I have been on a blog break. Not only did we throw a fantastic grand opening party for our studio, but we got the keys to our new house two days before that. Then we had a bunch of our fine friends stay with us in our empty house. We even had a couple of them stay a few days. The very next weekend, We loaded up our Uhaul and brought everything we own from Phoenix, vehicles and all. We have our good friends to thank for making our move so easy. We picked that Uhaul up at 9 am in Phoenix that Saturday, and had it loaded and driven to Payson by 5. It was unloaded by 7pm and we had dinner and relaxed the rest of the night. That is professional moving right there. We kicked that moving shit in the ass.
Two weeks later, we are settling in. We have nearly every box unpacked and we are feeling more and more at home. Jon mowed the lawn! I have been trying to figure out how to set things up inside, and also making the house look like a home instead of a storage unit. We have met some folks in our neighborhood, and even managed to find our mailbox. It only took us two weeks to inspire our neighbor to put up a privacy fence. She thinks it will keep the Devil out.
Since we are spending more time here in Payson, or Star valley to be more exact, we have had the chance to get some real local flavor. Last weekend, we got off of work on Saturday night, and decided to go out to our local bar. When we got there, we saw some regulars, and had a few drinks. The band that was playing was putting us to sleep, so we went home and fed our dogs. Then we decided to venture back out and go to the other bar in Star valley. It was really busy. We stood outside next to the fire pit, and listened to some drunks talk about a weddin they just came from. We got to talkin to two local guys, one a little older, the other in his 20's. We had a few drinks with them and decided to go to the topless bar. Yeah the topless joint next to our street. You know, the one that has a COW on top of the sign that says adult cabaret? Yeah, that's the one. Not a picture of a cow, but an actual fiberglass cow. It has even been shot with arrows and still has them sticking out of it's side. I'm assuming it's a lady cow so I will call her Lacy (that's her stripper name). We had never been to this place before, so I kind of assumed it would be nasty. Like greasy fingerprint mirrors and low ceilings and plywood over the windows nasty. It was none of those things. It was super nice. The bar was like a hand carved canoe and the tap was made from a huge tree. Very rugged Alaskan territory type stuff. Not to be confused with Alaskan Bush Company. They are not affiliated.
Two problems right off the bat though. They made me pay to get in. HELLO! LADIES do NOT PAY to get into TITTY bars! They even tried to make me feel better by having the fat security guy squiggle around and show me his moobs. UGH. Also, this is the second problem. Saturday night, full place, TWO STRIPPERS. This resulted in the owner (who was trashed, and also the DJ) trying to pull every poor girl in there up on the stage. WE JUST PAYED TO GET IN HERE AND YOU THINK WE ARE GOING TO BE FREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR YOU?! He did get one lady to do it though and that was a nice break from the same two strippers. We saw a guy in there that had seen me in the bank earlier that day and said he liked my hair. When we walked into the bar, he was so excited and bought us all a round. He even gave me gold dollars to give to the girls. I kept them. When we left the poor young man we brought with us had fallen in love with a dancer and he was not budging. I guess he walked back to his place.
All in all a good night, and we only had to drive a few blocks to our house seeing as the cabaret is on our street. I think we are going to like this town. Payson is great but Star Valley is the obvious choice for us to live in. We have 4 bars, circle K, a couple RV parks, a laundromat, a motel, one church (the other burned down), and a plant nursery. More bars than churches. Hell yes. I think the neighbor needs more than a fence...