Verde Valley, Cottonwood AZ 4/18/11 - 5/9/11

Verde Valley is one of our favorite Thousand Trail parks and is the only Thousand Trails park in Arizona. We go here every year. It is close to where Travis lives fairly close by and it is a great family park.


We got a really good site, with grass and three trees between Ron & Alice and us, giving us lots of shade. We needed it because we had some really nice weather while we were here. We thought that one of the trees was completely dead and wondered why they had not cut it down. But, by the end of our three-week stay, it was all leafed out!

One of the first things we did was hang up our hummingbird feeder. By the end of the day, we had four and five--even six sometimes--hummingbirds fighting over the nectar. We had to fill the feeder at least once a day to keep them happy!

The feeder really emptied fast when this crazy woodpecker climbed on and drank from it!

There is lots to see around the Verde Valley area. One day we all went to Montezuma's Castle, which is a cliff dwelling of the Sinagua people who lived there in 1100-1400. This was a five-story, 20-room dwelling that was built 100 feet above the valley. A creek below it was a reliable source of water, and there was fertile land on the nearby terrace. It is amazing to see how they must have lived.

That same day, we took the loop and drove through Sedona and saw all of the red rock mountains. Pictures just do not do these mountains justice--at least the pictures I take of them.

The Saturday before Easter, Travis and his family came and spent the day with us. We went to Montezuma's Well, which also has prehistoric Sinaguan cliff and cave dwellings around it. The well is a natural sinkhole 368 feet wide, with cliffs that tower 70 feet above the water's surface. Every day over 1.5 million gallons of warm (74 degrees) water flows into the Well, fed by three to four large underwater vents, some as deep as 56 feet below the surface. The water exits the well through a cave 300 feet long, emerging into an irrigation ditch originally constructed almost 1,000 years ago thy the people of the Sinagua culture who lived and farmed here for centuries. The irrigation ditch is still used today! (Can you tell this description came off of the flyer?)

We also went to Tuzigoot, which is the remnant of a Southern Sinagua village. It is built on a long ridge that rises 120 feet above the Verde Valley, It was originally two stories high in places, with 77 ground-floor rooms. There were few exterior doors; entry was by way of ladders through openings in the roofs. There were probably as many as 200 people living there at one time.

At the end of the day, before the kids left, we had to have Mug Cakes. These are individual cakes made in mugs in the microwave. Everyone seemed to like them. Here are Spencer and Josh eating theirs.

One of the things we hadn't done in previous years was to take the wilderness train ride on the Verde Canyon Railroad. Russ and Louise, our friends from Emmett, were in the area so they came with us.

We rode in the open cars the whole way, which took about three hours. It was a little windy but we had a great view.

Terry, Russ, and Louise seem to be enjoying the ride.

The train went over this long trestle and it was quite a view to the bottom where a river ran under it.

They do a lot of copper mining in a nearby town called Jerome. We rode by their slag pile, which was huge. They are now mining the slag pile and making a lot of money from gold and other minerals they are getting from it. They say that the pile will all be gone in about ten years.

When they poured onto the pile, the slag was hot and almost a liquid. So, they put up these metal walls until it hardened. The walls are about all fallen down and it is not a very petty site. But, no one can see it unless you ride the train!

We were riding along and all of a sudden smelled smoke. We thought the train might be on fire. Well, the train got stopped, backed up, and we saw what was burning--this pile of half rotten cacti. Several men got off the train with shovels and put the fire out.

We went through these beautiful rock canyons, with a river flowing through it. Some of the rocks had already been named--Turtle Rock. . .

. . . and Noah's Ark. There were many more that we could use our imagination to decide what they looked like.

This is the "Shadow Train" that followed us the whole way! Those people kind of resembled Terry, me, Louise, and Russ!

The Scentsy directors that I sell under, Mary and Casey, happened to be doing a fair in the area, so we kind of joined in with them. We didn't make many sales, but it was fun to see how they did things, especially when they go to a five-day event like the Verde Valley Fair. Thanks, Mary and Casey, for the fun time!

I had made some vinyl picnic table and bench covers some time ago and finally got to use them. Most of the Thousand Trail parks have 6' picnic tables, but a lot of the other parks have small ones or don't have any at all. It was nice having a heavy duty table cloth that was harder for the wind to blow off, and bench covers so there was no chance of slivers!

Terry, again in his favorite position, using his new chair that Larry and Elaine had gotten him in Casa Grande. I still haven't gotten mine bought yet, but I will.

Ron and Alice try to keep Terry away, but it is a hard job!

The day before we left Verde Valley, we went to "Out of Africa" Wildlife Park. I tried to superimpose Ron and Alice in this picture because they were with us, but after I did it, I couldn't quite figure out how to get it to the BLOG. I will have to practice on that one.

