February 17, 2013

Desert Sky

Apache Junction, AZ

We spent the ENTIRE day filling out our tax organizers and gathering paperwork to send to our accountant.    This year’s taxes are a little more complicated to sort out because we still had our business for half the year, we rented out our house and sold a great deal of items on EBay.   Hopefully our return will be a lot easier next year.

It was beautiful outside so I did take a little break and worked on my Sunday crossword puzzle. 

 

 

 

 

After I posted my entry on Valentine’s Day, Monte said he was surprised that I hadn’t included any history on the restaurant that we dined at so being there wasn’t too much to report today, I will write about the Rustler’s Rooste. 

According to the story on the menu,

Back before there were fences here in the Valley, a few outlaws made a living by rustling cattle in the middle of the night and then selling them to the local restaurants.  The rustlers lived in an old wooden cabin high atop a butte in the foothills of the South Mountains, hidden from the eyes of ranchers (and, more importantly, the sheriff).

As time went by, the gang tired of riding into town to sell what they rustled and so they converted their cabin into a restaurant that the town folk soon took to calling the Rustler’s Rooste.  The tender steaks, savory BBQ ribs and all the fixin’s became renowned throughout the Valley, and tenderfoots discovered they really liked the down-home cookin’ almost as much as the terrific view.  Today, The Rooste continues to be Arizona’s legendary cowboy steakhouse where you can always find beef and brew-with a view.

 

HERE’S THE LOWDOWN ON THE TIN SLIDE

Lots of tenderfoots ask us why a slide?  Why not stairs?  Years ago when The Rooste was a small cabin, the slide was part of a clever escape plan in case bounty hunters showed up.  The rustlers could just open the door to the cellar and jump down a big ol’ piece of tin to their horses.  One of the rustlers would shout, “Let’s hide!” and away they’d go.  Eventually the phrase was shortened to just, “slide!”  Over the years, that slide has seen the back ends of thousands of our guests.  If it could only talk, the stories it could tell.