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green-typewriterz · 5 months

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hey there :) ! fun idea: cowboy/sheriff sam winchester in some southern town, maybe the reader could be a bandit and they repeatedly run into each other (maybe sam lets them get away at times, like it’s half rivalry half admiration) but there’s some creature around that forces them to work together ? fluffy end too bc I’m a sucker for riding into the sunset endings

Raise Hell

Cowboy!Sam Winchester x Bandit!Fem!reader

summary: 1800s AU - you’re a bandit, Sam’s what the Sheriff would call ‘a demon hunter’, they just happen to come by your camp

Warnings: injury, mentions of guns, demons, its the 1800s…so…, timeline may be weird, no specific season

Author Notes: this was much longer than I intended but enjoy. Also i know this is u H, i recognise your typing style

word count: 4046

You sighed as you walked past the third wanted poster with your face on it that morning, tearing it down while whispering a, “they never get my nose right.” To yourself. You continued on your journey, assuring yourself and your horse, Songbird, that there wasn’t that much longer to go.

After hours of travel, you set up camp a ways out of a town, staying in the shrouds of the shadows. You didn’t need any townsfolk spotting you and handing you in. You were sitting at the fire, eyes watching the skyline as the wood spit ash onto the floor by your feet, almost like a warning.

There would be a passerby every now and then, but no one important enough that you noted anything particular about them.

“Evening Ma’am.” A voice called, tone harsh and strong like the old folk singers. You looked up, but kept your hat low on your head, covering your face in the same deep blue of the sky.

Two men stood in front of you, broad shoulders and polite smiles. You knew who they were, of course you did. The Winchester name was well known across most of America, though you were never sure how much of it was legend. You decided not to take any chances. You nod to them silently, not sharing the same courtesy to smile back.

Sam spoke next, sounding a lot less irritated than his counterpart. “You wouldn’t mind if we rested with you for the evening would you? Our horses are tired and so are we.”

There was silence for a moment as you thought. You should say no - it was in your best interest to do so. But they hadn’t seemed to recognise you yet, and, with the bandanna you had quickly pulled over your mouth, they shouldn’t for the rest of the evening. You nodded once more.

Dean sighed at your silence but sat anyway, opposite the fire from you so he could try and see your face better - something you were trying your hardest to not let happen - while Sam went and hitched their horses next to yours.

”She’s beautiful.” Sam said to you, gesturing to your horse. Songbird was a full black shire horse with a large white strip along the nose. She was certainly flashier than was wise for a bandit, but you got her when you were young and you’d rather die than part with her.

You smiled and stood, heading over to the three horses. “She’s smart as hell, my best judge of character.” Sam laughed gently, looking over at you as he petted the blonde horse in front of him. You tried not to speak too much - though you weren’t sure how recognisable your voice was, you didn’t want to risk it. Sam stared at your hands, noticing how a large scar pulled its way along your palm - unusual in shape.

”Same with my Riot, he’s an Arabian so he’s pretty judgmental. Dean’s is the worst though, Baby’s so temperamental it’s almost impossible to get anything done” You smiled and looked over at the sleek black Hanoverian - you noted how well kept it was.

You both made your way back to the fire and sat, refastening the clasps of your boots to save you doing nothing.

The sun had fully set by now and night bit at the fire, causing it to settle into embers. Sam leaned against a tree, and you assumed he was sleeping while Dean sat opposite, his eyes still trained on you as if you would draw your gun.

It seemed as though he had planned to calm down when a series of cheers echoed across the valley. Both of you looked up, eyes sharp. You’d recognise the voices anywhere and you’d wager that the boys would too. Dean ran for his horse, not bothering to wait for his brother and rode after them.

You woke Sam quickly and headed for Songbird, apologising to her for the loud noises. The two of you rode after the older officer, but soon realised that you were being circled by the gang. You signalled to Sam to take a different route, but he was too focused on his brother and was quickly knocked off his horse by a bullet to his arm. You pulled to a stop and got out your pistol, Shooting at the bandits as they passed. They didn’t want you, nor Sam really - they just wanted to cause chaos.

Your shots rang as a warning and the gang cleared out, leaving you, two scared horses and a bleeding officer who would most likely arrest you given the chance. “Dean.” Sam called out but you silenced him, putting pressure on his arm.

”Shut it. You’re brother’s probably alive.” You spoke quickly, helping him to stand. Using a mix of his own strength and yours, he climbed onto the back of your horse and held his arm tight around your waist. You gripped the loose rein of Riot’s leash and headed back to your camp, quickly and quietly.

When you returned, you found your camp ransacked. Food was missing from your bags and small smoke clouds trailed from the now put out fire. They didn’t want you to find it again, which most likely meant they’d be returning for the rest. You’d have to be gone by the next evening.

Sam was pale and his eyes were fluttering every so often. You were warm and it was hard to breathe so with a sigh you pulled the bandana from your face and wrapped it around his arm, securing the wound and partially stopping the blood flow. Luckily, the bandits hadn’t had time to go into the packs in your tent and you smiled in relief when you pulled a large bottle of whisky from it. You poured some over the injury then took a large swig, wincing at the bite of the alcohol.

You’d let Sam sleep for now. He could get proper medical care when he returned to the sheriff's station, hopefully without you in handcuffs.

Sam was lucky in the sense that he got sleep that evening, something you weren’t so blessed with. Fatigue pulled at you and you found yourself playing with the remaining hot embers to stay awake - though they were dwindling by the minute. Eventually, Sam woke and sat up, his brows furrowing in confusion.

”Morning.” You said simply, sending a nod his way. He groaned in pain and turned to face you, good hand pushing his hair from his eyes. Now your bandana was off, Sam had a good chance to look at you.

His eyes narrowed, taking in your features. “I know you from somewhere.” He said gently, voice raw from pain and sleep. He wasn’t wrong.

1870

You were standing still behind a wall, one hand inching toward your pistol and the other holding money you were currently attempting to steal. It would’ve been an easy escape, you could’ve ran, called your horse and been clear of the town before anyone noticed but the new ‘specialist’ that had been travelling through Texas had to get in the way.

He tackled you to the ground, pulling the money from your hand and pinning you with minimal force. “Ow.” You said with annoyance, trying to move your hand so you could reach your blade that hid in your waistband.

The man’s gaze was stern as he kept you pinned against the hot sandy floor. “What are you doing?” He asked, voice harsh with suspicion. You sighed and turned your head to the side so you could actually breathe and rolled your eyes.

“Is it any of your business?”

“Ow.” He replied, mocking you. You stared at him, finding it unusual how a man of his profession had such long hair, which was cut into a small fringe and was falling slightly over his eyes. He eventually relents and allows you to stand, hand resting on his pistol as he places cuffs on your hands.

He took in your outfit, noticing how you wore dark denim and black leather, the only thing standing out was a red bandana. You certainly looked like a bandit.

You sighed and held up your hands, looking at the handcuffs in annoyance. “Seriously? You’re gonna cuff me? How are you so sure I’m a criminal?” You asked, voice bored - this had happened far too often to be entertaining at this point. He went to reply, when a deep voice yelled his name.

Sam.

He turned, breaking into a sprint and leaving you cuffed there. “You’re not gonna-” You began but sighed, realising he wasn't coming back and walked grumpily toward the abandoned blacksmith’s saw - not a good idea in retrospect, but it got you free.

1872

Sam walked idly into the sheriff’s office, hand reaching up to remove his Stetson when he saw you, sat in the gaol with your arms leaning on the bars. You were wearing a lighter shade now, mostly donning browns and blues, though the red bandana was still safely tied around your neck.

“You don’t seem very good at your job.” He said, smirking as he walked closer. You looked up at the man, sighing when you saw him. His hair had grown longer, sitting gently by his chin.

You leaned back in the seat and the cuffs on your feet clink, “I’ve been a bandit since ‘65…and I’ve been caught twice - though I’m not counting the first since you didn’t technically arrest me.” You replied, staring with boredom at the dirt under your nails. He nodded in response, reasonably impressed at you.

The two of you sat in silence for a while, him watching you with tired but amused eyes and you fiddling with the cuffs around your ankles. Sam’s eyes were drawn to your hands, seeing the large red scar that ripped over it, shining slightly on your palm.

Suddenly, a loud gunshot rang through the sheriff’s range and the both of you sat up straight. A large group had planned an organised attack on the station and, much to your luck, it gave you a proper chance to escape (one which you accepted gratefully). Sam had seen you climbing quickly onto your horse, but he had more pressing matters at hand - at least that’s what he told himself.

1876

He sat in the bar, head in his hand as he played with the whisky glass in his palm - the ice creating a cold film over his fingers.

It was like something from a novel, the way you stood in the doorway, a perfect silhouette. You stepped into the light, looking overly annoyed at nothing in particular and Sam almost didn’t recognise you. The lace gloves on your hands looked as though they itched and he was surprised you could breathe in the corset,, but you looked…different, all the same. It seemed as though you didn’t recognise him either as you took a seat next to him at the bar, signalling for something (anything) to drink.

“Bandit?” He asked, eyes stuck on you. You turned slowly, recognising the voice. He had certainly changed, in fact, he almost resembled a man, though his face was still slightly too young for this to be true.

You smiled, sipping your drink. “Sam. And it’s Y/n.” you replied, sending a nod his way. Sam replied with the same courtesy and furrowed his brows, looking at the amount of skirts and ruffles that you wore. You took notice and sighed, fiddling with the outer lace. “Not my choice, too difficult to run in - but my brother chose the dress code for his wedding and the jacket wasn’t acceptable.” You complained, voice tired.

He laughed, though noted to himself that you had kept the bandanna around your face - no doubt the pistol was still hidden somewhere.

The two of you drank for a long while, sharing short stories (you trying to keep the more illegal details out) and talking about your brothers. However, it seemed as though all of your meetings would be short-lived.

“Ma’am.” A voice called, stern and unwelcoming. It was a voice you recognised (you had taught yourself to remember every voice of every Sheriff in the state…for your own convenience). You shared a look with Sam, you’d been recognised.

You sighed and agreed, standing and leaving the bar. “I don’t doubt we’ll see each other again, Sam.” You said simply, heading back toward the wedding.

1883

“Hello.”

Sam turned, smiling as he recognised you. You were back in the usual attire, red bandanna seeming more red than usual…if that were possible. You were standing, leaning against the wall with one hand lazily resting on your belt.

He found himself smiling. “I should technically arrest you,” He stated, standing in place by his horse. You grinned in reply, moving closer to him with a simple smile.

“Who cares about technicalities?”

You kept your hand on your holster, the other by your side, mirroring his pose. Your eyes moved to his hand, noticing how his fingers twitched in some sort of anticipation (though you weren’t sure whether he was going to arrest you or something much more exciting). Sam’s head cocked to the side, following your every movement with an unreadable expression, then he almost whispered, “wasn’t it fun though, me putting you in handcuffs?”

Sam had aged rather drastically in your few years apart, his jaw was harsh and square and his hair flicked, slowly but surely nearing his shoulders. He was broader too - before he had been young and as lean as a six foot four man could be but now he was all muscle, large shoulders and strong arms. He looked built for the job now. Sam’s scarred hands played over his belt buckle and your eyes flitted over it, seeing a small star sigil with a circle wrapping around it - something you recognised.

A smile played on your lips and you moved away again, fingers tucked through the loops of your jeans. “Smooth,” you spoke lazily, then turned just before you reached your horse, adding on, “but yes, it wasn’t too bad.” He laughed gently and you climbed onto Songbird, leaving him staring after you yet again.

1884

“Bandit.”

You smiled, nodding your head lazily. “Is my name so hard to forget?” You replied almost snarkily, a hint of something else hidden in your tone. You leaned down, wrapping any spare cloths you had found around his injury - you knew better than to remove the bullet.

Sam laughed gently, voice slightly weak. You looked up, brows furrowed in confusion as he spoke. “I just find it a funny sight…a bandit fixing up a ranger.”

You smiled too, now, shaking your head gently - you tried to ignore his wince as you tightened the scraps around his shaking arm. “You’re not really a bull though, are you?” He shook his head in response, sitting up slightly as if it would be a task to explain what he does.

”No. I’m more of a…specialist?”

”Oh, so a hunter.”

Sam went silent, almost in a state of shock - he wasn’t sure how to reply so instead he resorted to a simple nod and you went back to bandaging him, talking absentmindedly. “I am too, technically. I’m just more… illegal about it.” You spoke and he laughed, nodding once more in agreement.

You finally leaned away from his arm and sat by the completely extinguished fire, eyes stuck to him. “How about we go searching for your brother?” You asked, arms crossing. He moved closer to you and began to set up the fire once more, prompting a confused look from you.

”We’ll go in the morning, it’s not safe to travel now. I wouldn’t be able to fight in case anything happened.” He replied, adding, “a days more rest.” You nodded and leaned back against a large rock, eyes lidded as they flitted over to the slowly growing fire.

The night had grown dark, flurries of rain filtering through the deep blue sky. You were still awake, running your hands through your hair softly. Sam was sleeping, as soundly as you could with the annoying, spitting type of rain running down your face. It picked up after a while and under the harsh cover of night you could swear you heard the beating and repetitive sounds of hooves against wet sand.

You were, unfortunately, proven right and the very same bandits from two nights ago stormed you, coming back for what they had left. You knew you couldn’t leave Sam behind and resorted to a good old fashioned knife fight. If any gunshots were heard, they didn’t wake Sam - this type of noise was far too familiar in Texas.

You managed to fend them off until they gave up, but garnered a few nasty cuts on your arms. It was something you’d handle later on. Rain beat down now, choking you and you’re not sure what’s water and what’s blood in the dark.

The sun rose again - as it had always done - and your role of tending the fire dwindled to watching it die as Sam awoke beside you. “You’re hurt. How?” He asked, leaning close. Both yours and his wounds seeped in unison, weeping at each other for retribution.

”It’s usually the job description of a bandit to be hurt.” You replied, declaring to both him and yourself that it was no one's business. He didn’t relent.

He drew nearer, hands twitching in want - to help you as you had for him. Though, Sam couldn’t find it in himself to speak on the matter and moved on to something much more pressing. “Dean is alive. Back in town I’d wager.” You looked over, glad he had moved on.

You raised a brow. “And you’re sure how?” He allowed your confusion, offering a sort of explanation for the matter.

”His horse, if he had been hurt, Baby would ride straight back here.”

“What if Baby’s dead.”

Silence. No one had ever offered the idea. No one liked to think their pet would die. “That damn horse is invincible. Keeps on going. It’s been two days, they’re back in town.” Sam assured, watching you poke idly at the sand.

You nod and stand, brushing the dirt off of your knees. “Let's go meet him then.” You said simply, heading over to your horse. The knife wound on your thigh tugged at your movements and you tried to brush it off, hoping the limp wasn’t too visible.

The air was heavy and humid, ripping air from your lungs and sitting hot against your skin. “What happened?” He asked gently as the two of you headed in the direction of the town. Sam’s eyes lingered on your skin, tracing over where sweat stuck your clothes to you.

”It was nothing, a few of the bandits came back. It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before.” You replied, pulling your collar away from your neck in irritation. The heat had risen with impossible speed and for once you were happy that your bandanna wasn’t secured around her neck. You leaned against Songbird as you rode, skin damp.

Sam watched from beside you, noticing how quiet and calm you seemed. “And you’re not bleeding out? I can help-“

You shook your head. “No need. I don’t want you to return any favours,” You looked at him with a smirk, “I might need a ‘get out of jail’ pass some day.” He laughed, turning back to the open path.

As if sent from the heavens, the wind picked up and cooled your skin, blowing warm air across your body - though you would’ve appreciated a cold breeze, this’d have to do. The morning had become midday, sun high in the sky and air foul with an uncomfortable smell, when Sam stopped still, both him and Riot seemingly staring off at nothing.

You came to a stop too, listening. Watching. “What?” You whispered, but then you saw it, so far away it could’ve been a speck. The breeze, the smells. It was a demon. There was a quick nod shared then the both of you took off toward the old barn. It was the only thing for miles and you were both sure that no human could live out here without supernatural assistance.

Sam usually would’ve taken time to plan, but he had been hunting this thing for far too long and irritation had whittled his patience down. He took the blade from his belt and pressed his back hard against a half-ruined wall while you went around the back, a bottle of holy water you kept in your pocket securely in your hand.

Of course, it had been expecting you, and your ambush was more of a self-sacrifice. Your back hit the barn wall harshly and you hit the ground, the holy water falling a ways away. Sam was next to fall, blade being ripped from his grasp. You sat up, groaning in pain and looked over. It was a man, one who had clearly been a bandit.

Pain ripped through your thigh and you looked down, seeing the stab wound tearing wider than it had before. You turned your head to the side, seeing the demon fighting Sam. He certainly had the mis advantage however and was moments away from his own knife entering his chest.

”Hey!” You yelled, standing up again. The demon. You wiped the sweat from your brow and pulled the colt from your waistband. “Christo, bitch.” You pulled the trigger and the demon crumpled to the floor, a mess of sinew, blood and demon ash.

Sam stood, wiping the sweat and blood from his brow. “Nice shot.” You nodded at him and walked back out the barn, your limp much more pronounced - something you could’ve expected.

——

The both of you reached town, ugly stains of red littering your clothes and skin. Dean was standing on the porch of the Sheriff's station with bruises of his own - though his weren’t as frequent and had nearly healed. He pulled his brother into a fierce hug, hand pushing the back of Sam’s head into Dean’s shoulder (if he had seen Sam wince he didn’t take note of it).

You watched from a distance, leaning next to your horse tiredly. Before you could turn to leave, cuffs were placed around your hands, guiding you away from Songbird. You looked up at the Sheriff with angry eyes, voice harsh and raw from fatigue, “I just saved your boy’s life. Multiple times.”

Sam looked over, brows furrowing as he saw you being led inside. He would’ve followed - he had all intention to - but Dean held him back with a harsh grip against his palm. “Sam. She’s a criminal.” There was a wager in his mind: he wanted to do the right thing - to free you, but a more guilty part of him won. He didn’t want to disappoint his brother. Sam turned away and your eyes tracked him in disappointment, though you know you shouldn’t have expected much.

Night fell fast, and the usual heat of Texas was replaced with splintered wooden floors, a sticky yet icy breeze and cold metal bars. You picked at your nails, trying to clean any remaining dirt out from underneath. Your weapons had been seized and without both them and your bandana you felt exposed.

You were just warming up to the idea of getting comfortable when a shadow covered the moon light that streamed through the windows, one with broad shoulders and a Stetson. The door of the cell swung open slowly, quietly and the shadow stepped to the side. “Go to your horse and leave.” The shadow whispered.

Sam.

A rough hand placed a piece of red cloth into your palm and a soft breath tickled against your ear. “Think of it as me returning the favour.” Through the filtered moonlight you could see Sam’s face, the old bottle windows scattering the night scene across his features like glitter. You smiled gently and leaned forward, placing a kiss to his lips. It was something slow and gentle, something memorable.

But then, you were gone, leaving no trace that you had been in the cell except the opened handcuffs and the sharp, yet fleeting smell of cherries and tobacco. Sam found himself smiling.

#fic #fanfic #one shot #writing #sam winchester x reader #sam winchester #sam winchester x you #angst #sam winchester x fem!reader #supernatural #hurt/comfort #fluff #happy ending #if you squint #supernatural fic

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rosebalor · 11 months

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Chapter 1 (Miss I.D.G.A.F.)

(Sharing my story and love of writing with y’all)

I sit on the balcony of my one-bedroom apartment just staring out at the beautiful sunset sky. The soft breeze feels amazing in this Las Vegas heat. Before long, it's dark out and the lights from the High Roller are brighter than ever.

The Las Vegas strip is coming to life once again. I'm not into the whole gambling or party scene. I prefer staying in and reading a good book or watching Netflix. Call me boring but I'd much rather be safe than sorry especially when it comes to alcohol, drugs, and whatever else goes down here in "sin city". I've always been what most might perceive as a "good girl." I've never done anything bad in my life.

It may seem weird for someone like me to be living in such a party city but I have my reasons for living here. Well, two reasons actually. The first one is my best friend, Mel. She and I are as thick as thieves. We have known each other since freshman year of high school. I remember the first time I saw her. I was sitting in the cafeteria with my friends talking about our first day when in walks this gorgeous blonde with black cowboy boots.

Everyone was whispering all around about what she was wearing. This girl didn't have a care in the world about looking different. Clearly, she was not from Los Angeles. She had a brown bag lunch and was looking around for a place to sit. I got up from our table to introduce myself. I know what being the new girl is like and I wanted to make her feel welcomed.

From that day forward, we were inseparable. Amelia Benson, or Mel as she likes to be called, became my closest confidant. We are total opposites but somehow we just click. She has bleach blonde hair, blue eyes, fair-skinned and is about 5'8. I'm dark-haired with hazel eyes, tanned skin and is very petite at only 5'2. She loves to have fun and let loose while I'm more conservative and prefer the quiet.

She has been trying for years to get me out of my shell and has successfully done that once by making me get a tattoo when we first moved out. One week here and I now sport a heart and flower tattoo on my right shoulder. However, she has failed in getting me to go to clubs.

"Cmon, Nia! We're 21 now! It's like a right of passage to go out and get drunk now that we're legal!" she had told me on a few days after my birthday.

"No way! You know I hate that type of stuff."

"I don't get why. You're so pretty and you could honestly pull off any hot outfit and we could totally have fun on the strip."

I roll my eyes at her. She just doesn't understand that I have no interest in drinking and partying. It has nothing to do with how I look. I know I'm pretty and that guys check me out all of the time but I just don't care to flaunt that around.

My other reason for being here is my boyfriend Carter Montgomery. We've been together since jr high after so many years of being just friends. We grew up together and have been friends since practically birth. Weirdly enough, we're only 2 days apart. To this day, we still believe our mothers somehow planned it out that way.

Carter is the quarterback at UNLV. He got a full ride to go here and so I applied along with Mel and now Las Vegas has been our home for the past two years. We're currently juniors, Carter majoring in kinesiology, Mel in art history, and me in Psychology.

Since being out here, Carter and Mel have become closer since they both have the party streak. I don't mind when they hang out on the strip and at parties because I at least know they're safe. I know most people wouldn't be that trusting especially with a guy like Carter.

Carter is the big man on campus. Practically the whole school knows who he is. There is always a girl wanted to get with him but he shuts that down real quick. I don't blame other girls for throwing themselves at him. He's pretty hot with his brown, boyish hair, grey eyes, 6'2 frame, tan and toned body and a smile that could melt anyone's heart.

Carter can act like a douche, I mean what guy doesn't have that side to them? But I truly know him and I know the softer side he has. He's absolutely sweet, understanding and I know I can trust him. It also helps that after a night out, he always comes back to stay the night with me.

I may be a nice girl but even I have needs. I love Carter and I know he loves me so having sex felt like a normal thing. He has never pressured me into doing anything I don't want to do and that just makes me fall for him even more.

Just like clockwork, at around 1 AM, I hear someone at the door. I laugh as I hear Carter's voice as he cusses and fumbles with the lock. Eventually, he gets the door open and smiles as soon as he sees me.

I get up from the couch and hug him tightly.

"Mmm, I missed you," he says into my hair.

I smile, "I missed you too."

He lifts me up with ease and makes our way to the couch. He sits down and places me in his lap. I have my legs on either side of his and straddle him.

"How was your night?" I ask.

He shrugs. "Not bad, we all just hit a frat party so it was just pretty much the usual drunk people hanging out."

"And Mel?"

"She was there too. I made sure to walk her back to her apartment to make sure she got home safe."

I smile. Carter is such a gentleman.

He closes his eyes and I run my hands through his hair. I lean down and kiss his lips softly then make my way down to his neck. I bite down softly, sucking on his skin. He lets out a soft moan letting me know he's enjoying this.

We make out for a little while before Carter lifts me up yet again and walks us to the bedroom. He lays me down on the bed and hovers over me as he kisses me hard. Soon our clothes are off and he's inside me.

The only thing I hate about his drunk nights is how quick the sex is. I'm not saying the sex is bad but I usually feel a little frustrated after because it doesn't last as long as when he's sober. Within a few minutes, Carter is lying next to me asleep. I go to the bathroom and take a quick shower before getting back into bed and cuddling up to my snoring boyfriend.

The next day, I'm sitting at a frozen yogurt shop with Mel, listening to her talk about the party last night. I sit there eating my yogurt and pretending to listen. After a while, it gets boring when Mel talks about her partying but I've learned to block out most and listen just enough to make it look like I'm paying attention. It's a gift really.

We get interrupted by a few guys who ask us for our numbers. Mel gives them hers and makes them leave before they even have a chance to ask for mine again.

"So, you're going to the game on Saturday, right?"

"Well, my boyfriend is the quarterback so I kind of have to be there."

She nods her head. "Right. What about after? You should come out with us."

I sigh. "Not this again. You already know my answer to that."

"Stop being such a party pooper!" she says a little too loud. A few heads turn and look at us. She looks around silently apologizing to them and gets up.

"I'll be right back but this conversation isn't over."

I roll my eyes and go back to eating my fro-yo. As she walks to the bathroom, her phone goes off. Taylor Swift's "Shake it off" starts blaring. I reach for her phone to silent it surprised it's not on vibrate since she usually has it on that setting. I don't mean to look at the message on the screen but when I do, I'm in shock.

It's her old roommate Rachel, who I've never gotten along with, asking why Mel didn't call her earlier. She ends the text with "You better not be too busy making out with Carter!"

What the hell? As I'm about to silent the phone and put it back down, it goes off again. This time "Stay" by Sugarland starts playing. It's the chorus and the next verse that I know so well that catches my eye.

"Why don't you stay?

I'm down on my knees I'm so tired of bein' lonely Don't I give you what you need? When she calls you to go There is one thing you should know We don't have to live this way Baby, why don't you stay?You keep tellin' me, baby There will come a time When you will leave her arms And forever be in mine But I don't think that's the truth And I don't like bein' used, and I'm tired of waitin'It's too much pain to have to bear To love a man you have to share..."

I finally look at the name of who is texting her and almost drop the phone. Carter? What the fuck is going on? Why does she have that song set as his ringtone? I read his message and my heart stops.

"Hey baby, sorry I couldn't stay last night. I'll see you tonight though. Wear that outfit that I like so much."

Baby? Baby?!?! Oh. My. God.

My best friends are sneaking around behind my back.

#young adult #romance #new adult #relationship #heartbreak #breakup #lying #bad boy #Revenge #secret #lies #loss #love

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peaches-of-1 · 4 years

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Peachtober | Day 12: Haybale

Settlement | Reader x Ranch Hand!Namjoon

A/N: I did my best not to add pronouns/gender specifics refering to the reader, so lemme know if I did by accident or missed any.

"So, we'll split up new volunteers with the regulars." The chubby older man in a blue plaid shirt said and read the list on his clipboard through thick glasses.

