Road Runner

Sunday, June 8, 2014

It's time to mount up and fly out of here.

We have been enjoying our time in the Camp Verde/Sedona/Cottonwood area for the last 2 1/2 weeks but it's time to mount up.

We are flying (driving the motorhome) out of here early on Monday morning and trying to avoid the 109 degree heat in Phoenix. I wish we had wings like this bird and the ability to fly high enough to reach cooler weather.

Black-crowned Night Heron

I wasn't sure what this bird was so I sent an email to Sharon of The Odd Essay She knows more about birds than I could ever hope to and quickly identified it as a Black-Crowned Night Heron. I saw the bird early in the morning and thought that our closeness to the Verde River and an irrigation canal provided a feeding area for the bird. Thanks Sharon.

Black-crowned Night-Herons are stocky birds compared to many of their long-limbed heron relatives. They’re most active at night or at dusk, when you may see their ghostly forms flapping out from daytime roosts to forage in wetlands. In the light of day adults are striking in gray-and-black plumage and long white head plumes. These social birds breed in colonies of stick nests usually built over water. They live in fresh, salt, and brackish wetlands and are the most widespread heron in the world.

We've seen a number of restored cars here in the area, but it's been difficult to get pictures of them since people actually drive them. The car below was in the church parking lot on Saturday and we manage to get this photo of a beautiful 1929 Ford.

We noticed this car while driving through a nearby neighborhood. There were others cars there, but we didn't want to invade their privacy anymore than we did. I think it is an old Chevy from the late thirties era, maybe even sooner.

We spent the day putting craft stuff away, computers back in bins, cameras in cases, awnings retracted, tanks dumped and general straightening up of the motorhome. It takes a couple weeks to mess it up and then a 1/2 day to get ready to hit the road. It's always fun trying to find nooks and crannys to store stuff. Thank God this unit has a lot of storage space.

I just saw in the news that two Las Vegas police officers were shot and killed today and the killers ran across the street and shot killed a person there. It seems that they then committed suicide and ended the spree. That particular Walmart was about 2 miles up the road from where we stayed in Las Vegas this past trip there. It seems there are nut cases all over the country now. Sad state of affairs we live with now.

That was our day, how was yours?

Triple Crown & Sedona

Gerry and I both have a love of horse racing and always make it a point to watch the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. (Triple Crown). California Chrome had won the first two races and looking for the crown today at Belmont. Each race is a different distance and it takes a special horse to win all three. We were hoping to see the first triple crown winner since 1978, but it wasn't to be. CC came in 4th and didn't really seem to be competing during the race. What a disappointment.

The owner of California Chrome was very upset after the race since a horse that only ran one leg to the crown won the race. That horse was fresher and primed for this race. I also think if they are going to call it the Triple Crown, then each horse should run all three races.

Since we don't receive NBC at the campground, we decided to drive into Sedona and watch the race at an Irish Bar. We had a great corned beef sandwich and a couple good beers. I even had a chance to throw some darts, but my aim has seriously deteriorated over the years. Hard to believe I used to be good enough to win beers throwing darts.

Only two bulls eyes

Dollar bills on the wall

This says it all.

Very smooth beer

We rode around Sedona for a while and checked out some of the sights. It was a busy Saturday with a number of Pink Jeeps running up and down the street. We've shopped in the stores before and almost every thing is overpriced or out of our comfort range. We also found a 3/4 acre lot on a steep hillside for sale for only $249K.

Since we aren't early morning people, Gerry decided to go to the 5:30pm Saturday mass so we could sleep in Sunday morning. The church was quite different from other churches and quite interesting. The altar had large windows on each side one could see the red rocks of the mountains. It was quite a beautiful setting.

After church we went riding around the area on back roads and managed to get some great photos of the area. The photos don't come close to really showing the beauty of the area. The red rock mountains were beautiful in the late afternoon sun and were stunning. A couple of the photos below were taken in 3D, but it doesn't show up on my computer screen. Viewing them on our 3D TV is very impressive.

