Matt's New Mexico (Formerly Airstream) Adventure
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I know. Wild donkey is my favorite animal that I didn’t know was an animal.
There's an old mining village called Oatman here in AZ that has more donkeys in town than cars.
Looks like you and the fam are enjoying the winter weather here. Enjoy!
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@Palmer the weather is real tricky here. Some places we want to go that are two hours from one place have wildly different temps so we have to backtrack a lot. We’re basically driving in spirals for a few months. Not to mention the states were blocked from visiting because of COVID. Some of the more remote areas like Alaska, Hawaii and Florida will have to wait for when we settle down so we can just focus on them for extended periods. AZ is nice though. I specially after being in TX for so long. Sorry @Chris
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The geography and elevation changes are wild here. I'm about 100 miles from you and there's snow on the ground.
Have you had any good Mexican food in Phoenix yet?
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Reminds me of the time about 10 years ago in late October/early November driving around a few of the states and we saw Snowflake, AZ coming up. We'd been in hot-AF weather all day in AZ and couldn't figure out why it was called Snowflake. True to it's namesake, it was snowing on the way through. Ended up driving in snow for about 40-50 minutes in car/tyres not meant for snow.. Wild place!
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@Palmer we haven’t been to Phoenix yet. We haven’t done any city visits since the Covid situation got bad again but we’re due for one. I don’t think we’ve been to an art museum since September and I need to see something other than cactus and javelina poop. We hear Roosevelt Row is suitably hipstery and might have some cool stuff. Any suggestions for can’t miss places here?
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Don't feel bad, Matt- I like Arizona (well, the northern part) a lot more than Texas, too.
And fun random fact, @Snowy; Snowflake is actually named after the town's cofounders, two guys with the last names Snow and Flake. Former Arizona senator Jeff Flake is a descendant.
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@Palmer we haven’t been to Phoenix yet. We haven’t done any city visits since the Covid situation got bad again but we’re due for one. I don’t think we’ve been to an art museum since September and I need to see something other than cactus and javelina poop. We hear Roosevelt Row is suitably hipstery and might have some cool stuff. Any suggestions for can’t miss places here?
Roosevelt Row isn't bad. I haven't been there in about a year so I couldn't tell you what has been able to stay open since the pandemic. Lots of galleries, murals and restaurants there. Everything is spread out in Phoenix so you may have some trouble finding a centralized place with a lot going on.
That being said, the Phoenix Art Museum and the Mesa Arts Center have good exhibits from time to time. The Heard museum is also cool if you want to learn more about Southwestern Native culture. If you're a rocker the Musical Instrument Museum is a cool place to check out.
If you're into Mid Century Modern architecture there are plenty of cool buildings and houses to admire from a safe distance.
I know there are a couple other people on the forum that live in The Valley that may have some more recommendations. Every time I'm in Phoenix (in the before times) I was there to see a band, eat out, and buy records mostly so I'm sort of struggling trying to think of good family friendly socially distant activities.
As far as food goes, I'd be happy to recommend a few places to check out. The Phoenix metro area has a lot of good little taquerias and some other good places as well. Hope this helps a little bit.
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Busy day today.
Tuzigoot National Monument, Pueblo ruins from about 1100…
Montezuma Well, a well spring with rain from about 10000 years ago. Cliff dwellings. The wells only inhabitants, other than migratory birds, are 5 species that exist nowhere else on earth, there’s a water scorpion, a snail, an amphipod (your guess is as good as mine), a diatom (?) and a leech that eats them all.
Montezuma Castle National Monument. About 150 cliff dwellings…
Last but most certainly not least… Butterburgers from Culver’s...
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Damn @Matt I just ate but now I'm hungry again! I love this thread.
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I had never even heard of Culver’s or Butterburgers but on the way into AZ I saw a sign for In N Out. I’ve heard of that and heard it was good so I wanted to try it. I looked up some top 10 lists and found the general consensus to be that the Butterburger is the realness. It’s a Midwest chain but they’re here too so we hit them up and it was crazy delicious. I’ll get around to In N Out some other time.
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I would definitely take Culver's over In-N-Out.
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While checking out those monuments we got a preview of an area we’ll be camping at in Feb. Dead Horse Ranch St Pk is near Prescott Natl Forest which was otherworldly. Totally beautiful black rock canyons and ponderosa pines and Douglas firs. Also there is the town of Cottonwood which was super cool. Brew pubs and live music spots. Looking forward to checking them out.
