Cave Creek Wild West Days and Scavenger Hunt

Sooooo, after I published last night's post (WELL after I published), I realized that I had neglected to explain the other two shots in the post's title.  Sorry 'bout that.  In case you were wondering, they were blockers and steroids, put into the facets around L4, in an ongoing effort to mitigate the effects of that fractured vertebrae.  The first one went great - I don't really remember much about the walk out to the car, nor the ride home, and there's absolutely NO recollection of eating a granola bar, but I did see the empty wrapper, so there's also no denying it, but the pins and needles were significantly reduced, as was the pain in my lower back.  So, we waited the requisite week and went back for another one.  THAT one was different.  I remembered more about the aftermath, and while the pain has been reduced to just about nothing...I now have two vertical rows of hives, courtesy of the 4 bandaids they slapped on me!  Oh.My.God...but how they itch.  Why can't we just fix one thing without breaking or impacting something else??  Benadryl cream to the rescue!  So that's my 3 shots - 2 in my back to fix a break, and 1 in my arm to prevent any more breaks.

And now, Cave Creek Wild West Days.  Y'all know my brother and I never really got along well, right?  Did you even know I had a brother?  I know I don't mention him often; pretty much, he is out of sight, out of mind.  Last time we really had any dealings was at my mother's funeral, back in Feb 2000.  By my math, that's 19+ years ago.  No biggie, by my thinking, but Driver thinks it's weird.  Well, he (brother, not Driver) and his lovely wife, Nina, live out here, northeast of Phoenix, in a little town called Cave Creek.  At some point last summer, I had occasion to talk to Nina (probably about my dad) and happened to mention we had planned to come out here for part of the winter.  She was mighty receptive and even inviting, and insisted they would want to see us.  I can believe that of HER; probably not so much for brother.  Funny, that originally typed out as "bother."  

Well, further discussions have ensued over the course of the last couple of weeks, and we even went and visited them for dinner one Sunday.  Turned out very well, surprisingly enough....brother was even nice to me, didn't hit me, nor did he call me any names!  She obviously is a good influence on him!  This weekend, she (she is the manager of the Cave Creek Tourism Bureau) was hosting a town-wide scavenger hunt.  Remember the shop hop Driver and I went on a couple of weeks ago?  Sort of like that.  We were to get a list of clues, and find 12 participating businesses, visit them, and collect a business card from each one.  At the end, we were to turn in our checkoff sheet, get our cards verified, and we were entered into a drawing, where the prizes were 3 $100 bills.  Yup, cash money, not even gift certificates that we would be hard pressed to spend.  So, off we went!  Because Nina was in charge, she had to stay in the Bureau offices for the day, but Charlie (brother) came with us to help us figure out where we were going and what businesses were to be visited.  First up, though, was one that we wanted to go see, just because we like that sort of thing...

Two bottles of oil later, and we were off in hot pursuit of our business cards.  We found The Duke at the Hot Sauce store.  Yes, Real Men Rub Their Meat.  Or so they say.

And, I'm pretty sure this is Marilyn, trading cooking for sex.  Not likely, from what I know of her...but, hey, that's definitely an idea for my embroidered aprons.  Wonder how well they would sell at the upcoming craft fair?  I sure don't see either one of them moving at a square dance campout!

Ghost pepper jelly, but there were no samples, so there was no purchase. 

Now, THIS would make a good tea towel for our camper/dancers!

 What's that chili pepper fabric hiding?  Can you read the sign?  It says Adult Language...

And, lo and behold....yeah, I wouldn't want these products just sitting around in plain sight either.  But, again, no samples, so no purchase.

Off to the next stop!  Yeah, it's The Creamery!

First we scan the options.

Then we sample a couple.

Then we select Wedded Bliss, a chocolate base with caramel swirl and pecans.  I'm told it was good, but not the best ever.  Not very rich or dense, so only about a 6 spoons out of 10 rating.

