July 28, 2013
Kathy and I drove up to Prescott Valley on Saturday morning for the official unveiling of "Not-So-Gentle Tamer." They had a band, the Arizona Rangers were there along with several mayors. We all got a chance to talk and then they unveiled that beautiful 10-foot-tall woman:
That's me, looking up her skirt, in the back. We then posed for a ton of photos:
With each of us taking a lap around the base. She's in a great location and she'll be there for a long, long time.
Not-So-Gentle Tamer at Prescott Valley Civic Center
From Prescott Valley we drove over Mingus Mountain, stopping at the Methodist Church Camp which I attended in 1957 and wanted to see again (mess hall still there). Then down to Jerome for wine and coffee at the Flat Iron Cafe, then off to Clarkdale where I bought a book on Route 66, and over to Sedona and up Oak Creek Canyon (huge traffic jam coming down from Slide Rock into town but we were going the other way). Temperature dropped dramatically as we headed up the canyon and by the time we hit the top it was in the seventies. Landed at the historic Weatherford Hotel in downtown Flagstaff.
I stayed at this hotel in August of 1959 when the Kingman Little League All Stars came to Flag for the Northern Arizona Little League Championship. Unfortunately, the first day we were there, my roommate Chuck P. threw a water balloon off the balcony of our room and hit a business couple wearing suits walking below. They raised hell (the woman was drenched) and they got us kicked out. We ended up on Route 66 at the Commercial Hotel.
So I hadn't been back since then, but I figured enough time had passed that I might get away with it. Checked in and went to our room and discovered this on the night stand.
So needless to say, I think the Statue of Limitations has applied in my case.
The best part about our stay (besides revisiting the scene of the crime) was the rain that dropped in about 5:30 and it was COLD! Went to the bar for margaritas, but had to go to our room and retrieve a SWEATER! I could barely pack the damn thing in Cave Creek because it was 95 at eight A.M. but I thought, what the hell. I was glad to have it.
Walked over the Orpheum Theatre where they were featuring a free show with Navajo Hip Hop.
That was wild. Watched a Navajo kid painting an old Dine character and the kid was quite good, and he did about five different versions of the portrait, adding and changing shapes and forms very quickly by painting over the face. I wanted to shake him, hit him over the head and tell him to stop, but Kathy wouldn't let me. She told me to be positive so I approached him and said, "You have just completed five different paintings and they are all good." Like most Navajos he was shy but appreciative, but I felt like I wimped out and didn't give him the truth he needed to hear, but on some level I suppose the message was really meant for me.
"When you see something in someone else that you yourself do, it can be very intolerable. This is called projection."
—Sigmund Freud
