We've Got To Stop Meeting Like This!

Headed out yesterday morning on my way to Oatman 

after saying a sad goodbye to Vern.  

I stopped to check the map between Ehrenberg and Parker 

and who should pull over in front of me but ... 

VERN!

Hahaha!

So... we drove together and parked about 8 miles out of Oatman 

in a really sweet part of the desert.   

We ate the leftover curry for dinner and went to bed early.

My first Route 66 Sign!

Got me a cowgirl hat!

Shadow on Vern's wall

Another beautiful sunset!

This morning, while I was getting dressed, a coyote came within 10 feet of the open door of my van. Vern called me to say, "Do you see that?!"  It was very cool. I got a video but don't have enough internet to load it.

Soon after, we headed to Oatman for breakfast.

What a beautiful drive!  If you plan on going that way, hold out to camp up closer to the mountains on mile marker 21 or 22. There are some VERY sweet parking spots at both mile markers.

Oatman is a funky little town on Route 66 - and turned out to be cute, but quite a tourist trap.  We were lucky to arrive early and see most of the town before the tourist buses rolled in!  There were burros EVERYWHERE, so Vern got his donkey fix!

We had bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, gravy and biscuits for breakfast at the Hotel Restaurant. Kowabunga, I ate a lot!  They had some pretty funny signs in there too!

After breakfast we walked all over the small town.  Lots to see and plenty of tourist shops to visit.

Burro just taking a rest!  lol!

Gimme a kiss!

Don't see these much anymore!

Sign says "Don't feed Me!"

The reason they don't want you to feed the baby burros is because they are still nursing and may choke on food like carrots.  MOST people follow the rules, but I guess last year, one baby died at Parker Strip when a stupid human decided they knew better and fed it a carrot.

Hmmmmmm??? 

We finished off the day with ICE CREAM!

Tomorrow: Oatman

I had thought that I was going to head east from here at Cibola and travel all the way over to 191 passed Wilcox in southern Arizona. But the one thing I’ve learned while vanning is that you need to be ready to turn on a dime. And the weather has taken a strange twist. We’re in the middle of a heat wave. The weather is a bit too hot for me to move east right now so I decided to go ahead and go north to Oatman tomorrow and start traveling backwards along old route 66.  If and when the weather turns too cold I’ll just head south again.

 Today was a great day.  We spent some time target shooting.

I can’t with my good friend Vern last night. We had an exciting midnight went a burro came out of nowhere and started braying quite loudly near my van.  Scared the poop out of me. At first I thought it was Vern playing a joke but once I realized it was an animal I was a little afraid to go outside. We texted back-and-forth and finally came outside to try to see it but by then it was gone.  I fell back asleep and dreaming about boroughs and dinosaurs chasing me through strange buildings.

 Vern cooked us a nice breakfast of French toast and bacon and so I reciprocated by making chicken curry for dinner. I bought the seasoning packets at the food market in Parker and I carry the coconut milk with me.  I buy it on Amazon and today I learned that the seasoning packets can be purchased there also so I’m going to buy a case of each because it makes such an easy meal to share with others. I just cut up one potato and one sweet potato and one onion and used a can of chicken with the curry paste and the coconut milk and Buddy was it good!

I’ll be saying goodbye to another good friend tomorrow.

Being a nomad it’s a lot of fun , but it does have its poignant moments.

I’ll miss you, Mr. Vern.

Happy Trails!

Love,
Annie