Mogollon Rim Adventures

Unfortunately, this post begins with a bit of bad news. Last weekend I made the final decision to go ahead and accept the 7/8 teaching position that I was offered. However, I found out mid-week that the position was gone...apparently there were a few people in the district who had signed contracts, but somehow did not have a job due to cut backs or poor planning or I don't even know. Without going into all the details, the position was offered and accepted by one of these people. Not at all news that I was expecting or wanting. I still have not heard anything from the high school position I interviewed for right after the 7/8 offer came, but know that I am in their top 3 final candidates. Fingers crossed, things will work out there. To get my mind off all of this job mess, Rob and I headed up to the Mogollon Rim (about a 2-3 hour drive from our apartment) on Friday. It was definitely nice to get out of town for a bit. (Side note: one thing I really like about Arizona is how many different, fun places you can go in such a short drive.)

The rim is about 8,000 feet up...which made for some fantastic weather. I wore jeans and a hooded sweatshirt! (My blood has definitely thinned out...it was windy and about 65 during the day and after the sun went down, 55. I was cold!) We got a late start (due to National Doughnut Day at Dunkin Donuts and some late planning/last minute packing) and spent a good amount of time driving back toward the lake on these crazy bumpy forest roads. Rob said that he heard they were created by bulldozers clearing a path to fight forest fires. Regardless, they were not paved or smooth at all and my lil Corolla is not the most ideal off-roading vehicle. However, it's a trooper and made the trek. As we drove through the forest, it was easy to recognize the areas that had burned in past fires. We drove in right along the rim...which was a lil scary around the curves when you could see straight down. I tried not to look too much!

this picture is taken out the car window! you can see the edge of the rim up ahead

We had a picnic by the lake and did a lil bit of hiking. Here are a few pictures...

picnic lunch by the lake :)

In the evening we made a campfire and cooked hot dogs and smores (obviously). It was delicious! The only not so great part was when I realized the sun had set before I thought about going to the bathroom before we started the trip back home. There were zero flushing toliets or bathrooms at all and the woods is scary at night. Enough said. Oh and also that it was cloudy (which didn't help the dark forest dilemna). This is the area where Rob, Agnew and Evan went camping last fall and Rob said he remembered seeing a ton of stars. We will have to make another trip back on a clearer night.

If you enlarge this picture, you can see my crazy face. I am fairly certain that the wind was blowing the fire around a lot, which worried me. Clearly, all this outdoor-sy-ness (I'm making it a word) is new to me :)

It's hard to see me, but I am roasting a hot dog!

Crazy story from the drive home...at one point on a regular highway road (not the bootleg forest kind), Rob randomly flicked on the brights and right next door to us on the side of the road was an elk! I think both of our hearts skipped a beat! This never would have happened on 71 in Ohio! Crazy, crazy state of Arizona.

It was back to reality...Rolly Pollies and Quantum and temperatures in the upper 90's again on Saturday, but we both enjoyed our lil one-day escape and are definitely looking forward to being home in less than a week! We are requesting cool temperatures, no humidity please. See what you can work out for us, Ohio friends and family? :) Realistically, regardless of the weather it will be great to be home for a lil bit :) Can't wait to see you! Love, Sarah and Rob