And Texas Makes Ten

We have a map of the United States on the side of our motorhome and each time we visit a new state, we put a sticker of that state on the map. Yesterday we were able to add Texas, which makes the tenth state we have been to since starting our motorhome travels. It's hard to believe when we first started out we thought we'd take two, maybe three years to visit all the continental states. Obviously it's going to take us a lot longer than that. We've been on the road for over a year and a half now and we've only been to ten states!

Yesterday we drove about 350 miles from Deming, NM to Fort Stockton, Texas. I took quite a few pictures along the way, but after looking at them, they all looked pretty much the same. Lots of wide open, mostly flat spaces. Today we drove another 250 miles from Fort Stockton to Kerrville. We saw our first oil rigs today and we're now in an area they call "the hill country." It's quite lovely.

I will call the dentist tomorrow to see when I can get an appointment, but we're hoping to stay here for a couple more nights to explore the area before we go to Luling.

Deming, New Mexico

On Friday we started our trip toward Texas. First stop, Hidden Valley Ranch RV Park in Deming, New Mexico. The place is aptly named as it is hidden away at the end of about 7 miles of gravel road in a picturesque valley just north of Deming. Our original plan had been to spend 3 nights in Deming. But we decided to cut our visit short since the crown on one of my teeth broke Friday afternoon. We figured we should move along to get to Luling, Texas (where we plan to stay for a couple of weeks) a few days early so I'd have more time to get my crown fixed.

We will definitely have to come back to this park when we have a chance though. It was so peaceful and quiet and lovely and we enjoyed watching all the critters in the area.

Tombstone, Arizona

We went to the town of Tombstone, Arizona yesterday. It is known as "The Town Too Tough to Die." It was a booming mining town in the late 1800's. Days of lawlessness and violence, which nearly had then-President Chester A. Arthur declaring martial law in Tombstone and sending in military troops to restore order, climaxed with the infamous Earp-Clanton battle, fought near the rear entrance of the O.K. Corral, on October 26, 1881.

The historic downtown area of Tombstone is well preserved, with most of the original buildings still standing. The "Gunfight at the OK Corral" is re-enacted a few times a day and miners, cowboys and gunslingers roam the streets. We enjoyed the authentic old west feel.



The Tombstone Cemetery - known as Boothill - is evidence of the violent lifestyle so many of Tombstone's residents lived. Among the average citizens, the graveyard is filled with victims of shootings, bar fights, murders, lynchings, etc. It was interesting, but kind of sad too.



But Tombstone was not without beauty. Tombstone is home to the world's largest rosebush. It is a white Lady Banksia. The original root came from Scotland in 1885, a gift to a new bride so she could have a spot of beauty in the rugged town. The rosebush has never been fertilized or sprayed with any insecticides and it now covers an area of more than 8600 square feet. It is just beginning its spring bloom and is absolutely covered with buds. I can imagine how incredible it must be when in full bloom.

Golf Course View

We're back in Casa Grande for a couple nights as we prepare to begin our journey east. We are staying at the Casa Grande Golf and RV resort again which is quickly becoming one of Tom's favorite RV parks due to the cheap golf rates for RV park guests. We have a really nice site this time around right beside the tee box for the 9th hole. It has a gorgeous view. Monday we will leave here and travel about two hours to Benson, Arizona where we will stay for a few days seeing the sights in the south central area of the state.

Scrumptious Strawberries

While the motorhome was in the shop yesterday, we ran a few errands and then decided we'd go back to our "camping site" at a local casino to sit outside and read. But along the way I missed a turn and we ended up off the main road for a mile or so. That's when we noticed a long line at a small roadside strawberry stand. We thought that sounded like a good idea so stopped to buy some. The line moved very slowly which irritated us a little at first until we realized the workers were picking the strawberries in the field in front of us as we stood there and were bringing them directly to the stand. The gals at the stand were then checking each strawberry as they packed it into baskets for sale. Can't get much fresher than that! We got a few baskets and I couldn't wait to sample them. Sweet, juicy and delicious! What a great find.

Roof Repair Saga Concludes

Those of you who have been following this blog know we've been dealing with recurring stress cracks on the roof seams of our motorhome. We found what we hope and pray will be the last of the cracks in November. A shop in Yuma repaired them in December by adding extra strips of fiberglass along both the front and rear seams. The expectaion is that this reinforcement of the seams will prevent new cracks from forming. The addition of the fiberglass strips went well, but the shop did not do as good a job as we would have liked of matching the paint.

We brought the motorhome back to Yuma in January so they could fix it. They got the front end matched/blended well, but the back end was still not satisfactory.

So yesterday we came back to Yuma to give them one more shot at getting things right. They did the work today and Glory Hallelujah the paint on the rear looks perfect. We'd been praying the third time would be the charm and God answered yes.

