Had fun at the Arizona Constables Association dinner last night in Flagstaff. My host Jean Bishop, of Chloride, grew up in Kingman and we had many friends and relatives in common. But the big surprise, was the guy to my left at the banquet table, turned out to be related to Choc Hamilton, my uncle. Doug Middleton is related to Choc's sister. The sister married a railroad man and they visited often with the Hamiltons but we were blind to that side of the family, just as the Hamiltons are basically blind to my father's Iowa relatives. Still, the odds of this happening—him being seated next to me—are pretty remote.
Got up this morning at 4:30 and left at 5:15 to get back to Cave Creek. We're on deadline with an issue going out the door, so I needed to leave early. Very soggy out and a cool 58 degrees. Hit foglike patches south of town, but it turned out to be low hanging clouds. Lots of tattered clouds on the drop off to Montezuma's Castle, then topped the ridge into the Verde Valley and, at daybreak, witnessed this:
A long cloud bank nestled in the lowlands of Camp Verde and the Verde Valley. Really beautiful. Kathy called me when I approached Anthem and told me the road to our house is washed out and perhaps I should take the long way around to Morningstar. She was concerned The Toaster (my Ford Flex) was too low to make it across the torn up pavement (we got an inch of rain last night). Made it through fine.
"A wise man without a book is like a work man without a tool."
—Old Vaquero Saying
