desert – kristilynk

Lake Day

I love water. The ocean, the river, a pool, a hot tub – or is it a spa? Are all hot tubs spas? Are all spas hot tubs? – I love water.

I don’t love the lake. I mean, they’re beautiful, because its water but…to me, it feels… germy. Especially in Arizona. Its HOT, the water is just floating around, not really going anywhere. Kinda gross if you really focus on it.

With that said, I am trying to get past this. So, me and my friend and our mens met up at Lake Pleasant in AZ., the mens sat at the restaurant, on the water , had drinks and snacks while me and the friend putzd around on the lake with our paddle boards.

Rule #1 carrier your blow up paddle board down to the dock.

Rule#2 get comfy and don’t complain, it’s going to take about 5 minutes to blow up the board.

Rule#3 don’t be afraid to ask for help getting into your board from the dock.

There was some shade, thankfully, it was still hot 🥵

Once

On the water it was my bliss 😍 even though I did forget sunblock!

Arizona Style…

You know you have lived in Arizona for too long when you agree to someones crazy a$$ idea when they say…”Hey, we should go to the desert and take band photos”!

The date was August 31st, it was oh about 110 Fahrenheit and super sunny. I am pretty sure that around the time we left, 16:00, it was the hottest part of the day too.

The trip was two fold, the guys wanted to get their trucks in 4×4 mode and they needed some updated band photos since the recent departure of our guitar playing friend Craig.

Cooler filled with ice, beer, ciders and burgers we headed up to the Table Mesa exit for some off road and photog fun!

Our first sign of what was to come was the huge bright orange warning: ROAD DAMAGE

On the drive up I noticed off to the east of the highway some significant flood damage. We had some good monsoon storms about a week ago and the nerdy people that build their lives and homes in the Arizona riverbeds (yea..I’m judging 🙂 )

…sure paid a good price.

There were trees, cacti, bushes, buildings not very well built, furniture, etc all washed away down the length of the river bed. I would have liked to have had some photos to share with you but honestly I was so wowed I completely forgot to grab the camera.

Back to our road! We met up and traveled east..passed through a rickety fence and as we passed by I see another warning. ROAD IMPASSABLE. Still..we continued on..

Hmm..conundrum. The 4 wheel drivers assessing the situation.

Odd enough, I was wearing my vans instead of flip flops so I decided to walk across to test the waters. You know..check out how deep the water was and point out big ole boulders in the wash. The water came up to the middle of my thigh (which if you know me…really is not that tall) and there were a few boulders the guys needed to avoid. Of course I was not done with my assessment before my mister jumped in the Tacoma and cruised across!!

Success!

Along came the others. There was only one little hiccup. One of the trucks didn’t have enough clearance to cross so we decided to stay where we were instead of leaving the low rider and driving another five miles to the ancient ruins. All was not lost though..the band photographer got some good shots of the guys in that perfect little spot anyway. You’ll have to check http://www.hogjawmusic.com or look the band Hogjaw up on Facebook to see those as I didn’t take the pics so I don’t have authorization to share. 🙂

I can share some silliness those so keep reading for those little shots!

Those on foot walked across the “pond” to get to the other side.

Before the sun went down all the 4×4’s crossed back to the other side.

While the guys were taking pictures, the ladies enjoyed the scenery and company.

And then the shenanigans began!

BOONES FARM! The epitome of teenage drunkenness trouble in a bottle..at least it was in the 90’s haha! Come on now, you lie if you say you never sneaked a slug off the Strawberry Hill back in the day! 🙂

The Wild Wild West…

What better way to show our Swiss friends the outlaw ways of the wild west than to take them to the desert and put firearms in their hands? 🙂

I wondered, until I started reading, what the difference between the US and Switzerland guns laws. There is way too much information to read through and I’m really not that interested..just curious. I quickly bored of the topic and moved on BUT the one thing that stuck in my memory is that Switzerland is number three (only behind the US and Yemen) on the list of highest per capita gun ownership in the world.

That was surprising to me..but this is not a blog about gun politics and I don’t wish to discuss gun politics sooooo let’s move on to our funnin, gunnin’ and runnin’ filled Saturday! 🙂

Necessary equipment for a day in the dirt..

1. Truck or van capable of driving through a dry river bed

2. Easy ups to protect us from the BRUTAL sun

3. Tables to display and for easy access to the firearms

4. Chairs

5. Water – that should actually be number one but I just remembered so it’s sitting at number 5

6. Firearms

7. Friendly people..don’t bring jack asses — no on wants a jack ass with a gun

Look at that smile 😉 I think He liked it..again again!

Can I try this one next?

Instructions

Carmen was shooting a golf ball launcher in the photo above. There is no purpose of this gun..it’s just funny I guess to launch a golf ball with a weapon. I shot it too – it was neat but every time it was shot, I could never actually SEE the ball fly out of it nor could I see where it landed. It was still neat and pure silliness.

I almost forgot! Make sure to add a portable grill, burger, cheese and buns to the list of necessary items!

You will get hungry having fun in the sun!

Our friends live only five minutes away from the shooting range so after we packed up and CLEANED up our mess, ** ALWAYS..clean up after yourselves! **, we drove back to their place for more red neck fun!

ROCK CRAWLING!

Our friends daughter and her guy are very much into rock crawling Broncos. Our Swiss friends and a nine year old were the first to hope in an get driven through the homemade rock crawling practice course (set up in the backyard of their desert property).

All buckled up and ready to crawl!

A little harmless one sided ramp..look at how stretched out those blue spring things are…it’s like a big ole slinky on wheels.

Once their ride was over I was a little eager to get in and give it a shot! Those of you who know me..know I am a bit of a control freak when it comes to driving. Getting tightly buckled into the back seat of this beast, sitting in the back seat with a driver – who is btw maybe twenty years old – was a HUGE feat for me. My thought on the whole thing was hey..if the nine year old did it..so can I 😉

I love roller coasters so I played it off to myself this was nothing but a roller coaster ride. I LOVED it!

So much fun!

Austin, the driver, says, “Do you want to go up the ramp”? My reply, of course, was, “YES, PLEASE”!

He strategically placed both tires on the ramp and slowly crawled up and up and a little further, maybe just a little further. I was feeling a little anxious and thinking how cool is this and also feeling a little like..I think we’re going to tip and then thinking maybe this is how it’s supposed to feel and then… ** screams like a girl, ahhhhhhh ** you know? Like you do when you’re on a roller coaster..and then…

BOOM…

He dumped us. My first off road rock climbing experience and I am the victim of Austins first flip. Luckily we were basically not moving so it was only a mere jolt when we landed and Austin handled us like a pro. He CALMLY instructed the people on the left side of the Bronco to hold onto the roll bars, unbuckle and climb out. What a RUSH! 🙂

I will do this again and hopefully no flipping will be involved next time!

After we escaped, mostly unscathed, it was time for high fives, hugs, drink and some music.

Do you think we Arizonans provided our Swiss friends a most excellent display of the Wild Wild West?