Verde Valley

CAMP VERDE

We camped at our Thousand Trails Preserve in Cottonwood, AZ, in Verde Valley. Jill and the kids followed us and stayed for a few days before they drove back to Las Vegas and caught the plane to go home.

There was a really nice pool and the weather was good enough for Jill and the kids to swim several times (Terry and I opted to just watch!)
Boe did some "aerials."
Kamber wasn't quite brave enough to jump in, but she had those legs a kicking!
We all played a little golf. I think Terry, Jill, and I all took a turn at being the winners. Boe got several "hole in ones" although no one ever saw him do it, so we just took his word for it.

Kamber had a technique all her own.
The kids had fun playing at the little playground. They usually get along pretty well together.

OUT OF AFRICA

One day we went to "Out of Africa." I took so many pictures that it was hard to decide which ones to put on the blog. It was a lot of fun. We spent all day there.
The first thing we did was take a "safari" ride where we got to feed a giraffe some carrots.
We sat in the very back seat of the open-windowed bus and there was this pesky ostrich who kept following us. We were a little afraid it would take a little nip out of us! It got really close with it's head right in our seats!
The zebras made really funny faces as they were being fed by our guide/bus driver.

I think on of the favorite things of the kids, at least Boe's, were the snakes. After learning all about them, they got to pet them. There was a huge yellow python and this boa. I think the tigers were my favorites. We went to a program where several workers "played" with them in a big pool of water. We stayed around until feeding time and followed the feed truck around. We were able to see all of the animals up close. I think the kids will talk about this for quite a long time.

PAYSON

The day before Jill left, we went to Payson and spent the day with Travis' family. We watched Nic and Nate each play a soccer game and then we went to Travis' new office. It is really nice.
We went back to their house and ate before we left to go home. Ryan was with us for the weekend, also. (He must have been filling his plate!)
This is Travis and Shannon's older boys, Spencer and Nathan.
Nicholas, Josh, Boe, and Kamber ate out on the deck. After playing some pinochle, we left Payson and went back to the campground. All of the kids left the next day. It sure was quiet being by ourselves again, but be kept busy sightseeing!

MONTEZUMA'S CASTLE NATIONAL MONUMENT

We went to Montezuma's Castle. It really is not a castle and King Montezuma was never there, but it was named that before the timeline was established, and the name just stuck.
A prehistoric culture called the Sinagua lived in the Verde Valley and built and lived in these cliff houses between 1100 and 1400. There is a stream down below it that they used to irrigate their crops. They used ladders to get up to their home and ladders to go between stories through holes in the roofs. It was really something to see and imagine up to 50 people living in these 19 rooms.

MONTEZUMA'S WELL

We also went to Montezuma's Well. It is a limestone sinkhole formed by the collapse of the ground into an underground cavern. It is spring-fed, but no one has been able to find the source of the water, which is always an even 74 degrees year-round. No fish live in it because it has too much carbon dioxide in it.
There are cliff dwellings that were built around it during the 1000's to 1400's.
There are also some cave dwellings around the bottom of it.
It was really amazing to think that people actually lived in these kind of homes.

Where the water comes out of the base of the well, it is very pretty and green. It has a constant flow of over 1,400,000 gallons a day, which is used for irrigation.

TUZIGOOT NATIONAL MONUMENT

The Tuzigoot Monument is the ruins of an entire community who built their homes of rocks, all sharing walls. It probably housed 250 people in about 100 rooms. The people didn't spend much time in their homes. They were outside most of the day, working and hunting.
They possibly built it on a hill to save the needed farmland and to watch for visitors coming into their valley.
The roofs, which were floors for the next story, were made from and supported with the Arizona sycamore trees that grow along the creeks. With no windows and such thick walls, they were cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
The rooms were all fairly small and some of them still had the clay pots buried in the floors for storage and there were still some maize grinders in some of them. I decided we have it pretty soft living in our nice RV!

SEDONA

We drove through Sedona one day. The red rocks are just beautiful. These pictures just do not do them justice!

I couldn't stop taking pictures. I think I must have taken at least 50!

