The last few days we spent visiting Max’s mom and taking her to her appointments to get ready for her vascular neck surgery scheduled for Tuesday. We took her to her pre surgery appointment where they did all the paperwork, health interviews and lab work. Her Surgery is scheduled for early Tuesday morning. Then in about 3 weeks or so she will have the other neck artery done. She has about 90 to 95 percent blockage in both arteries. She will be in ICU for at least overnight and then depending on her progress she can go home. Max and I will spend a few nights at her house to make sure she is doing okay before we let her stay on her own.
Friday night we met Betty at moms house and we spent the evening doing some painting in the utility room. The last time I did some painting was when we put the house on the market last November. After about 10 minutes of painting I realized that I did not miss this type of activity at all. We got one wall done and prepped another wall for painting on Saturday. We made it home about 10:00pm and called it a night.
Saturday we headed over to moms at about 11:00am and started painting the rest of the utility room. We also replaced the washing machine hoses, furnace filter and did some other misc “Honey Do’s” for mom. When we were done Betty went home to pick up Randy and we all went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant. It was called Ajo Al’s, and so far it is the best Mexican food we have had in the Phoenix area. We did not go away hungry. After a nice dinner and conversation we took mom home and then headed back to the rig. We were too full to go to bed so soon so we watched a little TV before we turned in.
Sunday, Betty and Randy wanted to take us on a sight seeing trip. We decided to take a day trip to the “Rim Country” of Arizona.
In the geographic center of Arizona lies the “Rim Country”, so named by the overwhelming presence of the Mogollon Rim. The Rim is an escarpment 7,000 feet plus that presents a dramatic drop of over 2000 feet to the communities below. It is covered in forest and grass land, and has been the home to Native Americans, cowboys, ranchers, farmers, hunters, fishermen, and nature lovers for centuries. Other towns may have woods, lakes, and mountains, but nobody else has the Mogollon Rim. Technically, it’s known as an escarpment, as opposed to a canyon. But, together the Mogollon Rim and the Grand Canyon constitute Arizona’s two most spectacular landforms. Formed 600 million years ago, the 200-mile long “Rim” was named after Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollon, governor of New Mexico in the early 1700’s, when the area, which then included Arizona, was under Spanish rule.
We started our day by heading up past Payson and to the Rim Country lakes region. On the way up to the Rim area I took a few pictures from the car. The quality is not too good but you can get a feel for the scenic beauty of the area.
“Four Peaks” in the distance.
The left peak is named Brown's Peak and is the tallest of the four at 7,657 feet. The remaining summits are unnamed, and from left to right are 7,642 feet, 7,575 feet and 7,524 feet in altitude.
As we headed up towards the Rim, the ecosystem changed from desert mountains to mountains with tall pines and grass lands.
On top of the Rim
Randy, Max, Betty. Luckily parking was close so Max did not have to hobble far.
After enjoying the scenery of the Rim for awhile we checked out the lakes in the area.
Woods Canyon Lake allows small boats with electric motors only and is stocked with trout. I could spend a few days here fishing with no problem.
Willow Springs lake allows boats with motors and is another great fishing area.
We found a nice spot to have a picnic lunch and enjoyed the crisp air and peaceful serenity among the pines and oaks.
Max negotiating the terrain with Betty keeping a close eye on her. Max can not go to far, and luckily the parking area was fairly close. I teased her that with all of the crutching around she was going to have arms like Popeye.
After touring the Rim area we headed back towards home but made a detour to go see the Roosevelt Lake and Dam.
While not a Rim Lake, it is one of Arizona’s favorite water play grounds. Located 35 miles southeast of Payson, it covers 19,000 surface acres and is 25 miles long and up to two miles wide. As we headed towards the Dam I took some more pictures from the car.
Arch Bridge in the distance
Back side of the dam and spillway
Here is a neat picture I found on the web showing the area.
Once the world's tallest masonry dam, this structure is named after President Theodore Roosevelt, who was instrumental in approval of the Federal Reclamation Act of 1902, and who dedicated the original dam in March 1911.Theodore Roosevelt Dam is unique in the way it was originally constructed. It was the world's largest "cyclopean-masonry" dam, a Greco-Roman style of building that uses huge, irregular blocks. It is now covered by new concrete.
After touring the lake and dam we headed towards Scottsdale and dinner. Betty and Randy wanted to take us to a place that has “Organic Pizza”. It is a restaurant called Picazzo’s.They specialize in Organic Pizza and believe me it makes a difference. It was not real spicy but had just enough to satisfy those that like spice. It was a nice change from the typical pizza chains. After dinner we made it home fairly late and I felt sorry for Betty. She was the only one that had to get up early to go to work. Randy works second shift so he was use to staying up late.
It was a long day of sightseeing and it was a beautiful day. Betty and Randy have lived here since 1997 so they know the area well. We intend to go back to the general area and hike the Tonto National Monument area as soon as Max can get her legs back. We are looking forward to that adventure.
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