Oatman, AZ

Howdy, Folks!

Hope you had a great weekend.  I didn't, as you well know if you've been keeping up with my blog, I've developed a little "twitch" that I blogged about on Saturday.  I've rested my throat all weekend and that did help some.  But, my speech is still out there, somewhere!  I've told my husband, as I've got a rheumatology appointment today, what I really need from the doctor.  I had thought about canceling it, but I really need his advice on how to drop the prednisone down safely so I can have my bariatric surgery.  I've been on 20mg a day, now I'm at 15mg a day and I don't want to go down anymore without medical consent.  Prednisone is one of those drugs that you have to wean off.  You just can't stop it, as your body might go into an adrenal gland (on top of the kidneys) crisis.  And I just don't need any more problems right now!!  LOL.....  Anyway, my hubby is coming with me, as he always does, and if worse comes to worse, he will act as my "assistant" and tell the doc these things.  I've written down the meds I need refills for, too.  So off we go in a few hours.  Wish me luck!!

OK, now down "memory lane" again.  According to my site stats, you guys really enjoy my memories, so I'll continue blogging about them.  I have LOTS of memories....mostly revolving around the crazy times Mom and I had with my grandma.  Today's memory will be the trip we took to Oatman, AZ.  Oatman is a tiny town up near Lake Havasu.  It also is on the famous "Route 66" route. 

 

Here is the outskirts of Oatman.

Here is the "city limits" of Oatman.  It pretty much is a one street town, with everything on that one street.  It reminded me of how the "old west" towns were long ago.

Mom by the "Route 66" sign in Oatman.  Doesn't she look RAD?  We just had our hair cut and colored and we used the strawberry blonde color. I think Mom's got ALOT of the strawberry in it.  She almost looked like a red head, which suited her just fine.  Me, too. I love the color red! 

I got a real chuckle out of this one!  Oatman had a lot of wild burros sauntering around the road.  We took a roadside break so Mom could smoke and the wild burros came really close to her as you can see in the photo.  They were nudging her arm and she could hardly smoke.  Good.....I hate smoking anyway!!  I'm glad she quit for good in March of '99.  She had her first hip replacement and didn't want to go out to smoke all the time, carrying her IV pole and looking like a "bum."  That was her reason.

The burros were bothering Mom so much that Grandma had the brilliant idea to dig in the trunk and get out a bag of Doritos for the burros.  Well, it back fired on us as we attracted more than one burro!  They came out of the woodwork, so to speak, and we had a group of them starting down the road, coming right at us!!  Mom forgot her smoke break and we jumped in the car and got out of there.  We didn't have enough chips for all of them and didn't want to see them mad at us!

Here is Mom by her favorite desert plant, the Joshua tree.  Mom just loved the name of Joshua.  We all know what my name would have been if I had been a boy....LOL!

Here is the famous giant Saguaro cactus. I hope I spelled that right.  Anyway, it is only found in the Sonoran desert, which is in good ole' AZ and a small part of California.

 

This last photo is the Sonoran Desert.  Looks pretty bare, huh, without people or buildings?  Just mountains.  Very pretty in the spring, though, when all the desert cactus bloom with colorful blossoms.  When I first came to Arizona, I took up the wazoo of pictures of the desert, cactus and mountains.  I just couldn't get enough of it.  Coming from Michigan, where is was all green and trees, the golden brown color of the desert was fascinating.  It still is, but I don't go crazy over it anymore.  I guess 15 years of living here does that to you!  Sometimes I just yearn for the pretty greens and Lake Michigan again.  Well, since my dad is living there again, I will be visiting him periodically and will take a zillion pics of the lake and the trees I miss so much.  It just goes to show that when you are in one place, you miss the place you came from.  The good ole' U.S.of A is so diverse as it has everything you could ever hope for.  Sea to shining sea, mountains, prairies and valleys.  I LOVE our country!!  

OK! Before I break out in song (and you definitely DON'T want that!) I'll close and get ready for my rheumatology appointment.  I hope you had fun with this installment of my "memory lane."  Keep visiting me, I've got LOTS more memories! 

Have a great Monday!!
God bless,