The first thing we did there is go on a "safari ride" and see lots of the animals. We got to feed carrots to a giraffe.

They didn't want us to feed the zebras because they tend to bite!

I thought this goat's antlers were unique. They said that they help camouflage them in the bushes.

The tour guide/bus driver got out and played with the ostrich. It tends to grab cameras and sun glasses from people, so we had to be a little careful if it came too close!

I don't remember seeing too many of this kind of cattle in Idaho!

After the safari ride we went up where the animals had high fences between them and humans! This lion seemed pretty friendly, though. He was showing off for us enjoying his "pool." There were lots more animals and I took a "ton" of pictures.

While we waited for the "Tiger Splash" program we ate lunch and Ron and Alice enjoyed nice ice cream cones. (Alice always gets chocolate!)

Ron seems to be enjoying his ice cream cone, too!

The Tiger Splash program that day had their white tiger performing. They would tease him with toys and then hold them over the water and he would jump into the water. They aren't trained to do any of this. They just play naturally. The tiger did get a little irrigated at one of the staff and kind of nipped him on the leg! The guy limped a little after the bite!

After the tiger show they brought out the "big" snake. I think she was about a 14 feet long boa constrictor. Alice and I got brave enough to go in and pet him.

Terry decided that if the girls could do it, he could too! And he really does not like snakes, so I was surprised he got this close. Ron decided to just take pictures. We spent most all of the day at the wildlife park and had a good time.

It was nice staying at Verde Valley for three weeks, but at the end we were all ready to "get on the road again" and off to Bullhead City.

Desert Shadows, Casa Grande AZ 4/4/11 - 4/18/11

We had a very busy 2 weeks at Casa Grande, mostly busy trying to think of things to do with our company.

Elaine and Larry, from Boring OR, got there the same afternoon we did. We had plans to stay just a few days and then go to Wikieup and meet up my brother, Bill. Well, that didn't happen, so they got stuck with staying with us for two weeks. I hope they had as good of a time as we did. They were so good about being happy with whatever we decided to do. They slept on our hide-a-bed, but kept all of their "stuff" out in their car. This helped the congestion in the Condo, but they sure had to pull out their suitcases a lot!


There were doves who hung around a lot. Here is one of them sitting on our bicycle seat. I was terrible about taking very many pictures of all of the things we did with Larry and Elaine. We went to the clubhouse a couple of times and had a great time playing games with them, Ron and Alice, and Russ and Louise (Russ and Louise were in the park for part of the time that we were.) We took a trip into Mesa to the Mesa Market Place, which is a huge swap meet, where Elaine bought a really cute patchwork jacket, along with other stuff we bought.

Another time, we went to Costco and they insisted on buying Terry a new recliner chair (for outside.) The kids went together over four years ago and got each of us chairs. We have re-strung both of them, but Terry's finally gave out and tore apart at the seams from being in the sun so much. They were sneaky and bought one for him (besides leaving money for me a new chair in a thank-you card that we found after they left!) for us letting them stay with us.

One of the several times we made a trip into the Mesa/ Gilbert area was to go see Travis at his office. He is a general surgeon in Gilbert. We always seem to have "little procedures" for him to do.

Usually, it is Terry who is sitting in this seat. But, this time I went under the knife! Terry was ready with the camera and took all kinds of gory pics, but I erased most of them. (I have that special authority with anything on the camera!)

Travis did a great job taking a couple of little cancer spots off of my face and arm. It is sure handy to have a "doc" in the family, especially one who doesn't charge too much! (He actually took one off of Terry's arm the next week--but I didn't take pics) We went with Larry and Elaine to Travis and Shannon's home a couple of times--with them feeding us dinner once. Elaine is so good with kids (she was a teacher in her pre-retirement life) and the kids had fun getting to know them.

Another time we went to Mesa was to take Larry and Elaine to see the Easter pageant at the Mesa Temple. (This picture is actually off of the program.) We had great seats and before the the pageant started, the cast walked around in their costumes and visited with everyone. Because of the location of our seats, many of them stopped and visited with us. The show was wonderful and I think all of us were really touched by the story of the life of Christ.

One thing we did a lot of with Elaine and Larry is eat! I think I gained about 15 pounds the two weeks they stayed with us. And, as you can see, they sometimes enjoyed the food I cooked a little too much!

We had such a fun time having them stay with us. They taxied us around wherever we wanted to go and were always ready to do anything or go anywhere. We sat around and visited a lot and (if we didn't already) we feel like they are part of our family. We look forward to seeing them again this summer at Hell's Canyon.