Tomorrow we will start heading east with the goal of being in Texas, near San Antonio, by mid March to visit our friends Elizabeth and Roland and then in Florida by early May for a long anticipated trip to Disneyworld.

Which means we're on the move again. Keep checking the blog to see where we are and what we're doing.

I Drove It!

After travleing and living in our motorhome for almost a year and a half and leaving all the driving duties to Tom, today I finally bit the bullet and got in the driver's seat. I drove from one rest area to another (about 60 miles) down I-8 between Casa Grande and Yuma, AZ. It took me awhile to get the feel of things, but I was feeling pretty relaxed by the time we pulled into the rest area to switch places.

I'll still leave the city driving to Tom for now, but at least I know I can comfortably spell him on the highway stretches if need be. And maybe as time goes by, I'll get brave enough to stay behind the wheel in small towns and someday even graduate to driving in the big city. Or, maybe not.

Scottsdale Dog Show - February 2009

Last Wednesday we drove up to Scottsdale to get settled into our spot at the showgrounds. There were 5 days of shows with major wins available in Norwich every day. So I had high hopes that Gracie might be finished by the end of the weekend. But it was not to be. It just wasn't our weekend. No additional points for Gracie.

In spite of that, we had tons of fun hanging out with all our dog show friends. We had a big party at our RV on Saturday night and grilled burgers and drank margaritas.

Several of our friends had success over the weekend including our buddy Bill Shelton who took Best In Show with his Pembroke Welsh Corgi one day.

So we are still in search of majors for Gracie. Kind of disappointing, but we're not overly upset. It just means we still have an excuse to go to more dog shows.

Tom's Best Golf Game

While at the Casa Grande Golf and RV resort, Tom had his two best golf games ever! He shot a 92 one day which was the first time he broke 100. Then the next day he shot an 82! The next day we had to leave for the Scottsdale dog shows so he didn't get to try for 72. But hopefully we'll be back to that park so he can play the course again soon.

Roadrunner

We are still in Casa Grande but today we moved to a different RV park where we'll be until Wednesday when we head to Scottsdale for Gracie's next dog show. This park is attached to an 18 hole golf course where we get to golf for 1/2 price most of the day, and FREE after 4:00. As my step-dad is fond of saying, "Free is good." So we took advantage and played nine holes this evening. Tom had a pretty good round and mine wasn't awful, so we were happy. While waiting for our tee time, we saw this roadrunner perched on a fence near the pro-shop.

Dash and Gracie picture

While we went to the horse show, our friends Jeff and Karen were nice enough to take care of Dash and Gracie for us so we didn't have to worry about how much time we spent away from home. They have a huge yard where the dogs like to run. And both the dogs just love Jeff and Karen so they had a great time without us. Karen took this adorable picture while the dogs were there and I love it so much, I wanted to share it with everyone.

Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show

We have a friend from the dog show world who is also involved with horses and horse shows. She came down from Oregon to Arizona this week to help a friend who was showing a horse at the big Arabian Horse show they have in Scottsdale each year. We went to the show yesterday to visit with Arlene and also to see the amazingly beautiful horses. This was our first horse show. There are a lot of similarities to dog shows, but it's all on a much bigger - and even more expensive - scale.

Phoenix Dog Shows

We just finished four days of dog shows at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix. The above video is of Gracie during her "individual exam". On three of the four days, Gracie took Reserve Winners - which is basically like Miss America Runner Up. Nice to know she was in the running, but it didn't get us any addtional points toward her championship.

But as always, we enjoyed ourselves anyway. We saw many of our dog show buddies and some friends had a party at their house on Saturday evening for the Norwich exhibitors. Tom's daughter Shannon came out to the show with a friend of hers for a few hours one day. It was Shannon's first time at a dog show and it was fun showing her around.

Now we are back in Casa Grande, AZ for the next couple of weeks where we'll hang out until our next dog show in Scottsdale at the end of the month.

Golf and Super Bowl

We attended the FBR golf tournament in Scottsdale this past Thursday and Saturday. Thursday was the first qualifying round with over 120 golfers out on the course. We followed the group with Zach Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Justin Leonard for a little while on Thursday. Then we sort of skipped around trying to get a look at some of the other big name golfers. We saw Anthony Kim, Kenny Perry, Stewart Cink, David Toms, J.B. Holmes, Luke Donald, Rocco Mediate and several others, but still didn't manage to see everyone we'd have liked to. It was a darn good thing we got to watch Phil Mickelson and Anthony Kim that first day because neither one of them qualified for the final two rounds on Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, we again followed Zach Johnson's group - which included Scott Piercy and Lucas Glover - for the first 7 holes, then we made our way to the 18th green and watched all the golfers finish up. Scott Piercy had a great start to his day, getting 4 birdies on his first 7 holes. He got a few more birdies after we stopped watching and was in the lead for a little while, but then he seemed to fall apart the last few holes with 3 bogeys. We watched Kenny Perry make an impossibly long putt to get a birdie on the 18th hole to take the lead on Saturday which was kind of fun because it was Kenny Perry who ultimately won the tournament on Sunday.