Onward, to Bryan's BBQ.  Oh my, this place smelled good!  And the flying pig outside reminded me of Bill Chesnut, and his lovely bride, Mary, and their little pet pig.

After we wandered around town for another hour or so, we had all our required cards turned in and we had visited all the other shops we wanted to see, we still had some time before the drawing for the prizes, and Nina wasn't quite ready to leave the office yet.  So we ventured down to the local rock shop.  Oh.My.God.  When we parked in front of this set of crystals, I cautioned Dick about not going too far - we surely didn't want to bump it and topple it down onto our car - we would be crushed!  Not to mention, bankrupt, after having to pay for damages!

Stepping inside, we were immediately greeted by this striking collection.  I'm sure not gonna spell it out, but do you see it?  How can you not?  All I could do to just move on and move away.  But, yeah, I might have set the display up a little less....umm...provacatively?  Less risque?  OK, less explicitly.

There were lots of other pretties in that little rock shop.  Most of them rendered me speechless when I saw their prices.  The geodes ran about 12 to 30 thousand.  THOUSAND.  The sinks were running around 25 thousand, tables around 27 thousand.  A small (and, boy, was it SMALL) rose quartz soap dish was only 98 buckeroos.  No, we didn't purchase any souvenirs at this particular shop.  Definitely, no room in the camper (or budget!) for any of those trinkets!

We moved on to another little junk shop, where we found yet another little piggy for Bill and Mary.  But, I know for a fact, they are trying to trim their pig collection, so he stayed on the shelf.

After all that, we went back to the Tourism Bureau, where Nina and one of Cave Creek's council women were waiting to draw the three winning tickets.  First one pulled was Nikko's - a little boy, about 10 years old, who also happened to be present.  (there was only Nina, the council woman, Nikko & his mom, brother, Driver & I.  And Bailey.)  Yeah, that little boy about came unglued when his name was called out!  Second ticket was pulled, and guess whose name was called next!?  Yeah, baby, it was Dick & Karin!!  Right after I retrieved our prize, another little girl and her mom walked in, a little late to the party, but ready to claim a prize anyway.  Too bad, hers was NOT the next name called.  Too bad, so sad, sorry little one.  Maybe next time.  But, meanwhile, yahoo!  Drinks all around!

While Nina was trying to close the office, a group of moms came in, with babies and children in tow.  Looking for bathrooms, and complaining how there were no bathrooms in all of Arizona.  They were from Michigan, and they had bathrooms in Michigan and couldn't understand why there were no public bathrooms in all of Arizona.  Bless her heart, she opened up the office and let 'em in.  Finally, we got them all out and on their way, and we 5 can set off for that long-promised Mexican dinner that Driver has been anticipating for 6 weeks now.  Onward, to Hacienda's Mexican Grill, a bit down the road.  Along the way, we saw this odd outcropping of rocks, just popped up out of nowhere.  Nothing like it on either side.  I tell ya, the landscape here is nothing short of freakish and bizarre!

I wish I had thought to take photos of our dinner plates, sorry.  They were very pretty.  I had grilled avocados with shrimp, on a bed of field greens.  Only I requested the avocados not be grilled.  They were drizzled with a sweet/tart balsamic vinaigrette, and they were really tasty.  Unfortunately, there were only 6, so there was no sharing of shrimp this time! Dick's chimichanga was huge, but it was covered with 2 slices of Kraft American processed cheese, so it was a bit disappointing for him.  Charlie's dinner was a generous serving of nachos with lots of toppings, and Nina's looked to be something similar to pulled pork barbeque.  I will say, the margarita was a little shy in the tequila department....and probably a whole lot more costly than the ones we get down in Nuevo Progreso.  Ah, yes, we are looking forward to crossing the border in January.  And thank you, Cave Creek, that hundred bucks will help us get there!  We figured it will take us all the way to Tucson!  Sure hope I can sell enough stuff at the craft sale to get us the rest of the way!!

Till next time - y'all stay safe!