Valley Vista, Benson AZ & Brother David's, Sierra Vista AZ 3/28/11 - 4/4/11

We left St. David and went to Valley Vista, just down the road in Benson AZ. We stayed there for only four days before we went on to my brother, David's, in Sierra Vista. I was really lazy about taking pictures at Valley Vista, but we had a nice time there. We got really nice sites at the very back of the park and our back window faced the desert where we could watch all of the "critters."

We arrived at David and Kari's on my birthday, so the first thing we did was go to dinner! Of course, David let someone there know it was my birthday and so the waiters brought me a little cake and sang to me (while my face turned red!) That afternoon, Terry surprised me with a little portable ice maker. It is so cool! (That was a play on words--did you get it?) Now we can have ice whenever we need it.


Dave has a really nice pool and they uncovered it while we were there. Unfortunately, the water hadn't heated up enough to enjoy swimming in it yet. Dave has rigged up a black plastic hose heating system that works pretty well to heat it, but it takes a few days.

Terry always saves a project or two to do while we are at David's house. He has so many nice tools to do things with (plus a lot of expertise advise and help) that it makes it easier to do there. It only took Terry and Ron most of the day to change a serpentine belt on the Red Hippo. (If they could have read directions better it would have been much easier!)

We and Ron & Alice went to a hummingbird banding while we were in Sierra Vista. It was so fun to watch. They catch these fragile little birds in traps and then do several statistical things with them, including weighing them, and then they put a tiny little band around their leg for tracking purposes.

After they get everything done with them, they choose a person (none of us were chosen) and put the hummingbird in their hand and let it fly away. Some sit a bit before they fly away, and some just take off right away. They say that if they leave a "deposit" in your hand that it will bring you good luck! That never happened with any that we saw fly away, but I am sure it is true.

David has built a great barbecue in his back yard and he cooked us some great brats one night.

We had a good meal with Kari, Alice, Ron, Terry, Dave, and Blake.

I can't believe Blake will be 16 this summer. He is anxious to get his driver's license. Here he is with Max.

As usual, we had a great time staying at David's for a few days. As long as he doesn't kick us out, we hope to keep this up as an annual stay. I mean, where else can we park with hospitality like barbecue meals cooked for you, a fully stocked garage at your disposal, water, electricity, and a private bathroom with a black toilet! Thanks Dave, Kari, and Blake!

St David, St David AZ 3/17/11 - 3/28/11

Our first park with Ron and Alice was St David. We had been there several times, but it was the first time for them. It is always fun to be at some of your favorite places with someone new because it is kind of like seeing it again for the first time.

This park has two nice little lakes. There is actually fish in them and quite of few fishermen catch some of them. The park had been hit pretty hard with some winter frost so it wasn't quite rejuvenated from that yet, but it was still nice.

We took Ron and Alice to Tombstone and Boothill, another place we had been to before. But it was fun being there with them.

We had to make sure that Terry left his shotgun and 22 pistol home (he carries both in the Condo, which fascinates some of the grandkids!)

One of my Mom's favorite characters was John Wayne. She collected his movies and had posters of him. I had to tell him "hi" from her, as he stood here big as life!

We went on into the cemetery. There were some pretty creative headstones.

Alice is examining this closed-in grave. You will have to ask her who it was because I don't remember!

Ron and Terry found this long-lost relative, Tex Howard, buried here!

We went on into Tombstone. A lot of the buildings are the original ones built at the time of the O. K. Corral gunfight. One we went into was the Bird Cage Theatre Museum. They say there are still ghosts walking around at night in the theater.

Alice and I enjoyed going into all of the little shops. You can see what Ron and Terry did a lot of! But, they patiently waited for us, most of the time.

We went into Big Nose Kate's Saloon for lunch. An armed character tried to intimidate Terry, but he handled it pretty well!

Downstairs at Big Nose Kate's is a gift shop and there is a really unique spiral staircase going down into it.

There is a legend about a man who worked at Big Nose Kate's (originally The Grand Hotel) as a janitor and odd job man, known as "The Swamper." He had a bedroom down in the dark basement. He never invited any guest down there where he kept a secret passion for silver.

From this room, he dug a tunnel that entered into a mine that had a thick vein of silver in which he extracted ounce by ounce of the silver nuggets. Legend has it that this silver is still hidden somewhere on the premises of the Grand Hotel. Several workers of the now "Big Nose Kate's Saloon" will swear that they have seen a ghost wandering the halls and stairs. It has been reasoned that the ghost is indeed "The Swamper" and that his afterlife is being spent protecting the silver that may still be buried somewhere in this legendary building!

All too soon, it is time to get things ready to "get on the road again." Ron is making sure that Terry is getting everything put away okay. We are on to more adventures!