Where’s Nico?

So, one thing that always cracked me up about Tom Petty was that while most of his albums were under the banner of ‘Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’, he also put out three ‘solo’ albums just under his Heartbreaker-less name… but on all three of those albums, the musicians he worked with were pretty much the entire lineup of the Heartbreakers. I don’t know what made those solo albums different from all the TP+H albums, but as the kids say, “whatevs”. In any case, the third and final ‘solo’ album was a really good one called “Highway Companion”, and the song “Home” isn’t even on it – it’s one of the bonus tracks they put on the special edition of the album. But it’s a fitting title for this post because – oh wait! I almost forgot to answer the question, “Where’s Nico?”

Home!

Yes, in a bit of a surprise, we ended up heading back to KC early to address some health stuff that needed addressing. This ended up being a shorter trip than we planned, at only a month and a half or so, but we packed a lot of fun into it, and we’re hoping to get back out on the road by late spring – at which point, I’ll keep using Tom Petty songs for post titles, because I didn’t get to use too many of them in this little jaunt! At least… if that’s cool with you, Mr. Petty.

Oh good – then it’s settled!

Anyhoo… last you and I chatted, we were in Tonto National Forest by the base of Picketpost Mountain – which is an absolutely gorgeous place. We did get in a bit more exploring before we left, including a visit to Lost Dutchman State Park and one more trip to the local arboretum.

After that, we headed out to some open public land just over the California state line from Yuma, Arizona. This wasn’t exactly a hiking mecca, but it was a nice chance to catch up with Kristen’s mom, who was camping there with her boyfriend, Dick, and their dog Buddy. It’s always Fun with Dick and Jane(t)!

You may remember from a post I did last year, when we caught up with Dick and Janet in Gunnison, that they enjoy ATV riding. This time, they took us out on the ATVs to a spot about a dozen miles or so from our camp near Yuma that was sort of like slot canyons for ATVs. We had a fun time heading in there together.

Staying in this part of the country also gave me a chance to get a couple of trips in to the L.A. area. I had a fun time day drinking through SoCal with my friends Jay and Evan and my Uncle Bob.

And Kristen, Nico and I had a chance to spend a day with my cousin Marilyn and Uncle Bob, too.

Yuma also had some very nice sunsets. Just wanted to share a pic of that as well.

And finally, it had hummingbirds! I mentioned in my last post that we had purchased a couple of feeders, but we hadn’t attracted any of those little guys. We had better luck with that in Yuma.

After Yuma, we ended up just driving pretty much straight through over three days to get back to KC, staying at KOA campgrounds each night. Nothing terribly exciting about that drive, but it was nice to get back to our bed at the end of it!

Anyway, that’s pretty much how things are in this little neck of the woods. Like I said, we’ll probably be home for a couple months, but when we get back out on the road, I’ll make sure to offer up some more Tom Petty-influenced notes from the road. In the meantime, let’s close this out with the last shot from “Blazing Saddles” – I always love the part where the letter N knocks the guy off the horse.

– Ken 3/1/2025