JEROME

We also drove up to Jerome. It is a mining town that is built on a hill. It has been there since the late 1800's. It kind of reminded me of Bisbee down by Sierra Vista. It is pretty much a tourist town now. A cowboy singer/poet that entertained one night at our campground sang a song about Jerome and how "it is not where it used to be." I guess several of the buildings have kind of slid down the hill.
There was a ghost town above Jerome, up by the mine (which is still being worked). We went into the gift shop, but didn't go through the ghost town. There were very few vehicles in the parking lot and there were some kind of strange people hanging around, so we decided to just go back home.

We are now leaving Camp Verde Preserve in Cottonwood and are heading to Lake Powell in Page. The weather is in the 80's for a few days, but it is supposed to cool back down in the next few days. It is pretty nice weather when compared to the snow some of our kids are still getting where they live!

Final Trip to Wikieup

Well, we headed back to Wikieup to spend a few days before we leave it until next fall/winter. Russ and Louise Manwaring stopped and spent a night with us on their way back to Idaho after spending their spring break in Arizona. Russ has one more day at work and then he is retired! Louise surprised us by telling us she is also retiring from teaching school the end of this school year! We thought she was going to teach a couple more years. We look forward to spending more time with them after they retire.
A good friend from my high school years, Ruth, and her husband John, surprised us by stopping by on their way to Phoenix for a baby blessing. They had breakfast with us. We hope to see them again in April when we stay in St. George for a couple of weeks.
Well, the snakes are out. That is the only bad thing that comes with warmer weather. We found a rattler right next to our back door. Terry thought he would do a little target practice on him!With his 22 pistol (and a shovel) Terry got rid of the snake. We are a little worried because Jill and her kids will be here to visit us in a couple of days.
We have had so much company coming and going, I had sheets to wash. I decided to hang them out on the clothes line. You can see Mom's old wringer washer in the background. I thought about telling you that was what I washed them in, but, I really washed them at the laundromat in town and just brought them home to dry.

Jill and the kids flew into Las Vegas, rented a car, and met us at the Trading Post Restaurant in Wikieup where we had a birthday dinner for me. (Yes, I turned the BIG 60!) Sixty is such an ugly number! It won't be much fun until Terry catches up with me in June.

The kids brought me a birthday pie that we took home and celebrated at the Arizona house!

Boe and Kamber were very determined to catch a lizard. The weather has turned out so nice that there were lots of them running around everywhere, even on our porch. Boe is deciding if he is really brave enough to pick one up. After pulling the tail off of this one, he finally was able to pick it up and hold it. We now have a 'Stubby" running around the house. Thank goodness lizards are able to grow their tails back!
The desert is beginning to bloom! Not too many of the cacti have bloomed yet, but there are lots of flowers all over. They are almost as pretty as Kamber!
Well, Terry's fears came true. Here is the mate to the first snake he killed, also curled up by our back step one morning. He must have been hiding under a board when we found the first one.
Terry wasted no time taking care of it. It was a much larger one than the first one. It had about twelve buttons compared to the six that the other one had. Needless to say, the kids didn't get to go wandering in the desert by themselves.

We made some "lizard catchers" and went for a walk, but stayed on the roads. It has rained so much that the grass in the desert is quite tall--a great place for snakes to hide!

The day was warm enough that we got to go play in the Big Sandy River. We found a place last year that is nothing but sand on the bottom and is a really fun place to go wading. Kamber likes to pose for pictures.
Boe is all boy and was covered from top to bottom with sand before he was through. He had to strip to get it all off (but no pics of that!)
We always play lots of games at the Arizona House. Electricity is at a minimum so it is a good excuse to not sit in front of the TV much. I can't remember who won this game, but we all had fun playing.

The next day we turned off the propane, unhooked the solar panel batteries, shut off the water at the well, and closed down the Arizona House. We didn't lock it up this year--just left a note to welcome any visitors, but asking them to leave it as they found it. We would rather have them not break any doors or windows this year if they think they have to get into the house. Hopefully all will be well while we are gone. I am always a little sad to leave each year and am so grateful to my Mom and Dad (and brother Bill) for leaving us such a great place to visit. We will be back next winter.

