Arizona and an Apache Trail Adventure

Our day began with a trip to the Botanical Gardens in Phoenix.  As we walked to the entrance, Marty was amazed at the beautiful cacti sparkling a shiny green, until I informed him that they were glass.  Chihuly glass, to be exact.  Not the first of his works that I've seen, and I'm sure that it won't be the last.  The shiny, pointy structures were indeed, quite beautiful, but paled in comparison to the amazing Sonoran Desert scenes that we would wander through in the Gardens.
After touring the gardens, we drove off to Apache Junction, a turn onto Highway 88, and we soon found ourself on the Apache Trail.  The vistas along the road were amazing. We weren't on the road long when we spotted flashing lights, and it was obvious that someone had taken the curve a bit too fast and had rolled off the side into some cactus.  Two people were crawling out of the open top of the sports car, and they were fortunate that they had not rolled off where there had been a very steep drop off, and that the car had come to a stop fairly close to the highway.  The scene was just what I needed to assure that Marty took this drive seriously and kept his eyes on the road.
We stopped for lunch at Tortilla Flat and there must have been a retirement special since the place was loaded with seniors.  But, lucky for us, they traveled in small groups, and since we were a couple, we were seated right away.  The restaurant was interesting, with dollar bills pasted all over the ceiling and walls.  There is definitely a lot of money invested in that place!  The saddle seats at the bar and the boar with the sunglasses hanging on the wall only added to the ambiance of the place.  We couldn't pass on a prickly pear cactus ice cream cone before heading off to the real challenge of the trail.
A few miles past Tortilla Flat, the road turned from pavement to dirt and the rest of the trail  was certainly a challenge with hair pin turns and several one lane bridges, not to mention the fact that some of the road was  not wide enough for two cars to pass.  All in all, we handled the drive well, but I was certainly happy to reach pavement once again.  It took a couple of hours to drive 20 miles and I found myself rejoicing everytime we passed another mile marker on the way.
The drive from the Roosevelt Dam to Globe was through the Tonto National Forest.  The vistas there were equally remarkable, with rolling hills of green cacti on either side of the highway.  Fortunately, I had printed up driving directions since our GPS unit was thoroughly confused.  and we managed to arrive safely at our destination in Globe. We are staying in an old school house, built in the early 1900's,  that was converted to a B&B. Let's just say that we are "learning" a lot about the area! Be sure to check out the flickr photos.