You were bummed that your best friend Rosé had been put with a different leader than you, but at least the cowboy you had been assigned to was cute.

His thighs seemed to fight against the faded blue denim of his jeans which led to a well crafted torso. And his smile charmed you in a millisecond, a flash of canyon like dimples and dazzling teeth.

Namjoon was his name, and he gave you a firm handshake as a greeting, along with a kind, "Thanks for coming to help out, Y/N."

"No problem."

Because a lot of people hadn't shown up, and the work was too much for just 2 people, Yoongi's group joined as well making for a total of five. It was September 25, and so the local farm was starting to set up it's annual Autumn Festival. Rosé was the one who had suggested it, and you had nothing better to do.

"Our jobs are pretty easy. It'll take a while, though. We have to take all the hay bales from the barn and make it into a maze for kids. The maze is already planned, but it includes a lot of lifting. Not too hard, right, Namjoon?" The dark haired man asked the honey haired leader. "Namjoon-ah?"

As your head turned to face the usual volunteer, you caught a glimpse of dark brown eyes looking downwards...at you? No, but who else could he have been looking at?

"Huh? Oh. Yeah, it's enough cardio for a week." He smiled as you felt heat rush into your cheeks. "Let's all drive over to the barn, and go from there."

The two other newbie volunteers hopped into the back, and you were about to join them when Yoongi called your name.

"Ride in the front with Joon. I'll explain to my crew." He held the door open.

"Ah, ok." Came your quiet reply.

The idea seemed sudden and kind of startled you, but you were glad not to be sat in the rough bed of the truck. As the engine growled to life, Namjoon reminded you to put on your seat belt. Then the wheels began to turn as you were driven forward.

"So, uh, how long have you been doing this?"

He smiled, grateful that you spoke first it seemed, "I actually work in the city, but one of my young friends, him and his family run the farm. They needed some extra help, so I started helping about 7 years now." Regret tinged his ears a red shade as he said, "Sorry. I tend to ramble."

"It's ok. I don't think you rambled too much." You gave him a genuine smile.

"Eyes on the road, Joon!" Yoongi called.

Once the first stack of hay bales were secured onto the truck, the darker haired man left with the other two. Namjoon and you were left alone to get the next stack ready for their return. His muscles rippled with every yank of heavy straw that you pushed towards him. No trace of the goofy and shy man you had rode with 15 minutes before.

"What made you join this year?" He drank a bottle of water he must've left here. "I recognized Rosé from last year. She looks good with pink hair."

You nodded and refused the bottle as you weren't thirsty...for water at least, "Yeah, I just wanted to do some work outside of my house and she signed me up for this."

"What's your usual job?"

"Oh, it's--OW" You pulled your leg back and saw a black spotted cat paw leading to your attacker.

"Wasabi! That's not how you treat guests!" He scolded the cat who now purred around his ankles. "She just had babies, so she's a bit protective. Sit."

You automatically dropped to sit on the block of hay you had let go. Namjoon went to a box on the wall with a red cross on it to get a small bag from it. He knelt in front of you.

"May I?"

You nodded and replied, "Mmhmm."

He lifted your foot to rest on his thigh and dabbed at the scratch with a wipe. You gave a sharp inhale, and he giggled.

"It's not even that deep."

"Still hurts." You pouted.

With a gentle rub, the too big bandaid covered the injury.

"I could sue you for this." You teased.

"If I kiss you, could we call it a proper settlement?" The question came out so smoothly you couldn't tell if he was serious.

Your eyes got wide. The sound of an approaching car pulled both of your attentions towards it. You quickly stepped back and Namjoon grinned at the ground.

"Sorry." He said before moving towards the door.

With a swift movement, he took up the straw you had dropped at Wasabi's scratch and you looked at the mama cat who meowed. It was if she was teasing you for not taking the chance. Yoongi came in to give her pets and asked where her babies were. She leapt down and took us to an old closet with a pile of discarded clothes inside on the floor.

"Awww, so cute! I want one~" The short red haired girl who was a part of Yoongi's group said, wanting to approach, but you put your arm in front of her as the mother hissed.

"We'll see." Yoongi replied and then spoke to Namjoon. "Just keep clear of them for now. We can make due with a few less bales."

"Gotcha. See you in a few."

The two quiet boys and the tiny red head left again.

"So, what do we do?"

"We'll kinda fence them in. Make sure no one else gets too close." He began to push a bale towards the area.

Following suit, a small barrier now separated Wasabi and crew from the rest of the barn. Looking around, most of the hay was on the second floor.

"You want me to go up there and toss 'em down?" You asked, spotting a ladder.

"Yeah. That's better than you catching 'em." He held the ladder sturdy, "Just be careful."

"If not, I'll just have to ask for more kisses." And up the ladder you went, not thinking too much of how cute his shocked expression was.

Several tons later, it was time for lunch. Namjoon helped you down off the ladder, letting his hands linger around your waist before blushing, "We should hurry before the corn gets cold."

Even though you had the option of leaving after the meal, you convinced your ride to stay until you were done with the maze. You went back to the barn, but volunteers had to leave at sunset. Namjoon didn't say much during the meal to you, but it was ok since you weren't a socialite anyways. Also, seeing how familiar he had been with the other regulars, the Farm family's son Tae, and his dog which now joined you, was nice.

"You really have been helping out for 7 years." The words left your lips before you could even think.

"Yeah. I know everyone pretty well. Enough to know that Tae's got a little crush on you." Namjoon wiped his forehead with the hem of his shirt, allowing you to see his glistening abs in the afternoon sun.

You couldn't help but bite your lip, "Is that so?"

"Yep." He met your gaze. "You interested?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you interested in being with the farmer's son?" The way he asked sounded like it was more than one question.

How many in total? You didn't know, but you did what you did best. Told the truth.

With a firm shake of your head, you sat on the edge of the loft, "No. I'm not interested in him. He's sweet and all, but I don't have eyes for him."

"...I see. Any hay left up there?"

You looked behind yourself, "None that's like all together. Hey, what's this?"

"What's what?" He looked up to see your ass filling out the overall shorts you had worn today.

"Come up here and take a look." You replied.

So Namjoon climbed up the ladder to come see what had caught your attention and was pulled forward to be on top of your own nervous but eager form.

"Now that we're here, are you gonna kiss me or not?"

"You're the one who got us here. Can't ya kiss me first?"

"I wanna make sure it's mutual. Anyways, I can only be so bold, Namjoon."

A cheeky chuckle left his lips as he settled on top of you, looking into your eyes as they closed and waited for the heat of his lips made contact with yours. There was no way either of you could stop now as you grabbed onto each other as if you'd disappear if you let go for even the slightest moment. His left hand was on your hip while his right snaked up to the latch of your overalls.

"Is it ok? Can I--"

"Go ahead." You replied breathlessly.

As shaking hands fumbled with each, you couldn't help but laugh and help him out. A grateful grin was given before making out ensued once more. Namjoon wanted this to last forever, but knew this time would have to be quick. Before Yoongi and the two volunteers came back. Still, he'd be remiss if he did not properly prepare you, so he slid two fingers inside of you. Without realizing, your hips rolled into his hand and a string of moans left your mouth. The grip you had on his forearm flexed.

He watched you through all of it, noticing your blushy reaction of looking away. However, Namjoon kissed your neck as the sweetest punishment. You squealed and bucked your hips as fingers spread your needy hole.

"Hurry." Came past your lips in a whine as the last thing you wanted was to be caught by the others in such a situation.

"Wait." Namjoon took his fingers out of you and reached into a spot in the corner.

There seemed to be a box that he looked through as you ground your hips onto nothing. Yet you needed to move just for any slight sensation. He mumbled to himself.

You pouted and called out his name, "Namjoooon~ Hurryyyyy~"

The large man turned around and revealed an unmistakable box of condoms and a small bottle of lube.

He smiled and then bit his lip at the sight of your disheveled form, "They're not expired."

"Then fuck me already!"

Namjoon's dick jumped at the desperate plea and quickly obliged, lubing you up and rolling the rubber on. You wanted it inside you so badly, but he waited.

"You look so pretty." Honest words reached your ears.

Your cheeks warmed even more at the compliment and you couldn't look at him, all the bravery from earlier all but gone.

Then he leaned over you, hands on either side of your head as he growled into your ear.

"You'd be prettier with my cock inside you, though." And thrust into you.

The scream of pleasure which came out of your throat surprised even you. And though you tried to cover your mouth, Namjoon pinned your hands down.

Between grunts, he uttered, "Don't. Don't hide from me. I wanna hear it all. Oh fuck. Please. Let me hear how badly you want this."

As his own moans trickled out, you looked at his furrowed brows and the new layer of sweat forming on both of you. You groaned and moaned out his name and loving words of support.

"You're so great, Namjoon. Oh, oh, oh my God. You're doing so well. Ahhhhh, more!"

"Yes! Yes! Oh Y/N. Oh fuck!" His curses were a whisper, contrasting how he screamed your name like a prayer.

"Namjoon, yes. Harder. Fuck, yes!" You felt him twitch inside of you and moved your hips upwards to meet his.

He whimpered and began to suck on your nipples, giving them tiny nibbles here and there. Namjoon's breathing became thick as he made love with you. He looked up at you, brown eyes dark and glittering in the golden hour of the world.

"Y/N, I can't--I'm gonna."

You held his face in your hands, "Cum for me."

He released as soon as the door opened, and you had to kiss him to muffle his scream of ecstasy.

"Namjoon? Y/N? Is this the last of it?" Yoongi asked.

Namjoon replied, "Yeah. If you can take it all on one go, that'd be great." in a voice that was clear for someone finishing up an orgasm and was still bucking inside of you.

You couldn't help but twitch, making him look down at you with your own hands muffling your own moans and eyes filled with tears. Right on the edge. You were right there, but you couldn't get there with the other man so close to catching on. The seconds passed by in the form of endless hours as Yoongi was quiet for no reason.

"So, you gonna go?" The thick chested man asked.

"Yeah. Alright, we'll start loading the truck. Wanna help out, Joonie?"

The man on top of you whispered, "Fuck." Before clearing his throat, "Nah. Kinda busy."

Yoongi's voice held a smile in it, "Oh, I see. I'll tell V you wanted to give the volunteer a tour." He then left.

You hid your face into Namjoon's shoulder. You wanted to cum so badly. The barn door closed and Namjoon began to pound into you after a sigh of relief. He was hard again. Did he like the idea of getting caught that much? It was a fleeting thought as the sound of a truck driving off allowed you to moan again. Your body convulsed as the ranch hand abused your g spot now that he found it. You gripped his arm, wrist, whatever you could hold onto as your orgasm finally reached its peak.

Heavy pants as Namjoon pulled out and lay next to you. He kissed your lips once more and you curled up into his side.

"That’s such a great settlement." You let an airy chuckle out.

Joon looked over at you, only able to laugh at your comment. The two of you decided to hurry and get dressed, and he walked you to the bus taking the last bit of city folk back. He called out your name before you went on, picking a piece of straw out of your hair and sticking it into his mouth.

“Come back soon.” He smiled so large that his dimples became a cavern.

#Reader x Namjoon #Namjoon x Reader #Kim Namjoon #RM #RM x Reader #Reader x RM #Peachtober2020 #female!reader #Male!reader #smut #lemon #nb!reader #enby!reader

31 notes · View notes

nicknellie · 4 years

Note

I hope that this didn’t take too much time to do so that you were able to get your schoolwork!! This is definitely after the fact but I wish you the best of luck with your work.

(Accidentally forgot to answer about Reggie having a box similar to Rose’s so I’m going to do that briefly)

1. Unlike Rose’s box which was going to be used by someone else Reggie’s was just going to be used by himself also probably only looked at by the rest of Sunset Curve so he probably didn’t think/care about what it was going to look like.

2. The fact that Reggie would go to Luke’s parents and ask for baby pictures is perfection. Also the fact that he just casually stole a box of baby photos and or has pictures of a random baby (if it’s not Bobby) is hilarious and I was laughing so hard at that.

3. Yes, and that would explain that why Reggie didn’t recognize the box at first just because it was a mindless one he made, maybe not even one of his boxes that he put thought into it (what photos/items should I use ect) but just random stuff

Now onto this post (just starting at 2 so the numbers line up)

2. Yes, maybe the guys don’t even get a chance to ask him what’s wrong but Reggie randomly blurts this out and then about five minutes later they’re all crying. Bobby forces all of them to talk, even Alex.

3. Yes that’s exactly what I mean! Just because although he does have his moments of indecisiveness he’s mostly not really an indecisive person so once he believes in some thing he stands with it 100%. For sure, if someone (usually Alex) points out why/how he was wrong Luke will admit that he was wrong (depending on the reasoning it’s mostly begrudgingly)

4. You took the words right out of my mouth and I also love the fact that you said that it’s usually when he’s writing and not in general, because I feel like outside of writing Luke tries to be as conscious as he can about his bandmates well-being and stuff. (‘Luke, once again you are not a solo artist if that was the case then Reggie would already have a country album out and me and Bobby would make our own little band of ourselves just to spite you’ Alex at some point)

5. Alex definitely has quick wit, however a lot of time he just doesn’t say it (unless it’s the boys)

6. Oh, that’s just hurtful thinking about that. After they passed Bobby was never the same, especially since everything that he loved and did had so many memories of the boys that for the longest time he couldn’t do some of them without thinking of them. Also when he went to the garage he was so overwhelmed with memories and the fact that they would never be anymore Sunset Curve memories.

8. Yes, I love that so much. Also I think part of the reason why the police alerted Emily and Mitch was because Luke was supposed to be a missing person so once Bobby confirmed that the body was Luke’s that’s when they were reached out too (long shot but just thinking)

The Rubik’s cube aw, maybe that’s the one thing that Bobby took just to remember them (a drawing of Reggie’s and a small jigsaw of Alex’s)

10. The theme park idea is genius, and I love the detail of Reggie feeling like a proud parent although the boys would gladly go onto a ride that Reggie is comfortable with (for some reason he loves roller coasters as long as they up closer to the ground, with being afraid of heights definitely not not something that goes up high). However Reggie doesn’t want to be a problem and has no issue watching them for a ride or two, hence the feeling of being like a parent.

Yes, and although Alex can tell that it’s a lie, Reggie gets rather emotional about it. (Reggie might have been the one who gave him the drink with the 6 shots of toffee nut and burst out into tears upon realizing)

11. That’s exactly what they are like, I feel like people may be able to tell that Reggie is lying however that’s a normal thing that he does so he easily could not be. (He is)

Luke “where is your kitchen by the way?” Patterson is the great thing I’ve seen. (yes Bobby is so causal to a point that it’s very obvious that it’s not causal hence for it being easy to tell that he’s lying)

13. Phew, wasn’t sure if I would be able to get the link to work or not so I’m glad that it was! (They are so talented, and that is such a great drawing of Reggie in my opinion)

Line dancing, yes also they random break out into square dancing. (Also the boys in cowboy hats and cowboy boots, all the fashion, is an image that I never thought I would need in my life)

14. I’m glad that you liked it! Also yess, also I just want to see one of the boys kind of make fun of Caleb with the devil point of view (bonus points if ‘nick’ is there and has to see everything)

Also I completely forgot to comment this last time, but Reggie is a huge Johnny Cash fan and those three songs are his favorite from the artist. (They are the most played songs and whenever the other boys hear them they are so done but eventually start singing along)

15. Also just randomly has Star Wars characters in the drawing, for the longest time a small Han-solo is what he used instead of a signature.

16. Wait yes I love that. I wasn’t thinking along those lines but that’s exact what happens. Reggie would also be the one who always tried to eat the batter (as does Luke and technically they are both banned from the kitchen)

17. Oh my goodness young Alex. I completely agree with what you said, also picturing a baby Alex with frosting all over his face from baking gone wrong

19. Yes, also Reggie randomly has the boys join him for dancing in the rain (thought of that due to the fact that you said rain is relaxing so Reggie would just always want to be out in the rain but not when it’s storming)

20. This is literally it’s the mindset of anyone who meets Alex

Even Willie gets on board, especially when he fell off his board (worst line I’ve ever said but Willie would be the pun making type of person)

Also if it was for anyone else then Emily and Mitch wouldn’t let them however since it’s Alex exactly as you said ‘boys let’s get in the car’

21. Yes, Alex always randomly shows up. Even has his own key for whenever he needs to stay there but no one is around, honestly Mitch doesn’t have a lot of characteristics (I mean the song is mostly focused on Luke’s mom and stuff) so him being a supportive father figure is everything

23. Agreed, I want all of this. Honestly anything and everything Rose is needed

24. I just want more performances from both actors because they are fantastic. Also the fact that Flying Solo didn’t have Flynn singing at all was a lost opportunity to be honest. Not sure if you’ve seen lemonade mouth however with Flynn as their rapper they would be that band

Willie and Alex singing together is everything I need, just a duet needs to be in season 2. Also we were robbed of them dancing and I blame Caleb, so them dancing is also needed in season two.

Exactly, Flynn is so loyal and we need more of her (also her and Carrie moments)

25. I agree I think it took him sometime to go to therapy. (Possibly when he had Carrie just because he didn’t want to fail as a father and thought it would help him stress less about being a father, also raising a kid with no support from his friends that would’ve definitely helped out)

26. Wait yes, I want to see all of this as well. Especially him explaining his actions and apologizing, and that idea of him being their manger is brilliant. Going on with that, just like with Sunset Curve he books the gigs and stuff and Flynn is their social media manger (just because she can not be apart of the band somehow)

27. I didn’t think about that fully but yes, the fact that Julie is getting older and he’s not would definitely hurt him

28. I love those songs titles, we also have ‘if you wake me up at 4AM again it will not be nice’ ‘Bobby I don’t care how much I love your pieces if you keep leaving your yarn in random places I will scream’

30. Yes, yes, that is precisely what happens and the only way Ray should find out that the boys are ghosts. Tia Victoria does react that and her and Alex bonding is everything (also her and Willie bonding because)

31. There are so many ruined photos and Reggie being so upset about it which is exactly what causes Bobby to master the skill.

32. Alex always has about five stickers, some that are for Reggie and a handful that fans also give to Alex because they can. Legitimately Sunset curves fan base is so supportive and one of the best boy band fan base ever. Luke was once given a portrait of the bandmembers as animals and it is probably framed somewhere, also Bobby has one that someone painted of the band. Honestly the reason why Alex was probably given a jigsaw is because Reggie randomly said that he liked them to a fan and they just had to give one to Alex.

34. Yes, Luke also got stuck in a fridge once much to everyone’s confusion. Him randomly being in a suit of armour is the greatest thing I have ever heard

35. Willie is extremely photogenic, yes. Legitimately Reggie has so many pictures of Willie and Alex and Willie being photogenic has just cause Reggie to take even more. And once this discovery is made, on the photography account there’s a lot more photos of someone skateboarding (also just in general photos of Willie). Just photo shoots with Reggie, like everyone has had one at some point (even Carlos)

37. Alex just gives Julie a massive hug, all of the time and especially when she is sad. Also she definitely takes that hoodie, all of them take his hoodies. Legitimately by this point it’s not just Alex‘s clothes it is the bands (also Flynn has a hoodie) (Willie has takes hoodies)

39. Wait yes, (possibly could’ve been Trevor who gave Carrie that idea for costumes because he remembers when Sunset Curve did). All of those colours fit so well, also I can kind of see Bobby is yellow. They definitely have matching onesies, like two or three pairs to be honest.

Best photo ever, that is exactly what they look like

40. Alex teaching Willie how to dance is adorable and I’m just thinking about how cute that would be. Due to seeing Willie dance during ‘the other side of Hollywood’ Alex thinks that he would be able to waltz pretty well (at least be a better beginner than the rest of the band who can’t dance) and then is mistaken very quickly

This is just me saying the boys about 100 times because I can’t say three names together apparently 😂😂

You know the drill, under the keep reading 😂

I did manage to do my school work thankfully! We won’t mention the fact that I handed in every single piece late, but I don’t really think that’s my fault, it’s theirs for not explaining how all this was going to work. Anyway! Not the point! I keep getting so excited to respond to these lmao let’s gooo!

1. Yeah exactly, he was probably more concerned with just finding something to hold all his random bits and pieces. Or I just thought right now it could be like not just a “normal box” but maybe like an old case for his bass? Like he got a nice newer one and needed something to do with the older one, and it had locks so that was handy, so he just uses it for that. Or another type of less boring box maybe idk

2. Lmao yeah I laughed so hard when I came up with it and I like I totally think he would! Like if he couldn’t find real Bobby photos (I reckon there weren’t many anyway) then he just got those and Bobby was like “Reggie that baby looks nothing like me” and Reggie just shrugs like “close enough”

3. Yeah exactly! As if he’s only just starting to make the box and is putting whatever in it, not just the things that mean something

Ok now non-box-related stuff lol

2. Yesss omg I love that. They’re just in the middle of playing through a song and Alex notices that Reggie is slowly dropping out and turning distant and he stops drumming (which makes the other two stop playing as well) but before any of them can ask Reggie what’s up he just kind of explodes. Tears all round, mostly Luke because he’s so guiltily relieved it’s not just him feeling like this

3. Totally! Alex points out all the logical stuff and Luke is just frowning the whole time like a furious puppy, and when Alex is finished he just says “right Luke?” and Luke just keeps scowling but nods at him. Doesn’t work if Reggie or Bobby try it, it does work when Julie does it, and surprisingly also works when Willie does it (because Willie is really good at reading people, as seen with Alex, so he knows how to approach any situation like that)

4. Yes exactly Luke is so caring (like in ep 7 when Alex is practically attacking his drums and he just gives a quick “hey Alex you alright?”) it’s just sometimes he lets his passion get in the way, that’s usually where music comes in! And omg that’s so perfect lmaooo I live for Alex kindly telling Luke off to get him back on track I love it

5. Yeah he knows the boys won’t take him seriously but he’s more careful around other people - the first time he says something sarcastic to Julie that he meant as a joke he worries for like a split second but then she immediately comes back with something terrible (because we all know Julie is terrible at comebacks and does not have Alex’s quick wit) and from then on they have this friendly-mean banter going back and forth between them

6. Yes exactlyyy 🥺😭 I feel like he went back to the garage once and then either he couldn’t make himself go back there ever again OR he couldn’t make himself leave for a long time and stayed there alone for days on end - either way he suffered a lot, being alone with his thoughts and his guilt. He started trying to talk to the boys - like Julie talking to her mum when she runs out of the Orpheum in ep 9. “I don’t know if you can hear me guys, but I am so sorry. I’m sorry I let you down, that I wasn’t there, that I can’t make this right. I miss you so much and... I don’t know what I’m ever going to do without you.”

8. Ohhh yes that makes way more sense actually, I like that a lot! They probably just passed Bobby as he was leaving the morgue and they were coming in to see Luke and that hurts to think about actually oh god. And yesss he so took the Rubik’s Cube and for a long time he would fiddle with it when nervous; he never managed to solve it though, not even once

10. Yes definitely!! He loves rides like the Spinning Teacups (or whatever variation they have at the theme park of that ride) and it’s Luke who will sit out on that one because the spinning makes him feel ill. He’s less happy to sit out than Reggie is because he worries he’ll miss out on the fun, but he’d rather not vomit everywhere. Now it looks like I’m going off on a theme park tangent so I’m just gonna let it happen - Alex adores rides, there’s nothing he won’t go on. Like he’s unafraid even though people would expect them to hate it but he knows they’ve been tested and they’re safe so he’s more than happy to spend all day on the biggest rides. Bobby likes water-based rides and logflumes and stuff like that - they always make sure they go on those at the end of the day because they have to do it for Bobby but they don’t want to walk around soaking wet all day. Reggie likes getting/taking photos with all the dressed up mascots wandering around, Luke is thrilled by any interactive rides (except ghost trains because we’ve already established he hates horror movies and he thinks it’s like being in a horror movie), Alex also really enjoys just wandering around the big park and seeing people have a good time, and Bobby actually likes co-ordinating their day and making sure everyone gets to do what they want to

Yes I can totally see that! Like Reggie somehow didn’t know what one of his best friends was allergic to and felt so guilty afterwards. It’s a sore spot, they can’t bring it up or he’ll just start crying and hugging Alex for hours on end. Reggie will say “I’m so sorry Alex I could have killed you that day!” and Alex just goes “dude we all died anyway”

11. With Reggie it always turns into a game of “is he lying or is this actually some totally messed up thing he really did?” The most difficult time anyone’s ever had to figure it out was when he said he’d met Queen Elizabeth - like yeah it’s unlikely but it’s definitely the sort of thing Reggie would somehow accidentally do so??? (It was a lie, but not on purpose - he thought he had met her but it was just some random old lady at a store)

13. Omg yes!!! I feel like they just get bored during the day and Luke would just go “hey Reggie, come and Dosey Doe with me” and it would turn into all four of them dancing around the studio. And yes I think out of all the unlikely things I want in season 2 full cowboy outfits is very high up on my list

14. Ahskfldo YES Nick witnessing the entire thing!! Assuming lifers still can’t see the boys next season it’ll be so funny if Nick can see them because obviously he’s actually Caleb so he has to mentally restrain himself from reacting at all to them mocking him because he can’t reveal himself. So it’s just Nick shaking with anger and Julie saying “Nick? You okay?” and how biting back something mean about the boys and growling “fine” instead. And yes 100% Reggie plays those songs on repeat and the guys pretend to hate them but they can’t deny good music when they hear it so they do join in

15. THAT IS THE CUTEST THING EVER OMG THANK YOU FOR SAYING THAT! A tiny Han Solo in the corner of every piece, no matter if it’s Star Wars or not omg I love it I will never get over this

16. Yes lmao both of them are trying to sneak around Alex and duck under his arms to get at the batter and he’s just like “GUYS I am literally using an electric whisk, are you trying to get your fingers chopped off? Don’t even answer that, you’re banished from the kitchen, goodbye. Go annoy Bobby instead”

17. That is so cute omfg and like all over his clothes and in his hair. He just looks an utter mess but he’s smiling so wide and is the cutest baby ever (he was easily the cutest baby out of Sunset Curve, Reggie as a close second)

19. Wait yes I love that! Reggie’s just like “y’know it’s a lovely day outside d’you want to go dance with me” and Alex just goes “Reg it’s tipping it down. Of course” and it takes a while but Luke and Bobby eventually join them. Lots of splashing in puddles because the four of them are literal children and think it’s funny

20. That is the greatest thing ever andkdllf and I love how that was literally my reaction after episode 1 of the show too like wow Alex really is just that lovable. That pun as well I literally laughed out loud - I’ve reblogged/added to a post a while ago where I said Reggie and Willie communicate with each other only in ghost puns so I wholeheartedly support that. And exactly! If Luke suggested throwing eggs at anyone else’s house he would be sent to his room but he mentions it’s the Mercers’ and Emily just goes “I think we’re out of eggs, I’ll need to go shopping first, come on”

21. Yes omg idk why but the image of Alex having his own key is the sweetest thing ever - maybe because it symbolises him finally having a place to call home?? And yes I totally agree, Mitch doesn’t have a lot of characteristics (I wrote a massive list before where I made a load of headcanons about him because he didn’t have enough screen time lol) and he would develop so much if he took Alex under his wing

24. Omg yes you read my mind! She so should have had a verse in Flying Solo! Like thinking about it it’s totally plausible that Julie read her the poem before and Flynn, being Flynn, wanted to add her own verse about how much she loves Julie and how she’ll always be there for her! Or she could have at least like added harmonies or something?? Idk it’s just that Flynn is in the music program too and frankly I’d like to see her do a little more music. And I haven’t seen Lemonade Mouth but I did see a commentary video about it on YouTube (I think it was I’M LEMONADE MOUTH by Danny Gonzalez if you’re interested (but that might not be the title idk)) and if I’m remembering it right then YES absolutely! And yes exactly Willie would have danced with him if Caleb hadn’t made him leave! I’m still really angry about that because just think about how much fun they would have had together!!!!

