GREAT WEEKENDS

great weekends Collectibles, Down-home Cooking Lure Visitors to the Cool Mogollon Rim Country

Topping the hill and heading down into Pine, you feel the clenched-jaw, stiff-neck tension that is part of everyday life ooze right out of you. There is something about a small town nestled among sheltering pine trees that makes you want to kick back and relax.

Pine and its neighbor, Strawberry, with a combined population of around 4,000, sit on State Route 87 some 20 minutes north of Payson.

Located just below the Mogollon Rim and at an elevation around 5,400 feet, they average summertime highs of 86° F., and that alone makes them worth visiting.

Settled by Mormon pioneers in 1879, Pine retains many of its old rock and log buildings, and a small-town atmosphere still prevails along its streets and byways.

Strawberry, three miles up the road, is smaller than Pine, but it's higher, located at 6,000 feet. Tucked tight up under the Rim, Strawberry takes its name from the wild strawberries the original settlers found growing around the area. My husband, Richard, and I started our week-end with lunch at the Strawberry Lodge. Nestled at the end of town just before State 87 starts winding up the Rim, the place is a local mainstay. Inside this rustic lodge, table-tops made from long slabs of local alligator juniper bark are polished to a satin finish. We took the waitress' suggestion and ordered the house special-ty: grilled hamburger and Cajun fries, finished off with what else? - strawberry pie.

I couldn't help but stare at a curved black malapai-rock wall protruding into the dining room. The manager explained that during construction the lodge's owner didn't want to cut down an old oak tree, so he just built the wall around it. I stuck my head out the door to see if she was kidding, and there was the oak tree, well protected in its own private niche.

After lunch we headed two miles west on Fossil Creek Road to the Strawberry School-house. This quaint log building constructed in 1885 is Arizona's oldest standing school-house. Records for the school year 1889-90 show 22 students enrolled and an average daily attendance of 14. The settlers had a community work party and built the one-room log schoolhouse in a single day. Inside, a wood stove stands in the center of the room, and four rows of connecting desks face the teacher's desk and the blackboard.

A couple of miles past the schoolhouse, I noticed a sign for Fossil Creek Llamas and couldn't resist finding out what John and Joyce Bittner did with these animals. John told me, “We have nine llamas and one alpaca, and we do what-ever people want. The animals carry supplies when we take visitors on day hikes into the forest or on overnight camping trips.” I wasn't expecting llamas in Strawberry, and I made a mental note to come back and try a llama hike.

Back in town, a Dutch-looking windmill caught my attention. It was the office for the Windmill Corner Inn. Co-owner Cheryl Holland showed me around each room. “We want to have a homelike atmosphere, but with privacy,” Cheryl said. After a day of hiking or fishing, those beds would feel great.

With a few hours of daylight left, I wanted to check out the antique and craft stores in Pine. Richard was leery of turning me loose in any store, but it was him I needed to worry about. I was examining handcrafted items at Grandma's Cottage when I realized I'd lost him. The clerk suggested I look out back in the “treasure room.” There was Richard happily pawing through boxes of assorted stuff. He picked out a rusty $3 monkey wrench that he said he'd been needing for years.

Looking for butter pats, the small saucerlike dishes my sister collects, we wandered through a series of small shops with names like the Ginger Bread House, Out on a Whim, and Pine Berry Antiques. While browsing I noticed a disturbing fact: Many of the items like the ones Richard and I received as wedding presents were now being sold as antiques.

The worst shock came when we spotted a set of cactus-design frosted glasses and pitcher with a price tag of $250. Years ago we received glasses like those free with each tank of gas from the old Blakely stations. “Don't we have some of those?” Richard asked.

“We did,” I said. “But I let the kids use them, and they're all broken now. How was I supposed to know they would become collectibles?” I thought I would be safe in the Outfitter Leather and Saddlery, where Bob Stephen makes custom saddles and sells Western antiques. But Richard looked at his stock and said, “Where are your saddle and those spurs you used to have?” I didn't want to admit I'd sold those long ago, so I suggested we go find some place for dinner.

It took an order of chicken-fried steak and some serious sampling of my Mexican dinner at the Cool Pines Cafe on Hall Lane before Richard got over allthe treasures I had gotten rid of through the years.

We stayed at the Interim Place Bed and Breakfast in Strawber-ry, where Donna Nathe's country home provided a peaceful sanctuary. The Interim Place is octagonally shaped, and the wraparound porch facing the Mogollon Rim proved to be a perfect spot for an alfresco breakfast. Although we were the only guests that morning, we weren't alone. A pair of blue jays came for an ear of dried corn, and squirrels ate the peanuts scattered along the porch railing. Two quarrel-some sparrows nervously guarded the bird feeder while a hawk watched from the top of a pine tree, but it was too wary to fly down.

Donna, a retired counselor from Chicago, where she spent 18 years working with troubled teens and sexual assault victims, said, “I try to provide a place where people can get away from the rush of weekday