Blog | Gibby's Girl

Where in the World are Chucklebutt & Jiggle Puff?

When last we left our daring duo, they had narrowly escaped from the family from The Hills Have Eyes. Okay, that might have been a bit of an exaggeration. But I swear I heard “Dueling Bangos” off in the distance.

The next day we were so whupped from the night before, that we slept in super late. Once we woke up, we headed to one of our favorite eating establishments — Fargo’s.

While I normally love their food, I think I might have gotten a bad burger. I didn’t feel so hot after our late lunch. Poo! 🙁

Chuck mugging for the camera. This is the front of the restaurant and clearly Chucklebutt’s meal had no effect whatsoever on him. We were going to do some more geocaching, but between an upset tummy and miscommunication, we started fussing and cussing and headed back to the hotel. I can’t remember really what I was so irritated about, but I was HOT! Momma would say (and Daddy too) that I had “a case of the ass.” Anywho, I took a nap and was much better when I woke up. It’s amazing how naps work like that.

The final day, we headed up to the West Clear Creek Wilderness. For all you Arizonans, this is a gorgeous area and I recommend it to anyone who can hike down into a canyon. Again, we had to do the dirt road thing and actually cross a few fences.

Breakin’ the Law! Breakin’ the Law!

There were a few other cars in the parking area and some folks getting ready to go down the canyon. An older gentleman who was just coming up from below, told me that it was an incredible sight. I have been wanting to do this hike for the past three years. Finally we were here!

The following pictures will not do the area any justice, but it was seriously steep!

Pretty blooms. Nice shots Chuck!

Just through those trees is gorgeous West Clear Creek.

Check out that view!

Words cannot describe how awesome the canyon was.

Chuck is too cute swimming.

The water was sooo cold, but we finally got used to it and found some really deep pockets to swim in. We swam for quite a long time and eventually our whole bodies became numb. I really didn’t want to leave. We’ve promised each other to take a weekend in July and head back up so we can camp. There were great spots along the sand bars to pitch a tent. We’re also bringing our fishing poles next time. 😀

Climbing back up the canyon was a bitch! Boy are we out of shape. Some young whipper snappers came running by and we choked on their dust. We had to take it slow so as not to have a coronary.

Jiggle Puff taking a breather. Does my butt look big? 😀

We used muscles that I didn’t even know I had. We were both walking like little old people for the next two days. Ouch!

This was an awesome adventure and I can’t wait to go back. Thanks Baby for a great time.

Memorial Day Adventures

Hey Ya’ll! So sorry I have been a bad blogger. Life is super busy and I’m a wee bit lazy. Chuck and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary yesterday (we almost forgot about it) and enjoyed a mellow evening watching horror movies. Nothing says love and romance like ghoulies ripping peoples’ throats out. Funny side — Chucklebutt thought we had been married for seven years. Hmmmm, I wonder what that says about our relationship? 😀

Over Memorial Day Weekend, we headed up to Payson for some awesome hiking and swimming. We usually stay at the Majestic Mountain Inn, but they were all booked. The Best Western was a pretty good substitute. While it wasn’t the Ritz, it definitely served its purpose.

Super spacious rooms to spread all our stuff around.

Our room was the one on top. It was nice having our own little balcony. Apparently there was a big wedding going on and the entire wedding party was in the rooms below us. They were an interesting group.

The grounds were really pretty and the continental breakfast rocked! We got to make our own Belgian waffles. Yumm-eee.

Chuck loading up the car.

Why yes we are wearing the same style pants — and if you must know, the same size too.

On Saturday, we decided to go in search of the Verde River Hot Springs. One of the geocaches we were working on, led us right to them. Now let me just say, that it was one heck of a trip just getting to the parking lot. We had to turn off two dirt roads, and were it not for Esmerelda — my new car — we wouldn’t have made it. Talk about needing a high clearance vehicle! Anyway, the area was pretty remote — near the old Childs-Irving Power Plant.

I swiped the above picture from the APS website. The history is pretty fascinating.

So, when we got to the parking area, we noticed that it was PACKED with people. And not just any sort of people, but beer drinking, pot smoking, pit bull dog kind of peole. I have never seen so many pit bulls in all my life. It was like a dog show for the breed. Now let me just say, that I do not like pit bulls — I’ll admit it, I’m a breedist. Give me a Lab, Golden or Lhasa any day of the week. Pit bulls? Ummm…not so much. As we started out on our hike, this pit bull comes running after us. Actually not really running, more like trotting. His owner kept yelling at him but the dog was not interested in the slightest. I tried to ignore the fella and kept walking. All of a sudden I noticed that something was stepping on my heels. Yup! You guessed it — Fido wasn’t watching where he was going. EEEP! I almost went into panic attack mode and wet my pants. I did some deep breathing all the while Chuck is snickering. He’s not scared of any dog. Anyway, the owner finally wrangled the dog back to camp and we were on our way.

Gorgeous views!

Once leaving the campsites, we didn’t really run into anyone. Just the way we like it.

We found the geocache and a whole slew of tadpoles. I mean they were EVERYWHERE! From the cache’s location, we went in search of the hot springs. The only directions we had were to cross the river and look for the palm trees. Mind you, it was quickly getting dark and the sun had almost set completely.

We ran into these fellows upstream. They were drinking something that looked like antifreeze. They were super happy and very friendly. 😀 This is Chuck crossing the river. We were told to do so at this particular spot because it was the shallowest. FYI — Just because it was shallow, does NOT mean that the current wasn’t swift. Once crossing the river, the guys asked us if we knew where we were going. We lied and told them yes — not our brightest move.

We found the palm trees and Chuck took to taking some neat pics with a flashlight. Oh yeah — and we were in pretty much complete darkness.

We found the foundation of the old hotel and figured that was all there was. Perhaps we had misunderstood what was actually up there. So, we headed back across the river where we ran into some seriously inebriated folks and — you guessed it! — more pit bulls. One of the guys was hilarious and said that there were actual hot springs. He said they weren’t very far and we just HAD to come. They crossed the river and both of their dogs got caught in he current. They finally made it across and I convinced a grumpy Chucklebutt we were following these crazy people. He was not impressed and his thought bubble was pretty rude. Anyway, I’m glad I took charge, because check out what we discovered!

We did not take this picture — remember we were there in the pitch black. It was awesome!! The pools were pretty crowded (and there was that whole clothing optional thing going on) so we headed down to the river where we went swimming in the run off. It was so incredible and well worth all the hassle. And the stars? OMG! I have never seen the stars so vibrant. It was just a magical night. We had such a good time despite the ruckus above us.

As we were leaving, this crazy fellow kept wanting us to go into the big pools. We tried to explain to him that we had experienced the water down below. He was not buying it. Chuck and I had to do a “Hey what’s that behind you?” and run like hell. Before leaving, we did manage to encounter some bats which freaked me out and ran into Chuck’s chest. Never a dull moment!

Stay tuned — there’s more craziness to come. 😀