25. Omg yes! I love that, I agree that it was because of Carrie being born that made him finally go. He wanted to be strong for her now that he finally had a second (third I guess?) chance at getting family life right and he knew he wasn’t in the right state of mind for it. And omg that mental image 🥺 if the boys had lived they would have been Uncle Luke, Uncle Alex, and Uncle Reggie to Carrie (and possibly even to Julie if they stayed friends with Rose too) and they would have raised her and maybe she would have grown up to be a little nicer and she and Julie and Flynn would have all stayed friends 🥺😭

26. Yes yes yes!! He gets back into his role of managing the band and even though the boys haven’t totally forgiven him he still finds himself able to write good music again and make jewellery again and he steps foot in the garage for the first time in decades because he has his band back and he feels so much happier and freer and he’s just ecstatic to have another chance!

28. Lmfao yes those are perfect! “Bobby I don’t care how much I love your pieces if you keep leaving your yarn in random places I will scream” was written after Reggie tripped over a bit of yarn that was somehow stretched all the way across the garage like a trap and when he fell he somehow managed to get totally tangled up in in

30. Omg yeah I can totally see her and Willie bonding!! I feel like Willie is kind of like an old soul and can just get along with everyone but he takes a special liking to Victoria for whatever reason and loves finding ways to talk to her

32. Yes! Sunset Curve just have the nicest, friendliest fan base and everyone is kind and respectful and all they want to do is give them stickers and fanart! Luke absolutely adores that portrait omg so Reggie and Luke would be puppies, I feel like Bobby could be a cat, and Alex would be something like an owl or something idk but they just are all captured as whatever the perfect animal for them and it’s adorable. Yeah you’re right I think Reggie just likes talking to fans and casually mentions it one day and the fans show up to the next gig with a 1000-piece puzzle for Alex

34. In a fridge omg I love it that’s brilliant. The boys laughed at him for a solid hour before helping him get out

35. Yes to all of that I love it!!! I also thought about Ray helping out - like he can’t see Reggie, but he goes along to all these photoshoots (and mostly can’t see who they’re taking pictures of either) and helps with angles and lighting and says well done to Reggie whenever he does a good job - Ray can’t see but Reggie smiles so wide at that

37. Ahsklfskdlfl yeah Alex has no hoodies left because they’ve all gone to a different band member or Flynn or Willie

39. YES OH MY GOD. When Carrie was just starting Dirty Candi she was saying about how she needed something to make them stand out and Trevor just immediately said “matching outfits, colour co-ordinated” without even thinking about it

40. Oh absolutely - but at some point Alex has to wonder if Willie is tripping so often because he can’t dance or so that Alex is forced to catch him. Willie is very eager to learn how to do lifts and stuff like that (even though it’s been years since even Alex did them) and he thinks it’ll be romantic. It is, but not because the lift is like this perfect moment, because it’s them messing up and being silly and just enjoying each other’s company 🥺

Not gonna lie this whole post might be my favourite we’ve made so far 😂

#williexmercer #sunset curve #julie and the phantoms #asks #emily answers

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pleaserelaxslowly · 4 years

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Quarantined!

A 30 day song challenge from instagram that I decided to do. I didn’t post it though. As always, my playlists are for myself or for others as gifts. It’s not like I have anything else to do as I’m currently self-isolating due to COVID-19 trying to stay healthy and not carry anything if I’m infected but asymptomatic.

Day one A song you like with a color in the title: “Crystalline Green” by Goldfrapp A good start for a playlist

Day two A song you like with a number in the title: “700 Mile Situation” by Res A sadly underplayed song in my library

Day three A song that reminds you of summertime: “Resonance” by HOME Simpsonwave driving in the car in a summer sunset

Day four A song that reminds you of someone you’d rather forget: “Back That Ass Up” by Juvenile Mirna

Day five A song that needs to be played loud: “Horror Head” by Curve Driving in my car, volume all the way up to hear all the background and effects mixed low in the track

Day six A song that makes you want to dance: “Oranges” by Mark E Downloaded it and loved it. Boy Friend posted it on Facebook and captioned it “It’s the 90s!” Danced on ecstasy with several others at a party at Kassandra and Fatih’s apartment after I sneaked over to Fatih’s DJ setup and played it while he was away. Came over another day to find that Kassandra had been playing it on repeat

Day seven A song to drive to: “In the City” by Chromatics Driving after 4:00 in the morning through the backstreets of Detroit

Day eight A song about drugs or alcohol: “Heroin” by The Velvet Underground I did heroin once. It made me very sick and I never did it again. My very good friend at the time, Megan Cole (and another friend Melissa Nazarek), got addicted to it (and crack), and after leaving a crack pipe in my house, I was forbidden from seeing her again. After that we lost touch. I often wonder what happened to them, if they’re alive, where they may be now. Last time I saw, Megan had children and was married, living in the same city, working at a pizza parlor

Day nine A song that makes you happy: “Adult Oriented Cha-Cha” by Pizzicato Five Japanese cha-cha from the 90s. So strange. It makes me smile

Day ten A song that makes you sad: “The Spangle Maker” by Cocteau Twins The laying in a bathtub suicidal thoughts harrowing song. I wonder what they were thinking when they wrote this. I can only imagine

Day eleven A song you never get tired of: “Black Milk” by Massive Attack I’ve been playing this track since it came out. The first playlist that remains containing this track is the old “Karma Therapy” playlist from about 2000. The last time was when we took LSD on Büyükada in İstanbul (me, Fatih, Kassandra, Ubeyd, Mark and Annes) and Matt came along with a speaker and played our “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Part 2″ playlist with this song on it. We stopped on the way back from the woods headed to the AirBnB, and I was in a heavy head-space going through a low moment in the cycle. I sat on the curb with Faith, this song playing, and watched the stone gate across the street, each stone resembling a face twisting into a sinister expression

Day twelve A song from your preteen years “What Is Love” by En Vogue The first tape I ever bought was “Funky Divas” by En Vogue and I loved this track.

Day thirteen A song you like from the 70s: “St. Elmo’s Fire” by Eno I love Stereolab and found a great cover of theirs of this track, so I decided to check it out. No wonder they wanted to cover it

Day fourteen A song you’d love to be played at your wedding: “It Could Be Sweet” by Portishead I always imagined this song playing at the reception. I wouldn’t want the typical wedding garbage played at my wedding, more like low-key lounge-y stuff

Day fifteen A song you like that’s a cover by another artist: “Gruesome Castle” by Wild Nothing I almost chose “Sweet Jane” by Cowboy Junkies, but I love the original just as much. I opted for this one because I like it more than the original. My first summer in İstanbul with friends enjoying a full social life saw me leaving my apartment walking down the street to Kassandra’s house listening to this track

Day sixteen A song that’s a classic favorite: “Rhythm Is a Dancer” by SNAP! How sad that 90s tracks are now considered “classics”

Day seventeen A song you’d sing a duet with someone on karaoke: “The Closer I Get to You” by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway I love love love this track. In high school, my friends Kristen and Stephanie (who are black) laughed at me and said I like the music their parents listen to (i.e. 60s, 70s and 80s R&B). I don’t even care, I like anything that’s good

Day eighteen A song from the year you were born: “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” by The Smiths February 20, 1984. Very close to my birthday

Day nineteen A song that makes you think about life: “If You’re Feeling Sinister” by Belle & Sebastian Riding on the servis to work in the morning thinking deeply about the lyrics and imagining other possible lives I could live

Day twenty A song that has many meanings to you: “Sullen Girl” by Fiona Apple Lots of sad nights alone, but also once I was told that a gay guy that I was interested in sat at Denny’s with another friend and they drunkenly sang this song together. I bought this album one summer staying at my grandfather’s house for vacation in Oklahoma. I saw the “Sleep to Dream” video on MTV and went out to buy the album and “Supa Dupa Fly” by Missy ‘Misdemeanor’ Elliott

Day twenty one A song you like with a person’s name in the title: “Steve McQueen” by M83 From one of the playlists I made of people’s names. Love how gay and dramatic this one is

Day twenty two A song that moves you forward: “Everybody Got Their Something” by Nikka Costa Great hopeful inspirational lyrics. ‘People keeping score so better hurry up and gets yours because somebody else has got your spot before you even try... Busy holding on so the roof don’t fly’ really speak to me. I saw the video for ‘Like a Feather’ and loved the sound and her voice

Day twenty three A song you think everybody should listen to: “Vista” by iamamiwhoami Chris showed me this group because it’s sad electronic music with female vocals (which he knows I love). I instantly fell in love, and think Jonna Lee could be way more popular than she is. It’s hard for foreigners to make it in the US. I shared her with my friend Holly, and Holly fell in love, and Holly’s not necessarily living for sad electronic music with female vocals in particular. It shows the power to transcend taste

Day twenty four A song by a band you wish were still together: “Bocca della verità” by Boy Friend After SLEEP ∞ OVER broke up, two of the members formed this band. In fact, I almost chose a song from SLEEP ∞ OVER, but all the best songs are after Stefanie Franciotti was alone, so technically not a band. Boy Friend publicly showed support for the LGBTQIA+ community, which I love. Sadly, they are no longer performing together. More sad electronic music with a female singer

Day twenty five A song you like by an artist no longer living: “Miss Brown to You” by Billie Holiday Such a sad life, and an even sadder demise. That’s how it was for blues and jazz singers in those days

Day twenty six A song that makes you want to fall in love: “Without Your Love” by The Venus Transmission A long time ago, I made a delicious (sadly now lost) playlist of thick atmospheric deep tracks for Valentine’s Day. This was on it, a lost jewel from the days of MySpace artists that never really got to see any serious success

Day twenty seven A song that breaks your heart: “Walk This Earth Alone” by Lauren Christy How is this different from day ten (a sad song)? Anyway, I can’t even ever really listen to this song the whole way through. I can’t get past more than a few seconds. As I write this list, I listen to each track I’m discussing as I type. For this entry, I paused the track, I just can’t listen to it. It’s from when I was a paperboy and realizing I was gay and feeling the worst, most loathsome, darkest, most hideous and violent, dangerous feelings that I never ever want to feel again

Day twenty eight A song by an artist whose voice you love: “Paradise (Remix)” by Sade It’s always a tie for me between Sade and Seal. I decided on Sade. Such a smokey delicious voice. I always say if Sade and Seal ever had a child, it would be over in the recording industry

Day twenty nine A song you remember from your childhood: “Calling All Angels” by Jane Siberry featuring k.d. lang My mom used to have a compilation CD called “In Search of Angels.” My mom loves the idea of angels and guardian angels. Her home is full of angel-related art and knickknacks. She probably bought the compilation from The Hallmark Store or some awful place like that. Either way, it reminds me of childhood. I used to steal the CD and listen to this track. It’s super adult contemporary and super soft-serve, but I like it anyway. Like I said before, if it’s good, I like it

Day thirty A song that reminds you of yourself: “Immature” by Björk This one was the hardest one. No songs really remind me of me. I don’t relate to music that way, I think. Either way, this does take me back to a time when I might have tried to get back with my ex-boyfriend Dan Lopez. Good think I didn’t, we are NOT good together

#30-day song challenge #playlist #play list #covid-19 #corona virus #coronavirus #quarantine #isolation #social distancing #stay at home

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vaniri · 5 years

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Eye of the storm [Arthur Morgan x Reader] - CHAPTER 1/2

warnings: tuberculosis 😧 (this fic takes place in the middle of chapter 6), light smut (the good stuff comes in chapter 2 😏), a bit of angst? Just loving our ill cowboy ;_;

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You sighed tiredly, leaning against the Saint Denis Stable wall. It was a hard day and you would be the happiest person alive if it finally ended. First, the stagecoach you tried to rob turned out to be completely empty, as all its passengers (and their precious belongings) disembarked at Emerald Ranch. Later, when you were going back to Rhodes to have a talk with your discouraged friend, who had tipped you off about this "wonderful opportunity", you got ambushed. By the damned Lemoyne Raiders! It wasn't the first time that happened, and you were not alone, but you absolutely hated being swooped by these obstinate morons. The fight was tough, but somehow you managed to survive mostly unaffected. Unfortunately, your poor horse, your beloved four-legged friend, wasn't that lucky and got a bullet.

It didn't look that bad, but still scared the shit out of you. You loved this creature and couldn't even think of losing her. You tended to her wound the best you could, but you weren't an expert, so you decided to take her to the city, where the stable owner could examine her properly.

Now you were watching as the man carefully inspected your horse, saying nothing but getting a bit impatient. He was quiet for too long, you thought, and that made you feel uneasy. You moved your gaze to your girl, standing motionlessly where you'd halted her and letting the owner scrutinize her whole without any objections, like a good horse she definitely was. She seemed calm and relaxed under the owner's touch, but in her eyes, fixed on you all the time, you saw she was just waiting for a sign to leave this place.

In other words: she was behaving as usual. That was a good sign.

"Seems like the bullet just grazed her, it's nothing serious." The owner informed, snapping you out of your musing. "She'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" You approached him swiftly, still uncertain. "And is it the only wound? Those... people who tried to rob us, they were fierce. We got under a spray of bullets in seconds, it's a miracle we got out of there alive."

"Her wound may look serious, but I assure you, miss, that it's nothing dangerous. There's no bullet inside, that's for sure. And I didn't see any other injuries, but I'll check again to be certain. I'll clean this one so it doesn't get infected, but she needs to rest now, at least for a day or two, and she'll be fully recovered soon. Would you like to leave her here for a while?"

You were going to agree, but your answer was cut off by sudden coughing, coming from the street. Your heart lurched with fear as it was growing louder and harsher with every second. You excused yourself from the conversation and rushed out of the building, where you knew your companion had promised to wait for you, after paying a visit to the gunsmith.

You found him doubled over by the stable wall, with one of his hands resting on it for support. The other one was clutching his chest, as if trying to ease the pain the coughing was visibly causing. His fit was violent, but fortunately ended pretty quick, and the man could breathe again. He hawked up what was irritating his throat and spit it out on the muddy sidewalk. Not wanting to look at it, he raised his head and then noticed you, watching him with a worried expression on your face. He immediately wiped his mouth with the back his hand and straightened up, trying to look as if nothing had happened. But you noticed the stain of blood his mouth left on his sleeve.

"Arthur?" You didn't even try to hide your concern. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. That's nothing." He waved his hand dismissively, covering his spit with his foot. "It's this air. Heavy with smoke from all these factories. It's hard to see anything here, let alone breathe with that shit."

You knew it wasn't the air. It was tuberculosis. It's been weeks since he got the diagnosis. During that time his health was deteriorating rapidly, due to terrible accommodation conditions, severe malnutrition, as money at camp was tight and food scarce, and constant stress and pressure some of the gang members put him under. Mostly Dutch, who was exploiting him as if he hadn't noticed the state his "best man" was in. Granted, Arthur did his best to hide the fact that many actions he used to take almost effortlessly before, now became difficult and exhausted him more with every day; but certain symptoms he'd developed were hard to miss. He couldn't deny he got weaker and visibly thinner. He blamed it on the shortage of food, but the truth was he had problems with ingesting even small meals. He had also trouble sleeping, as his coughing often jolted him out of his slumber, and when it did, his recurring night fever shot chills through his body, keeping him awake. Arthur of course tended to marginalize his condition, assured everyone who asked about his health that he was fine and his debility was just a temporary inconvenience. But you knew the truth, you saw it in his tired eyes and despondent face. Every day you watched him wither, succumb to the disease, and it filled your heart with trepidation.

"Yeah, I can feel it too." You played along, trying to lift his spirits. That illness was not only destroying him physically, but also mentally. "It burns my lungs and prickles my eyes. What an awful district to live in."

"The whole city is awful. When we're leaving?"

"Not so soon, I'm afraid. My horse needs to stay here for a while."

"How's she?"

"She'll be fine, but she needs to rest."

"You'll ride with me, then."

"We won't get to Beaver Hollow before night and I'd rather not risk getting into another shooting today." You raised your eyes to the sky. There was probably less than an hour left before the sunset, and riding through the Roanoke Ridge forest in the dark, especially when Murfrees were on the rampage, was a death wish. Which was very convenient for you - your current camp was a depressing place, where people only yelled and accused each other of being disloyal, and you took literally every opportunity to excuse yourself out of it. "Besides, you know I couldn't sleep, being so far away from my girl. It'll be better to stay around tonight."

"So we're setting camp outside the city."

"Where, in the bayou? Gators will eat us in our sleep. Or mosquitoes, those nasty little suckers. I'd rather stay here, in Saint Denis."

"I don't think it's a good idea."

"It is. The air is usually better where the saloon is, and a warm meal and some good sleep in a comfortable bed wouldn't harm you." You hopelessly believed that this could somehow improve his condition. Even a little. Because what else could you do for him? "Come on, Arthur. It's just one night, maybe two, in comfort and silence, away from all that bickering at camp. I'll pay for it. And for a bath." You eyed him up and down. "You definitely need one. With a bath lady, if you insist."

Arthur let out an exasperated sigh. He would rather sleep surrounded with gators and mosquitoes than in this damned city, but he knew better than to argue with you, you could be pretty adamant when it came to the matters involving his well-being. Besides, a warm bath didn't sound that bad. Nor did a bed that wasn't an old sleeping bag on the muddy ground. Especially if you would sleep beside him.

"Bath lady won't be necessary."

********************************

You sat on a creaky, but fairly comfortable bed, looking at a clock standing in the corner of your rented room. It's been a while since Arthur had left to take a bath, you realized. Well, he probably needed to do more scrubbing than you could have expected. At least his absence gave you a couple minutes to just sit and enjoy your moment of respite. You could get used to living like this: having a little house, or at least a room somewhere, a quiet and warm place of your own, where no problems of this world mattered. There would be no gangs, no robberies, no obligations to Dutch or anyone else, no bounties on your heads. Just you and Arthur, living your live peacefully together.

Oh hell, the bounty! You should have checked and made sure there was no prize on Arthur's head anymore - for that bank heist the gang had pulled a couple of weeks ago - before you decided to stay here. But you didn't see any posters with his face, or even anything resembling it, on the way to the saloon, and if you remembered correctly, Arthur had visited the city several times after returning from Guarma, without getting arrested. So you could probably assume that Saint Denis had forgotten about his sins. They always did. Still, you'd rather keep a low profile, just for sure.

You flopped down on your back and sprawled comfortably on the mattress, closing your eyes. Your life would have surely been much easier and filled with fewer problems if you hadn't been an outlaw. Not that you really regretted your life choices, you would have been much worse if it wasn't for Dutch and his gang. You should consider yourself lucky; they found you in your darkest hour, took you in, and cared for you when no one else did. They taught you how to survive in this harsh world, they showed you their ways, and let you become one of them. They became your family.

A family that was being torn apart for weeks. Not many things in your life hurt you more than seeing them all like this, at each others' throats and questioning their bonds. Sometimes you felt like everything around you was falling apart. But despite the pain it caused, you had to stay strong, for your own wits and for Arthur, who needed you sane more than anything else now.

"Sleeping already?" Came unexpectedly from the door. You opened your eyes and propped yourself up on your elbows, watching your companion enter the room.

"Almost. What took you so long? I've been starting to worry that you changed your mind and went camping in the bayou."

"Can't say it ain't tempting, but no. I went downstairs, tried to eat something. But" He shook his head with resignation. "you know."

"Yeah, I do. You planning to go back there, or head to bed? Because if the former, I need to remind you that we should lay low, even more than usual. No excessive drinking, no crazy business."

"Going to bed sounds easier."

"Your kingdom awaits, then." You sat up and patted the sheets beside you. "Clothes off. This ain't your cot, you ain't going to bed in these dirty rags."

"Rags, ouch." He feigned a pained expression, but obediently took off his shoes and unbuckled his belt. "These are the finest clothes in this city."

"I see remnants of mud on your knees. And something that looks like dried blood on your shoulder."

And that blood on your sleeve.

"Your clothes may be the prettiest in the state or look like taken off a destitute, you know I don't really mind. But they're still dirty. Off with them, now."

"Fine, fine."

Not giving a damn about decency and averting your gaze, you were watching as Arthur took his vest off and shucked off his suspenders, then slid his pants down his legs and slowly unbuttoned his shirt. You saw that contented smile that tugged at his lips when he noticed how engrossed you were by his little show and you nodded appreciatively, letting him know that you really liked what you had before your eyes. Even though it wasn't the same sight as a couple of weeks ago. Sure, his muscles were still well-defined and his shoulders to hips ratio absolutely breathtaking, as you tended to describe it, but he was noticeably thinner. His union suit wasn't as tight on his body as it used to be. It hung loosely around his certain parts, indicating that the man was still losing weight, even despite your persistent attempts to keep it on a more or less constant level.

"Hey, what are you doing?" He asked surprised when you got up off the bed, at the exact same moment he sat beside you, and picked up the trousers he left on the floor, along with the rest of his clothing.

"Taking care of your rags, so they won't look like literal rags tomorrow?" You folded them neatly and put on the sofa standing by the window. You did the same with his vest, and his shirt you slung over its back. You really tried not to look at that smear of blood on its sleeve, but your eyes darted to it before you could stop yourself.

"I could do this, you know?"

"But you didn't. And if I wasn't here, you'd rather leave them scattered around the room and slip them on as you found them tomorrow. Don't say that's not true, I know you too well, Arthur Morgan. I really do."

You were always around him, since the day Dutch let you in. Something drew you to this violent, but always effective and getting his job done man, he quickly became your role model and you looked up to him in literally every aspect of your new outlaw life. You wanted to be strong like him, intimidating like him, and as good or even better at shooting than him. You were watching him at every occasion, trying to learn and mimic his moves, expressions, his ways with the gun. Arthur wasn't particularly happy that you tagged along with him wherever he went, but you were never intrusive or really bothering him, so he accepted that fact and eventually got used to your presence. Sometimes he even taught you a thing or two, just to make sure you could handle yourself well.

You didn't even realize when it turned into something more. You stopped watching and only looked at him, enthralled by his handsome features. You gave up trying to become like him and just enjoyed the time you could have spent together. You really wanted to know him better but it wasn't that easy, Arthur had built so many walls around himself that going through them seemed nearly impossible. But you were patient. You made him feel comfortable around you; you listened to what he had to say and talked when he wanted to talk. You were always the first to cheer him up when he had a bad day, you took care of him and showed affection when he needed it. You became his real friend, with who he was comfortable enough to discuss literally every matter of his life, or just sit in complete silence for hours. He didn't even realize when he fell for you, but when he did, he didn't fight it, didn't try to push you away, didn't let the fear caused by his previous experience ruin it all. He trusted you and knew that you wouldn't leave his side, no matter what.

You two were officially a couple for quite a long time now, and riding together for even longer. You robbed people together, plundered houses together, stole horses sometimes, and even started some bar fights. Well, usually you did, but Arthur always ended them. You were through a lot, shit like Blackwater included, and you knew you could always rely on each other. The bond between you two grew stronger than anyone could have ever imagined and you considered yourself the luckiest person on Earth for having Arthur in your life.

"I'll try to deal with these stains tomorrow's morning." You promised, a bit tiredly, sitting beside him.

"You don't have to. I can live being a bit dirty."

"Oh, I know. But I'll do it anyway, try to make you look like a decent man. As always, and despite your strenuous attempts to remain a dirty cowpoke. Hmm, maybe fighting with you over that matter became my hobby at some point of my life?"

"You have a very weird hobby then, miss."

"I'm of a very peculiar kind."

Arthur chuckled, lightly, so it didn't provoke any coughing.

"Yes, you are. But you know what? You could be strangest woman in this country and I would still pick you over anyone else." He declared, wrapping his arm around your waist and pulling you closer.

A warm smile tugged at your lips when Arthur kissed the side of your neck. He took your chin in his hand and turned your face towards his, made you look him in the eyes. Then, he gave you more soft kisses, first on your forehead, next cheeks, nose, and the last one where you wanted it the most. It always surprised you how gentle that usually tough and violent man could be with you, how passionate this allegedly heartless outlaw became when his lips were on yours. You purred excitedly when his hand left your face and slid down your body, to your thigh, where it rested suggestively close to your crotch.

"I've got the impression you may want something." You remarked, breaking the kiss.

"Really? What gave me away?"

"It was a wild guess."

Maybe his hand, now caressing your heat through the layers of your bottom, was some kind of a hint. Or maybe it was Arthur's lips, working their way down your neck, tenderly kissing and sucking every bit of skin they reached. Yeah, you could definitely tell that he was in the mood.

"...And that's the moment you tell me to back off, ain't it?" He noticed pretty quickly that despite the fact you let him do anything he wanted with your body, you clearly weren't into it yourself. You didn't even touch him once.

"Sorry, Arthur. It's been a hell of a day. I'm exhausted. That would be a real shame if I fell asleep while you was fucking me."

"Something's wrong, am I right, [Y/N]?"

Making love with Arthur was absolutely wonderful. You loved the way he pampered your body, and how adored and wanted you felt under his lustful gaze and tender touch. You loved how he reacted to your displays of affection, how he wasn't scared to open up and show his vulnerable side, and that he let you worship his body. You knew Arthur had his demons, the ones that completely distorted his own body image and undermined his self-esteem. But he learned to believe your words of adoration more than the whispers in the back of his head. He trusted your love more than his intrusive thoughts.

His illness changed a lot in your relationship. Not the way you felt about him, obviously, but how you perceived certain things. You became more observant, more aware of the consequences your actions may have had, and some of them took a serious toll on your man's condition, you found out. Now you had to be a responsible woman and put Arthur's well-being first, take proper care of him before you could take care of his carnal desires. You couldn't recklessly make love every day anymore, as his deteriorating health was putting more and more limitations on his body. It couldn't always keep up with what his mind craved, so you had to be more cautious now.

"I'm sorry Arthur. I'm not in mood."

