Bisbee, Sonoita, and Amanda's new car

Friends and Family,

A while back, I made a promise to myself and all of you, that this wonderful Blog would continue. I lied. So here is a recap of all the fun things Amanda and I have taken that will not be immortalized in the Blogosphere.

1. Law School

2. Marriage (See wedding blog)

3. Honeymoon in South Africa

4. Kauai

5. Egypt and Jordan

6. Montana and Glacier National Park

7. The rise of Amanda Rockafellow Photography (for a third time).

While Facebook has quickly rendered the Blog old fashioned and out dated, I have decided that I will at least attempt to re-ignite some of that creativity that drove this blog through the early years, something which just can't be duplicated on Facebook. So here it goes.

Amanda and I decided to visit Egypt and Jordan just after Christmas. While the trip was incredible and there are some wonderful treasures that I would love to share with you. The fact is, it was just too long ago to remember them. However, I will bring up one fun detail. We arrived in Amman Jordan after dark in our miniature rental car to pure chaos. To give a quick run down of the roads in Amman, picture in your mind an enormous anthill with about three or four well established trails of ants neatly and studiously headed either toward or away from the hill. Now, with both of your feet start stomping on the ant hill. This was Amman. Ants everywhere coming from every direction. We found a taxi driver that agreed to lead us to our destination. He was driving a 1976 Mercedes 240D in Yellow. It was a sweet ride. And after dropping off our rental car and getting in the taxi headed for the hotel, Amanda turns to me and says: I want one of these.

Long story short, when we returned to Tucson, Amanda bought a car. It is a 1974 BMW 2002. I know it's not a Mercedes but it's the same idea and a lot more fun to drive.

Our first adventure in the new ride was a road trip to Southern Arizona. the part of Arizona even further south than Tucson. We loaded it up with fishing poles and frisbees and headed South to Tombstone.

Tombstone - a true relic in the world of Android apps and electric cars. The streets have been paved and the brothel is now a museum, but the wild West lives on here more than anywhere else in the world. We rolled into town, ate some ice cream, tried on some shit-kickers, and rode out on our trusty steed towards Bisbee.

Bisbee - An amazing Gem of a town. This is an old Gold and Copper Mining town that has transformed itself into........ well let me put it this way. You know those Art Cars you spot every once in a while. It might have about 5000 figurines glued to it, or it might be painted like a Lichestein piece. Or maybe it is just lined with pennies. Bisbee is crawling with them. It's a town in the hills. The sidewalks are always giving way to intense flights of stairs and it is hours from the nearest airport or Costco.

Bisbee is a wonderful place to just enjoy. The weather was perfect. We had a dry winter this year so while brown was the dominant color of the landscape, it still begged you to just stop and look around. We had some brewery beer, went on a hike, bought some antiques, and suddenly, we had already stayed two nights in a town who's only main street, Main Street, can be walked in about 8 minutes. We were sad to leave.

Again, we loaded up the Bimmer, cranked the engine over a few times until it roared to life, and headed to Lake Patagonia for some fishing. After dropping $16 on a license and $5 on some worms, I watched schools of fish swim up to my hook to within inches. The fish would then stop and stare at the worm writhing around on his death hook. I could almost hear the fish laughing. This lasted for a solid two hours. I then dumped my worms in the lake and we left. there's a reason I hadn't been fishing in 10 years. I'm sorry that wonderful streak is now broken.

We then bought two softball size mangos for a dollar and drove to Sonoita.


Last year I took a class with a former Congressman in Southern Arizona who offered us his remote cabin. We stayed there and it was wonderful. We sat around watching the grass wave at us in the golden hills surrounding his beautiful and tiny cabin in the high desert of Southern Arizona. It was quite possibly one of the most peaceful settings we have encountered since Bali. Thanks Jim.

And Thank you for reading.