HANGING WITH THE BURRO'S

The old gold mining town of Oatman, AZ., is known for several things, one of which is the wild Burro's that hang around town, begging for handouts. Several of the local business sell either carrots, or hay cubes that you can feed to the Burro's. In the past, we have seen these desert dwellers get a little aggressive when the tourists aren't buying the feed fast enough. Yesterday was the exact opposite. There were bags of hay cubes all over main street, and the Burro's had more than enough to keep them munching on the handouts.

As you can see in the first picture, Miss Laila was a little apprehensive about putting out her hand with a hay cube in it, not knowing whether she would be feeding the Burro, or losing part of her hand. As time progressed, that fear subsided, and she was putting hay cubes in her flattened hand, trying to get these four legged beggars to eat faster.

It was a nice sunny day in this old west mining town, that has been revitalized by the attraction of tourists, largely in part to the wild Burro's. During the Laughlin River Run, thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts take over the town, and many years ago the action was pretty wild. One year, Patty and I tried to pass through town on our Harley, but there were so many people, we finally gave up, and turned around. One of Oatman's other claims to fame, was that Clark Cable and Carol Lombard spent their first wedding night in the Oatman Hotel. Back then, there were no Interstate highways, and Route 66 was the way you got from L.A. to Chicago.

Today, without the Burro's, and the attraction of an array of watering holes, and tourist type shops, Oatman would probably be another casualty along Route 66. Twice each day, a group of actors dressed up like gunfighters, stage a comedic gunfight in the middle of the street, much to the delight of the tourists. We missed this action, but Laila was kept busy with the Burro's, and Grandpa constantly trying to get the perfect picture.

When we had walked down to the end of Main Street, we came upon a baby Burro that was just about Laila's size. Someone in town had posted a little sign on the baby's head that read "do not feed me". This little guy or girl, didn't have any teeth yet, and hadn't progressed past nursing from it's mother.


We left Oatman in the early afternoon, and drove down the hill to Bullhead City, where we stopped at the city park, and dined on sandwiches that Grandpa had made that morning. Naturally, there was a playground adjacent to our picnic table, so we couldn't pass that up. From there, it was across the river to Laughlin, and the mall. Our first stop was the Osh Kosh store, and Laila came out of there with a bunch of new clothes, that just happened to be mostly purple, her favorite color.

When we left Laughlin, it was late afternoon, and shortly after we started the hour long drive home, someone was oblivious to the passing scenery, catching some well deserved rest from her busy day.