Sunday of course was Super Bowl Sunday. Tom's daughter Shannon came with us to our friends Jeff and Karen's house to watch the game. We had a great time snacking on all the food and cheering on the Arizona Cardinals.

On Wednesday we'll be moving to the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix for a dog show this weekend. The entry is big enough for "majors" all four days. So it is possible Gracie could be a champion by Sunday. She just needs to win the points 2 of the four days. But bigger entries means more competion, so keep your fingers crossed for us.

PGA Golf Tournament

Tomorrow is the first day of the FBR Open PGA Golf Tournament in Scottsdale, AZ. Many of the big names are playing, including Phil Mickelson, Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas, Zach Johnson, J.B. Holmes and more. We are planning to attend at least two of the four days of the tournament and so today we moved to an RV park in Mesa. The first golfers tee off at 7:40 am tomorrow. What are the odds Jo will get up early enough for us to see that?

Monster Jam

When we thought our nephew Luke was going to be with us for the entire month of January, we bought tickets to take him to a Monster Jam event in Phoenix. Sadly, Luke had to leave a little early so wouldn't be able to go. But we decided to go ourselves anyway. What the heck, we'd already bought the tickets. It could be fun. And it was!

The huge colorful trucks, the noise, the energy of the crowd all made for an exciting evening. There are two parts to a Monster Jam event. First is the racing where two trucks go head to head around a short course which includes sharp turns and a jump. The fastest moves on to the next round and the losers are eliminated until finally only one winner remains. The second part is the "freestyle" competition where one truck at a time will pop wheelies, make big jumps, spin donuts and perform whatever other tricks they have in their repertoire within the allotted time. Each performance is scored by 3 judges and the highest score wins. Most times a different truck will win each event, but last night it was Jimmy Creten driving Bounty Hunter who won them both.

Casa Grande again - feels like home

Well, the re-work on our roof repairs is finished and the majority of our concerns with the original work have been corrected. But unfortunately the paint still doesn't quite match to our satisfaction on the back end, which means we will be making yet another trip to Yuma in a month. But for now, we have left Yuma and are back in Casa Grande, AZ. We've spent so much time here over the last year, it's starting to feel like home. We really enjoy this area. Casa Grande is still pretty much a small town, but has all the goods and services you need for daily life, including several golf courses. It's also less than an hour away from the Phoenix area to the north and Tucson to the south. So there's plenty in the area to keep us busy.

Yuma part 2

All too soon our time in Quartzsite has come to an end. We had so much fun visiting with friends, old and new, we hated to leave. But we had to return to Yuma for just a bit more work on the roof of the motorhome. Last time we were here, we had what we hope will be the last of the fiberglass cracks in the roof repaired, but we weren't entirely satisfied with the paint matching job and some of the smaller details. It was as much our fault as the shop's since they only had 2 days to do the work as we were trying to leave to get to the dog show in Indio.

Anyway, we are now back in Yuma and will take the coach into the shop tomorrow for the finishing touches. The good news is we heard from Monaco this morning and they are going to cover the cost of the repairs under our warranty. We had been hoping they would, but weren't entirely sure since we are actually a couple months past the end of the warranty period. Even though it seems like we've had to get a lot of pesky repairs along with a few major ones, Monaco has been very good about paying for it all, so we can't complain too much.

Hopefully we'll only be here for a couple of days, and then it's on to the Phoenix area for a golf tournament (as spectators) and a dog show (as exhibitors.)

Luke Heads Home

Well, we are up to 12 RVs in our group out here at Quartzsite with at least one other supposed to arrive today. But we are down one camper. Yesterday was the last day of Luke's visit with us. Early this morning Tom drove him back to Palm Springs to catch a plane home to Anchorage. His vacation is over and it's time to go back to school. We'll miss him.

Gathering in Quartzsite, AZ

Friday we arrived in Quartzsite, AZ to meet up with a group of RVing friends. This place is hugely popular for winter RVers because it's extremely inexpensive. Many folks will spend several months out in the dispersed camping areas of the BLM desert land where there is no electricity, no water, no sewer dumps for miles and miles. They have it down to a science. They have water tanks in their trucks to haul fresh water out to their RVs and then another tank to take the waste water back out to a dump station. Many have several solar panels installed on their roofs to help keep their batteries charged.

We are not that adventurous. We are staying in an area of BLM land that is minimally developed for camping. There are a few sewer dump and fresh water stations located in the area as well as portapotties. And there are a few paved roads to get you out into the camping areas. Then you pull off into the desert - which is hard ground around here - and set up camp wherever you want.