Sierra Vista

We went to Sierra Vista where my youngest brother, David and his wife Kari and son Blake, live. They were very accommodating and we had a really good time visiting and sharing a couple of meals.The have a very nice home they built several years ago. They did a lot of the work themselves. It is pretty much at the base of a mountain range. They have a great back-yard barbecue area and a pool. I should have gotten more pictures, but it is one of those times I didn't get the camera out very often.While we were at Sierra Vista, our friends from Emmett, Russ and Louise Manwaring, came and stayed with us for a couple of days. The Manwarings are bird watchers or "birders." So we went up Ramsey Canyon which is a bird and wildlife preserve close to Sierra Vista. There were some fascinating trees and plants. This is a tree that grew sideways and then several trees grew up from one of the branches.
The hummingbirds were just starting to come out. I was lucky to get this really good picture of one of them.

The next day we went to the town of Bisbee. It is actually the County Seat for the same county that Sierra Vista and Tucson are both in. It is an old copper mining town that they have preserved from the time it was built in the early 1900's. The mine is no longer being worked. The population in the early years of the town was around 20,000 and now it is about around 10,000 (I think).
We found one of the local "residents" to be very friendly.
The town is build in a small valley and the houses are almost built on top of each other, with long cement and wooden stairs leading from the streets to the homes. They actually have some that are 1,000 steps long. Some are kind of crumbly, but they have tried to keep them preserved, and most are still used by the residents.
The streets are very narrow--some are more like wide sidewalks! It's a good thing Russ and Louise took their small car instead of us driving the dually!

This old VW bus kind of gives you an idea of what many of the residents are like. A lot of them seem to be dressed like the "flower child" era. It is a very "artsy" community and it was fascinating walking around the town.

We want to thank David and Kari for the fun time we had at their home and will definitely plan to visit again next year, if they are willing to put up with us again.

From Savannah to Montana

A salesman came to the park in St. David and had a Montana 5th Wheel with him. We should never have looked at it! Terry has always wanted a Montana, but we were not planning on getting one for another year or so. But, as you can see, we changed our minds. It is a 2005 (the Savannah was a 1998) and is about a foot shorter than the Savannah. It is similarly arranged, but with the kitchen on the other side and the TV and computer desk on the side with a large window in the rear. Terry always wanted that big window in the rear. The only thing is, when we are in an RV park, the scenery is usually the back of another RV! I told him that the window was his and so he has to keep it clean! I really like the computer desk. It is twice as large as the old one and there are two windows to look out of!We bought it at Beaudry RV in Tucson. They have an RV park as part of their sales complex. There is a place called "Transition Row" where they park your new RV and your old RV right next to each other and give you three days to move in, while having both RV's plugged in with electricity and water. It was a great way to do it.
Ryan is now living and working in Phoenix so he came down for the weekend and helped us move. It was so great having his help. After he helped us, he even made time to help our neighbors (an 82 year-old man and his wife) move some of their heavy stuff! For some reason, it seems like the newer RV's just don't have the storage space the older ones do. But, we finally managed to get it all in. Afterwards, we even took it to a certified scales and weighed. We were 167 pounds under the maximum weight for the Montana!! (Wal Mart, here I come.)
The recliners in the Montana were missing and in their place was a rocker/glider. They gave us some money to get another chair, so we just matched the rocker/glider instead of getting a recliner. Terry and Ryan had a good time putting it together (they finally resorted to reading the directions.)
As you can see, we are pretty settled in and our new chairs are very comphfy!! Now we are off to Sierra Vista, AZ, to spend a few days in my brother, David's driveway.

Mar 8-20, St David

We took Ryan to the airport Saturday morning, went back to Casa Grande and we were "on the road again" to St. David. It is about 55 miles south of Tucson, AZ. Travis and his four boys were going to Tucson the same day to spend their Spring Break week in a timeshare condo. Shannon went to London with her sister and then met up with them on Wednesday.

