Where’s Nico?

“Driving the Herd” was one of the last tracks on the final album Willie Nelson did with Merle Haggard, back in 2015. The album is called “Django and Jimmie”, due to a title track that was an homage to Django Reinhardt and Jimmie Rodgers.

I went with “Driving the Herd” because out here at… oh wait a minute. I got ahead of myself. First we gotta cover “Where’s Nico?”

Tonto National Forest (still!)

Yeah, we haven’t moved along yet. I gotta say, this place really is magic. We’ll push off to our next destination later this coming week, but we haven’t felt any reason to rush out of here.

Our spot of choice in Tonto National Forest is at the feet of the impressive Picketpost Mountain. There’s plenty of spots to boondock on the west side of the mountain, and there are beautiful trails all around the place giving you new and stunning views of the mountain from every side. If you read my post last year from this area you may remember that while we were here last January/February, we met Sam Elliott’s brother-from-another-mother, whose name is either Lynn or Jim (that’s Picketpost Mountain right over his hat):

Well, we just ran into him again yesterday! We had a nice visit with him when we encountered him on the trail running on the northeast side of Picketpost Mountain, and he actually remembered us from last year. My heart was all aflutter.

I desperately wanted to try to take another picture of him with Nico, but I realized I’d never top the pic I got last year.

But talking with Lynn/Jim, we found ourselves thinking of the cowboy life and running a herd, a la City Slickers. Hence the title for this post! As I type this out, I realize the whole thing was a bit of a stretch.

But it’s a good song, all the same. Plus it gives me an excuse to use a bunch of old Far Side comics that included cows.

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Anyway, as you may have guessed, I have plenty of pictures to share from the past few weeks. The weather has been great – we had a day and a half of rain when we arrived, and had a couple of very windy days, but the vast majority of the stay has been in the 70’s and sunny. Given that it’s currently in the single digits back in our beloved hometown of Kansas City, we certainly have no complaints out here.

In addition to Picketpost Mountain in Tonto National Forest, we’ve also spent some time on Superstition Mountain, Boyce Thompson Arboretum, and Lost Dutchman State Park, as well as a couple of runs into Apache Junction to get supplies and do laundry. Each of those parks is worth a visit.

Here’s Superstition Mountain – we did a hike there up to Wind Cave:

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Boyce Thompson Arboretum is a place that we enjoyed so much last year that we bought an annual pass to it, which we’ve used again a couple of times this January. It’s pretty spectacular, even if Nico finds it somewhat cheesy when we hold him by the “Chihuahuan Desert” signs:

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And Lost Dutchman State Park has a hike called ‘Prospector’s and Crosscut Trail Loop’ that takes you up the side of a mountain for some very nice views. Not a bad lunchroom!

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While in Lost Dutchman, we came across this roadrunner, standing just a few feet from the trail and making a strange mating call that sounds nothing like “Meep Meep”:

And this little Desert Horned Lizard:

You know I can’t reference roadrunners without throwing in a GIF…

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And as I said, we did plenty of hiking right here in Tonto National Forest, all around Picketpost Mountain:

Even just right outside our trailer door we have a nice little hill that’s worth exploring:

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Well, that’s probably enough pictures – if you’re still reading, it’s time for the latest edition of…

ANA (Ask Nico Anything!)

Nico, pitchers and catchers report in about two weeks. The Royals are getting 35-to-1 to win the World Series. Is this a good bet?

Dis wat Nico call “shure mony’. Go hevy on dis. Dis is Nico retire plan – he put all his chew stiks in on Royals to ween. Nico excited dat Papa bawt tics to doggy day at Royal Sprung Train staydeum in Surprise, AZ. Nico hope to meet his idol, Salvy. 

Nico, we haven’t heard you talk about your grand “Bacon For Dogs” business venture. Have you given up on the dream?

Are you kid? Nico never geev up on dis dream. All dog deserf bakon. Eef yu no any angel investers, pleez send dem to Nico.

Nico, it looks like your mom and dad make you hike every day. Do you get any downtime?

It tru dat Mama and Papa poosh Nico pret hard. Nico leg short dan Mama and Papa leg. It take lot of steps. But Nico do get dowtime – dat help. Times like dees:

(dat me hide in Mama sweter)

An sumtime, Nico score gud fud dat Mama and Papa make:

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And with that, let’s wrap this up with maybe the most controversial Far Side comic strip in existence:

– Ken 1/25/2026