We spent Wednesday with Lynnette and took a beautiful drive up to Superstition Mountain. The drive reminds me of Highway 74 in California, but longer...maybe more like Rim of the World Highway going to Big Bear. It is just a gorgeous drive and populated by thousands of saguarro cacti! They stand like sentries all across the desert landscape.
The road leads up to several lakes that were formed when dams were constructed. Lynnette says the road is jammed in the summer with boaters, hikers, bikers. What makes this very interesting are the 2 one-way bridges we had to cross. Yeah, one-way! If a car is on the bridge coming toward you, you wait until it's across and then take your turn. Must be very interesting when there are lines of cars waiting. Don't know how well that would work in California where all the freeway drivers think they are special.
We ended our trip up the mountains at Tortilla Flats. Considering it was Wednesday and late for lunch, we were surprised to see a crowd. The place has a dilapilated look (on purpose) and the interior walls of the restaurant are decorated with dollar bills signed and posted by the many patrons over the years. 
The bar stools are either horses' tail ends or saddles. Cute! Please note the primitive facilities! Oh, and the authentic dust on the bar stools! We lost money in the jukebox (isn't it a beauty!), of course, but someone else did get it to work. The food was actually good and the atmosphere definitely fun and different. 
On the trip back we stopped in a deserted mining town called Goldfield and toured an old goldmine. It was fun and interesting to learn the really hard lives miners had ... 10-12 hours down in a mine working and then 10 hours off. They got 3 candles to use while underground. Plus, they were stripsearched at the end of each shift to make sure they weren't stealing any gold... all for the sum of $3 a day!
