The blog is back in action! After months of inactivity, I am now travelling again. In May, I said goodbye to my job and picked up my passport for a few months of fun. I started by heading west to visit the family in Arizona. I kicked it off by heading to Dad's cabin in Alpine to open it up for the summer.
We headed out in the morning for the five hour drive. Here we are on the road as we set off. Dad and his toys!
Driving out of Tucson it was quite amazing to see all the large saguaros with so many arms.
Here we are driving into Winkelman. It was weird driving these roads again as I had not done it in years...but everything looked the same.
After hours of driving, we finally made it to the outskirts of Alpine. It was the first time that I had seen the devastation from the Wallow fire that occurred in 2011.
Many trees by the road were burned at the base.
This is the view driving into Alpine. You can see in the distance the different color on the mountain. The top part burned in the fire.
When we arrived, the cabin was in great shape after being locked up for 9 months. Lots of pine cones and needles to clean up.
In the morning, Dad and I did a little walk around the valley. While it was in the 50's, the sun was out at the crack of dawn. And I say crack of dawn as Dad was up every morning by 5 am!!!
From the valley where Dad's cabin sits, you can see the mountain in the background that was burned in the fire. So close.
We spent the few days that I was there cleaning up the place. I cleaned the house to clear up the dust. I was extremely entertained to vacuum the house with this artifact. How old do you think this thing is???
When out and about around the property I noticed Dad had a flat on his trailer.
So we spent sometime fixing that as well.
After cleaning up the place, we headed out and did some fishing on the Black. Driving out to the river, we were up close to a lot of the trees that were burned in the fire.
Many of the roads just had a buffer of green trees with burnt trees behind. You could see where the fire fighters held the roads.
While I said we went fishing...I really just watched Dad fish. We drove down the Black River and stopped at a number of holes along the way.
It was rather cold but there was still some wildlife around. We saw deer and turkey and some little critters.
Dad fishing a good spot.
Having fun with my camera. Retro shot of Dad.
Here is Dad with one of the Apache trout he snagged.
When we were leaving the cabin, Dad had an old sock stuck in his pocket. He said I would understand why we had it. Apparently the Apache is a slippery little devil. When Dad caught the fish, I used the sock to hold the little guy to take out the hook and then set him free.
Dad in his element.
A video of the action.
It was really nice. We did not see anyone else fishing.
Dad and I on the river with his great hat!
I had a great time hanging out with Dad; and then spent my last week in Tucson hanging out with Mum, but didn't take any pictures! We learned how to cook pizza on the grill, ate lots of Mexican food, and watched tons of movies that I missed over the last year. We had a great time and I can't wait to visit Arizona more often throughout the year since I am free to travel again! A great trip home.
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