"It's okay. I understand." He took you in his arms and gently kissed the top of your head.

"I'm just... worried." You tried to explain yourself. "That coughing fit at the stable, I can't push it out of my mind, I don't know why. I know you had them worse before, but this one scared me so much."

"Shhh, I know this whole situation is hard for you, but try not to think about that. I'm feeling okay now. Even more than okay, having you here." He pulled you tighter against his chest.

You calmed down a little, listening to his still strong and steady, but a bit faster than usual heartbeat. You didn't like it when he saw you like that, concerned and unsure. But honestly, you'd rather be sincere with your man than hide your fears away and lie to make him believe that everything was alright. He wasn't that stupid.

"Can we just go to sleep now?" You asked pleadingly. "I'm really tired."

Arthur didn't oppose. After you undressed and put your clothes beside his, he took you back in his arms and lay down on the bed with you on top of him, locked in his loving embrace. You snuggled up to his chest, tucked your head under his chin, and drifted off almost immediately, lulled to sleep by soft music coming from the saloon downstairs.

#red dead redemption 2 #rdr2 #arthur morgan #arthur morgan x reader #rdr2 fanfiction #fanfiction #duck pecks her keyboard #I GAVE UP ON THIS FIC :D

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thexfella · 5 years

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Dear Love, Fuck you.

LOVE. What a bullshit word. It can be bestowed, withheld or even transferred. Giving it is never unconditional and receiving it almost always depends on giving it. Love is fucking expensive. Love both guides our lives and derails them at the same time. Love sequesters our attention and taxes our soul, most sharply of all when it leaves town.

Often, Love isn’t actually Love at all; it’s lust. A fleeting tingle that expires before the cum is dry on the bedsheet. Love defines our never ending narcissistic need for validation and comfort. Society asserts an incessant predaliction that we are all deserving of it and that we’re lost if we don’t find it. Love ain’t a set of fucking car keys kids. We don’t own it. Love is on loan; sometimes for a night, or a year, or 10, and if we’re lucky, a lifetime. Forget to pay up, and Love gets repossessed and redistributed. Give too much of it and you’re a codependent pussy. Love out of pity and you martyr yourself for the other’s benefit.

Love sunk my fucking battleship.

Fuck you, Love.

I just want to go to sleep. A long fucking sleep where I slip into a beautiful, debaucherous dream where I’d find myself on a beach surrounded by a thousand beautiful naked women. I’d wade into them and take a long and leisurely swim. One hundred deep and ten high, their bodies shimmering in the tropical sunshine.

Stumbling out of the darkness, I fall into this glorious dream, finally released from the grips of an acute case of despair that has taken almost half of my lifetime away.

I’ve been a slave to a woman on offer to any man worthy of her ‘love’, since the day I married her. An invitation she has accepted from others several times.

Yet still I choked her down, with glee, year after year- self enslaved to her taste, her smell.. my insatiable lust masquerading as Love. Even finding a ribbon of excitement in her lustful encounters with other men over the years. At the expense of my pride, my soul, and the prime years of my adult life.

I poured that poison down the back of my throat, Again. And again.

Further still, after she left me for another man, I continued to invite her into my bed and accepted invitations into hers, only to relive that moment of extasy, that made the shit she was feeding me palatable and that kept us and our family together for so long; until she decided she was done with me for good. Discarded like a piece of garbage.

I did not escape her grip as much as I was released from it. Either way, I’m now man in agony. She’s my heroin. If I can’t quit her, she will kill me.

So I go out looking. I survey those thousand glistening bodies basking in the rays of sunshine.

One woman emerges. Like a cup of warm, sweet cream pulled from Mary’s breast. Her womb invites me in, so I immerse myself. I become man reborn. Pulled from the jaws of a man eater, she sets upon the impossible task of rebuilding me. She is humane among humans. I reemerge like a fucking phoenix.

Once marred and left for dead, I now feel Love’s tremendous yet safe and familiar weight beginning to press down one me once again as it rears its ugly, beautiful, crazy fucking head far too soon, administering a punch in the nuts long before this cowboy is ready to ride off into the sunset with a damsel tucked into my back.

Daises begin to spring up on top of the giant pile of shit that was my life. A lush jungle will grow there if I allow it. Do I?

In my stint a single man once again, I’ve discovered the absence of Love, is to live unfettered. To be lonely is to be liberated. Being free to roam the plains like a hungry fucking wolf again looking for prey feels so damn good. So why am I settling in again so soon?

Hunting is a lonely endeavour and the hunter quickly learns the sweetness of the meat he pursues usually pales in comparison to his expectations once the thrill of the kill has come and gone for most of the women he beds. Their baggage is too heavy. If he cannot fold into them, he can’t be himself. So he keeps looking.

Through it all, Love lurks just below the surface; waiting for us to find the one that will call us home. Love, your timing sucks ass.

For the first time in my life, I’ve found Love that will feed me for life that I didn’t have to hunt down. Love that actually Loves me, for me, and asks for nothing in return, other than Love back.

My despair has turned to confusion as I truly look at my ex wife in the rear view mirror for the first time and finally contemplate driving away. She’s the devil I knew. Fuck the world is big and lonely out there.

Safety abounds in her arms, but I crave the unknown. Damn you Love, you sucked me in again.

At least this time you’ve got my back.

Still, the sunshine beckons me.

To the other 999: Please take a number and be patient. I may be a while.

#loveafterdivorce #lifeafterlove #cheatingwife #getting over an ex

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thcdarlingboy · 6 years

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@daltoniisms // Mac has birthday surprises for Jack!

Birthdays had never been Mac’s thing, at least not since he was a kid. All of his friends knew it; it only reminded him that years ago, it was the day his father never came back as promised. Even if they had reunited since then, things still weren’t quite right between the MacGyver men. Jack, however -- he’d always been all about birthdays. Celebrating life and making the most of one’s special day. Now that they were together, really together... engaged, even, Mac was ready to shove that stubbornness aside and surprise his man with something that would mean a lot to him.

He’d been planning it for a while, and throwing a big bash or something was more Riley or Bozer’s territory. Mac had always been more subdued, and he could always take Jack on a road trip of his choice or something soon enough. Their last trip to Vegas had been derailed; maybe they could make up for it. Although he had a hunch that Sin City would be at the bottom of their list for a while.

It was their trip to Texas though that began Mac’s research. He loved to research things -- it was nerdy, but everyone knew that’s what he was. Honored that Jack wanted to take him back home to where he’d grown up, Mac started finding out everything he could about horses. Their lifespan, what they ate, even the best equipment to ride them with. He knew Jack’s beloved one Apache could possibly still be alive, and it had been his goal for a reunion.

That wasn’t all that was under his belt though. During their visit Mac also had been told by Apache’s owner that soon he would have to find a new home for the horse, because they could no longer afford their property. Not only him, but his family; a son, and the female horse that was his mother -- Sunset. Mac kept that information to himself rather than passing it on to Jack; the instant he’d found out, a plan was formulated. Although he hadn’t originally intended it as a birthday present, the timing couldn’t be any more perfect.

While Mac didn’t own a ranch, he had connections from their various clients. One in particular who had a farm outside of the LA suburbs with plenty of land, and whom he trusted. So Mac sought him out, hoping he might have room for Apache’s little family, and offered to take care of all the expenses. Instead though, he was offered a parcel of land to own. He may not have taken the leap had this been pre-relationship with Jack; after all, wouldn’t it be weird to lay down roots like that for someone you weren’t... with? Although realistically, he would have done anything with Jack. Now though, Mac didn’t even think twice on it. They were building a future and this was another step of it.

The horses would have free reign and be tended to by the workers, but technically a corner of it belonged to he and Jack now. Mac of course was going to let his man decide the name of it.

He was bubbling with excitement, but also a rarity for him -- ...nerves. It was the day after Jack’s birthday, and now that he had been reinstated into The Phoenix, Mac couldn’t wait any longer. Insisting Jack jump in for the ride, Mac was secretive about where they were going. He noticed the confusion in his partner’s face as the craziness of LA faded into the more rural pastures of California, but all Mac would do was smile and tell him he had to wait.

After grabbing lunch at a cafe he’d researched well in advance and been certain they had Jack’s favorite dessert, Mac blinded-folded him. Though assured at the moment it wasn’t for the same promise he’d given him a few nights before... about taking him his precious Shelby Mustang. Although, that was coming soon too. But, later.

Once they arrived at their new little property, Mac helped Jack out of the car and took his hand, refusing to let him peek. He knew better, and had thrown on an extra blind-fold just in case. The blonde truly couldn’t stop smiling, even if he was growing more anxious as well. Because, honestly? He didn’t know how the man he loved would react. He would certainly be happy to have Apache back, but he hoped that owning something together like this wasn’t too fast.

Glancing down at his engagement ring though seemed to subside some of that anxiety. Mac’s fingers laced with Jack’s until they reached the barn, right where the three horses were munching on hay. He could see Jack’s nose crinkle at the not-so-delightful smells and a bought of laughter slipped from Mac.

“I hope you know how much you really mean to me,” Mac finally spoke softly as he tried to control his chuckling. “I’m so blessed that you wanted me after all this time, and that you want a future with me. I want that with you too. There’s no one else I can imagine that with.” Stealing a chaste kiss, Mac then untied the blindfold from Jack’s eyes, a blush falling over his warm cheeks.

“I believe you know Apache. This is Sunset, and...” he gestured toward the younger horse. “Their son, Little Jack. He was named after Apache’s wonderful first owner.” That much was true -- and another little tidbit that Mac had kept to himself. He was glowing now, hoping to see joy filling the older man’s eyes.

“They’re ours now. They needed a new home, and well... a little part of this place is for us. Maybe someday we can get more land, but it’s a start. And we’re free to visit or come ride them whenever we want. Happy Birthday, baby.” Mac’s blue eyes found Jack’s; his chocolate gaze forever grounding him and making him melt all the same.

Mac wet his lips, a nervous habit of his, really, and patted Apache’s saddle gently. It jingled -- a glimmer of something sparkly on it reflected off the sun streaming through the barn window. “Oh, and there’s something else too.” Biting his lip, Mac untied the ring that had been dangling from the fringe of the saddle. He was grateful Apache hadn’t done too much running around so it didn’t get lost.

Tenderly, he took Jack’s hand and slid the ring onto the proper finger. “I was going to get you a Dallas Cowboys one, but they were all too gaudy,” Mac laughed. “I know that usually people wait until the ceremony for that... but I couldn’t. I just love you too much, Jack Dalton.”

#// this got insanely long~ sorry not sorry boo #daltoniisms #i'm coming back for you; macdalton #otp: you go kaboom i go kaboom #you are the spark of fire that makes me feel alive; mac's man #mac: twisted steel and sex appeal #mac verse: i'm glad you're gonna be watching my back

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rhetoricandlogic · 6 years

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Mister Hadj’s Sunset Ride By Saladin Ahmed

Issue #43

, May 20, 2010

AUDIO PODCAST

EBOOK

“...and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind.”

—Qu’ran 5:32

The toughest man I ever met? That’s an easy answer to give, but a tricky tale to tell.

Mister Hadj was from the same place as my rattlesnake of a Pa. Araby, or someplace like, though I don’t rightly know the name since neither him nor my Pa ever said a blasted word about the Old Country. You’d ask and ask, and all you’d get back was a look as hard as rocks. No use digging after that.

I’ve ridden with good men and bad men, but I never rode with a man like Mister Hadj. That wasn’t his proper name. Just a way of calling the old man respectful-like. My Pa taught me that, if I ever met a man from the Old Country, to call him ‘Hadj.’ Damn near the onlything that sonuvabitch ever taught me.

Anyhow, a good few years back now, when I was a young, full-of-hisself bounty hunter, I fell in with Mister Hadj in the Black Hills. We rode together about a year. He was a little leather-brown knot of a man with a moonlight-white beard, and he took an immediate and powerful shine to me on account of my Pa’s being from Araby.

Now, understand, I’m a bastard. I carry my momma’s name—O’Connor. But the way I look—little darker than the average man, I know, and you can see the hatchet nose—well, I get taken for a lot of things. South of the border, I’ve fibbed that I was half-Mexican. Lived a summer trading with the Cheyenne, claiming to be part redman. Even got chased outta town once when I winked at the wrong girl—they was sure as could be that I was a mulatto!

It can be hell, sometimes, being different things to different folks. But it can be right useful, too.

Well, Mister Hadj musta smelled the Old Country in my blood, somehow. Like I say, he took a shine to me. And my knowing how to call him respectfully seemed to seal it for him. I can’t say I ever understood it, but Mister Hadj was the kind of man you wanted on your side, so I wasn’t about to complain.

For what it’s worth, I was the last man ever saw him alive.

The last time I rode with Mister Hadj, we was in a little shit town in Texas, trailing Parson Lucifer’s gang. Old Parson Lucifer was an ex-preacher, mad as a rabid dog. Said he took the name ‘cause he was “part blessed and part damned, like any man.” Can’t say I ever saw the blessed part, though.

Like I said, the man was out of his blasted mind. Anything ruthless or nasty you might have heard about his gang was probably the plain truth. That three-day-slow murder of the blacksmith and his wife in Deadwood, done with their own smithing tools? That weren’t no tale. The widower sheriff of Redemption and his baby boys getting their ears chopped off and force-fed to them? Parson Lucifer’d done that, too.

We were in the employ of the town of Crossblood, where even the old Sunday school teacher was foaming at the mouth to see Parson Lucifer and his boys strung up. They’d lost a lot to that gang. Most of the gang had been caught before we ever got hired—and what got done to ‘em wasn’t none too pretty, neither.

But Parson Lucifer and his two sons were still out there.

Well, one and a half of his sons, anyway. To hear it told, two sheriff’s deputies had fired three shots each into his youngest, Shambles. Wasn’t nothing left but a bloody pulp shaped like a man. But Parson Lucifer and his eldest, James, went through the trouble of killing two more men just in order to haul the younger boy’s body away.

Now, Mister Hadj and me wasn’t the only hunters hunting these dogs, but it was us that found ‘em. Rather, it was him that did. By serenading the rocks.

See, that old man could sing. I don’t think he knew what half the words meant. But when Mister Hadj started in on them cowboy songs—well, as sure as I’m standing here, when that man got to crooning a tune he made the earth itself cry. This ain’t just me tale-telling, you hear? I seen tears fall from big red rocks when the old man hummed. Heardstones weep as they parted before him.

So when Mister Hadj said that a stone in the road told him where to find Parson Lucifer, I didn’t doubt it. And though it still spooked me, I didn’t flinch when he sang softly to a great big cliff-face until it wept and opened us a passage to a perfect ambush perch.

Y’all ain’t got to believe me for it to be truth.

I never learned Mister Hadj’s Christian name, but tell the truth I don’t think he was a Christian. Not to say he wasn’t living Christianly, you hear—when we were down Mexico way, that man’d toss his last peso at the first beggar what asked. But I don’t think he’d ever touched a Bible in his life. And Sunday to him was just another day.

Every evening, he’d roll out this funny little rug. Then he’d turn his back to the setting sun, bow down and say some’a his words. Heathen praying, far as I could tell.

“You gonna do that every night?” I’d asked him early on.

“Should be more,” he’d said in that rocks-and-honey voice. And that was all he’d ever say on the matter.

No, it wasn’t nothing Christian. But my momma taught me that another man’s religion was like another man’s wife—none of my goddamn business. That old gal taught me a lot of lessons, but sticking to my own business was just about the best of ‘em.

Granted, he ain’t seemed to like words a whole lot. Never said much more than “Yup,” “Nope,” “I reckon,” and “Good, huh?” Once in a while, when he’d get real mad, he’d start to talking his Old Country talk, sounding like... like a man clearing his throat with flowers.

I suppose it would have drove a lot of men mad, riding with a man as quiet as that. And I can’t say that, once in a while, I didn’t wish Mister Hadj a bit more social. But I’ve always liked my quiet. Ain’t nothing in this world drives me up the wall like riding with a man who keeps on talking when there ain’t nothing to say.

I always knew Mister Hadj was there, and that was all I needed to know. By my hope of being saved, I’ll tell you I never saw a man as good with a gun. It wasn’t natural, the things that old man could do with a Navy Colt or a Winchester. You’ll think I’m talking tall, but I’d swear it before the Almighty hisself: I seen Mister Hadj shoot the buck teeth off a jumping jackrabbit. Seen him shoot another man’s bullets out the air. Seen him shoot more than a couple men, too. We made a over a dozen bounties in our year together. And not all of ‘em were alive. Not by a clean sight.

We was spying on Parson Lucifer and his son from our hiding place high in the cliff-face when Mister Hadj, for reasons knowed only to him at the time, insisted we wait till the next day to nab the bastards. Well, I didn’t want to hear that. I was a foolish young man in those days. Hot and headstrong, with even more to prove than your average prairie boy.

“Tummarah,” he said, making the word sound like his Old Country talk. He was loading his Colt with funny-looking bullets. Silver, if I didn’t miss my guess.

“Tomorrow!? We’ve got ‘em dead to rights right now! With them powers you got—”

Mister Hadj looked up from his gun and ran a hand over his beard. “Powers? Shut up, you. Just a knack.”

“A knack?! You can—”

I stopped, knowing I’d flapped my gums too much. The old man didn’t like it when I brought up the things he could do. His eyes narrowed like I’d just called his momma a whore. Somewhere out there in the purple early evening, a coyote howled.

Mister Hadj spit at my feet and jabbed a tree-branch trigger finger at me. “Talk too much. Just heed, huh? Tummarah.”

“Now look here,” I said. “You know I respect your experience. And I do try to heed you, but—”

“Should be more,” the old man said, and turned his back to me.

Now, if I’d had half a head on my shoulders, that woulda been the end of it. But I was young, a little fired up, and a lot of stupid. I thought I could make Mister Hadj respect me. And half a whisky flask later I just knew I could do it by bushwhackin’ two outlaws singlehanded. So after Mister Hadj’d turned his back to the sunset, said his ‘Should be more’ rug-prayer to his heathen god and gone to sleep, I snuck down the cliff.

Like I said, young and stupid. If I hadn’t been drunk on top of that, I might have given a second thought to those silver bullets Mister Hadj’d been fiddling with.

Them boys was too smart to set a campfire. But the moon was big and bright and by its light I could see Parson Lucifer’s white preacher’s collar. He was snoring away, but his son James was on watch. I crept up behind James, close and quiet.

Now, even a boy as brash as I was knows that taking on two men at once—even if one of ‘em is sleeping—requires getting underhanded. And when it comes to a gang of killers like Parson Lucifer’s, well, I got no problem shooting a man in the back. So that’s what I done. Three shots right up that boy James’s spine.

Excepting it wasn’t James that I shot. It wasn’t James that turned around. It was the other boy. The dead one. I swear it by God and my momma’s grave.

That boy Shambles just stared at me, something like a smile on his rotten, chopped-steak half-a-face. I put another slug right through his eyeball, but the boy didn’t even bleed. Now I’d heard that when he was a natural living man, they called him Shambles on account of his funny walk. But when I shot that boy four times and he ain’t stopped coming at me, well, that name wasn’t so funny no more.

My mouth dried up, my heart hammered hard, and I screamed and ran back the way I’d come. But there was Parson Lucifer cut right across my path, wide awake and a revolver in his gray-gloved hand. His boy James was beside him.

They didn’t shoot me. Just laughed and told me to drop my gun or they’d give me to Shambles. I heard the dead boy laughing through his opened throat and—I won’t lie—I wet myself. Then I dropped my gun.

A half hour later I found myself lying trussed up on the ground with two teeth knocked out. Parson Lucifer’s boot-heel was digging into my cheek, and I was wishing I’d listened to Mister Hadj ‘stead of letting my hot blood send me off half-cocked.

“Don’t look so worried, boy,” the old bandito laughed. “I ain’t going to kill you yet. No, you got to die in a special way. A slow way. That hex what raised my boy Shambles is constantly calling for fresh blood. Having you here, well, it saves me dangerous raidin’ on a town.” He took his boot from my face and strutted slowly into view. He smiled a nasty little smile and looked up at the night sky. “The spilling, though, has to happen at sunrise, when Shambles sleeps. So you got yourself another few hours to live.”

Tears started to burn in my eyes. It’s one thing to get shot, but it’s another thing entire to have your blood spilled for black magic. I swallowed and foolishly tried to play on the guilty conscience of a man who didn’t know what conscience was.

“You know you killed a little girl during that last robbery? Eight years old and you—” I felt fear filling me, but I still wasn’t ready to make the man shoot me premature for naming him for the monster he was. I switched up to make like I was giving him the benefit of the doubt. “Now, could be it was an accident...,” I started.

But Parson Lucifer just frowned at me like a disappointed uncle. “Boy, ain’t nothing involving a pistol and Parson Lucifer ever an accident.”

A better man would have called Parson Lucifer a devilish, dog-faced son of a whore just then. But it wasn’t a better man lying there with his face in the dirt. It was just me, and I kept my peace as that devilish, dog-faced son of a whore went on.

“The girl died for a purpose, boy—more than most folk these days can claim. Every man and every child must play his part. I ravage so that our Lord Christ can heal.”

“And I guess you make a nice living doing it, don’t you?”

The old bastard smiled. “There’s a Caesar in all of us, boy, and we must render unto him what is his. But the girl’s was just one life. Even way the hell out here, there’s a lot of lives to go around. Ain’t any one of ‘em any more sacred than another, far as God’s concerned. You think our savior cares more about some snot-nosed child than about a sinner like me? You must not read your Bible then, boy. Ain’t no man ever kept Jesus’ love busier than I have.”

That thing he called his son shambled into my view and gibbered something. Whoever it used to be, right then it just looked like a plate of bloody meat walking on two legs. My breath caught in my chest.

“And what about that creature there?” I said, trying to make the bold in me cover up the scared pissless.

“My hex brought my boy Shambles back alive, even after what them snaky deputies done to him. That’s the Lord’s work, boy. Same thing our savior did with Lazarus. This here’s a Christian hex I put on my beautiful baby boy.”

I couldn’t hardly help myself. “Mister, I don’t know what to call that, ‘cept to say that it’s about as Christian as pissin’ in the pulpit on a Sunday morning.”

And at that moment Mister Hadj appeared from I-don’t-know-where, looking to my frightened eyes like an avenging angel of the Lord.

He sang a quick string of words in his talk—sounded similar to his sunset prayers, best as I could tell. The rocks around us wailed right back, and Parson Lucifer looked all around, frantic-like. Then Mister Hadj shot five of them silver bullets into Shambles.

That thing what used to be a living man stopped and dropped to the ground. There wasn’t no blood coming from where Mister Hadj had shot him, but the way he started to moaning, well, it was like all them bullets that he oughtn’t have been able to walk away from had all caught up with him.

There was one last howl, like a demon getting his tooth yanked by the meanest barber in the world. Then Shambles stopped moving, stopped kicking, and died an honest death.

Mister Hadj already had his gun on Parson Lucifer, and now he was whistling “Bright River Valley.” The rocks kept a-wailing. And I swear to y’all that a little piece of flint jumped up and cut my bonds.

But by then the boy James, who’d been off shaking a sagebrush when Mister Hadj showed up, had his gun on me.

James gestured toward me with the gun and growled at Mister Hadj. “Looks like we’re all of us in a fix here. But my Daddy can’t see no hangman.” He said it in that fast-slow Kansas City way that drives a prairie boy like me clean out my mind, and his Pa finally wore a look of real fear. “Now, I don’t know what kind of Injun magic you got hold of here, but my Daddy can’t see no hangman. You hear, old man? Whatever kind of red devilishness you done worked against my Daddy’s hex, you’d best hope you can lift it and bring back my baby brother. I got a clean shot here at your–”

There was no movement that I saw. But there was a shot, and there was smoke coming from Mister Hadj’s gun. And a boy with a hole in his head was lying where a fast-talking murderer had just stood.

“Hurt alotta people. Price to pay. Should be more.” Nine words. For Mister Hadj it was like a whole sermon. He looked up at a patch of moonlit cloud in the eastern sky and nodded, like he’d been arguing with the Almighty but was granting God a point.

He didn’t even flinch when Parson Lucifer spun around and shot him twice in the chest.

I tried to stop it—fumbled James’s dropped gun into my hands and fired in Parson Lucifer’s direction, feeling like my anger alone could push the bullet through his skull.

I’m proud to say I killed that hex-casting sonuvabitch.

But I wasn’t fast enough. Parson Lucifer and both his boys were dead. But that didn’t change Mister Hadj’s lying there with two holes in him, and it didn’t stop the little red rivers that seeped into the dirt around his old oak root of a body.

As I say, I was still half-green back then, but I’d already come to know by sight which wounds a man might walk away from. One look told me Mister Hadj wasn’t going nowhere else in this life.

Any other man would have been screaming hisself silly. But Mister Hadj was so quiet I could hear the wind whispering in the brush. He grit his teeth and refused the rum and laudanum I offered him. “Tufusahal,” he said, and I thought he was speaking his Old Country talk. I wished my Pa—or anyone from the Old Country—was there, just to hear him say his peace. Hell of a thing to have to speak your last word to a man who can’t understand you.

But he said it again and I realized I did understand. “Tough as all Hell,” the old man was saying, the first time I ever heard him talk proud.

“Yeah. You are that, Mister Hadj,” I said to him, “Ain’t no man anywhere can begrudge you that.”

That man bought my life with his, God as my witness. I ain’t seen what I’d done to deserve it, to tell the truth. I told him as much, as he lay there dying.

The old coot spit out some blood and smiled real mean-like. “For you?” he said, and shook his head. He pointed his long brown trigger finger up at the sky, like he was naming a target. “For him. Hurt alotta people. Price to pay. Should be more.” And that was the last thing he said.

I watched the light go slowly out of his eyes, saw that smile go slack. I smelled crushed roses in the air, though I can’t say where the scent came from. For a long time I just sat there, my thoughts mingling with the moonshadows.

I spent that sleepless night burying him with a short-handled shovel, his guns and his little heathen rug beside him. Come morning I was wore out as man could be, but it was time to leave.

“Ashes to ashes,” I said, by way of goodbye to the old man, “dust to dust.” Then I dragged myself eastward, my eyes half-blinded by the rising sun.

#Saladin Ahmed #Mister Hadjs Sunset Ride #short story

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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How Do We (Maybe) Say Goodbye to Wynonna Earp?

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Everyone deserves love. If this ends up being Wynonna Earp‘s final legacy, then it’s a fitting one for a show that moved the needle on queer representation on TV and always had an immense degree of empathy for its characters, even and perhaps especially when those characters got things wrong. In a pop culture that still skews heavily towards glorifying performances of White, male stoicism, Wynonna Earp has always been unapologetic about granting its sloppy, sentimental characters grace.

