Apricity West 3

January 27, 2023 - Friday 

Had a nice conversation with Dale at the Elks last night. He played hockey as a goalie in high school, college and semi-pro. Three years ago he stopped playing and starting reffing. He started skating when he was 6 years old on double runners (as we did too). His father claims to have skated on the Missouri marshes for a month and a half in winter. His love for hockey took Dale to Buffalo, NY and other parts of New England. His wife passed about 18 months ago - they had planned to build a house in Wickenburg, but without her, he started looking for something else. He drove to many areas, but ended up in Congress, pulled into (you guessed it) North Ranch and a man had just put a For Sale sign on his property that day. Dale stopped and bought it that day. It turns out he lives a hundred yards from our campsite - I can literally see his house out the back window! He mentioned that he has lived his life following the Hand-fasting Rule (One year and a day), which I had never heard of. Simply put, it is after a year and a day the commitment in mind is considered “legal.” Dale is an avid golfer and dog trainer. He is very fond of and proud of his chocolate lab. His father was a fireman for 11 years and trained firefighters after that. His grandson is following in his father’s shoes. Rich was a fireman for 10 years so they shared stories. 

January 28, 2023 - Saturday 

Put our hardly-used bikes on the racks and hung out all day waiting to go to dinner at 5 with Regina and Mark. I feel like we are doing a lot of waiting - to eat and drink. Soaked up the sun for a while protected from the wind. We went up to Ramblin’ Dan’s - a biker/cowboy bar a couple of miles up the road...

 

January 29, 2023 - Sunday

Bloody Mary’s and a midday meal. We are trying to change our big meal to midday so we don’t go to bed with a full belly! Soooo we have to start eating and drinking earlier! Visiting with as many folks as we can, preparing to leave in two days. Popcorn for supper... 

 

January 30. 2023 - Monday 

I went to line dancing to give a little painted rock to my 2 teachers and watch the dancers dance one last time. 🥹

 

Went to Joanne’s for a rock painting session with Alison and her 3 kiddos - Catkin (7), Brody (5), and baby (10 months). The older children are home-schooled and very adept at painting. It was fun to see their creativity at work. Their father is Danny, who played guitar and sang in our jam sessions last year. He has a teaching job on Thursdays now, so can’t jam. 

 

We met with Karen at the Elks for lunch today. She is the bar manager and we really like and appreciate her. Today was a rough day as her heater tipped over in the night and burned through the flooring in her RV AND her mom had a heart attack and was hospitalized, but home now. Thankfully, she woke to the toxic smell of smoke!! She too was a firefighter, EMT, Rescue in Oregon and was the only woman trained in airplane rescues at the time - she never had to use it.

January 31, 2023 - Tuesday

Rich went into the Art Club with Tom. Dot stopped in to say goodbye and we ended up sharing stories for an hour (emoji). Yakety Yak!  

Back to Ramblin’ Dan’s for dinner with our neighbor, Nancy. Her son-in-law Cory’s son is bartending there tonight. Meet Lane with Grandma Nancy…

February 1, 2023 - Wednesday 

Good morning sunshine…

Unhooked water and electric, hooked up Gracie - and we’re off.  Nice easy 3.5 hour ride to Crazy Horse RV Park. Some sights along the way:

 

Lots of warehouses going up - replacing farm land…

Lots of housing for the workers/shoppers.

Palm tree nurseries for landscaping. Then saguaros...

Also saw the Glendale Cardinal’s dome in the distance where the Super Bowl will be played. 

 

Now in Tucson, the song birds are singing; quails are chasing one another; the sun is shining bright; it is much warmer; and the pool is heated to 85 degrees. However, the sites are VERY narrow and we literally have 8 feet between our door and our neighbor.

 Our rug goes under their slide out. AND it costs $195 more a month than North Ranch. We think a lot of the folks here are working the Gem Show as they aren’t here during the day. I did find a shiny penny and a quarter outside our door looking up at me - sign of good fortune!

February 2, 2023 - Thursday

We waited in the parking lot for Harbottle’s Brewery to open an noon. 

It was a favorite spot for us last time here. We had hit 19 other breweries in 2 months (even though I don’t drink beer), but frequented this one the most. Got to know the folks there on either side of the bar and they welcomed us back. Today there were a bunch of Mikes present. One of the regulars threw down a heavy metal coin with a bang, causing a loud cheer. All of a sudden the other patrons were putting their coins in front of them. Rich and I had no idea what was going on, so I asked Mike to my right what was happening. He showed me his Harbottle coin and explained that this was a challenge. If you have one of the coins, you put it on the bar and you get a free drink on the challenger. If you have a coin and don’t have it on you, YOU buy the round. So what about Rich and I? We don’t have a coin so we are out of it. Kind of fun to see who carries their coin with them at all times...

They do a Yahtzee roll - you put up $2 (one for the payoff, one for the house) and roll the dice. I won $5 on my (our) roll. 

 

Mike to my right mentioned the history of Harbottles which I did not know. So Mike the owner brought his laptop over with their website and here it is (read at your own risk - their words not mine):

 

The Official Story...well...Jessica's "Drunk History" version. But it's all accurate!

“Captain John Harbottle was born in England in like 1779 or something and did a bunch of cool shit. He sailed as part of  one of Captain Cook's expedition to the South Pacific as First Mate on the H.M.S Jackal and did some more really cool shit while he was on that ship. But the coolest  was probably when this one time, after sailing to the Sandwich Islands (that's what they called Hawaii. they must have made some killer subs or some shit) but anyway, while he was there, he met this Hawaiian chick that he thought was pretty hot. Her name was Papapaunaupu (no kidding, that was her real name). But she had a pretty nasty husband, who was Chief of the island they lived on, and she really didn't dig him that much. He was always starting fights and wars and stuff with the other islands. Her dad, Kamehameha, was actually Chief on another island too! One of the times Papapaunaupa's  crappy husband decided to attack another island, John Harbottle got hurt real bad. So bad, he almost died. He did manage to kill her mean husband before he got all jacked up by him though. She was so happy that her mean jack-wagon of a husband was dead that Papapaunaupa took John in and nursed him back to health and ended up falling in love with him. So Kamehameha said, "You know what? You should marry that awesome John guy! He seems pretty cool. Plus, he's got a great job in the military. I'll bet he could be good to have around."  And she was like, "Yeah", So she did. John ended up doing a bunch of even cooler shit with his new bestie, Kamehameha. John helped Kamehameha defeat all of the other nasty war-loving Chiefs and unite all of the islands, making Kamehameha become the very first king of the new country, Hawaii and everyone loved him and their new kick-ass country. Kamehameha was so happy that John helped him become King, that he gave John his very own island to live on and made him part of the royal court.  So, from the first day of the first king, to the last day of the last monarch, when Queen Liliʻuokalani was  overthrown by the United States and tossed in prison because she wouldn't just give her county away to a bunch of a-holes, there was always a Harbottle by the side of the King or Queen. Everyone in Hawaii was pretty pissed that their Queen was arrested. The Harbottles were especially pissed! So they said, "Fxxk this!" left, and never returned to Hawaii. Then, over a century later, we opened this bitchin' brewery named after our great-great-great-great-great-great grandpappy, Johnny, who helped form a country. Now we make kick-ass beer in his name, because we think he was pretty cool. Cheers! 

Terri called and said she was home if we wanted visit. I told her where we were and she laughed. It seems that her hubby, Jim, had predicted that we would hit Harbottles before we saw them!! True that - they work, we play!