I'm going back to Heber, to Heber, to Heber....

Were you singing my title like LL Cool J's "Going back to Cali"? You should have been, because that's what I was channeling.

So a little over a month ago, Meanie and I both agreed we needed to get the hell out of the Phoenix Inferno and go to cooler weather. We had 3 criterion: vacation destination was to be within driving distance, had to be well bellow 100*, and either green or blue had to be the predominant color (as opposed to the Phoenix brown). We narrowed it down to 2 options: Meanie's parents house next to the ocean in California, or Heber-Overgaard about 2 1/2 hours away. Debating between a 6 hour drive with free room/board AND a 2 1/2 hour drive where we would have to pay was a toss up. The Heber won because we would be leaving Friday after work and coming back Sunday...and to drive 6 hours for a quick turn around didn't seem worth it.

Plus Heber-Overgaard is way more fun to say. I've been saying it often. I feel like the Swedish chef...or like I'm from Minnesota, don'cha know... Heeeeeeeeeeeber-Overgaard...Heeeeeeeeeeber...Heberheberheber... It's fun.

I wanted to get a snap shot of a "Welcome to Heber Overgaard" sign, but the sign was in a location that was not conducive for me to climb to, so on our way out of town, we saw this sign:

While at the Heber-Overgaard, Meanie and I stayed at the Bison Ranch Resort. It was very nice, the hotel is set up like apartments and has a little "old town" section with shops, restaurant/bar, and coffee shop (with coffee that was more expensive than the bucks, and crappy!).

They even have a resident bison, Annie. I thought there was going to be a herd of bison. And I was hoping to be able to pet/hug the bison, but there was a double fencing around Annie, and I couldn't get near her.

So, I had to compromise and kiss a bison statue.

Saturday, Meanie and I decided to go cruising around for green lushness and find a good place to stroll and commune with nature. We saw a sign that said "Scenic Route 1/4 mile" so we turned to a nice unpaved road. The scenic route was more off-roading and not so high on the walking. It didn't lack in the pretty department.

Here's Meanie's car, a mean off roading machine. Never underestimate the power of a Scion bitches.

Some pretty pictures from the off roading adventure:

Meanie and I saw a sign that said "Lake 5M" and we went down that path. As we drove down that road, the signs for "lake" turned to "creek", then "creek" turned to "stream"... We were sure how much water we were going to actually see...however the road changed from unpaved to paved so it was nice to not jumble about so much.

THEN WE SAW WATER!!! And it was a stream. But we had to drive over the stream, hoping it would lead to larger water. I've never seen one of this stream-driver-over-thingies.

After we crossed, the road lead to a fish hatchery place. No big water. So we went back and took a stream photo, and I touched the water. It was cold.

Pretty.....

As an aside, I have this thing where I'm very anti public waters. I won't go in public pools, hell I'm wary of pools owned by people I don't know well... And I won't do oceans/lakes because I don't do seaweed, fish, sharks, etc. HOWEVER, when I see water (of the natural variety) I have to touch it...preferably dip in the tootsies and feel it flow over my feet, when possible. With this little mama-jama I settled for my hands to touch.

Back to the pictures...en route to the lake/creek/stream I saw an unaccompanied steamroller. And who doesn't want to be in a steamroller?? If there were keys in it, I so would have done a joyride. Instead, I climbed up and enjoyed the photo op.

Here's Meanie, rollin'....

And me... don't I look fierce??

OH!! And coming back from the lake/creek/stream we saw these nasty ass trees covered in humungo spiderwebs. DIS-GUS-TING!!!! I don't want to even thing about the creature that could make such a webby thingy. It would probably eat me.

Driving back to Phoenix Sunday, the skies up ahead we showing signs of rain.....

And then, it got wet.....

We passed this guy toting a horse.

We actually saw him again later down the road (we did a little excursion (where the Heber sign picture was taken)) and took another picture, more in focus, but less horse.

This is a cool pic that Meanie got from our excursion we made between the horse sighting....

It was a great weekend. The weather was perfect. It was quiet, minus an early morning whistler. The biggest dilemma Meanie and I had was where to eat. The only bad thing that happened the entire time was the mistake of watching The Constant Gardener. I heard it was supposed to be good, we both hadn't seen it. I thought it was going to be a drama, with a little love... WRONG!!!! It was about big Pharma, drug testing, people dying from the med trials, and a conspiracy that this wife was trying to make public that got her killed, and her husband trying to figure out why his wife was killed, and in turn getting killed himself. Great flick (note: that should be read with the strongest sarcasm possible).

Oh- the other bad thing- I kicked Meanie's ass in Phase 10! HAHA!!!

Rock out, with your Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeber-Overgaard cock out.