Sat., Sept. 24 – Oatman to Flagstaff AZ

After breakfast this morning, we took a short drive to the historic ghost town of Oatman, AZ. The weather was perfect! On the way we stopped at a small Carnercia (not sure if I spelled that right) to get a couple of bags of carrots. There are wild donkeys roaming all around, and they walk right up to the visitors for a hand out – sometimes 3 and 4 at a time!! Barb was a little freaked out, but warmed up to the adventure after a bit. Of course our first mission was to buy some hand sanitizer hahaha. The lady in the shop where we bought it said, “don’t worry, the donkeys roll around in the mining tailings all day so any parasites they may have are killed off by all the arsenic and heavy metals in the dust!” Ummm…….Really? Well, I think she was pulling our leg, just some local humor that was directed at us “city folk”.

We had lunch at the famous Oatman Hotel. This place was featured on the Travel Station a few years back. Everyone who visits here signs a dollar bill and staples it to the wall (or ceiling, post, stair, fans, windows etc.). Not sure when the tradition started, but the whole restaurant and bar are completely covered! Many westerns were filmed here including “How The West Was Won”. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon here J We ate in the restaurant right in the hotel - Rich had chili, I had a Buffalo burger and Barb had a BLT. In the middle of our lunch a gun fight erupted outside the hotel. The outlaws ran into the restaurant, grabbed a sack of gold, and stormed out leaving us all screaming with our hands up! Hahaha, when he ran in the door, he told us to scream really loud for the benefit of all the audience outside, and we followed his instructions quite well! It was fun. The Outlaws were all Shriners, and perform here every day, collecting donations for the Childrens Hospital. We bought T-shirts and souvenirs then headed back to pick up the RV.

We pulled into Flagstaff at 5:45 where we had made dinner reservations at Black Bart’s Restaurant and Saloon. We have been here and to Oatman before, and we knew that Barb would enjoy it. She actually saw the TV show about Oatman and has always wanted to visit there. Black Bart’s is a really fun place to enjoy a great western meal. All of the waiters have to audition as singers before they are hired to work there. Most of them come from the University here in town. They give a non-stop show! Everyone rotates from serving, to the stage – sometimes passing off their table duties to another waiter! I think we had 4 different waiters over the course of our meal J Glad we made reservations because it was parent weekend at Northern Arizona University and the place was packed!!

Tomorrow we leave for the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forrest, then on to Albuquerque.