Making a Beeline to Mormon Lake College

Making a Beeline to Mormon Lake

Weather wise, our latest drive had a sunny beginning, a skyblue middle and a very wet ending…at least for some.

Our meeting place was the Target parking lot in Fountain Hills, this proved to be a great place to all meet up and have a chat before heading for the Beeline highway to start our day’s journey.

For this week’s drive we had around 30 cars and quite a few new members, it really is great to see everyone coming out. For those not familiar with the Beeline it can be a hair raising experience when the pick-up truck drivers are out.

The scenery, for the passengers that is, is breathtaking and the elevation changes and curves keep the drivers more than occupied to say the least, the only distraction being the aforementioned truckers out to test our resolve.

The only real slowdown was driving through Payson and the Casino parking lot that we stopped at briefly so everyone could reconvene. After passing through Pine and thankfully avoiding the local police force, the remainder of the drive up to Mormon Lake lodge took us along some breathtaking roads and past many a packed National Park.

The road leading to the Mormon Lake Lodge and the Steakhouse where we were booked for lunch was actually the best paved road we were on the entire trip, I gather a Phoenix politician has a place up that road somewhere… lol. Once we arrived at the Lodge it became apparent that they had received a huge amount of rain in the last few days. Our first clue was the state of the ATV’s parked out front….you dirty mudders was uttered once or twice.

The upstairs room that The Steakhouse had set up for our group was a perfect blend of the Old Western frontier meets an old fashioned Tavern, it just worked. The food was very tasty and filling, the Burger was an adventure in its self just taking the first bite. We all enjoyed a nice meal and had a nice chat about the drive and scenery, I’d say it was a hit.

A small number of us decided to extend our driving pleasures by heading out to Winslow and this is where the “very wet” portion of the weekend comes into play, Mother Nature added a little twist to the drive but it was still a great way to finish off an epic AZPCA drive….oh and staying overnight at the truly amazing Railroad Hotel La Posada and enjoying dinner at the Turquoise Room definitely made up for inclement weather.