Messy women don’t often get the benefit of the doubt in culture, popular or otherwise. We’re scorned, doubted, and belittled. Asked to stay quiet, to do the emotional labor for boys and men, and to give our own socialized performance of perfection while we do so. Wynonna Earp doesn’t just make space for the messiness of women; it revels in it. It celebrates it. It has fun with it. Too often, when discussing the need for better representation and inclusivity in our pop culture, we’re given a false binary: that something can either be “politically correct” or it can be fun. This is usually a bad faith argument. Just because something isn’t (fun) for you, doesn’t mean it isn’t (fun) for someone. Wynonna Earp has made its mark by understanding that just because something is pleasurable for women, doesn’t mean it isn’t important—in fact, in a culture and media that so rigidly polices women’s pleasure, that’s exactly why it’s important.

“Everyone deserves love,” Waverly tells silk-witch Brigitte in “Old Souls,” the maybe-finale (🤞) of the series and the definite finale of Season 4, and she may be talking about the murderous jilted bride, but she’s really talking about every character on this batshit wonderful show. Waverly has long been the heart of this series because she’s long been Wynonna’s heart—a manifestation of the goodness of the world Wynonna is tasked with protecting. In “Old Souls,” Waverly asks Wynonna to try to find that goodness in herself (you know, after they successfully murder the haunted wedding dress). Because how exhausting it must be to constantly fight to save a home that you believe you have no place in. “Do you want to go?” Waverly asks Wynonna about Doc’s invitation to travel the country together. “I want to protect you,” Wynonna replies.

If you’ve been socialized as a woman in this society, then odds are you are better at advocating for others than you are at advocating for yourself—you’re better at protecting others than you are at protecting yourself. We’ve seen the toll this mindset has taken on Wynonna, especially this past half-season. She’s bitter, and sad, and oh-so-tired. She’s lonely, too. She’s made a place for herself—alone—in her job as the heir, the protector, because she doesn’t think she has any right to ask for what she wants. No one ever taught her how. Waverly is there to remind Wynonna that she does have a right to ask for what she wants… if she only lets herself believe that she deserves it. So Wynonna stops fighting solely for other people, and she starts fighting for herself too. She lets herself believe that she deserves happiness (spurred on by the support of her loved ones), and she throws on her leather jacket, hops on the back of a motorcycle, and she goes to find it. Because, on Wynonna Earp, everyone deserves love—in whatever form(s) it may take—and that shouldn’t be as goddamn radical as it is, but here we are.

Rachel deserves love. She deserves the space to heal and thrive. She deserves to enjoy being a kid again, after losing her mother and having to fend for herself in a factory full of zombies. After being Nicole’s family for a hard year and a half, dressing in Wynonna’s clothes and trying to distract Nicole from looking towards the horizon for the woman she loves and lost. She deserves to go fishing with Nedley, and to take Billy along too, after fighting so damn hard to remind everyone else to save him. She deserves the chance to prove Wynonna wrong about Purgatory, and what kind of home it can be. She deserves to sing for her family, and to call it what it is: a gift.

Nedley deserves love. He deserves to see Nicole continue to grow into the role he left behind for her, and to walk her down the aisle—because just because he isn’t her biological parent doesn’t mean he isn’t her dad. Nedley deserves to binge-watch Pretty Little Liars and any other “guilty pleasure” TV show he damn well pleases (because it knows there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure—only the things that society tries to shame us for loving). He deserves to run Shorty’s for the business, sure, but really as an excuse to help take care of the town that takes care of him in return.

Jeremy deserves love, even if the show has not always known how to give it to him. (If there is one thing Wynonna Earp has consistently struggled with, it is finding space for its characters of color in a very White world and story.) He deserves a chance to run an institution like Black Badge with community and hope rather than hierarchy and violence (and to maybe find a deeper piece with what happened to Robin). After everything he has lost, I love that—just like Wynonna—when Jeremy meets someone he likes, he is still able to choose vulnerability.

Doc deserves love. He deserved the chance to turn from a cowboy into a cowman—because he took accountability for his actions and strove to be a better human. I love that Doc’s redemption has been found in loving and caring and nurturing (himself and others) rather than in the killing that got him thrown into a well to begin with. I love that this series never believed that, just because Doc was from long ago, he had to be filled with “period appropriate” hate. Instead, it believed that Doc would love as hard any anyone else, and that he would be the one to stand next to Waverly Earp at her wedding. Doc saw the goodness in Wynonna, even when she couldn’t see it in herself, and he also understood that the path to loving ourselves is one we must all take for ourselves. “Yes vengeance drove my thinking—kept my alive, gave me a purpose. But when it was dark and I was scared—and I have been scared for a long time, Wynonna—I mostly thought about love.”

Nicole deserves love. She deserves a chance to be chosen by the home she chose for herself again and again, something she has found with the Earps and in the sheriff’s office. Nicole deserves infinite peace and happiness, even if that isn’t really a thing. After 18 months losing hope, she deserves to wake up to it next to her every morning. She deserves to be at home with her wife, going on all of life’s adventures and holding her hand when the firelight grows dim.

Waverly deserves love, and she is that rare TV character who has almost always understood that. She is a superhero not because of her angel father, but because she has always found a way to be ferociously kind. Waverly Earp is Wynonna’s whole damn heart, and she kept it safe when her sister couldn’t, but that’s no way to live, and Waverly knows that too. “My biggest fear used to be that you’d never come back. That you’d never get to know the real me. But now I know you always will, Wynonna.” Waverly’s greatest wish came true when she got her sister back in the series pilot; everything that’s happened after that has been dreams she never even thought to wish for.

Wynonna deserves love. She deserves to be the hero of her own story. She deserves to ride off into the sunset with the man she loves, and her sister and best friend only a phone call away. She deserves to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and how Alice is doing. She deserves, finally, to travel light.

Everybody deserves love. We all deserve to see ourselves represented in the pop culture we love—and not just in sad subplots with tragic endings. (See, other TV shows, it’s actually quite easy not to bury your gays.) If this really is the end, then I think I will remember Wynonna Earp for the way it loves its characters and wants good things for them (even while putting them through tons of delicious angst and misery for narrative purposes). I will remember it for how it unapologetically believes that (queer) women deserve pleasure, deserve fun, deserve messy heroes, deserve love. It’s hard to believe this show has only had four seasons. Its legacy feels so much bigger than that.

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Goodbye, Wynonna Earp. Until we meet again…

The post How Do We (Maybe) Say Goodbye to Wynonna Earp? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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countessofsnark · 7 years

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Snarky Recap - Thunderbirds Are Go: ‘Home On The Range’

The One Where The Tracy Family Reveal Their Home Away From Home While Dealing With An Unwanted Guest.

If this isn’t an epic way to open an episode than I don’t know what is. I’m already feeling the homely vibes. (Although I was kind of disappointed the first shot did not involve our boys riding into frame in full on cowboy gear. Rawr. *fans self*)

Who needs an ordinary gym when you can have this facility. So that’s how they compensate for all that time sitting around the house/pool.

The most relentless drill instructor in the world. Grandma sure isn’t cutting the boys some slack. Damn son.

GECKO GLOVES. Brains, just when I thought your nerd levels couldn’t be any higher you go and reset the bar.

Also, gratuitous shots of Scott and Virgil’s perfect bum are gratuitous and most welcome. *chinhands*

‘Maybe I should take the lead for a change.’

Ask and ye shall receive - Tracy Style. The look on Gordon’s face is all kinds of precious. Also, the fact that Scott and Virgil can pick up their little bro and throw him that far up either means Virgil is way more beefed up than I had imagined *more fanning* or Gordon really is the lightweight of the family. Or both.

'Then let’s see how well those gloves really work.’ *Misson Impossible theme intensifies*

This calls for MAXimum effort. (Sorry not sorry)

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s space trash falling down like a clumsy ginger baby giraffe.

‘Thanks. Gravity is not really my thing.’

You don’t say, party boy.

Cue MAX losing control due to a foreign signal. Looks like SKYNET’s humble beginnings are quite humble indeed.

Scott’s face as he loses the battle with gravity is utterly heartbreaking. Someone please grab our precious rocket jockey.

Have no fear, Big Fella Virgil is here! Look at these two taking care of each other. Be still my heart.

Maneuver 17 - aka the Tracy Daisy Chain. SO PRECIOUS.

When Brains finally catches up to MAX, he is definitely acting like a concerned parent. Don’t worry, Nerd Boy, this is most definitely not your fault.

Cut to... a lovely sunset shot of the beautiful Gran Roca ranch, which Grandma reveals to belong to the boys’ mother. And pardon my nitpicking, but if my geography knowledge serves correctly, that place sure doesn’t look like Kansas. *squints*

HANG ON WAIT WHAT. Virgil is a leftie! VIRGIL. IS. A. LEFTIE. No wonder he’s such a creative genius - that’s one thing lefties are supposedly known for. Oh these details. BE STILL MY HEART.

Also, their mother took them horseback riding? AHHH. So that horseback riding prompt by @wonderavian which I turned into a fic a while ago wasn’t all that far from the truth after all! Also, Gordon facing the wrong way will never not be a hilarious anecdote, teehee. And you’re telling me Gordon did not skillfully get rid of all photographical evidence of that adventure? SHOCKING.

The lovely family get-together (which also includes Parker and Penny, for some reason) is interrupted by an intruder. However, when Kay and Penelope head to see what is tripping their security systems, both FAB 1 and Thunderbird Shadow lose engine power. HMM. The plot thickens, as they say.

Who needs a car alarm when you can have this fearsome guard dog?

Parker doing the good old’ I’ll-just-take-a-seat-only-to-discover-a-hole-in-the-rock trick that Indiana Jones would approve of . And even a reporter out to ruin IR’s reputation deserves a fair rescue, so the boys head to their birds when suddenly...

THUNDERBIRDS ARE NOPE.

*cackles* Scott’s reaction is simply priceless. Scott Tracy Trademark Facepalm.

Hover bikes. ‘Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.’ And a respectful nod to TOS. *wipes tear out of eye*

Some quick thinking by Brains and John has EOS trace the anomaly back to the hangar where their troubles initially began. Cue Brains heading in there to check things out. Heroic nerd is heroic.

Back in the canyon, Scott jumps down to comfort a scared Cath. If I were in a tough spot and needed rescuing, seeing that gentle face above me would definitely suffice to calm me down.

And back to the hangar, where Brains realizes that he may have overestimated his ability to brave this situation alone.

'Nice of you to drop by.’ Well look who’s talking.

Brains: ‘Wait! It could be a hologram!’ *proceeds to throw something at the Mechanic* Followed by that classic ‘oh shit’ moment when you realise one of your worst nightmares is quite real and quite not amused.

Brains: ‘I will not let you use any of our resources!’

The Mechanic: ‘I’m not asking.’

OHHHH. SNAAAAAP.

Look at the complicated winch system our lumberjack leftie cooked up. And Scott continuing to reassure Cath. Ugh, could they be any more precious if they tried?

ASDFGJKL.

Back on the ranch, Sherlock John and Dr EOS have just discovered the identity of the troublemaker. Cue Brains figuring out part of the Mechanic’s plans AND sending Grandma a coded message so she can reset the system, restoring comms and MAX to his former self. All hail our bespectacled nerd. All hail.

You can’t spell teamwork without Tracy brothers. *squish*

The Mechanic, when he figures out the system has been restored: ‘For someone called Brains, THAT wasn’t a very smart move.’ OHHHH DAMN. The Sass is with this guy.

MAX storms in to deal with the Mechanic’s scorpion drone, followed by Grandma: so much badassery.

John defending Grandma (’First of all, only family get to call her that!’) and disabling the Mechanic’s suit. BE STILL MY POOR HEART.

Fast forward to the ranch’s cosy living room, and Cath sitting propped up against some pillows while Scott kindly tells her that if there’s anything she wants to know, she need only ask. Well, almost anything.

‘There are some things we have to keep secret otherwise people like the Hood or the Mechanic will use them in bad ways.’

BOXERS OR BRIEFS?

‘...really, we’re just an regular family.’ Cue Alan and Gordon fighting over a chair. Oh these two rascals. Pfff.

Alan: ‘You wanna hear a real story? Let me tell you some of the things Gordon says in his sleep.’

AHAHAHA. I bet it involves a certain Lady Penelope. Also, that is totally future fic material and you know it.

What a lovely little episode. We sure are being spoiled with lore and revelations this half of the season. And I am enjoying every second of it.

#thunderbirds are go #snarky recap #home on the range

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sjrresearch · 4 years

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Desperado 3 Captures the Essence of the Wild West

Games like Sunset Riders, Gun, and Red Dead Redemption solidified the notion that the West was most certainly Wild. Their fast-paced, gun-totin’ gameplay appealed to the romanticized version of the Old West, where cowboys rode off into the sunset and the prairie lands were ripe for adventure. With the release of Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive, Spellbound and THQ Nordic introduced a different version of the Wild West. It was more tactical, requiring every move to be planned out accordingly. Anyone that went in guns blazing came out in a pine box.

The real-time strategy of Wanted Dead or Alive took nothing away from the thrill of 19th-century setting. It merely added a new layer that hadn’t really been explored before, and that layer paid off wonderfully. Spellbound reaped the rewards of breaking from the stereotypical Wild West game and released two sequels. Unfortunately, however, it was forced into insolvency before it could continue the series. It may have seemed like the popular Desperados series was dead forever, but THQ Nordic handed development of the third entry to Mimimi Productions, the German developer behind Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.

Mimimi may not have a long track record, but Shadow Tactics shares similarities with the Desperados series and performed well with reviewers. Fans of Desperados have reason to be skeptical of Mimimi’s capabilities, but those worries should quickly dissipate once they fire up Desperados III. The third entry in near-decade old series lives up to its predecessors and even exceeds them in many aspects. It’s clear Mimimi Productions didn’t want to retread on the strides made by Spellbound, but it also knew it had to appeal to fans drawn in by Wanted Dead or Alive.

The series’ signature stealth gameplay is still intact, though Mimimi opted to remove the divisive third-person camera introduced in Desperados II: Coopers Revenge. It’s not a massive loss as it didn’t do much to improve the gameplay, and removing it allowed the development team to focus strictly on the isometric mechanics. The alternative camera is not a feature many will mourn the loss of, especially considering everything else Desperados III brings to the table.

Set in the 1870s, players are taken back to the beginning to explore the infamous John Cooper’s origins. It’s not just Cooper’s story that we rewind, though, as the story also features his long-time companions Doc McCoy and Kate O’Hara. The trio join forces with series newcomers Hector Mendoza, a heavy-hitter with a love for his sawed-off shotgun and bear traps, and Isabelle Moreau, a voodoo practitioner with some pretty nasty tricks up her sleeve.

Cooper, McCoy, and O’Hara are up to their usual tricks, offering a nice blend of gunplay, cunning stealth, and feminine wiles. Mendoza adds a brutish melee component while Moreau is a bit more mystical and can manipulate her enemies with blood magic. Together, the quintet is a deadly force, but their obstacles ensure it’s not a smooth ride through each mission. Desperado III isn’t the type of game where you grow attached to one character and primarily use them until the credits roll. If a hunter is involved in a level, their skills will be needed to reach the objective.

The game throws plenty in the player’s path to cater to those looking for in-depth stealth gameplay. Just about every mission can be completed without shedding blood, and in many instances, it’s far more fun to try and accomplish this. Players have plenty of options to tinker with to perfect a stealthy playthrough, from environmental hazards to the unique skills of each character, like O’Hara’s ability to lure men where she pleases and Moreau’s mind control. There is no option for a strict run ‘n gun playthrough, at least not without the frustration of dying over and over. Mimimi even emphasizes the use of a quick save feature so that players can toy around with a variety of methods until they find one that satisfies most.

Countering the cleverness of the titular gang is an AI that truly elevates the tactical aspects of Desperados III. Enemies aren’t coded to be mindless meat sacks that follow one path to their imminent demise. Any number of things can break them away from their usual patrol route. As is typical with stealth games, players can arouse suspicions by getting caught in a cone of vision or making a little too much noise. Guards will also respond if their partner mysteriously goes missing or if their dogs sniff out a character hiding in the brush. It takes ample planning to complete a mission without being spotted, but Desperados III does provide the tools and the freedom necessary to do so. One just needs to know how to stack their pieces and implement them effectively.

While the gameplay is a remarked improvement from Wanted Dead or Alive and Cooper’s Revenge, the environments and locations may be the stars of this Wild West escapade. When a game is set in such an iconic period, developers have to make sure the locales fit the expected aesthetics. This means a lot of wooden structures, at least one train, and a small town that’s ripe for debauchery.

Desperados III has it all, and Mimimi crafted everything beautifully. Rushing waterfalls and lush greenery, unappealing and insect-filled swamps, dusty and isolated frontier towns, and more modernized cities welcome players to regions throughout Colorado, Mexico, and the deep south of Louisiana. Players will be fully immersed in these detailed maps, especially since they’ll be looking closely for opportunities to overcome their enemies. With a simplified HUD locked at the bottom of the screen, it’s easy to admire the work put into each area.

After Desperado 2 and its sequel Helldorado failed to live up to Wanted Dead or Alive, Desperado III was to be the series’ saving grace. Thankfully, Mimimi Productions knew exactly what it was doing and put forth a real-time strategy game steeped in the delightful antics of the Wild West and strengthened by the mechanics of a well-made stealth experience.

For a unique look at the historical setting of the Old West, download Desperado III on Steam.

At SJR Research, we specialize in creating compelling narratives and provide research to give your game the kind of details that engage your players and create a resonant world they want to spend time in. If you are interested in learning more about our gaming research services, you can browse SJR Research’s service on our site at SJR Research.

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ecogoth1 · 4 years

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Not quite sure what The dishonored dead amongst the living means God just gives me visions Tell me things to write Or say Because I ask I depend on him directly My whole life... He wants this Done I was chosen for it You all know who you Are you Are now called and chosen for it.. The rest is up to the powers that be and every sect world wide Though Hollywood Bollywood few other major world wide studios This would be your last chance to work on one project together... Never been done all countrys.. It sure give people hope right now And all you major studios world Wide are slowly becoming a thing of the past Ride me one last major epic... While we do our spiritual things And return the eye of RA Last heard it was here on California... My home... It's up to you all world wide World war against China keora a few other countries Or Give us holy men From the past A chance to Settle all debts Please translate this for everyone World wide in better writing Now... What you all afraid of.. If we survive it You may all have a cure Atleast it be entertaining... And I'll finally get to see the holy City Of Jerusalem.. God idea not mine Though I am Soo Down to go... Just get her and land the helicopter here near the Masonic lodge Bring me something for my blood pressure.. Óh Starbucks coffee 5 sugers tall coffee Couple beers Something for lunch I know we supposed to rest on Sabbath Though king David Did something like this... Okay you all work out the details let me know... I'll be here till The 11tg at 11.. Then I walk off I guess to die in ditch alone Awlful end to my life story.. It go like this the prophet of the Lord came down from the mountains To save the world they would listen so after walking 20000 miles across during biggest plauge the world had seen healing who he could No one want his help So the old cowboy Died in ditch of a broken Heart without a horse... I'm.an American our stories have happy endings.. So I will make a happy ending to my life no matter if you finally all get together or not.. It go like this the world died since they wouldnt listen the cowboy andhis bride rode off into the sunset (at Menifee, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_-nXZul_qz/?igshid=vfvqnut02qs7

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travelingtheusa · 6 years

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ARIZONA

5-7 May 2019 – Boy! We have been so busy with the caravan. On top of just coordinating activities, I have been writing the memory book and Paul has been managing routing. At any rate, the group took a jet boat tour on Lake Havasu with a stop at the Pirate Cove in the middle of the ride. The restaurant had undergone major personnel changes and things were a little screwy but we were able to work out all the details. The waitresses were all dressed pretty scantily. The guys enjoyed the meal very much.

On May 6, we cooked breakfast for the caravan. Jon & Nancy and Paul & I cooked pancakes and sausage. The rest of the day was free time until the Travel Meeting at 4 p.m. It went well. One person started the meeting with a joke followed by a weather report then a report on fuel prices and stations. Jon and Paul advised everyone about the route and order of march; I described the activities that are scheduled at our next stop. At 7 p.m., the Game Masters ran a bingo game for about 15 to 20 folks.

We leave Arizona on May 7 headed to Boulder City in Nevada.

4 May 2019 (Sat) – We took a motor coach to Oatman today. Oatman is an old mining town that was prosperous at one time but the mines played out. As they closed, the miners released their burros into the wild. Today, Oatman is a tourist attraction as an old west town with the burros roaming the streets at will. The tourists feed them oat and alfalfa cakes. Gun slingers have shoot outs in the street.

When we pulled into town, two cowboys were standing in the road. They fired a shotgun in the air and pulled us over. They got on the bus and walked up and down the aisle talking about kidnapping all the pretty women and robbing the men. Then the sheriff came on the bus and demanded that one of our passengers give himself up. He was wanted for pretending to be a good Cajun chef. We had pre-arranged the “arrest” and everyone was quite entertained by it. Afterward, everyone got off the bus and the town did a special shoot-out show for us. It was very nice.

Everyone got three hours to roam the town. There were souvenir shops and two restaurants to look at. The hotel where Carole Lombard and Clark Gable spent their honeymoon gave tours of their suite. Paul and I ate in the hotel café. The food was pretty good. The place was papered in dollar bills. They were everywhere – on the walls, on the columns, on the ceiling, on the windows, on the doors, everywhere! There must have been thousands of dollars tacked up in that place. There were dollars on dollars on dollars. Some of it was foreign currency, too.

At 2:00 p.m., we all got back on the bus and rode an hour back to the campground. Jon awarded the bus driver with a caravan pin. At 4:00 p.m., we gathered in the clubhouse for social hour. Later, Paul and I went around to the RVs to collect paperwork and make sure their radios worked. We didn’t quite get it all done and will have to try to finish up tomorrow.

3 May 2019 (Fri) – I went out this morning to get a haircut. When I called, I was told they don’t make appointments. Just walk in. So I went in this morning to find two people in front of me. As the stylist was finishing up with the second person, she told me she had an appointment to take care of ahead of me. I waited for her to finish with that one. While I was in the chair, she got a phone call and made an appointment for that person for tomorrow. I asked why I wasn’t allowed to make an appointment and she said they don’t make appointments for haircuts – just more time consuming stuff. WTH?? I was in that hair salon for over two hours. My hairdresser back home would have had me in and out in ten minutes. This gal was sooooo slooooow.

Paul and I were very hungry when I finished. We didn’t have breakfast because of the early time we wanted to get to the hairdresser. We stopped at a place called Rusty’s. It kind of resembled an old garage and we weren’t expecting anything special. Boy, were we surprised! It was a modern diner inside. The food was scrumptious and plentiful. It was a good stop.

Today was the kick-off for the Utah’s Mighty 5 Caravan. Finally! Seems like it’s been so long coming and now it’s here. Yay!

We had an orientation meeting with everyone at 3 p.m. Jon, Paul, and I all talked about different aspects of the caravan. At 4 p.m. we finished up and everyone drove over to Shugrue’s Restaurant Makai Room on the Bridgewater Channel overlooking the London Bridge. The room was perfect. We had an outdoor patio where we had a social hour from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. At 5:15 p.m. we got everyone together and took a group picture with the London Bridge in the background. Unfortunately, the sun was behind the group and the London Bridge was washed out in the picture. Oh, well. There will be other photo opportunities.

At 5:30, we went into the dining room for a delightful Hawaiian buffet dinner. The food was excellent and the two servers were very attentive. Jon awarded them caravan pins he had made up special for this trip.

It was a good start to our adventure. Everyone seemed to be satisfied.

2 May 2019 (Thu) – We ran some errands during the day. Paul and Jon put the ladder plates on the RVs that are in so far (seven more are expected tomorrow). Nancy collected menu choices for our first dinner at Pirate Cove on Sunday. I prepared notes for the orientation meeting tomorrow and completed other forms and documents for the caravan.

At 5:30 p.m. we went out to dinner with Rick & Brenda and Hank & Brenda at the College Town Brewing Co. Both couples we met during the Maritimes Caravan in 2016. The meal and company were very good.

After we got back to the campground, Paul, Rick, and Brenda all went for a swim in the pool. I sat with my feet in the water.

1 May 2019 (Wed) – We packed up and drove to Havasu Falls RV Resort, one-half hour away on the edge of town. This is the campground where our caravan begins. Three members of the caravan were already here. We checked in and pulled into our space. Jon & Nancy gathered up their material and we gathered up ours and brought everything over to the clubhouse. We put together the travel guides and the gift bags. Jon put them all back in his car to hold there until we have our orientation meeting.

At 4:30 p.m., we brought a steak over to Jon & Nancy’s where we all cooked food on their grill. It was a nice end to a very busy day. Three more rigs came in today in addition to us. We will see everyone trickling in until the caravan begins on Friday.

30 Apr 2019 (Tue) – Our tail gunners arrived at the Elks Lodge today. They are not Elks members so we are sponsoring them. While they set up, we ran out to do some errands. First stop was at JC Penney’s where Paul picked up a few shirts and I bought some Bermuda shorts. Then we went to Staples and picked up some stationary supplies (envelopes, erasure tape, etc.). After that, it was a stop at Pet Smart to get Bonnie some treats. We also stopped at Smith’s to pick up groceries then used the points earned to buy fuel. We got forty cents a gallon off. It turned out that Smith’s stopped accepting VISA credit cards at the beginning of the month but they did accept a VISA debit card. We used to have a Mastercard but our bank stopped using that card and switched to VISA. So now, all our cards are VISA. We’ll have to look for a Mastercard in order to make sure we have a card to switch to in the event they accept one (like Smith’s just did).

When we got back to the lodge, we put everything away, then sat down with Jon & Nancy to review details of the caravan. I later sent him information I had developed on my computer. After we were done working on caravan material, we went to dinner at Juicy’s. The food was good.

29 Apr 2019 (Mon) – We went to Juicy’s for lunch. The restaurant was named for the owner’s dog which he lost years ago when he was a kid. The food was good and the server was pleasant. Afterward, we drove to Tractor Supply Co. to pick up some alfalfa cubes for the caravan. I feel bad. I told everyone to bring carrots, apples, and pears to feed the wild burros. When I called the Chamber of Commerce in Oatman to let them know our group was coming to town on Saturday, I was told we could only feed the animals alfalfa cubes. So I bought 3 packs. I’ll give everyone a couple to feed the burros.

28 Apr 2019 (Sun) – We ran out to lunch at the College Street Brewhouse. It was rated number one of all restaurants in Lake Havasu City. The food was good. After lunch, we drove around the neighborhood just looking at houses. What is amazing about this area is how many garages many of these houses have. There is a tall one for an RV. Then there is a double garage to fit two cars. Another single size garage would house an ATV and some have another to fit a boat. In many cases, the garages combined are bigger that the house itself. That is crazy!

27 Apr 2019 (Sat) – We worked around the campground today – Paul washing the RV and me coordinating and confirming the meals and venues for our caravan. At noon, we went into the lodge for lunch. They were serving hot dogs and fries. Not exactly my favorite choice but it did the job.

