From El Paso, we decided to head to Phoenix, Arizona. I have a friend who lives there, so we were looking forward to a night not spent in a hotel! We decided that rather than continue on I-10, we wanted to check out a Gold mine/ Ghost town we looked up. The route there took us up through New Mexico, then across Arizona. We were unsure how the drive would be, after the extremely long trek across Texas. It ended up being absolutely amazing! The drive took us on the Apache Trail, which is an extremely scenic route through mountains and small towns with names like "Top-Of-The-World". I definitely suggest it to anyone going in that area!
When we got to the Goldfield Mine, it was a balmy 105 degrees outside. The town has been turned into a tourist trap, but it was still very neat to see. The best thing about the town is that you can walk around at look at things without paying an entrance fee (though you do have to pay for activities). The cost of activities wasn't too bad though. The mine was once one of the most productive in the west. We got to go down into the mine, and see just a small bit of how they worked and lived. I also tried my hand at panning for gold, which I don't think I have a future in! I got only a small amount, with a few garnets and a lot of fools gold. We then stopped into the saloon for a drink (just a soda, we still had a while to go!) to cool off a little before we left for Phoenix.
We actually stayed in Scottsdale, which is right outside Phoenix. The friend that we were staying with, Chantelle, graciously offered to drop us on Mill Ave, which is the place to go. It is right next door to a University, and we were surrounded by people our own age. For dinner we hit up Rúla Búla Irish Pub. Large portion sizes (with decent prices) had us sharing our food. After that we headed to the Big Bang Dueling Piano Bar. Neither of us had ever been to one before, and were very eager to check it out! It ended up, happily, being a lot of fun. A couple dollars tip and a song written on a napkin would get whatever you wanted played. The really neat thing to us, though, was that the piano players also played all of the other instruments that were there. Two guys dueled for a couple hours, and then they switched with others. It was neat to see young adults in their 20's rocking out on the pianos, then switching to drums, and then to guitars. Important fact: They do not like you filming! Megan got in trouble a couple times for doing so, but it was kind of obvious that she was, since she was using a Flip camera. I took a couple videos on my digital camera, and they didn't seem to notice that. The drink prices were decent, and the atmosphere was a little more grown up than in most college bars, which was a nice change. We only stayed till about 11 though, since we wanted to save up our energy for the highlight of our trip the next day... Vegas!!
Post a Comment