Apacheland, Goldfield’s and the Swap Meet

"Possessions dwindle; I mourn their loss. But I mourn the loss of time much more, for anyone can save his purse, but none can win back lost time."

Apacheland

When you have a lot on your plate you have to prioritize your activities.  That’s just what’s been going on with us this last week.  We’ve definitely had to figure out what things had priority and what things didn’t so much.  We’ve even had to prioritize our visiting schedule.  I thought we were busy in Quartzsite.  This week has made me realize just how relaxing Quartzsite was!

Friday morning we finally got to visit with Terry’s aunt and uncle at his mom’s place.  They live in Hannibal, MO (yes, John, another Hannibal relative) but recently purchased a mobile home in Apache Junction.  They used to be full-timers but settled back into a house about five years ago.  I think they finally got tired of all that snow and decided they really needed a place in Arizona so they could join the snowbird crowd there.  We sat around and chatted but they were really getting ready to head to one of the local casinos.  We didn’t want to get in their way.  Terry’s mom had a ride so we didn’t have to go and donate again to the slot machines.  Terry calls the money we put into those slot machines a “stupid tax”.  It’s stupid because we do it by choice and we know we aren’t going to win.  Well, we can hope.  Can’t we?

Friday afternoon we picked up Roger and Lynn for a half day outing.  We had spent time with both of them in Quartzsite and were looking forward to getting together again.  Our first stop was Joe’s Real BBQ in Gilbert.  We love Joe’s BBQ.  Besides, it was lunch time and we needed something to eat.

They had been in the Phoenix area a couple of weeks but had mainly been visiting with friends and relatives too.  They are getting ready to leave the area now as they will be heading south so we gave them quick tour  of a few touristy places they had missed.  First of all we stopped at Apacheland.  Lots of old western movies were made there. If interested, you can read about it here. 

Next we were off to Goldfield’s Ghost Town.  It’s not really a ghost town because people are there.  That is, of course, my opinion but maybe the ghosts come out at night.  Since we’ve never been there at night and don’t intend to go then, I don’t really have a clue.  You can certainly check it out yourself though.

Our last stop of the day was the Mesa Swap Meet.  We weren’t there long.  It was a quick stop while we walked through a couple of the aisles.  We mainly just wanted to show them where other snowbirds spend the weekend.

 The Saloon at Goldfield’s is always interesting.  The boots and hats are hung on the ceiling.

That’s it.  We were soon on our way back to Duchess.  She’s always waiting for us.  Our laundry is piling up and in addition to the Genealogy Fair, that too is on our schedule for Saturday.

No, this rattlesnake wasn’t on the trail.  It was locked up secure behind glass.  This is what they warn you to watch out for when walking on those trails though. 

‘Tis life on the road.