High Country

K rented us a 4-bedroom in Pinetop for a long weekend.  She and I headed up Thursday mid-day, swinging by Club Schwoopie to get the grandkids' bikes.  Got to the "cabin" in about three hours flat, gaining more than 5000 ft in elevation and losing forty degrees.  Amazing what the smell of pine trees, a rainy day and even minimal oxygen depletion can do to a guy.

The owners of the property must be rookies at this rental business, as it was way better equipped than it should have been.  A sixty inch tv with surround sound downstairs, tv's in every room, and another tv with surround sound on the loft.  Also not nailed down was a boom box by the jacuzzi, and another really nice stereo/cd/dvd system with speakers taller than I.  Most B&B's give you some rustic (read rusty) silverware, ancient non-matching plastic dishes and let you chase the roaches out of the sinks yourself.  This place was great - tons of towels, etc.  Hope they don't get burned.

The kids came up Friday afternoon and, as usual, any semblance of serenity vanished.  We rode bikes, caught crawdads in the adjoining marsh, threw rocks (a sport one of us is much better at than he really should be) and had a ball.  Saturday morning, really early, a bright smiling face burst into view above K and my bed, wondering what was taking so long, what with the sun already being almost up and everything.  More bike riding, a nice hike along the Rim Trail, bowling in the afternoon, pizza, wings, the kids recapturing the crawdads each time a certain tall blond would surreptitiously empty the bucket back into the marsh, and a couple hours of Uno in the evening.  Really nice.