Travis and the boys came to stay with us for a few days. We had a pretty full house and wall-to-wall boys. It was one of the few times that I have been the only female in the house when our any of our family have been with us!
St. David was a really nice RV park. There was a nice little miniature golf course. I am not sure who was the grand champion, but everyone had fun.
The park has two artisan water "lakes" that are more like large ponds. There are lots of ducks and they are stocked with fish. Nathan caught the only fish we caught.
There was a nice pool that the boys all enjoyed. They kept doing cannon balls and dives into the pool. As this picture of Nathan shows, some of them got the photographer kind of wet!
I think this was maybe the first time the boys had played shuffleboard. (I didn't let them know it was an "old people's" game. Here is Nathan, Nicholas, and Josh playing the game.

One day we all went to Tombstone. There were lots of "Kodak" moments to be had.
Here's another one.
Terry and Spencer were trying to have a conversation with this gentleman, but they couldn't get him to talk much!
We went to Boothill Cemetery and walked through all of the grave sites. There were some pretty interesting stories to read about.
The rough and tough "Howard Gang." They are wanted Dead or Alive in some parts of the State of Arizona!

The boys went back to Tucson after spending Sunday through Tuesday with us. On Thursday we met up with them at the Karchner Caverns. They were amazing to see. They were discovered by some cavers (people who like to explore caves) in the 1980's who were exploring a sink hole in the side of a mountain. They kept the caverns a secret for 14 years until the State of Arizona passed a bill to make it a State Park so that they could be protected and preserved. Thanks, Travis and family, for the great time!

We really enjoyed the St. David RV park. We met some really nice people. One of our neighbors came over one day and said they were going to Costco and asked if we needed anything. Then she brought us some chocolate cake the night before we left to say good-by. I even got a haircut from a retired hairdresser who is now an RV'er. It was a great haircut! We look forward to staying at St. David again sometime.

Casa Grande

After getting back Emmett, we left Las Vegas and went to an RV park in Casa Grande, which is about 30 miles south of Phoenix. I feel so bad because this is the first place we have gone (and we were there for two weeks!) that I didn't take any pictures. We had such a good time there. There were so many activities and meals and entertainment that we were busy all of the time. I had pulled a tendon in my ankle and Terry was fighting a bout of gout in his heal, so we rode our tandem bike a lot. Everyone knew who we were because of the bike.

I went to water aerobics and to stretching exercise classes. We went to a couple of seminars and we played pinochle one afternoon. We ate at the clubhouse several times and went to their entertainment at night.

On the way there, one of the tires on the condo blew apart. We were barely able to get off of the freeway to a motel parking lot before it went flat. We changed it there and had to buy four new tires after we got to Casa Grande. Terry had been telling me that the tires were ten years old and needed to be replaced! One of the seminars we went to at the Casa Grande park was on tires. Well, Terry had also been telling me that the pickup needed tires, especially on the front. Well, needless to say, we got new tires for the front of the pickup. Thank goodness it was a new month from the week before when we got the Condo tires (that means it is a new budget cycle).

One day Terry came back from a walk (to the restroom) and said there was someone who just pulled into the park with Idaho 1G license plates! It turned out to be Lester Wallace and his wife. Terry and he knew each other so we visited with them several times. Also, our son Ryan had a job interview in Phoenix while we were there, so he was with us for a few days. One of his best friends, Erik Thomas from Emmett, lives close by with his family, so we got to see them also. It seemed like "old home week!"

Back to Vegas and Emmett

After the Cruise, we went back to Las Vegas where the Condo was sitting waiting for us. Ron and Sharon Vickery surprised us by ending up in Las Vegas also. They had traded in their motorhome on a different one, with a slide. It is really nice and they sure have a lot more room.
I was glad to see them because I left for Emmett a couple of days later to testify in a Federal jury trial concerning a personnel situation when I was the County Clerk. It turned out in my favor, so I was really relieved. Terry was able to do a few things with them while I was gone.
While I was in Emmett, it snowed a couple of inches one day. It was really fun for me to see the snow, knowing I would be headed to warmer weather in a few days. I got to stay with Lorrie in our house. It seemed kind of strange and I felt like it was more her house than mine, which I was glad to feel. I got to see Ryan and Lori and the kids. And, as an added bonus, Jill and Dan and kids came for the weekend because Dan had State Wrestling in Boise. Bob and Lolita had a birthday dinner for Terry's brother Ron, so I got to see lots of people when I was home for those few days. Although, it was kind of scary leaving Terry in Las Vegas all by himself!!