking puzzles!! There was one puzzle up for grabs that I had on my wish list for three years now. It was part of a "Fund-Raiser" and now I guess it's in all the Target stores. I asked her if she would exchange for it. She said she was waiting for someone to exchange with, but they never showed up so she gave it to me. I asked if she wanted to exchange phone numbers and I could get it back to her when I was done. She said, "Nope! I'll see you again." And that was that. 

I found so many cat puzzles that I think pissed Sue off. She took them anyways, and a guitar puzzle because she thought it was super neat. I told her to take what she wanted and she said it was enough for her. She also said she only took like two of the cat puzzles when I found at least four or five. That's okay. She'll probably think about it and grab the others once she decompresses from the heat.

Well, everything is going good in this house. My older dog has not tried to shred the newer ones.... That's funny because he's grumpy but he's not horrid. Typo (bless her spirit) hated dogs. Mozart just tells them when they can play and they listen. 

It's so fun to walk out of the room and have three dogs following me. Sherlock has whacked into everything. I'm really nervous about taking him to the commune because that's a lot of people and pets. I think he'll be okay as long as he knows where I'm at. I'm going to start backpack training him so we can take Watson and Mozart and him to outdoor events with us. 

Nuts! I just locked myself out of Tubi by putting Tubi-Kids on play for the dogs. They are reactive to every sound in this complex so the cartoons keep them quiet. I put it on to go to the puzzle exchange and now I'm locked from regular Tubi! Tubi with all the movies I love watching!! I hope we know our password.

Writing Update

B.L. I'm still editing chapter 4. Most of these chapters are a mess because I wrote them in a flurry of inspiration, but now they need to be cleaned up. Naughty words need to be mostly edited out because one of my characters might have too much of a potty mouth. I think I might change their ages about four more years to make them older. Plus I feel like the story might be pretty gritty and dark.