Echoes of the Southwest

Want a fun place to celebrate fall and the Halloween season while in Arizona?  Head out to Queen Creek to Schnepf Farms for food, fun, and creepy mazes.  Sharon and I have gone there for the past four years and plan to go again this year.  I did a video for you to get an idea what is there.  Every year there is something new.  We can't wait to check it out.

I have been the the Goodyear-Ocotillo Cemetery in Chandler, AZ a few times.  This is the first time I was able to get photos with a dark and moody sky.  I like the way the pictures turned out. By the way, since we had a record number of rainfalls in Arizona, especially in Chandler, there were tons of ants everywhere.  We had to watch where we were walking.

While Sharon and I were at Chandler Fashion Center, we had to walk past the Old Spaghetti Factory on our way to get lunch.  I noticed how cool the rustic looking building looked against the dark skies and had to take pictures.  The sky doesn't look very dark, but I assure you, it was. The Old Spaghetti Factory started in Oregon on January 10, 1969 by Guss and Sally Dussin.  They built their restaurant not only with great food, but with "honesty, dignity, respect, hard work, and guest satisfaction" as noted on their website:   http://www.osf.com/ .  The dining experience has as much to do with made-from-scratch foods with fresh ingredients, but also the amazing decor.  From antiques to interesting glass displays, the Old Spaghetti Factory is a warm and inviting place with that down-home feel.

Sharon and I had fun appearing on Radio FearCon with our hosts Chris and Jim McLennan.  We are getting ready for FearCon ( www.phoenixfearcon.com ) which will be on November 1st and 2nd.  Along with Sharon and myself, the show also featured Glen Wacker of Will It Make It Cars ( www.willitmakeit.com ), and Spring Garrett (Mother Minion). To hear the show in its entirety, click this link:   http://www.doublewidenetwork.com/index.php/Audio/fearcon_radio Karen, Glen, Spring, Sharon, Me, Chris and Jim.

The corn maze at Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek, Arizona, is haunting and creepy at night.  Every year, around Halloween, Sharon and I find ourselves running around and getting lost in the tall, dark and spooky maze.  The follow video is of photos that I took for the past four years (2010-2013) of the corn maze.

Take a video tour of Tombstone through my eyes.  This will give you an idea of what to expect when you visit this historic town.  The video is nothing like seeing it in person.  Sharon and I will be taking a friend there next January.  I wonder what new things will be waiting for us?  Enjoy... Don't forget to see Boothill Graveyard when visiting Tombstone.  It is located just at the edge of town.  See which outlaw, lawman, or citizen of Tombstone is buried there.

Everywhere you look and at every store, it is looking like Halloween.  I took these pictures at Michaels.

Before hitting the Buttes for rest, relaxation, and celebration, we drove by the cemetery below the resort to take pictures.  We found some interesting and unusual headstones.

For the past four years, Sharon and I celebrated the release of our zombie housewives books at the Buttes in Tempe, AZ.  After taking pictures for the Zombie Housewives of the Apocalypse , our first of the series, we needed a vacation and a drink or two.  I have no idea what we were thinking, but we hit an abandoned house in Casa Grande, in 114 degree weather, to take pictures for the book.  Those pictures were taken fast, and then it was jump in the car, drink lots of water with the a/c running high.  Since that book, we got much smarter at picture taking for the books.  Because I got better at using Photoshop, I was able to put our characters wherever we wanted.  The 1960's pictures were partially taken outside in cooler weather, but also at Sharon's apartment.  By the time we took pictures for the 1970's and the most recent book, the 1980's, we took all the pictures at her place under a light and green screen.  Even though we needed to cool off after taking the f

On 11-3-1977, my husband's parents bought a 1977 Dodge Royal Monaco. His mother gave her the name, "Big Red", but barely drove her around. We bought her on 9-12-1991 with the odometer reading 28,000. We drove her for awhile, and then she sat for years. On 10-28-2013, my husband finally got her running. With the odometer now reading 52,000, he put on the original license plates on, and finally drove her home. Just recently, August 2014, he got the interior redone along with the vinyl top and tinted the windows. Next, is a complete paint job and she will be ready for more car shows. Refurbishing Big Red was a labor of love for him and the memory of his mother.