The weather has been so hot this week. It broke a record in Phoenix today and hit 102 degrees. It was 98 here. The sunset was pretty. There was a deep red color along the horizon. Some jet stream lines were colored red as well. It’s funny. When we let the animals out, neither wants to step out of the shade. Sheba can get away with that because she has her cat box, but Bonnie can’t. She has to walk out in order to go to the bathroom. She is NOT happy about that. We try to do the long walk in the early morning and twilight when the roadway is the coolest. We certainly don’t want her to burn her feet on the asphalt.

26 Apr 2019 (Fri) – We went to Shugrue’s Restaurant at 10:30 a.m. to meet with Thom, the catering manager. We reviewed the details of our welcome dinner on May 3 and went down to look in the room. The Makai Room is on the first level looking out on a patio facing the London Bridge. The Makai is separated into two rooms. One is a bar/café; the second is a dining area. They will set up the buffet in the café and we will eat in the dining room. Cocktails will be enjoyed on the patio outside. It will be a perfect beginning to our caravan.

After our meeting with Thom, we sat in the restaurant by the windows and enjoyed lunch while watching the race boat parade. The boats motored up the channel under the bridge and out into the lake. It was fun to watch.

When we were finished with lunch, we drove over to the island to look at some of the lighthouses. There are 26 replica lighthouses located around the lake – the most lighthouses in any city in the U.S. We found the Fire Island lighthouse replica and hiked over to take a picture. There were over one hundred boats on the water. The thrum of those high performance engines filled the air. You could feel the rumble in your chest. The smell of fuel was everywhere. I could see how a boat enthusiast might be turned on by all that. It was kind of fun watching all those boats zipping around on the lake out there. Some could go mighty fast.

25 Apr 2019 (Thu) – I did some work on the caravan this morning. Paul worked on rearranging the basement and getting rid of some items. I cut his hair then we drove into town for lunch. It turned out that the Desert Storm Poker Run and Shootout 2019 is going on this weekend. They were setting up racing boats for display, tents, and food trucks. There was millions of dollar’s worth of equipment lined up and down the streets. We strolled along until we came to BJ’s Tavern and went in for lunch. We had hot dogs and margaritas. Afterward, we strolled along the street, stopping in a shop for a scoop of ice cream. The sun was so damn hot!

The Desert Storm event starts with a street party tonight. There will be a parade through the channel tomorrow (called the Desert Storm Poker Run) then the drivers will run a course on the lake Sunday (called the Desert Storm Shootout). Sounds like it will be fun to watch.

After we admired the boats, we drove to Pet Smart to get food for Bonnie. We had to buy thirty cans of her food. She gets the limited ingredient food and we can only get it in Pet Smart or Petco. There are none of those stores anywhere in the towns we will be staying in over the coming month so we had to stock up.

Next stop was at WalMart where we picked up a few groceries. We’ll go shopping again just before we leave on the caravan.

24 Apr 2019 (Wed) – We packed up and drove five hours to Lake Havasu City. The drive was uneventful and we arrived around 2 p.m. They also have some empty sites at this Elks Lodge, too. The temperature was 93 degrees. Damn! It feels like the sun is literally cooking your skin.

I spent the afternoon calling some of the restaurants and venues for the caravan, made a few deposits, and coordinated numbers. We went into the lodge for lunch. The bartender was a little rude so instead of eating at the bar, we walked to the dining room to place our order. Most of the tables were dirty; the dishes had not been cleared away. We found one that was mostly clean and sat down. We ordered our meal and left when finished.

23 Apr 2019 (Tue) – We packed up and got ready to go at 9 a.m. Dennis came out and drove with Paul to do a test drive. Everything went well and we were off. It was about a three hour drive back to Tempe where we are staying at the Elks Lodge. This is our third or fourth time here this year. Several spots were empty. The snowbirds have all gone back home. We found one and pulled through. A man came over and yelled at us for not backing in. Their policy is that everyone back into their campsite because they don’t want dividers and stanchions to get damaged.

At 4 p.m. we drove to Les & Rae’s house for dinner. He made shepherd’s pie for dinner. When we went to leave, Les gave us a large bowl of his special lima beans. They are so delicious!

22 Apr 2019 (Mon) – We went outside last night to look at the night sky. The stars glowed brightly and we were able to pick out some things we knew. We tried to use the app on my phone that shows where the International Space Station is. It turned out to be at the tip of South America. Nowhere in sight for us. Then we tried to look at some of the lights in the sky to determine if they were stars or planets. The app was a little confusing because it kept overlaying a full constellation over the stars we were looking at. Oh, well. Paul said it sounded like coyotes were right outside the RV last night. One would howl then several would answer in chorus. He said they went back and forth for a while then just went quiet.

Dennis came over at 8:30 a.m. We brought in the slides on the rig, turned on the air conditioning, left Sheba in the RV, and took Bonnie on a hike with us. We drove over to Cochise Stronghold Trail. It was a nice hike among some big rocks and a narrow trail. We crossed a small creek and Bonnie promptly lay down in it and lapped up the water. It really rejuvenated her.

After the hike, we drove down the road to a restaurant recommended by Dennis. Paul went in to get us burgers and fries while I sat in the truck with Bonnie. We all enjoyed our meal (especially Bonnie with her hamburger). Then we continued driving into the Chiricahua Mountains and the Coronado National Forest. It was a long ride over some very rough, unmaintained, unpaved, winding mountain road deep into the park. There were a few small waterfalls. Some people were camping deep in the woods. I can’t believe they dragged their campers over those roads. The elevation was over 6,000 feet. We saw a few mule deer but no other wildlife.

When we got back to the campsite, Dennis was finishing up the brake installation. He and Paul worked on getting everything right. They will test drive the RV tomorrow when we’re ready to leave.

21 Apr 2019 (Sun-Easter) – We went to the club on base for an Easter brunch this morning. The place was very nicely decorated and there was a nice array of food choices in a buffet. We got one free mimosa, breakfast and lunch meal items, and a delightful array of desserts.

When we returned to the campground, we finished packing up and departed for Cochise. Our destination was about an hour and a half away. The route followed along a local two-lane roadway. About three or four miles from our destination, we came upon an accident. It had just happened; neither the police nor ambulance were there yet. The man in the truck in front of us said the man lying in the road was dead. I grabbed my first aid bag and went over to see if I could help. There was a young man lying on the side of the road with an older woman and a middle aged black woman. The black woman was calming the young man down and reassuring him his uncle was fine (which he was not). The older woman turned out to be the young man’s grandmother. The young man was a 17-year old dishwasher at a local restaurant. His uncle had picked him up from work and they were on their way home. The uncle fell asleep and drove off the road. He tried to correct and rolled the car. He must have been driving at a very fast speed. There was stuff spread all over the road and the marks in the grass showed he started having a problem more than a mile back from where the car landed.

The man in the truck asked if we had something to cover up the man in the road. I gave him a towel. As I walked past the body, I could see his arms were at an awkward angle and there was blood all over the road. The boy was very worried about his uncle and the black woman (who turned out to be a licensed CNA) was keeping him calm and reassuring him. I checked out his hand, which was bleeding. There was no spurting or heavy bleeding so I cleaned up some of the blood and placed a bandage over the cut on his hand. The woman was holding a paper over the boy’s face to shield him from the sun. I ran back to the RV and got an umbrella. She held it over the boy until the ambulance arrived.

The EMTs checked the young man over. It looked like his wrist or arm was broken and he had a small head wound. The EMT then proceeded to cut his shirt off and remove his shoes and pants. There he was, lying on the side of the road, in his underwear. Now I could see why Mom always made sure I had clean underwear when I left the house. A helicopter flew in and they medevacked the boy to the hospital in Tucson.

We couldn’t drive through because of all the debris in the road as well as the dead body. I don’t know why they didn’t get it out of the road but they just left it lying there. We backed about a quarter mile down the road and turned around. We then drove several miles back to the interstate and continued down the road to the next exit then backtracked to the road we wanted. The sheriff had the road blocked to traffic. When we explained that we had come from the other side of the accident, they let us through.

We arrived at a locked gate. No sign of a campground or a house or even a business. I called the number of the brake mechanic and he came out to unlock the gate. We drove through the desert brush to a spot where we were able to hook up to electric and water. It is the guy’s home. How in the world did this guy get involved in installing disc brakes on trailers way out here? He’ll be over tomorrow to put on the brakes. He warned us about coyotes and javelina in the area. Looks like Sheba is housebound for the next two or three days.

20 Apr 2019 (Sat) – We drove south for 45 minutes to Vail where we took a tour of Colossal Cave. It is a dry cave, meaning it is not growing. The tour was about an hour and was pretty interesting. There isn’t much color in a dry cave. The CCC actually built the pathways and stone steps throughout the cave. As we’ve traveled around and seen CCC works, they built dams, roads, and public buildings. This is the first time we’ve seen them develop a cave for tourism.

We stopped at Rancho Rustico for lunch. It was a Mexican restaurant with excellent margaritas. I had a quesadilla and Paul had a tamale. The food was pretty good.

Next stop was at Fry’s Supermarket where we picked up some groceries. Then we drove across the street to Fry’s gas station and got ten cents off a gallon. I love Fry’s! After we returned to the campground and put away the groceries, we took naps. Then we went to Daisy Mae’s Steakhouse for dinner. It was an interesting stop and had been recommended by Les & Rae. The place was rustic with lots of wood and dollar bills stuck all over the walls. We were seated in a room with a large window that looked out on the patio where a cook was grilling all the steaks. The food was excellent.

The Davis-Monthan AFB FamCamp is an interesting place. Across the aisle from us is a fifth wheel the same size as ours. They have eight children, one an infant, two parents, and a dog. How they manage with a brood like that puzzles us. The children are well behaved and spend most of their time indoors. I guess they are being home schooled. We watched a girl of 8 or 10 years old wheel a basket of laundry in her wagon to the laundry room. When you live in a family that size, you learn responsibility real fast.

All around the campground, there are little holes like the kind you see with prairie dogs. But we haven’t seen any animals – ground squirrels, ground hogs, chipmunks, nothing. I fear that they poisoned the animals. Across the street from the campground is an abandoned golf course. It has been mostly overgrown with cacti and other grasses. One part was cleared away for a 9-hole disc golf course. We took a walk around the area and saw some of those little ground hogs. Guess they just didn’t want them in the campground.

19 Apr 2019 (Fri) – We went to the ASARCO Mineral Discovery Center today and took a tour of the Copper Glance Mine. It was a fascinating tour. A bus took us from the visitor center to an overlook where we all got out and looked down into the open pit copper mine. It was huge! The very large dump trucks looked like little Tonka toys deep down in the mine. We got back on the bus and rode to the mill where the ore is brought in. It goes into a hopper where the large rocks are crushed and broken down to smaller rocks. Those smaller rocks are then put through another hopper that further crushes them to fine gravel. That is mixed with lime salt, oil, and air. The copper is lifted to the top and mixes with bubbles while the excess slurry falls to the bottom of the tank. At this point, they have copper that is 49% pure. It is loaded on trucks and sent to the smelter in Amarillo, Texas, where it is heated in several furnaces until they get to a purity of 99.5%. The copper is formed into slabs that weigh a couple of hundred pounds. It was all very interesting to see.

On the bus ride out to the mine, the guide told us they have a wild herd of about 40 horses that roam the area. We spotted a couple of them. We also learned that there are two kinds of tailings. If you see a pile with multiple colors, it’s a rock dump. If you see piles with two or less colors, it’s a tailings pile. The tailings come out a light gray. They are put in rows and covered with dirt. That is so plants can grow on the piles and help keep the piles together. The guide told us that Arizona defined itself as The Copper State about four years ago. A researcher found that Arizona produces 60% of all the copper mined in the United States.

After the mine tour, we went to the Desert Diamond Casino for lunch. We ate at the buffet. The food was ok. Afterwards, we each threw $20 in the slot machines. Paul couldn’t get his free play of $10. Somehow, I got a free play of $20. Maybe I got his play!

We then drove down the road to Sonoita to do a wine tasting. First stop was at the Dos Cabezas Winery. It was six wines for $10. Paul and I shared a tasting but neither of us was impressed. We then stopped at the Hops & Vines Winery. It was cute and little offbeat. The tasting of six wines cost $5. We weren’t really impressed with their wines either.

As we started to drive back to the base, we passed a sign for a National Conservation Area. Intrigued, we turned in and drove through the high desert countryside. There was a sign saying it is the pronghorn fawning season but we didn’t see any. There were some cows grazing. We expected to see a lot more cows. There were thousands of acres for them to graze on. When we were done exploring, we drove the hour back to the campground.

18 Apr 2019 (Thu) – We drove into town today to go to the Horse Soldier Museum. It was a small building, built in the early 1900s. It used to be a feed barn, now renovated into a museum housing displays about the early cavalry from the Civil War through World War I. There were some very interesting stories about hero horses that did amazing things during wartime activities.

For lunch, we stopped at El Taco Tote. Diners order food at a counter. The menu has a robust offering of tacos. A salsa bar offered different levels of salsa (mild, medium, hot) and some toppings for tacos. We did not like the place. They had little tiny containers you could get chips from a bin, then get a little container of salsa at the salsa bar. The place had a cheap feel to it.

17 Apr 2019 (Wed) – It was back to the dentist this morning for Paul. He had an 8 AM appointment. He had x-rays, cleaning, and then deep cleaning around the molars. We got charged $168. Guess the dental insurance is limited in what it covers.

We returned to the campground and met Les & Rae. They called to say they were at the visitor center. We drove out to meet them and Paul drove back in the truck while I rode with Les & Rae. They needed my military ID to get on to the base.

Les is an Air Force brat (like me) and has an affinity for planes. We drove along the boneyard, looking at all the aircraft staged in the fields. We drove over to the active flight line and were able to see four A-15 Wart Hogs land and two take off. It was perfect timing! Then we drove over to the club and had lunch. It was an odd menu but the food was OK. We sat and talked for over an hour before saying good bye. We won’t be back out west (after the caravan) until next year when the SMART National Muster will be held in Wyoming.

16 Apr 2019 (Tue) – It was a pretty busy day for us today. First, we went to the dentist and I got my teeth cleaned. I switched dental insurance and this was the first time using it. There was no charge to me for the x-rays or cleaning. That’s a good start!

After the dentist, we went to Potbelly Sandwich Shop for lunch. It was OK. Then we ran some errands. We went to WalMart and picked up some groceries. We also stopped at Hobby Lobby to pick up an easel to put the white board for the caravan. We also drove to Sahuarita to the copper mine. The tours were cancelled because they didn’t have a driver. We made a reservation for a tour on Friday. Hopefully, they’ll have a driver by then. We walked around the small museum looking at all the minerals and gems on display. There was a video and a comprehensive exhibit that explained how they mine and smelt copper. It’s quite an intensive process.

15 Apr 2019 (Mon) – We took the Easter Bunny packages to the post office and mailed them off to the grandchildren. Then we stopped at Ace Hardware so Paul could pick up some hardware items for a repair. We ran out of propane last night while I was cooking dinner so we had to get the propane tank refilled (we have two tanks so we weren’t actually “out” of gas). Lunch was at Marco’s Pizza. It definitely was not New York pizza. They don’t even sell slices around here. You have to buy a whole pie although they start out pretty small (12” round). It was OK but I’m looking forward to having the real thing whenever we get back to New York.

After we got back to the campground, we walked Bonnie over to the dog wash and gave her a bath. She really needed it. She was very good about it and the set up was pretty nice. It was like a car wash with switches for bathing, shampoo, conditioner, vacuum, dryer, deodorizer, and rinse. $5 bought ten minutes worth of dog washing.

On the way back to the camper, we stopped at the office and picked up a package that had arrived for us. It is a ramp for Bonnie. She is starting to have problems with her back legs so we thought this would help her get into the truck and RV easier.

14 Apr 2019 (Sun) – We went to Brushfire BBQ for lunch. Although the reviews were good, we really weren’t impressed with their food. I brought my leftovers home. Paul left his there. It was a beautiful, balmy, perfect day today. The sky was blue. The temperature was in the mid-70s. A light breeze was gently blowing. This is the kind of day when we toast each other with, “Here’s to another day in paradise.”

13 Apr 2019 (Sat) – We have been having problems with the DISH satellite making awful noises and not being able to get a full signal or any signal at all. Paul finally bypassed the hookup in the rig and ran a line direct from the receiver to the antenna itself. Since he’s done that, we haven’t had any problems. The conclusion, therefore, is that the wiring from the receiver to the satellite hookup in the bay is faulty. Maybe the wire isn’t heavy enough. So Paul decided to put a connector in right behind the TV that goes direct from the receiver to the antenna and does not run through the wall to the RV installed connection point.

We stopped at LaMesa RV only to find they did not have a camping store. We then drove to Lazy Days and discovered their store closed at noon (it was 12:45 p.m.). Third stop was back at Camping World where we bought the DISH satellite antenna. Business was humming and Paul was able to find all the parts he wanted. Just think of all the business Lazy Days and LaMesa is not getting.

On the way back, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant, El Molinita, for lunch. Their margaritas were midget size but I guess that’s OK for lunch time.

When we got back to the campground, Paul installed the connection. The satellite appears to be working fine now. Let’s hope that’s the end of this saga. Now if we could just get rid of these hacking coughs and sniffles, everything would be fine.

12 Apr 2019 (Fri) – We took Sheba to the vet today. She didn’t need any shots and she’s not sick. It’s just been a year since she’s been to the doctor and now that she’s eight years old, we figured she should have an annual checkup. She came through with flying colors. The vet does not have Revolution but he gave us a prescription for it. We will have to go online and find somewhere that it is sold. While we were at the vet, the doctor told us Bonnie’s bloodwork came back and she has a UTI (again). He gave us medication for her and said we need to wipe her rear end once a day to keep the infected area clean. It looks like it’s the same infection of her vulva that she had last time.

After the vet, we stopped at Sprouts to pick up some things I have been looking for. We found the homeopathic medication and snacks that I’ve been looking for.

11 Apr 2019 (Thu) – We went back to the urgent care clinic this morning. I am feeling so crummy. My chest feels heavy, it’s hard to catch my breath, I am left weak and helpless after a coughing spasm, and there’s a pain in my back. I have finished the flu medicines but still feel sick. The PA said I probably have allergies. It is spring time. The wind is blowing the pollen around. Many people are coming in with the same symptoms. She suggested a steroid shot that would relieve my symptoms for 24 to 48 hours. But then they would be back. And since steroid medications have a bad reputation, I decided not to get the shot. I’ll get something at the drug store.

We went to the Pima Air & Space Museum today. They have several large buildings packed with all kinds of aircraft. Additionally, there is an outdoor area with hundreds of planes on display. We took a one-hour tram ride around the outdoor display area with the docent describing the history of various airplanes. It was quite interesting. We also went into the building for the B-17 Stratofortress and the Mitchell B-24. A person could spend days wandering among all the exhibits. There was a space building we wandered through. While it was interesting, there hasn’t been anything updated since 2006. There is so much going on in the space “world” today that they really need to have an area dedicated to all that. They didn’t even mention the new Space Command.

After the museum, we stopped at Trader Joe’s but they didn’t have what I wanted. Then we stopped at the commissary and picked up some groceries. I was exhausted by the time we got back to the campground.

10 Apr 2019 (Wed) – We took Bonnie to the vet today for a checkup and shots. She has gained another ten pounds and is now up to 80 pounds. That’s too heavy. Since we’ve put her on the limited ingredient diet, she’s been gaining weight. The doctor recommended we cut back on the can food. I would have done the opposite – reduced the amount of dry food she’s getting. Bonnie got a rabies, distemper, parvo virus, and leptospirosis vaccine. She was really out of it tonight. Spent most of the night in a deep sleep. I guess that many shots all at once would do it.

9 Apr 2019 (Tue) – We went out to the club for lunch and came back. Still both just hanging out, feeling like crap. Ugh.

8 Apr 2019 (Mon) – I am still sick (coughing and blowing my nose) but feeling better. Paul seems to be feeling worse. He had to lie down and take a nap this afternoon. I took him out for lunch today. It feels good to just get out of a sick house. We went to the Long Horn Steak House. The steaks were cooked perfectly. We tried to find some boxes to mail home Easter packages for the grandchildren but didn’t find any. We’ll keep looking.

I called several veterinarians today before finally finding a place with something available before May. I don’t know if there’s a sickness infecting a large number of animals, or if there just aren’t enough vets for all the animals. I don’t know why they are all booked into May already. At any rate, I found one and made an appointment for Bonnie for Wednesday. It is time for her annual check-up and vaccinations. We’ll also see what we can find out about improving her diet. She really hates what we are giving her now.

7 Apr 2019 (Sun) – Ugh. I have been sick with the flu. And Paul is now showing signs of having the virus. A sick house is not a fun thing. Ugh. April 2, the SMART Southwest Regional Muster began. We checked in and attended the opening ceremony. There were 50/50 drawings and door prizes. They had a catered Italian dinner which was pretty good. Several of our friends from other caravans and musters are here as well. There are 52 rigs at the muster.

On April 3, my throat started to feel scratchy and I had occasional coughing fits. Soon, my tonsils were swollen to the size of golf balls. There were some seminars. The breakfast and dinner were catered by the muster. It was a Mexican meal. A local high school mariachi band performed for the group. The kids were between the ages of 14 and 18 and they were exceptional. It was a great show. That night, I came down with chills and severe coughing spasms. I wound up sleeping in the lounge chair because lying down seemed to make things worse.

On April 4, we went to a clinic where they diagnosed the flu. I got prescriptions for flu pills, cough pills, and a nighttime cough syrup. We went to a seminar by SkyMed and wound up buying a membership. The company will pay for an ambulance (by air, land, or sea) from an accident site to a medical facility. They will also pay to get you home as well as your rig and your animals. Or, they will pay to fly someone out to you. It is also a willable product, so if we die before the six years is up, we can leave the membership to someone else. Sure sounds pretty good. Like Long Term Care Insurance, you sure hope you don’t have to use it but if you do need it, you’ll be glad you have it. The group went to a comedy theater for dinner. Although I was feeling pretty miserable and Paul was starting to come down with something, we managed to enjoy the show.

On April 5, they had closing ceremonies. We didn’t go because we didn’t want to infect anybody else with the flu. On April 6, we went back to the clinic to get Paul some medication. They said he did not have the flu but some kind of allergy. They suggested he go to the pharmacy and pick up some antihistamine. WTH? That sure doesn’t make sense. The flu is highly contagious and it is apparent I had it for a few days before symptoms broke out. We’ll see how Paul fares.

After we got back to the campground, we packed up and left for Davis-Monthan AFB FamCamp. It was all of 12 miles away. Because we are just in a holding pattern until we get the disc brakes put on the RV, we decided it would be cheaper to stay here. It is a large campground. We have been here before. They have the aircraft boneyard on base with thousands of planes shrink wrapped in various states of condition. There is also a great museum on base. Although we have been here before, we were told they have changed things so we are looking forward to going when we feel better.

Today, April 7, we went to the commissary to pick up a few groceries and then to the PX to pick up some paper and printer ink. We’ve been working on stuff for the caravan next month.

1 Apr 2019 (Mon) – We drove to Total Wines and picked up some libations for our coming week with the SMART muster. We also stopped for lunch at the Yard House. The building used to be a stop on the stagecoach route. They handed glasses three feet long to the drivers sitting up on the coach (otherwise they couldn’t reach the drinks). The restaurant is named in honor of those long glasses.

At 4 p.m. we took off for the Kitt Peak Observatory where we were going to the Dark-Sky Celebration (they almost didn’t have it – they called at 10:30 to say it was cloudy and might not happen, then called back at 1:30 to say things cleared up and the program would go forward tonight. Why bother calling and giving people aggravation? We fretted for nothing.). It was almost an hour and a half drive. We went through a Border Patrol check point just before entering the Tohono Ooodham Reservation. The last 12 miles wound up over 7,000’ to the peak. The views along the way were phenomenal! There was a huge plain spread out below us with various mountain ranges in the distance. As we climbed higher, everything grew smaller.

When we arrived, guides came over and covered the headlights with a red vinyl. Looking around, we could see they were covering all the car headlights. They also lined everyone up in a line formation, making it easy to leave in one long line at night’s end. We checked in, were given a flashlight with a red lens, and found that an introductory video was already playing. Two groups were actually there – one was doing the dark sky celebration with a chance to look through a telescope. The other group was looking at the night sky with binoculars. We all had to get there before dark and could not leave until the program ended. This is the way they control light pollution. There are 26 observatories on Kitt Peak alone. Many are conducting expensive, long-term studies and one stray beam of light could ruin the whole experiment.

We all got dinner (turkey sandwich, bag of kettle chips, chocolate cookie, peanut butter protein bar, and a bottle of water), then listened to an introductory talk with lots of “Don’t do this and don’t do that’s” in it. Then we all walked up a hill where a guide talked about the area, space, the stars, the topography, why the area is good for research, etc. When he was done, the group split in two and we went with our group into the observatory. There were ten of us. The classroom was lit with red lights. There was a survey form to fill out but it was really hard to read the questions. The guide turned the lights up a little but it was still a challenge to complete the survey. They wanted to know what topics we were interested in seeing/learning about at the Kitt Peak Observatory. This is going to be used to create programs for future tourists.

After the forms were filled out, the guide flashed a slideshow on the screen and we spent an hour listening to a canned presentation. It was like being in an Astronomy 101 class. We thought it was stupid; especially when he made statements that we couldn’t question, like, humans are made of stardust (that’s the result of the studies they have been making up there). When he was done, we went upstairs to a second floor. There was a telescope in the middle of the very small room with chairs lined around the walls and the ceiling peeled back to reveal the night sky. It was cold and we were all glad we brought extra jackets. The guide focused the telescope on different star clusters and formations and we all took turns looking through the lens. We stood in a line that circled around the telescope, all shuffling and trying to keep your balance. That low light with the red lighting is very disorienting. It felt like being on a ship in the ocean. As we shuffled around, one guy said it was like being in a prison exercise yard. After the first few showings, Paul and I sat the rest out. You couldn’t really see all the stuff the guide was talking about and it all started to look the same. They should have shown some planets. We did get to see two satellites traversing across the sky and Paul spotted a falling star. All in all, the program was a big disappointment.

When the program was done, everyone gathered back in the visitor center where they opened the gift shop for last minute purchases and offered coffee (for a donation). All in one entire group, we walked back to our cars, waited for the signal, got in the car, waited for another signal, then started the car and put on the headlights (which were covered with red vinyl sheets). An observatory van led the way and we all filed out in single file. We drove for one mile where they stopped and removed the red vinyl covers from our headlights. Then we slowly made the 11-mile drive down the mountain in total darkness. That was thrilling (not!). What was interesting was the lights below in the towns. Tucson has a very strong ordinance about lighting to support the dark sky programs. Many universities and laboratories around the world have vested interest in the research that is going on in Arizona.

