My friend Diana and her life partner John bought a condo in the resort town of Pinetop-Lakeside. The town is in the White Mountains and is almost due south of the Petrified Forest. All land in this part of Arizona is at least 7000 feet in elevation.

Lots of incredible scenery along the drive to the town of Show Low. And much land that is of little use to humans or livestock. Once I turned south from Show Low to head to Pinetop I expected to see more Arizona landscape along the 13 mile run. Instead, I saw 13 miles of basically one long business strip.

Once I got to Diana's condo, I was trying to find a place to park. A man was outside photographing some of the colorful leaves. He walked towards my car and said "Are you Larry? I am John". So just like that I finally met someone that I had heard much about over the past 3 - 4 years and seemed as if I already knew him.

The condo area is in a very quiet section. They were telling me, however, about a couple of large dogs nearby that caused much barking noise all day long when the owners were gone. That finally got resolved just prior to my arrival. Diana and John have two large puppies who are quite energetic. They love to wrestle with each other and get along well.

Condos in that area are often sold exactly as is, including all furnishing down to wall hangings and dishes and furniture. Diana and John bought theirs that way but have sold off most of what they inherited in the deal. The motif is Arizona including much about the Native Americans in the area. It feels like a resort town that I have seen in other states. The condo is quite nice and quite comfortable with its large desk (half of it is covered) where they often entertain guests.

The town is adjacent to the large Apache Indian reservation. They have many square miles of beautiful land of a variety of landscape. Lakes, mountains, abundant trees, wild horses, domesticated horses, cows and numerous wildlife including elk and bear. However, the businesses and buildings look like they have been neglected and run down for many years. Diana wants to help bring literacy to the area and has become a goal of hers to find ways to share and spread that.

Diana said she has had to get used to cooking differently at high elevations. Water takes a higher temperature to boil and recipes that call for liquid usually need 50% more than the standard elevation (1000 feet or less) recipes call for. Diana tried a new recipe for me (vegatarian-type) she created herself -- veggie burrito. It was very good and John raved about it and wants to have it again, soon.