Prescott Weekend

This is my gorgeous wife, Gail. Every year the two of us drive a hundred miles to spend our anniversary weekend in Prescott, Arizona. We always make it a point to make a few stops along Whiskey Row where local musicians play blues, classsic rock, and country.

As always, we made the most of our time. We spent an hour in Bucky's Casino braving the blanket of cigarette smoke and playing the penny slot machines. Gail lost ten bucks while I won five. Five bucks for an hour's entertainment for two ain't bad.

We had the opportunity to see Crazy Heart, Shutter Island, and Valentine's Day.

Crazy Heart was excellent. Good story. Jeff Bridges is the man - so much more than just the Dude. I've been inspired to grow a Bad Blake beard. Robert Duvall was very cool in a small but important part. The movie got me thinking about the creative spark, addiction, forgiveness, redemption, and Bridges' love interest, Maggie Gilinhall - I'm thinking she needs to put on twenty or thirty pounds.

Valentines Day was an absolute thumbs down, baby. I sat through two hours of cutesy Hollywood starts giggling and making goo goo eyes at each other, apparently trying to show the world how cute they are. Blechhh.

Shutter Island was interesting. I knew there was a twist going in, so I figured it out right away. The music was a little over the top. It's hard for me to give a true review because the movie experience was ruined by the idiot sitting next to me, not my wife - the guy on the other side. The schmuck smacked and slurped his pop corn nonstop for the first hour of the movie.

Gail and I had some great food and stayed at a beautiful hotel; best of all, we got to hang out together.

My wife did did a little Saturday morning shopping while I wandered the alley behind Whiskey Row.

Above is the back of the Hotel Saint Michael. Tough guy president, Teddy Roosevelt once stayed here; not in the alley, in the hotel.

This is the back of the Palace Bar, arguably the oldest saloon in Arizona. A lot of history went down in this establishment, a place where the Earp brothers drank, Little Egypt danced, and Steve McQueen made a movie.

I've been puttering away at a time travel story that takes place in Prescott.

Walking the alley way behind Whiskey Row somehow connected me with the history of the old territorial capitol.

Looking at the back ends of buildings has a way of taking me back in time.

This spooky old crow kept me company for a solid three blocks. He added atmosphere to the experience.

Whiskey Row Burned to the ground in 1900.

New buildings were under construction within a couple of weeks.

Some of the buildings have held up the last 110 years better than others.

This is Granite Creek where gold was first discovered in the early 1860s. The first makeshift buildings of Presott were constructed along Granite Creek. The winding stream borders the Whiskey Row alley at this point. The original Whisky Row backed up against the the Creek for several blocks. Drunken miners and cowboys had a tendancy to fall into the creek and drown after a night on the row, prompting the proprietors to move the row a block away.