31 Mar 2019 (Sun) – We did a lot of walking with Bonnie today exploring the campground and surrounding area. At noon, we drove into town for lunch and to get Paul new sneakers. We drove down I-10 to where Paul remembered seeing a very large RV Center that intrigued him. He wanted to go through their trailers. Unfortunately, they are closed on Sundays. We got back on I-10 and drove down a few exits to where Paul had seen an outlet center during our drives back and forth between Phoenix and Tucson. It was a large center much like the Deer Park outlet back home in New York. We consulted a directory and found a food court. Lunch was at the Fabulous Wok where we had Chinese food (chicken and rice). Then we headed to a shoe store which had the exact style and size Paul wanted. We bought the pair and left.

On the way back to the campground, we took a turn down a side road and traveled up to Sentinel Peak Park. It was a steep winding drive with no rails to the peak. It had a fabulous view of the surrounding town below. That was one of those serendipitous side trips that turn out to be a great decision.

30 Mar 2019 (Sat) – We packed up and left Tempe at 9:30 a.m. The weather was good and the drive was easy. We arrived at the Rincon Country West RV Resort in Tucson in two and a half hours. The campground is humongous!! The Rincon Country West was 1,150 campsites. The Rincon Country East has something between 500 and 600 sites (but they’re smaller – 35’ and under). This place as everything a camper could want – pickle ball, shuffleboard, a pool, a hot tub, mailboxes, dog park, laundry, buildings with rooms marked for different activities (quilting, sewing, computer club, photo club, lapidairy, woodworking, etc.). There is even a library with hundreds of books. There is a big sign out front by the office that says they were awarded the 2018 Megapark of the Year. I can believe it!

We were assigned to site 833 (which is a back-in). They are supposed to have wifi but I couldn’t connect. I am getting tired of non-working wifi sites and slow internet. There must be something better out there. The desk clerk told us the rally organizers won’t arrive until tomorrow and they will have all the information to hand out about the campground.

The sun is incredibly hot. It beats down on you unmercifully. We took a walk on the Tucson Loop that passes by the back of the campground. It is a 131 trail that goes around the city. It followed along a very large dry wash. It reminds me of the movie, Them, where the ants are living in the large culverts in Los Angeles. The clerk told us that coyotes and javelinas live there and not to go into the wash as night. As we walked around, we noted that this is a gated community surrounded by a cement block fence topped with spikes and barbed wire. There are also cameras mounted around the property. Paul said we are either in a bad area or you have to ask who is in the jail – us or the outside world?

29 Mar 2019 (Fri) – We ran some errands today, getting ready for tomorrow’s move to Tucson. We stopped at Fry’s to pick up groceries, and used our points to get fuel (we saved ten cents a gallon). Paul needed new sneakers so we went to a mall (after several false starts – Sirie does not know what a shopping mall is). Although we walked up and down halls and stairways, we did not find sneakers. We wanted to get a pair of New Balance but all the stores we stopped in only had two or three styles. A New Balance outlet store had choices but none in Paul’s size. We’ll look again when we get to Tucson.

We went over Les & Rae’s at 3:30 p.m. After a short visit, we piled into Les’ truck and went to the Blue Adobe for dinner. Paul, Les, and Rae all had the fish & chips special; I had meatloaf. The margaritas were very good. We returned to Les & Rae’s house for further visiting then said our goodbyes.

28 Mar 2019 (Thu) – It was a busy three days in Houston. My flight out on March 26 went fine. It was direct flight from Phoenix to Houston. The weather was good. The Southwest flight was fully booked and every seat was taken. When I got to the airport, I walked over to the taxi stand and took a cab to the Quality Inn. The cab driver was a very talkative man who laughed way too much at everything I said. I knew he was “working it” for a tip. The meter said $34.10 but he told me the cost was $35. I gave him $40.

The motel reminded me of the old Holiday Inns we stayed at when traveling from New York to Florida. A little run down, scuffed moldings, peeling paint, some mold in the bathroom, a smell in the room. They have an arrangement with M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and only(?) charged $69 a night.

I caught the shuttle run by the motel to the hospital at 7:00 a.m. I arrived at the blood collection site at 7:30 and waited a half hour. Then a nurse called me up, gave me a ticket, and told me to bring it to the diagnostic center. They would take the blood when they put in an IV. The elevator took me from the second floor to the sixth floor. They put in the IV and took me in for the CT scan. Everything went smoothly and I was done by 9:30 a.m. Now I had to wait until my doctor’s appointment at 3:40 p.m. What was I going to do with myself for six hours?

First, I went to the cafeteria. Since I had to fast for the scan, I was hungry and enjoyed a breakfast meal. Then I walked across the Sky Bridge from the Mays Clinic to the Main Building (when all was said and done, I had walked over two miles in the hospital that day). I tried to check in at the doctor’s office thinking he might see me earlier. The nurse told me I couldn’t check in any earlier than two hours before my appointment. She suggested I go down to the cafeteria and get a bite to eat.

While wandering about the halls, it occurred to me that the hospital complex was so big that they probably had a hair salon somewhere. An employee told me where it was and I walked over. When I arrived, there were two people waiting, one person in the chair, and the stylist told me another person was on the way (she had gone to the restroom). Since I had nowhere else to go, I waited. A man was just leaving the chair. She had shaved his head. The next customer was another man whose head she shaved, too. After he was done, the woman who had stepped out got her hair done – another head shave. Then it was my turn. The first question I asked was whether that was the head shaving chair. I wanted to be sure she wasn’t going to do to me. She thought I was pretty funny. I asked for a pixie cut and got a Hail Caesar cut. Oh, well. The cut was free (I made a $10 donation). I’ll find someone to fix it.

While in the chair, I commented on how busy the salon was and suggested that the hair stylist get another person to help. She told me there was a big lay off three years ago and everyone except her were let go. I asked what happened that caused that massive lay off. She said Obama Care went away and insurance companies told patients they had to go elsewhere (somewhere cheaper) for healthcare. Many patients who were getting certain medications and treatments at Anderson lost those benefits.

After the haircut, I went back down to the cafeteria and got a chicken wrap. I ate half and took the other half back to the motel for dinner. I went to the waiting room and took a seat. I read my book until it was 1:45 p.m. then checked in with the nurse. Despite all that, the doctor was almost an hour late seeing me. He turned out to be a new doctor. He had completed his fellowship eight months ago and stayed on as staff. Dr. Niar was young and smiled a lot but I didn’t feel very confident with him. At any rate, he said they had the scan results already and everything was stable. The bloodwork was good. He said I should come back for another scan in three months and that would give them a good base to see how the disease is progressing. If everything is still stable, they can lengthen the time between scans. One funny thing: when the doctor was looking me over, he asked what was wrong with my hair. Why was it falling out? At first, I thought “Oh, no. Another problem!” Then I realized it was the haircut I had gotten earlier that left hair on my shirt. We had a good laugh over that.

I caught the shuttle back to the motel. I asked the clerk about getting a ride back to the airport the next day and she told me she had a friend that could call. I thanked her and turned in. It was an exhausting day.

The next day (Mar 28), the taxi driver arrived. He was a Cuban immigrant who spoke very poor English. He and I tried to chat throughout the drive to the airport. He charged me $42! I thought he would be an Uber driver but he wasn’t.

The flight back to Arizona went. I had one stop. During the first leg, I sat next to a man who talked about the Roman empire. He was very thorough about its history and was fascinating to listen to. The second leg was quiet. The plane was full and everyone just played with their phones. Paul picked me up and we went to Top of the Rock for dinner. What a great place! The conference center and restaurant sat atop a hill overlooking the valley below. We sat out on the deck in the balmy breeze watching the rush hour traffic (which wasn’t going very fast) go by. The sun slowly slipped behind the hilltop and cast its fading light on the surrounding mountainside. It was such a perfect place and a perfect meal.

25 Mar 2019 (Mon) – We did laundry today. Since we were meeting Les & Rae for dinner early tonight, we just had a snack for lunch. We took Bonnie for a long walk around the industrial park. They were very busy today with lots of traffic coming and going.

At 3:30 p.m. we went over Les & Rae’s house. After a brief visit, we drove to Blue 32 for dinner. The food was good and the company enjoyable.

I leave for Houston tomorrow to get a PET scan at MD Anderson Cancer Center. I will be back on Thursday.

24 Mar 2019 (Sun) –We walked around the grounds this morning before leaving and stopped at the building where the Escapees had their office. Everyone was gone. We were trying to recover Paul’s picture that he submitted to the photo contest. On the way back to our RV, we spotted a camper with a sign on it indicating the folks had been office staff during the Escapade. We knocked on the door to ask if they knew who we could contact about the photo. They gave us the name of the woman who coordinated the event. I am afraid that they threw it out. Since we didn’t come by to pick it up, they wouldn’t keep it. They have too much stuff to gather up and return to the office with. I sent her an email. We’ll see what happens.

We packed up and left Tucson at 9:30 a.m. It was an easy two-hour drive back up to Phoenix. We are parked in the Elks Lodge where we were three weeks ago. We called on the way to see if they had availability (it’s first-come, first-served). The camp host said they had four spaces. They were holding one for a woman who was coming in to see her dying sister (they made an exception to reservations in her case). When we pulled in, the host was parking a rig. He then told us we got the last spot. Three rigs had pulled in before us. I am glad we weren’t any later than we were!

We went over Les & Rae’s house for dinner. There were many packages that had arrived for us (we have been ordering items and having them forwarded there). Les made shepherd’s pie (one of my favorite meals). It was a good visit.

23 Mar 2019 (Sat) – We went to the Thunder & Lightning Over Arizona Air Show at Davis-Monthan AFB today. What a fabulous show. Many of today’s modern jet fighters put on a display in incredible flights of precision. There was a Heritage fly over where four jets used by the Air Force beginning with WWII and going through Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq put on a show. There were incredible aerobatics of aircraft that was phenomenal. A jet dragster with three jet engines raced one of the planes. There were pyrotechnics, simulated bombs and strafing, and explosions galore. The Thunderbirds, of course, were the highlight of the show and were reserved to the end of the show.

The area we were in had a continental breakfast and a barbecue lunch with unlimited soda and water throughout the day. There was a covered area to sit at tables and an open area on the flightline to watch the show. Unfortunately, we sat right next to the speaker and it was incredibly loud. Most of the music was not to our liking and hurt our ears. Luckily, they handed out earplugs to visitors. They helped a little. The sun got really hot in the afternoon. We thoroughly enjoyed the displays and were wowed with the capabilities of our military aircraft. It was a good day.

22 Mar 2019 (Fri) – About half of the rigs left today. Most of the rest will leave tomorrow and there will only be a few of us remaining to leave on Sunday. It was a busy day around the area for the fairgrounds folks. They were smoothing dirt in the horse corrals and jumping arenas all day long. The tractors were out at 5 a.m. We sat and watched the horses jumping for a while, then went into town to pick up pet food and groceries. After we dropped those off and had lunch, we drove into Tucson to the University of Arizona Flandrau Science Center & Planetarium. There was a display about sharks that was designed to make visitors feel good about them at the end of the tour. There was an extensive exhibit about the moon, the sun, Mars, and the solar system. We went into the basement where they had an extensive collection of minerals and gems on display. Nature is so amazing! The colors and shapes of the rocks were so impressive.

At 4 p.m. we went into the planetarium and watched a show about the Tucson skies at night. The speaker showed where key stars were located and described the constellations. Then he began to describe the universe at large. It made us feel pretty insignificant. They sure didn’t teach that when we were in school. Scientists have discovered so much about the world we live in and the space we travel through. The immensity of the size of the universe and the hundreds – no, thousands of galaxies is almost overwhelming.

21 Mar 2019 (Thu) – We attended a couple of seminars this morning. One particularly interesting seminar was hosted by the Fulltime Families, a group of families (with children) that travel around the U.S. full-time. The host started out by telling the audience about some lesser known parks and attractions that were very enjoyable. When he was done, he asked members of the crowd to shout out their favorite places. We got a whole list of new places to explore. Most are state parks. It will fun to visit them.

We went to the cantina for lunch. I’m glad the rally ended today. I’m kind of tired of eating there. I had fried shrimp and Paul had chicken strips. After lunch, we got a soft serve ice cream from a food truck. We walked back to the RV, took Bonnie for a walk, and gave Sheba time outside.

At 3 p.m. we went to the closing ceremonies. They told us the statistics of the rally. There were 837 RVs at the rally. With the daily walk-ins included, there were more than 2,400 people who attended. They announced the winner of the photo contest (alas, it was not Paul), and listed the monies raised for various charities. There were door prize drawings for the volunteers as well as everyone attending and awards for different things including the talent show.

At 6 p.m. they had a Farewell Fiesta. The weather was cool so we didn’t go. It was held outdoors in the park.

20 Mar 2019 (Wed) – We went to an 8:30 a.m. seminar this morning. It was “DIY Pet Care” given by a veterinarian. She spoke about the most common complaints and some ways to treat those issues. She is also a provider of vet products, NewLeaf Pet.

The next seminar was “Soak up the Science” which was about all the science activity going on at the University of Arizona. It was a fascinating presentation. There are more telescopes in Arizona than anywhere else in the world. The university has many programs available to the general public and we are interested in visiting some of them. The Flandrau Science Center & Planetarium deals with astronomy and offers dark sky programs. There is also a center that studies tree rings. They have gone back 11,000 years in their studies. The speaker explained how they use the rings from one tree to another to track back in time and measure climate and world events. Another center at the college builds mirrors for telescopes. The process for forming the honeycomb pattern that keeps the mirror light weight is very interesting. The university also has an observatory on the top of Mt. Lemmon (where we were last week). We will definitely have to make time to go over there.

We broke for lunch and wandered over to the cantina for lunch. We shared the table with another couple for a short while. Their friends were all at the next table and were busy gobbling up all the chairs on the deck as more and more of them joined in. I began to get the feeling they were going to grab our chairs out from under us. Two people stood there staring at us as if to urge us to leave. It was pretty disconcerting. We stubbornly sat and continued to enjoy our lunch until we were done.

At 1:30 p.m. we went to “RV Disaster Corps.” That is a group that formed in Texas in response to Hurricane Harvey. The group gets a notice from Americorps that there is a disaster somewhere. (BTW, Texas has the most disasters of any state and it takes up to ten years to recover from major disasters.) The RVDC director sends an email out to the RVers in the group. Each RVer looks over the list, picks out events where they feel they can help, coordinates their calendar, and signs up to help. Then the RVers go to the area, find a place to set up, then help in whatever way they can. RVDC is trying to go national and has coordinated with many emergency operation centers in many states. The speaker was enthusiastic but very skilled in public speaking. The talk was jerky with the mike going back and forth between the husband and wife. There were a lot of questions they couldn’t answer either. Regardless, the program sounds interesting and we will look into it.

Last seminar was “Lifestyle Choices to Minimize Lifestyle Restrictions” which turned out to be a very fit 80-year old former chiropractor telling everyone how to live a good, long life. He covered issues that help us grow old but remain healthy and active. I didn’t find much I didn’t already know and felt like he talked down to the audience.

Following the seminar, we returned to the RV, got Bonnie and took her to the dog park. There was a young dog there who kept trying to play with Bonnie but she didn’t want to run. On the way back to the RV, I stopped at the RV Country table and got a glass of wine for us.

It was a pretty good day. The weather has been delightful. The sky has been mostly clear, the temps are in the high 60s/low 70s, and there has been a balmy breeze blowing. Last night, a guy across the aisle from us invited us to join them at a campfire. I was too tired but Paul went. He said the group kept growing and growing until there were about a hundred people formed in three circles around fires. This is certainly an unusual lifestyle. We love it.

19 Mar 2019 (Tue) – There was a dog walk at 8:30 a.m. this morning. About 20 dogs gathered and their owners walked them about a mile around the property. After the initial excitement, all the dogs settled down and the walk went well.

While Paul was walking Bonnie with the group, I went to a craft demo of Swedish weaving. The lady running the class was NOT a teacher and it was difficult to follow. Luckily, the lady sitting next to me was a crafter and caught on quickly. I got tips from her on how to do the craft.

At 11:30 a.m. Paul and I went over to the Transportation Assembly Point and reported in for our volunteer assignment of driving golf carts around the campground until 3:00 p.m. It was lots of fun.

When we were done, we got a piece of paper signed by the coordinator which we took back to the volunteer coordinator where we got a ticket for a special drawing and we got a Volunteer pin.

Since we never had lunch, we went to the Cantina for a late lunch/early dinner. While we were sitting outside eating our meal, a couple came by who recognized Paul during his golf cart drive. He had picked them up and talked about SMART enough that they remembered him. We invited them to sit with us after placing their order. He served 21 years in the Navy; she served 6. They were a very interesting couple and we enjoyed our visit.

We walked back to the RV and just relaxed the rest of the night.

18 Mar 2019 (Mon) – The seminars started today. At 8:30 a.m. we went to “Understanding Guided RV Tours.” We thought that since we will be leading a caravan in May that maybe we could pick up some pointers on wagon master duties or running activities. Although it was interesting, I don’t think we really picked anything up.

Next seminar was “Home is Where You Park It.” This was an important seminar in that a lawyer discussed the issues of where you declare your domicile and the legal issues associated with where you actually live as compared to where you declare your home state to be. Many people set up LLCs in South Dakota because of the low taxes. They buy those $300,000-$500,000 rigs then register them in South Dakota to save on paying taxes in their home state. Legal issues arise when people try to claim their domicile is in one state when they actually have property and spend more time in another state. I learned a lot.

We broke for lunch and went to the Cantina on the fairgrounds. I had a chicken wrap and Paul had a quesadilla. After eating, we walked over to the office and got some prices on what it would cost to hold a rally here. We were thinking about bringing that information back to SMART for one of their future musters. Next was a trip back to the RV where Paul walked Bonnie and I watched Sheba outside, then we took short naps.

At 1:30 p.m., we went back to the main area for the seminar “Maintaining a Showroom Look of Your RV.” It was a product specific presentation. The speaker was a vendor for Wash Wax All. He gave some good information about cleaning your RV but all the products were specifically what he sells. We’ll have to consider everything he said with a grain of salt.

At 3:00 p.m. we split up. Paul went to “Benefits of Disc Brakes” and I went to “RV Entertainment Technology.” I thoroughly enjoyed the speaker who was both entertaining and informative. The room was packed (apparently everyone likes to be entertained in their RV). He ran over time. Paul thought his seminar was interesting as well and plans to follow up with getting disc brakes on the RV.

After the seminars, we walked over to the outdoor display of used RVs which is being hosted by RV Country. They were giving away margaritas and snacks during their happy hour. The line to get all these freebees was very long. We waited about 15 minutes but finally got our drink and food. There was nowhere to sit so we walked over to a set of bleachers and had out snack there. Then we returned to the rig and enjoyed cheese and crackers for dinner.

17 Mar 2019 (Sun) – We took Bonnie for her long walk with the 30’ leash. It gives her a chance to wander more freely but still be under control. After her walk, we went to the registration desk and picked up a new name tag for me. Then we went to volunteer desk and signed up to drive golf carts on Tuesday. We wanted to do more but after we selected the seminars and events we want to attend, that day and time was the only slot available. We’ll keep checking back to see if any other volunteer opportunities open up.

Next was a stroll up and down the ROW. This is a section with tables set up for each chapter and BOF (Birds of a Feather). We signed up for the Elks BOF and asked for information about other groups. Then we walked to the back of the building where venders had tables displaying their products. Most of it was RV related but there were a few that managed to slip in. There was the ever present jewelry table and a guy who was selling something that looked like a TENS machine but his sign claimed it wasn’t. That stupid My Pillow was also there (we bought it a few years back and it never did what they claim – AND it was expensive!). It is always fun to look at the latest gadgets. I bought a book by Kaye Peterson, the woman (and her husband) who originally started Escapees in 1978. The book is called “Beating the Odds.” Their children and grandchildren continue to run the organization today.

After exploring everything inside the huge registration building, we wandered outside and poked around in RVs that are parked in a display area. They are all used RVs for sale. There were so many different kinds of RVs on display – motor homes, travel trailers, fifth wheels, and Class Cs. It was fun looking over all the different floor plans and imagining how we would change the layout.

At 3:30 p.m. the opening ceremony began. We heard about how Escapees started and the services it provides now. The grandchildren of the Peterson’s, Travis & Melanie Carr, both spoke about a new branch of Escapees that they started – the Xscapers. This is a group of younger folks who work on the road, home schooling their children while exploring the U.S.A.

Following the opening ceremony, everyone filed out and got an ice cream pop. Then the First Timers gathered in the park. The First Timers are those people (like us) who are attending an Escapade for the first time regardless of how long they have been members of Escapees. We joined six years ago when we hit the road because we needed a mail forwarding service. We have slowly been drawn in to explore many of their other club benefits and are now devoted members who believe strongly in this group.

16 Mar 2019 (Sat) – Today we went to the laundromat. After the clothes were tucked in the washer, we drove to Wendy’s and had lunch. We returned, put the clothes in the dryer, then went to a lot where pre-fab homes were on display. COVCO had some interesting layouts but they were built cheaply. We liked the design but not the actual homes.

After collecting our clothes, we drove to Camping World and asked for another exchange for the DISH antenna. We had also brought the receiver with us and a tech was able to test them both. They worked fine. In that case, the tech said the problem had to be with the coaxial cable. If the receiver works fine, and the dish works fine, then the problem has to be in the connection between the two. We picked up a new coaxial cable.

When we returned home, Paul hooked up everything. The DISH appears to be working fine now. We took Bonnie on a long walk around the campground. They have a 1-1/2 mile fitness trail where there are pieces of equipment to do exercise on along the trail.

There is a horse school in the fairground that puts on shows on Friday and Saturday. We’ve been watching (at a distance) the horses trotting around the corrals. There are also three race courses nearby. The sound of revving car engines filled the air all day long yesterday and today.

When we pulled into the campground yesterday, there was a strong wind blowing. All the volunteers on the parking detail were bundled in winter coats. The wind was blowing today as well but not as strong or as cold.

15 Mar 2019 (Fri) – We packed up and left the Diamond J RV Park at 8:30 a.m. We wanted to get into the Pima County Fairgrounds early. The Escapees Escapade opened today for early arrivals (the rally actually starts on Sunday) and crews were parking RVs from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. It was only 27 miles to the campground (still in Tucson); less than an hour’s drive.

Like all fairgrounds, the campground is very large. They can fit over 400 RVs. There are a mix of amenities available. Some people have full hooks, some (like us) only have electric and water, and some are boondocking. Those guys have solar panels set out around their rigs.

We checked in at the registration desk and got name tags and a goodie bag. Our tags show that we are First Timers – meaning that this is the first Escapees Escapade we have ever attended. Although we have been members for six years (primarily for their mail forwarding service), we have not joined in on any musters. We have stayed at some of the Escapees campgrounds. Last year we stayed at their Livingston campground and learned about their CARE program for full-time RVers. We have also attended two HOPs (destination caravans) with Escapees – the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque and the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena.

We are parked out in an open grass field. The fairgrounds have run out hoses and electric lines for the folks parked in this area. There are several large buildings scattered around the grounds and they have a dog park for Bonnie to play in. Yay!

Paul couldn’t get the DISH antenna working so we packed it up (after a long call with the DISH service agent) and brought it back to Camping World. We only bought the thing 17 days ago. The sales associate exchanged another one for the nonfunctional dish.

We stopped at Fry’s to pick up fried chicken for dinner. We then stopped at WalMart to see if they had a 11-1/2 x 14-1/2 manila envelope to put out photograph submission in for the contest. We are not having any luck finding a large enough envelope. Office Depot had a pack of 100 but we did not need 100 envelopes! Oh, well. We’ll keep looking.

Frustratingly, the new DISH antenna did not work. It was doing the same thing the last dish was doing. Aaarrrrrgggghhhhh!

14 Mar 2019 (Thu) – We drove to Mt. Lemmon Scenic Byway this morning. The road was open. What a fantastic drive! We climbed up over 8,000 feet. As we ascended, we passed through four life zones and the geography changed. We went from cacti, to pine trees, to oak trees, to aspens. As we passed 6,000 feet, we started to see snow and as we climbed higher the snow got thicker. There were several pullouts and overlooks with the most incredible vistas. It seemed like you could see forever. There was the huge basin and several mountain ranges in the distance. We stopped at a couple of places and hiked out to look at mountain streams and hoodoos (tall columns of rock piles).

When we got to Summerhaven, we stopped in at the General Store and bought a Christmas decoration and post cards for the grandsons. Then we went to the Sawmill Inn for lunch. I ordered a bowl of chili and Paul had a ham and cheese sandwich. My chili was too spicy. I wound up sending it back and getting a ham and cheese sandwich.

After we got back down the mountain, we stopped at Hobby Lobby. Paul will be submitting a picture for the photo contest that Escapees is having. We start the Escapees Escapade tomorrow and they will have the photo contest on Saturday and Sunday. We had to have our picture enlarged to 8 X 10 (we blew up six pictures because we couldn’t decide on “the one”). We bought an 11 X 14 black frame for the picture. After seeing how each pictures looked in the frame, Paul selected the one he will be submitting. He sent the picture digitally to Escapees as well.

13 Mar 2019 (Wed) – We drove into town to the Mission San Xavier del Bac. It was a very old church built by Spanish missionaries in the late 1600s. It was a large complex and beautifully preserved. There was also a small hillock with a burial site on it with a sign saying there have been visions of the Mother Mary. Across the square from the mission were a few shops selling Native American crafts. We wandered through a store. Their wares were mostly jewelry and baskets.

We then drove to the St. Augustine Cathedral. It was a very large church with a very long row of benches. We wandered around and took some pictures then left.

We stopped at PetSmart and picked up some pet food and stopped at IHOP for lunch. Then we decided to take the Mt. Lemmon Scenic Byway into the Santa Catalina Mountains. It was a long ride across town and when we arrived there were sheriff’s deputies stationed at the entrance to the byway. They had the road blocked off and were turning everyone around. The town at the top of the mountain, Summerhaven, had been hit with the storm that passed through. They had snow and high winds. The roads were impassable. So we turned around and returned to the campground.

12 Mar 2019 (Tue) – It rained on and off all night. I did not sleep very well and wound up getting up at 6 a.m. Paul is usually the one who gets up at six, makes the coffee, feeds the animals, and takes the dog for a walk. I made the coffee and fed the animals but let Paul get up later and walk Bonnie. It stopped raining long enough for them to go out and back.

I felt logey and finally crawled back into bed at 8:30 a.m. and slept until 10:30 a.m. I felt much better when I got up. But that probably means my sleep will be messed up tonight. Ugh. We went into Tucson at 11:30 a.m. Stopped at Los Nopales for lunch. It was very good Mexican food. We even got a quart of the chicken and rice soup to take home for dinner.

