South Mountain and Rawhide

3/6/2014 Yesterday, Becky and I celebrated or endured our 9th anniversary. It's has been ups and downs and all through it all, we can see God's hand bringing us closer together and leading us along His paths. She and I had ice cream at the ice cream social. I had vanilla with Hershey's syrup and strawberries. Yummy. Then we finished up laundry and watched NCIS while Patrick stayed in the trailer and played with some Bionicals. So today, P finished up school early and we headed off for South Mountain Park, one of the country's largest city parks.
There are several stops for overlooks and the lower one I remember coming to with my dad on our first visit to Phoenix in 1994 to look at Motorcycle Mechanics Institute. We stopped here and then climbed up to this high peak. (I think, this was 20 years ago, but I remember climbing and climbing with just a bottle of pop in my pocket. It was fun!)

We drove higher to Dobbins Peak overlook. In 2005, Becky drove our rental car up to this overlook when we came here on our honeymoon. We drove down from Las Vegas and spent a few days in Phoenix. She was very nervous about driving up the steep, winding road with very few guardrails. This time I drove and she gawked.

These yellow flowers were blooming everywhere. Along the freeways, the roads and all across the desert

Phoenix in all her glory. It looks hazy in the picture but it wasn't.

Landscaping at the overlook.

From there we went up to the TV towers. That view was of the backside of the mountain and down into Chandler with golf courses and houses surrounding little canals. You could also see our next destination......

curvy road

RAWHIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Turn down your speakers if you go to the link. It plays the rawhide song)
Now, years ago, in 1994, Dad and I also came to this old western town with gun fights in the streets and a nice steakhouse, (The real reason I brought my family here. Anniversary dinner!) Rawhide was off Scottsdale Road in the middle of nowhere on the north side of Phoenix. Now it is on the south side in Chandler and part of the Gila River Casino complex. We had some time to kill and watched the Cameros race around the Bondurant Racing School track. They had some brand new C7 Corvettes out too but they weren't running. Then it was on to Rawhide, which opened at 5pm and we watched a gunfight and then went for the grub!

We had the Rattlesnake appetizer. It is the stuff in the red tortilla chip, breaded and fried. It was good. On the right is the backbone and ribs of a rattlesnake that we could have brought home with us. I declined. It came with jalapeno poppers and fried pickle chips.

A pound of T-bone steak with Texas toast and corn on the cob. It also came with a salad and cornbread. I had cheesecake for dessert. Patrick had the same as I except the cheesecake and Becky had salmon with pecan pie for dessert. 

Statues at the entrance to Rawhide

In the blacksmith, they had some pretty cool things.

It says "Redneck Doorbell, Push Button, We'll Hear Ya"

Patrick got electrocuted in the town square. Notice his tongue hanging out.

We had our picture taken.