So, as a secondary (and until recently very covert) mission while I was TDY to Dallas, I was on a bit of a petrological expedition. To wit, I was rockhounding a particularly specific igneous related species which for some odd reason is measured in units of rabbit food. I had done lots and lots (and lots) of internet searching, and doing the field-time was the only real way to track this elusive specimen down. Apparently there are man-made variants, some of which are are available in colors not occurring regularly in nature. However, while these offer the benefit of not having been previously the product of nigh-on slave labor at the hands of some subsidiary of the DeBeers consortium, their presence on the web is rather lacking, and their customer service rather sucks. With that said, I was conveniently away from the flagpole long enough to clear the soon-to-be-household 6’s radar, and I went hunting. A quick plug here for Oded at Motek in Dallas, as he is a very helpful and informative source for anyone on such an expedition. If it’s not by now painfully obvious what I was up to, I was diamond shopping, and had exhausted pretty much all the jewelry stores, pawn shops, and the like in the Sierra Vista and Tucson areas, and had not had any opportunity to get up to Phoenix.
All that said, I found the right stone, and a setting for it to go in. AND they both fit in my budget. At the same time even. Score.
I had planned to hit a knee as it were during the upcoming June trip to UT and CO. Arches National Park seemed a pretty good idea. Good backdrop. Makes for a good picture. And then I thought it might be an even cooler birthday surprise. I kept throwing allusions toward the possibility of a Nook Color or maybe even an iPad as possibilities, without the serious intent on either, at least not at this point. Horseback riding out at Buffalo Corral Stables was planned, and as those of you in the know know… life intervened. So, with plans for the horseback ride being delayed, I was in a bit of a quandary… but we still need to put in some mileage on the bike to get used to the seat, and there’s that new topcase I installed… and she lost an earring last month that she had bought in Tombstone a couple years back… this still might work.
The setup: Ride to Tombstone, re-acquire a replacement set of earrings, return. Leaves time during the rest of Saturday for other stuff, but we do get some seat time in with the new topcase / backrest setup. Also in preparation for the UT/CO trip, I had purchased a RAM-mount for the right handlebar which allows me to attach a camera and use the entire bike as a tripod (vs strapping the big one on the back for the trip). Perfect. We need to practice shooting landscape stuff, and I need to test out the new point-and-shoot which I picked up to replace the now point-and-pray SD850IS which had finally succumbed to the Iraqi dust deep within the casing. It mounts up nicely, and can even be used for self-portraits before heading out:
So we’re off to Tombstone, and it’s hot enough that I can justify running in at the gas station to pick up extra water (which gives me a reason to get in the topcase when we stop for pictures…). I scouted along the route on the way over, and noted a reasonable looking section of pull-off just before dropping down into the curves at the San Pedro. We find the earrings at the same shop, and after walking up and down Allen St, we gas up and head back. So, now, under the pretense of checking out the new setup for the big ride, I grab the ring box out of the topcase (where I had hidden it in a disc-lock case which conveniently also clipped to my belt under my jacket). The following sequence is what ensued:
… and like the post title reads, she said yes!
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