Cathedral Rock

Side view of Cathedral rock

We would have taken more pictures, but the battery on Gerry's camera ran out. I think sunset is the best time to take photos in the area since it highlights the rocks even more. We drove down some gravel roads and were off the highway more than a few miles and were wishing we still had our Jeep 4X4 and able to explore even more.

Our neighbor next door stopped by for a visit this evening and we sat outside on the patio talking for a couple hours. She is a little younger than we are and travels with three dogs in her Tiffin motorhome. She has been on the road for 10 years and loving it. She noticed our South Dakota tags and was curious why we picked there for our home address. After discussing why, we chatted on and on over various subjects.

She lost a arm in an accident just after she graduated from high school, but manages to do everything very well with one arm. She only mentioned the accident in passing and didn't dwell on it. You have to give her a lot of credit for her great attitude.

That was our day, how was yours?

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Jerome, Arizona

It was another hot day around here, but we decided to get out of the motor home and go sightseeing. We've been to Jerome a number of times in the past and have always enjoyed visiting the area.

There have been many blogs and articles written about Jerome and rather than add to this list, I am attaching a clicky to one of the better websites touting Jerome.
Click here ====>      Jerome Article

We made the Jerome State Park our first stop to get a nice view of the valley looking back toward Clarkdale and Cottonwood.   It also provided us with a view up the mountain toward Jerome and all the houses built on the hillsides. The large building at the top center of the photo below is the Jerome Grand Hotel which is still in operation.

This Spanish Mission style building, constructed in 1926, started out as the United Verde Hospital, opening January, 1927. In 1930, it was written up as the most modern and well equipped hospital in Arizona and possible the Western States. The Hospital was closed in 1950 as the mine operation was being phased out. The building stood unused for the next 44 years until the rehabilitation plans started in 1994.

The building is one of the highest public structures in the Verde Valley, (5240 Ft.). As the last major building constructed in Jerome, the building was not only to boost the pride of the town in its classic design, but was built fire proof and able to withstand the blasts of up to 260,000 pounds of dynamite set off by the mine and sometimes felt as far away as Camp Verde, a distance of 20 miles. How this 30,000 sq. ft., five level building of poured in place, reinforced concrete, was constructed on a 50 degree slope is an engineering marvel even by today's standards! *** Copied from the Jerome Grand Hotel website.

We noticed the house below and took a closeup of it since it looked like it would not be out of place in the Swiss Alps. It is also shown in the photo above at the bottom center.

The Little Daisy Mine is just outside of the State Park and is in remarkable shape for being almost 100 years old. The cage that I am in descended 1900 ft down to the mine and was used to bring workers down and ore back up. There is noway that I would ride this cage to the bottom and then work there. Just not my bag!

They had their own generator station built next to the mine shaft. At first they depended on Childs generating station to supply power, but they soon exceeded the power of the station. They then built their own electric power station and the details are shown below. All I can say is they built things to last in those days, unlike the cheap junk we import now.

The next three photos give you an idea how large the power generating equipment was. Keep in mind they had to haul these large pieces of equipment miles up the side of the mountain and install it. It would be extremely difficult to do so now but I can imagine them using mules to haul it up there.

This is part of downtown Jerome and some of the 100 + years old buildings. Many are still in use but there are sections where only the walls are still standing. There are mostly bars, restaurants, art galleries and other touristy things to see and do. We did stop and buy some fudge at a shop we've been to a few times in the past. No T-shirt though.

I had downloaded some geocaches in Jerome, but parking near them was very difficult and there were many people sitting around near the caches. Maybe next time we can pick up a few of them, but not today.

We did drive around Clarkdale a little and were impressed by the town. It was very neat and orderly with a lot of old homes restored and in great shape. They have a very nice park in the center of town with a bandstand in the middle. It reminded us of how small towns used to look before the big box stores ran the shops on main street out of business.

We last blogged about Jerome in October of 2012. You can connect to the blog at this address.

Jerome - October 2012

That was our day, how was your?

