my western weekend adventures

{1. Superstition Mountains 2. Jerrica & I 3. Dad at Tortilla Flat 4. Dollar bills on the walls of the restaurant at Tortilla Flat; we decorated our own as well 5. Church at Old Tucson 6. Goldfield Ghost Town with booths serving chili 7. Old Tucson 8. Gwen & I eating ice cream on the train 9. Sitting at the (fake) train station at Old Tucson where the original 3:10 to Yuma was filmed 10. Dad & I at Goldfield ghost town 11. Jerrica with cactus 12. Worker at Old Tucson; sweet man 13. Old Tucson stunt show 14. Me aka Horse Thief 15. A Titanic moment with Gwen at Old Tucson}

{More Pictures}

This past weekend was an adventure. Jerrica arrived from Nashville and Friday was spent antique shopping and hunting for records. Money was spent on Louie Armstrong, Peter Pan and Grease; sheet music was purchased from the downtown music store; and we had dinner with a friend I hadn't seen in six years.

Friday was a day of endless chili, dollars bills and drops of rain. The desert was a beautiful shade of green and the clouds floated below the mountain tops. Jerrica, the parents and I traveled to Tortilla Flat. Population: six. After taking our picture with a toilet seat (see above), we had lunch at a restaurant with walls covered in dollar bills. We traveled to Goldfield Ghost Town, where we purchased a $1 foam cup and went around to dozens of booths serving chili. A charity chili festival? We were in luck. The day ended with pie at Village Inn after seeing Shutter Island with Gwen.

On Sunday Gwen, Jerrica & I took a two-hour road trip to Old Tucson. We walked the dusty streets, where many westerns were filmed back in the day. The same streets where my childhood hero (and favorite actor of all time), John Wayne, once stood. Sadly much of the original sets were burnt down in the 1990s. Today other western-themed buildings stand in their place. Still neat. We saw a gun show, stunt show, short comedy, a short John Wayne film and can-can dancers. We took a "haunted" gold mine tour, rode the train and acted like outlaws throughout the day. Gwenie wore her Little Mermaid backpack; I wore my Jonas backpack. We were 10 again. Once we were home, we watched Rio Bravo, starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Walter Brennan and Ricky Nelson. And I've been listening to the above song ever since.★