After lunch, we drove to The Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures. It was basically a museum of doll houses filled with miniature stuff – furniture, dolls, paraphernalia. It was interesting but too much of a good thing.

On the way back to the campground, we stopped at Fry’s and picked up groceries. After the food was all put away, we sat down and enjoyed our soup. The rain continued to fall on and off all day and night.

11 Mar 2019 (Mon) – We waited until 8:30 a.m. this morning before starting to pack up. We had to get through to a campground to see if we could get a site. The Asian woman on the phone was difficult to understand. We managed to get through the fog and found they did have a site available. So we packed up and left Why at 10:15 a.m. The drive was almost all through the Tonoho ‘Oodham nation reservation. There were many run down and dilapidated homes along the way. It was kind of sad.

We finally arrived at Justin’s Diamond J RV Park in Tucson at 1 p.m. The park has 130 sites. We got one with full hookups. The place is supposed to have Wifi but I can’t get it to work. Have to stay with our slooooow hookup. It’s so aggravating.

After set up, we drove into town. We got propane and then stopped in a steakhouse for an early dinner. It was a very eclectic place but the food was good. We both had a ribeye steak with baked potato and a salad. Accompanied, of course, by margaritas! We returned to the campground and took Bonnie for a long walk. I also called Kitt Peak Observatory and made reservations for a Dark Night program on April 1st. They have a 4-hour program that starts with a light supper then has a scientist relate stories of space and planets. It will be fun.

10 Mar 2019 (Sun) – We took a long walk out into the desert this morning, looking for the herd of donkeys. They were no where to be found. I had cut up an apple to give them but wound up bringing the bag back to the trailer with us.

At 1:30 p.m. we walked over to the casino and had a hot dog for lunch. Then we wandered from the convenience store into the casino and played the slots. I put in $20 and walked away with $0.25. Paul put in $40 and walked away with $119.50.

At 4 p.m. we took another long walk into the desert looking for the donkeys. After a good distance into the park, we heard a donkey bray off to the right. So we altered course and cut over to where we thought the donkeys might be. Although we only heard one donkey occasionally honk, we never found it. I finally opened the baggie and spread the apple slices around on the rocks hoping they would find them later. As we got back to the gate, there was the herd grazing on the grass right outside the campground. We went back into the RV, cut up more apples, then hurried outside to the fence. The donkeys were already moving on. We tried calling but they ignored us so we heaved the slices over the fence, trying to get the apples close to the donkeys. They ignored the apples, too. Ungrateful buggers!

9 Mar 2019 (Sat) – We took Bonnie for a walk in the area behind the campground. There is a fence all around the campground and we were wondering if it was designed to keep something in or out. We had to pass through a locked gate. As we walked along the trail, we suddenly heard braying. Following the sound, we came upon a herd (pack?) of burros. There were about 20 of them. Beautiful animals going from light brown to a deep chocolate color. Two had the prettiest white face while all the others had a white muzzle. They all froze and stared at us as one. It was a great moment. We took pictures but when we tried to move closer, they moved away. Best not to get too close to a wild animal.

We drove to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument after dropping Bonnie off back at the trailer. When we got there, we drove along the 21-mile Ajo Mountain Loop. About one-half of the way around the loop on a rough, unimproved road, we arrived at the Arch Canyon Trail. It was a 1-1/2-mile round-trip hike. It was a fairly easy hike, except for the last bit of it. That got narrow and steep with lots of loose rock. There was a crew of volunteers doing some trail maintenance. The flowers were in full bloom everywhere. The desert is alive with growth!

After we came down from the trail, we drove the rest of the loop back to the main road. It was so interesting looking at all the cacti. It seems like so many of them are unique with different shapes. We finally got back to the campground around 3:30 p.m.

As I was sitting at the desk working on the computer, Paul pointed out that the mule pack was walking by. I looked out the window to watch them stroll by on the other side of the campground fence. At sunset, we hiked the trail outside the campground and found the burro pack walking back from wherever they went today. We took some pictures and threw some carrots over to them. They seemed to enjoy the treat.

8 Mar 2019 (Fri) – The day started out pretty cool. It’s been so nice the last few days with temps in the high 70s. There is a low that came in from California. The sky was cloudy for most of the day but cleared up by dinner time.

We packed up and left Gila Bend at 9:20 a.m. The weather was good (but cool) and the drive was easy. We arrived at Why an hour and a half later. We are staying in the back of the Desert Diamond Casino in Hickiwan Trails RV Park. A young woman (she looked Indian) greeted us when we came in and took Paul for a ride around the campground to look at the open campsites. They only accept cash or checks so I wrote a check. The cost is only $19 a night. We have full hookups, but not much else. There is no wifi and the casino is really tiny with no restaurant in it. It sure isn’t like Foxwoods or Las Vegas!

After set up, we drove into Why for lunch. Granny’s Kitchen was rated #1 of 1 restaurants in town. It was with a little trepidation that we went in the door. After all, it was the only choice and it would be whatever it would be because it was the only restaurant in town. The food was actually very good. There was one waitress working several tables in the small café. A steady stream of diners kept coming and going. Nobody lingered over their meal. They came. They ate. They left.

Following lunch, we drove down Route 83 to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. We had to pass through an immigration check point inspecting all the vehicles coming into the U.S. There was also a very large border patrol station on the side of the road just before the entrance to the park. The organ pipe cactus is rare in the U.S. It is very prolific in Mexico but doesn’t like the cold so hardly grows past the border. It looks like a collection of long arms growing upward, kind of like the pipes on an organ. We stopped at the visitor’s center and watched an introductory video about the park. Then we took part of a scenic drive around the park. There were so may saguaro cacti that it was like being in a forest of cactus. The flora and fauna in this area are lush and plentiful.

We returned to the campground and had dinner. We took Bonnie for a walk around the campground as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon and a sliver of moon appeared high in the sky. We could hear wild burros braying in the distance.

7 Mar 2019 (Thu) – We didn’t go anywhere today. Bonnie got extra walks around the base. I worked on the Nomads muster and Caravan documents.

We sat outside after dark last night looking up at the night sky. There’s no big town around so we thought the night sky would look good. Unfortunately, there are a lot of lights around the campground. It was also very windy yesterday making the skyline hazy with dust. You couldn’t see any stars on the horizon at all. The sky was inky black but there just weren’t many stars to see. It was disappointing.

The day started out cloudy. Unlike yesterday where the sky was so clear and blue and cloudless. The clouds mostly cleared away.

6 Mar 2019 (Wed) – We drove out to Painted Rock Petroglyphs today. There is a pile of rocks sitting in the middle of the desert with a bunch of painted rocks. The paintings date from the 1700s to the early 1900s. We hiked around the rock mound, looking at the symbols on the rocks. We then drove into Gila Bend for lunch and ate at Sofia’s Mexican Restaurant; rated number 2 out of 10 by Trip Advisor. The service was on the slow side but everything appeared to be cooked fresh. I had a burrito and Paul had a combo dish of tacos and tamale. The food was excellent.

We left the restaurant and drove out to Old Highway 80. Several miles down the road were the Gillespie Dam and Bridge. The bridge was built in 1927 as a federal aid project and was part of the historic Ocean-to-Ocean Highway. The Gillespie Dam was built in 1921 to supply water to a ranch. It was the largest privately financed concrete irrigation diversion dam in Arizona at the time. The dam was breeched in 1993 and it no longer holds back the water.

5 Mar 2019 (Tue) – We drove south to the town of Ajo. We stopped in the Ajo Visitor’s Center and got some information about the area. You know you’re in trouble when you ask the clerk to recommend a good place for lunch and the answer is “Ummmm.”

We walked around the town square. It used to be a train depot – the last stop in the U.S. It was a very nice area. There were many small shops in the square. We had lunch at a local restaurant, which we thought was terrible. Service was slow and the food was bad. Afterward, we wandered into the Immaculate Concepcion Catholic Church and admired the interior. An older woman inside the church was very chatty until we confessed we were Methodists, then she turned away. Hmmm.

We got back in the truck and drove to the overlook for the Ajo Copper Mine. It was an open pit mine that operated from the late 1800s until 1985. Interestingly, the employees went on strike in 1983 and that killed the mine. We stopped in the Ajo Historical Museum on a hill overlooking the pit. The curator was full of information and eager to talk about it all. It was tough to get away from him, finally.

We stopped at a local market on the way home to pick up bottle water. I don’t trust the campground water.

4 Mar 2019 (Mon) – We pulled up stakes and left Tempe at 10 a.m. An hour and a half later, we pulled into Luke AFB Gila Bend Auxiliary Field FamCamp. It is in the middle of nowhere. Gila Bend is a pass-through place. Lots of businesses and homes are boarded up. Route 85 passes through the town on the way to Mexico. There’s not much to see.

There are 34 campsites here and the campground is mostly full. There is plenty of space between sites. Each site has a concrete patio and a picnic table. We have full hook-ups. There is a sign on the bulletin board that warns against drinking the water. Our campsite has a separate water spigot for drinking water that has been processed by reverse osmosis.

There is nothing on the base. There doesn’t appear to be any family housing. A trailer houses the mobile PX. One two story hotel sits across the street from the campground. From what we’ve been able to discern, this base manages the surrounding desert area as range management. We’ve seen four jets practicing touch and goes but there really aren’t any planes stationed here.

We went into town and had lunch at the Space Age Lounge. The outside is decorated with a picture of a flying saucer. Inside, there are paintings on the walls of spaceships and astronauts. The food was terrible. And the service was so very sloooooow. Cut ambiance; bad service and food.

3 Mar 2019 (Sun) – We met Les & Rae at their house, then got in his truck and drove to Biscuits for breakfast. They had some very interesting, old style items on the menu – SPAM and eggs, SOS, biscuits and gravy, etc. Everything was very good.

After breakfast, we drove back to their house and visited for a while. Then we said good bye. I gathered up the lima beans Les had made for me and we left. We stopped at Pet Smart on the way home to pick up pet food. I had forgotten to grab the shopping list before we left this morning, so we went back to the RV, put away the pet food, walked Bonnie, gave Sheba outside time, and then drove to Fry’s, where we picked up groceries.

2 Mar 2019 (Sat) – We did the laundry this morning. While the clothes washed, we walked over to Freezer’s Ice House for lunch (the laundromat was in a strip mall). I had a taco salad and Paul had a cheeseburger. The place was a huge billiards hall. They had 26 tables, and about ten dart machines. TVs were everywhere with all kinds of sports playing on the screens. The place had a very new feel to it. The waitress said the restaurant was just two years old.

After the laundry, we returned to the campground. Once the clothes were put away, we took Bonnie for a long walk around the block. We stumbled upon a liquor store and stopped in to see if they had 43. We have not been able to find it for weeks. We bought the last bottle, dust and all.

1 Mar 2019 (Fri) – We met Les & Rae at Hacker’s Grill in Apache Junction for lunch. The food was very good. The weather today was delightful – in the high 70s with clear blue skies and a balmy wind. Later, Bonnie and us went over Les & Rae’s house for dinner. I showed him how to cook a spaghetti squash. He made meatballs and sauce. We brought a loaf of garlic bread. It was fun.

28 Feb 2019 (Thu) – We met Jon & Nancy at Black Angus in Mesa for dinner. Jon had a coupon for a Dinner For 2 Night. It was one appetizer (to be shared), two entrees (one each), four sides, and one dessert. Everything was delicious and the company was enjoyable. After dinner, we stopped at Target to pick up a few items.

27 Feb 2019 (Wed) – We went to the Capitol Museum this morning. It had to be one of the smallest capitols we have seen yet (I think Illinois was smaller). There were four floors with two wings. The rooms were small. Displays in several rooms depicted the history of Phoenix and the Arizona territory as well as the story of statehood. President Taft turned down their application for statehood because they had a resolution that said any representative of the state could be recalled at any time for any reason. He also wanted New Mexico and Arizona to apply for joint statehood. Does that mean the two states were supposed to be one big state? The storyboards did not answer that question. At any rate, Arizona dropped the part about recalling representatives and was granted statehood along with New Mexico in 1912. The state later voted to put the amendment about recall back into their constitution.

There was also an exhibit on loan from the Smithsonian about the internment of Japanese-American citizens into relocation camps during WWII. They also had four rooms dedicated to the story of their lottery and the man who served as their spokesman. Every place has its unique stories. The world is such an interesting place.

Outside, in front of the capitol building, was a memorial circle with lots of stones and statues dedicated in memory of different groups. There were the usual war memorials to WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, and Enduring Freedom. There were also statues to pioneer women, to Jewish War Veterans, to K9 dogs, to firefighters and peace officers, etc. They had a piece of steel from the World Trade Center, stones from the Pentagon, and dirt from Shanksville, PA, in a 9-11 memorial.

Across the street from the capitol were four food trucks. We walked over and got some lunch at a Greek truck. It was expensive. Paul got a gyro and I got a shawarma with a side of falafel. The meal cost us $32. I always thought the food trucks were supposed to be good food at low prices. Boy, was I wrong.

When we got back to the truck, we noted a large building right next to the parking lot that had mining equipment displayed around the area. Signs in front of some of the equipment was for the Arizona Mining and Minerals Museum. That’s where we thought we were. We moved the truck to another parking lot (there was a two-hour limit on parking) and then walked to the museum. The building looked like it might have been an old temple. There was a plaque on the outer wall noting that the El Zaribah Shrine Temple had been placed on the historic register in 1989. Another plaque said the building was dedicated to the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum in 1992. Unfortunately, the building was closed and there was nothing that we could see through the windows. Guess the building went belly up and they just left their giant tire and mining gear sitting around the building.

Next stop was at Heritage Square. It is a large, multi-block area with historical buildings that have mostly been converted to shops and restaurants. One home was restored to its original form with furnishings from the period (but not the originals). The home was built in the late 1800s for a surgeon and his family. There were several owners over the years. The city took it over in 1980 when 19 people were still living in the house. The chirpy little college-aged docent didn’t know what happened to them.

At 5:30 p.m., we went into the Elks Lodge for dinner and their Queen of Hearts drawing. The place was pretty crowded. There was a “real” German lady cooking dinner tonight (that’s how the waitress described the cook). We had cabbage rolls with roasted potatoes and a salad of cucumbers with tomatoes drenched in a dill cream sauce. It was all very good.

26 Feb 2019 (Tue) – I am feeling better today. Not fully recovered, but better. Jon came over to get an update on the stick we gave him. Apparently, when I copied the files, I copied them from a file on the desktop to another file on the desktop and not to the stick. Ugh. I was sick! At any rate, I think we got it right this time.

The DISH satellite has not been working right. We spent over an hour on the phone with the tech rep who finally advised us to bring the satellite to a shop for repair. So we contacted a place and then brought the satellite and receiver there at 11:30. The tech found that the signal is intermittent and offered to sell us a new satellite. It was, however, on a truck that was out in the field and we would have to come back tomorrow to get it. It sold for $349; with tax, it would cost us $370.

We left the place and drove to Camping World to price DISH satellites. We found what we wanted for $249. We saved over $100 by buying that model. It isn’t the latest and the greatest but meets our needs just fine.

We then went to La Mesa RV looking for a vent cover. Neither Camping World nor La Mesa had the part. Looks like we’ll have to contact the manufacturer. We then stopped at Culver’s for lunch. It advertised butterburgers, which turned out to be a bun spread with a little butter and grilled toasty. It was ok.

We went over to Les & Rae’s at 4:30. Les reheated the dinner we missed on Sunday. It was every bit as good when he served it then. Afterward, we sat and chatted while Bonnie demanded attention. They really love that dog. And Bonnie enjoys the visits. She doesn’t like their yard, though. It’s entirely covered in stone, which hurts her paws to walk on. We made a date for lunch on Friday.

Les & Rae had a 22’ saguaro cactus in their front yard. They estimated it to be around 150 years old. With all the rain that Arizona has had, the roots got saturated and the cactus fell over. Les had to call a company to remove it. They estimated it weighed 3,300 lbs. When they first cut into the tree, Les said water shot out like a water hose full on. The saguaro cactus is protected in Arizona. It only grows in this state and at very specific elevations. If you have one in your yard, you better have purchased it from an approved florist and have a registration number to show for it. In fact, the rocks in the desert are also protected. You are not allowed to take any rocks or stones. You can be fined and arrested!

25 Feb 2019 (Mon) – I was still not feeling well enough to go anywhere today. Paul went out by himself and did the laundry, picked up groceries, bought some items for the truck, and mailed off our tax return to the accountant. What a dolly!

24 Feb 2019 (Sun) – I now have a full-blown viral infection. My sinuses are full, my tonsils are swollen, and I feel crappy. I feel so bad for Les. He is having a dinner for friends today. We were going to help him with the cooking and set up for 12 people. I didn’t want to infect anyone, especially Rae, so we didn’t go to the dinner. Hope we can make it up to him after I’m feeling better. I just hope I didn’t already infect them.

Paul brought a new stick to Jon & Nancy. Jon has copies of the travel guide on a stick but he forgot the page numbers. Paul left the book and stick with Jon to review again. He also picked up some propane while in Mesa.

23 Feb 2019 (Sat) – We drove into Phoenix this morning intending to go to the capitol. It turns out there is a capitol museum to see but it is only open Monday through Friday. So we went to the Heard Museum. It is a museum that exhibits artifacts and stories about the American Indians of the Southwest. There were clothing, lots of pottery, and housing on display. I learned some very interesting facts.

After the museum, we wanted to go to Heritage Square. When we got there, the place was alive with people as there was some kind of festival taking place. Paul did not want to deal with the crowds so we passed it up. Sometimes that big ass truck can be a detriment.

Frustrated, we just gave up on going anywhere else. We stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant and at Ace Hardware to pick up a few things.

I started coughing and sneezing today. I have had a scratchy throat in the morning when I’ve woken. I had hoped that would be all but I guess the virus was just incubating and is now coming out. Damn.

22 Feb 2019 (Fri) – Paul and I went to the aquarium this morning. It was not the one Paul wanted to go to. There are billboards in the area advertising a monster fish at the aquarium. It turns out to be in Scottsdale. Maybe we’ll go sometime next week. This one was small and located in a mall. It was very much oriented to young children and emphasized the need to save the earth and seas.

After the aquarium, we wandered around the mall, stopping for lunch at Johnny Rockets. I bought two blouses and we examined lounge chairs. It rained all day and we were thankful to be indoors.

Les & Rae met us at the Lodge tonight for dinner. There is something so sad about watching a person afflicted with Alzheimers. Facing the wrong way when talking to someone, putting phantom food in their mouth, speaking gibberish, getting angry with loved ones when they try to help. It must be so frustrating. The future looks very bleak for them.

21 Feb 2019 (Thu) – We went over Les & Rae’s at 8:45 a.m. Les and Paul took off for the day while I stayed with Rae. The guys first stopped at the VA so Les could keep an appointment, then they met a friend of Les’ at Hackers, a local restaurant. After that, they rode around the area for a bit before returning at 3 p.m. It was raining so they couldn’t take the mustang out (it doesn’t handle well in wet weather). They had to settle for a drive in Les’ truck. In the meantime, Rae’s aide arrived and spent the day with us. She helped Rae do some exercises, made us lunch, and worked around the house before leaving. I spent the majority of the day watching TV.

After the guys got back we visited for a bit then Les made dinner. We had Caesar salad with chicken.

20 Feb 2019 (Wed) – Same today as yesterday. We spent the day in the campground then drove to Les & Rae’s for dinner. Traffic was awful. Bonnie came with us. Les reheated leftovers and we visited for a while after dinner. Les bought a mustang last year and he took Paul out for a ride. When they got back, Les showed me all the bling on his car. It is quite the machine.

19 Feb 2019 (Tue) – We spent the day around the camper this morning. At 3 p.m. we drove to Les & Rae’s. The traffic was horrendous. I guess it wasn’t bad yesterday because of the holiday. It took us almost an hour to drive 17 miles. Les made shepherd’s pie (one of my favorite meals). After dinner, we visited for a couple of hours. We brought Bonnie with us. They seem to enjoy her company as well.

18 Feb 2019 (Mon) – We drove about 15 miles northeast from Mesa to Gilbert today. We are camped in the Elks Lodge in Tempe. We have been here twice before. We got the last space. Other RVs came and went during the day but all got turned away. It pays to get to the campground early.

After set up, we went shopping at Fry’s for groceries. We also stopped at Torres Mexican Restaurant for lunch. They had a special: 5 tacos for $6. The tacos were very oily. It was not a good stop.

When we returned to the campground, we unpacked the groceries, fed the animals, and then drove to Les & Rae’s. We met them on the Alaska caravan and have visited with them a couple of times whenever we’ve come through the area. We went out to dinner at their favorite sports bar.

17 Feb 2019 (Sun)

– We walked over to Jon and Nancy’s motor home and worked on the caravan details for most of the morning. Paul was feeling a lot better today. We spent the rest of the day getting ready to move tomorrow.

16 Feb 2019 (Sat) – Paul was not feeling well today so we stayed home all day. He started sniffling and sneezing yesterday and by last night, he was feeling achy and fatigued. Today he spent a good deal of the day in bed. I walked the dog and worked on caravan “stuff.”

15 Feb 2019 (Fri) – We picked up the laptop from Best Buy yesterday. We brought it back to see if the tech could clear up the problem with the computer not uploading pictures from my cell phone. Apparently, Microsoft 10 and iTunes don’t get along and you need iTunes to upload pictures from an iPhone. Ahhhh, technology.

We have been spending the last few days getting to know Jon and Nancy and reviewing the details of our caravan. Jon and I have been coordinating with campgrounds and various venues to lock in the final arrangements. It’s all starting to get exciting now. There are less than three months to go.

11 Feb 2019 (Mon) – We packed up and left Picacho Peak State Park (we will have to come back here again) at 10:30 a.m. It was a little over two hours to Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix. We are staying at a Thousand Trails campground – Mesa Spirit RV Resort. We came here to meet with Jon & Nancy, the couple who will be taking the Utah’s Mighty 5 Caravan on its adventure in May and June. They will be our tailgunners.

When we arrived, the office checked us in and assigned us to site B-90. A member of the camp-ground led us to the spot and helped Paul back into a very narrow spot. Unfortunately, there was a post right next to our site that would have prevented our slide out from fully extending. The parker took Paul back to the office in his golf cart while I stayed at the trailer chatting with Jon & Nancy. Paul returned and we drove all the way over to the other side of the campground to site V-128 (there are 1,800 sites in the campground comprised of park models, mobiles homes, and RVs). This site was wider and after a great deal of maneuvering, Paul got the RV parked into our assigned space. We have full hook-ups with Wifi and cable TV. The campground has 9 dog parks (some fenced, some not), 5 pools, and 3 hot tubs. There are courts for pickle ball and bocci ball and a mini golf course. Flyers posted around the campground announce various activities and groups.

Once hooked up, we took Bonnie for a walk and promptly got lost. Most of the roads do not go through and we repeatedly found ourselves at dead ends and had to reverse our course. Finally, we got back to the camper and dropped Bonnie off then drove all the way across the campground (we couldn’t be further apart if we tried) to Jon & Nancy’s RV. We visited for a bit then drove to Fry’s to pick up some groceries. When we returned, we grilled steaks at Jon & Nancy’s. We spent the evening getting to know one another. Tomorrow, the work begins.

10 Feb 2019 (Sun) – We packed up and left Willcox at 10:45. The sky was overcast and we had a little rain during our three hour drive to Picacho Peak State Park. The park is right off I-10. The campground sits right at the base of the Picacho Mountain. There are hiking trails that climb up the mountain and offer spectacular vistas of the surrounding area. We had to stop and fill up the fresh water tank before we pulled into our site. We have 50 amp electrical hook-up. We’re not going to bother to dump since we’re only here for one night. Paul ran out and got some firewood and we enjoyed a campfire tonight. The sky was beautiful. I-10 stayed pretty with traffic all night long but with a mountain between the highway and the campground, we could barely hear the noise of passing trucks and cars.

9 Feb 2019 (Sat) – We drove an hour to the Chiricahua National Monument. We stopped in the visitor center to pick up a trail map then drove to Echo Canyon where we hiked the Grottoes Trail. It was one mile round trip. The Chiricahua named the area the “land of standing rocks.” Erosion over millions of years has left rocks and boulders and columns all around the area. It is a fantasy world of incredible shapes and sizes. The scenery was so delightful and we really enjoyed the hike.

Then we drove down the road to the high point on the road, called Masai Point. The wind was blowing fiercely and it was on the cool side. We took a few pictures then drove to Fort Bowie, a few miles down the road from the Chiricahua National Monument. We had been here a few years ago. The drive off the main road coming from the monument was over a graded dirt road for eight miles. When we got to the trailhead, it was a 3-1/2 mile hike round trip to the ruins of the old fort. We had not hiked that trail last time so we decided to do it this time. The trail wound past several historical areas as it led up to the fort located in Apache Pass. There was a marker for where a station had been located for the Butterfield Stage Coach. Another marker recounted a massacre of a wagon train. An old cemetery sat in the desert surrounded by a wooden fence. Inside were about 15 markers for civilians buried there (all the military personnel had been removed years ago and interred in the national cemetery in El Paso). There were three apache children buried in the cemetery. One of the graves was for the two year old son of Geronimo.

At the pass, we came to the ruins of the fort. There wasn’t much left; just a few foundations and crumbling walls. A visitor center was located there and a map showed visitors how the fort had been laid out when it was in operation. After the end of the Indian Wars, life at the fort was kind of gentile. They had tennis courts, gas streetlamps, and a giant ice machine – all kind of odd things to see at a western frontier fort. After eight years, the fort was abandoned and left to the elements.

The walk back was along a ridge line that provided a phenomenal view of the surrounding mountains. The winds picked up and we got some rain sprinkles occasionally. We got back to the truck a little after 4:00 p.m. We drove out of the park in the opposite direction. There was only a mile or so of rough dirt road then it was paved. A much better ride. It was a good day.

8 Feb 2019 (Fri) – We packed up and left Deming, NM, at 9:50 a.m. The drive was short and easy and we arrived at Willcox, AZ, at 1:00 p.m. We are staying at the Elks Lodge (this is our third time here). There are 28 sites aligned in three rows. Each campsite has hookups for two RVs, each RV facing opposite directions. The town is small. A nearby train crossing has a “no horn” sign.

We went into the lodge at 5:00 p.m. They have dinner every Friday night. Today’s menu offering was meatloaf. We sat at the bar until dinner was served at 6:00 p.m.

I am getting tired of slow Wifi that doesn’t let me upload any pictures. What good is a blog if you can’t post pictures of your adventures along with your story? Ever since the last treatment by Best Buy, my computer has been screwy. It won’t upload my pictures from my cell phone. The first big town we get to, I will bring my computer back to Best Buy to fix whatever the last techie broke.

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