Friday, June 6, 2014

Tuzigoot National Monument

Tuzigoot National Monument was our destination today and we really picked a hot day for the visit. We had planned on taking the 1/3 mile hike to the buildings, but it was just too hot for us to try it. If we get a chance, we would like to drive there very early one morning and make the hike before the heat becomes unbearable.

Many ancient sites in Arizona had been discovered and were uncovered. It wasn't until the 1930s they got around to working on the Tuzigoot pueblo on the outskirts of what is now Cottonwood, AZ. Tugizoot (Apache for “crooked water” ) is the remmant of a Southern Sinagua village built between 1100 and 1400 AD. It crowns the summit of a long ridge rising 120 feet above the Verde Valley. The original pueblo was two stories high in places, with 87 ground floor rooms. There are few exterior doors, entry was by ladder through roof openings. The village began as a small cluster of rooms inhabited by some 50 persons for 100 years. In the 1200s the population doubled and then doubled again.

Aerial view of Tuzigoot - copied from an internet site

The people slowly left the pueblo over a period of a few years and the village was emptied of all people and stayed that way. While it isn't a well known monument, it was very interesting visiting there. The people were mainly farmers and the Verde River flowing by the area contributed greatly to their ability to raise crops. The land near the river was fertile and with a constant water source the village flourished.

They have a very nice visitors center at the monument made out of local stones. Inside they have a number of artifacts on display, and while it is a small display, the quality of the artifacts is impressive.

There was a "virtual geocache" at the visitors center and we had to send in a picture of one of us at the entrance to the center with our GPS in view. Since Gerry is more photogenic than I am, I tricked her into posing for the shot.

Tuzigoot visitors center.

The mines in Jerome just west of the Tuzigoot National Monument dumped slag and waste from the mines down the hillside for years and it covered the fields that were used by the people hundreds of years ago. There have been some efforts to restore the area around Tuzigoot and there is now grass growing where the waste used to be. It is far from a complete success, but hopefully it is a start and over time the area can be back to it's natural state.

We also took some time to geocache while we were out today and found five interesting caches. A couple of them were very difficult to find, but eagle eyed Gerry managed to search them out. We kept the geocaching to a minimum due to the heat, but had fun finding the ones we did.

A stop at the Tavern Grille in Old Cottonwood for dinner was most welcome after the running around we did earlier. It was just our luck to have a new waitress and she had to keep running back to her trainer to get prices and other information. We treated it like a game and I told her it was an effort on my part to have her learn the job better. She kept smiling, I just hope she didn't deposit anything in my food. Most likely she didn't, since we both enjoyed our meals.

That was our day, how was yours?

Monday, June 2, 2014

Quiet Days

It just dawned on me the other day that we have been fulltiming for 8 years now. It seems like just yesterday that we backed our motor home out of the driveway and headed for Gettysburg, PA and Drummer Boy Campground. It was the beginning of a new adventure for us and we've enjoyed the ride.

We agreed that if either one of us wanted to settle down and move back to a house that the other would do so without any argument. That discussion has been had a few times but neither of us are ready to come off the road. We enjoy the freedom of this lifestyle and when a location we are in becomes boring, we move on.

It is getting harder to blog about new places since we've been to a number of them before. I don't want the blog to be a repetition of past postings and that is why there are gaps in the blog now. We still visit some of the old places, but don't blog about them.

We are enjoying our time in Camp Verde, AZ and have explored the area a little more and at the same time picked up a number of geocaches. I check the area where we will be for the day and download caches in the area. Since it has been running around 100 degrees the last few days, we limit the time we spend searching for the treasures.

It looks like we will extend our stay here another few days and avoid the real heat in the Tucson area. When it gets up around 107-109 degrees it is a good place to avoid. Yes, I know it is a dry heat, but even so, it is HOT. I hope they have the pool open at Cactus Country RV Resort when we stop there for a week or so.

Gerry has been having some problems with her camera so we haven't taken many pictures lately. We did take a ride on Saturday and checked out old Cottonwood and Clarkdale. We plan on taking a train ride on Tuesday and wanted to see how long it took to drive there. These are some of the sights we saw on our way.