There are 8 RVs and 17 people here from our group so far. More should be arriving this weekend.

One of the gals, most of us call her Mama (though she is nowhere near old enough to be any of our mamas), was brave enough to offer to make dinner for everyone tonight! She has a delicious salmon recipe that we will all get to enjoy. Luke helped a couple of the guys build a large firepit, so tonight hopefully we'll all gather 'round the campfire after dinner. Tomorrow night is a potluck.

In addition to being the winter home of thousands of RVers, Quartzsite also has what has to be the worlds biggest flea market. Vendor tents stretch for miles along the frontage roads next to the highway and there are organized "shows" in the Big Tent a few times a year. This week is the 26th annual Sports, Vacation and RV show. After that is a Hobby, Craft and Gem Show and then a Rock and Roll Classic Car Show. Unfortunately we are only staying through Monday, so we'll miss the Gem and Car shows.

Golfing

Yesterday Tom and Luke met up with our friend Don (who spends much of his winter in the Palm Springs area) for a game of golf. They played at the City of Indio Golf Course, which is an 18 hole, long par 3 course that is lit up at night. Tom and Luke kind of liked playing in the dark but Don said it was harder for him to follow his ball. Either way, I thought it looked very pretty.

After golf, we met up with some of Don's friends for dinner at a place called Babe's BBQ and Brewhouse. YUM!

FMCA Rally, Indio, CA

We spent last week at the motorhome rally in Indio, along with about 3000 other attendees. We went to a few seminars, did some shopping at the vendors and enjoyed the entertainment in the evenings. We were parked next to our friends Mic and Rick and had cocktails one evening with folks who were parked across from us in Palm Creek last November.

The theme of this year's rally was "the wonders of ancient egypt" and the various member chapters put on a parade on afternoon based on the theme. There were some pretty elaborate costumes and floats.

Reminder from Fairbanks

Just in case we were starting to take the blessing of our new lifestyle for granted, a friend sent us a picture from Fairbanks that was taken yesterday. We actually do thank God daily that we are able to travel around as we do, but after seeing this picture, we'll add a few extra amens!

First Week of the New Year

We've already been pretty busy this first week of the new year. New Year's Day found us parked at the show grounds for the Palm Springs Kennel Club dog show where Gracie was entered. After getting ourselves all organized at the site, we were surprised with a knock on our door from a friend who lives in Anchorage. Debbie had her Norwich entered in the show too. It was great to spend a bit of time catching up with her again.

On Friday our nephew Luke flew in from Anchorage. He will be staying with us for the month of January. It will be fun to have someone to share the adventures with. He brought his guitar with him and played for us a little bit that first night. I'm very impressed with what an accomplished musician he has become in the relatively short time he has been playing.

On Saturday evening, we hosted a get-together for some of our dog show friends who were there that weekend. My hope had been that it would have been warm enough for us to all hang out outside the motorhome, but it was a bit cool and breezy that evening so we had about a dozen people inside the motorhome. We were cozy, but not too cramped. And we all had a great time. We were pleased to have been able to spend time with old friends and get to know some new friends better.

As for the show itself, well, it was not our weekend. An important part in the presentation of a Norwich is the coat, and Gracie just doesn't have much right now. It got too long about a month ago and had to be stripped out and not enough has grown back yet. So as it turned out, Gracie was just there to help contribute to the point total for the other exhibitors.

However, it was a good weekend for friends. Nancy and Dwaine finished the championship on one of their girls and Carolyn got "majors" on both her Norwich and her Kerry Blue Terrier.

After the dog show, we took the short drive to a county park in La Quinta (still the Palm Springs area). It's a nice, quiet park with trees and a lake. We will enjoy relaxing here for the next couple of days before going to the motorhome rally on Wednesday.

Happy New Year

Today we moved from Yuma to Indio, California, near Palm Springs. Gracie is entered at the Palm Springs Kennel Club dog show this weekend and then we'll stay around the area for a couple more weeks.

Cocopah Golf Cart Christmas Parade

Tonight was the annual Golf Cart Christmas Parade here at the Cocopah RV resort. Many of the residents who own golf carts do them up with lights and decorations and they all parade up and down the streets of the RV park.

Tom and I sat out front of our RV with a glass of wine and Christmas songs playing on our iPod speakers and cheered them on. It was all very fun and festive.

Tamale Festival

Last Saturday was the annual Tamale Festival in Yuma. There were over 30 vendors with various kinds of tamales. We were able to buy a string of tickets which could then be traded for one tamale each from any vendor we chose.

We sampled all sorts of tamales. Everything from the traditional pork to beef, chicken, cheese, bean and any combination thereof. But the really different ones were the dessert tamales with pineapple, raisins, cinnamon, etc. The most unique was a chocolate tamale.

There was also a stage with various musical acts performing throughout the day. Our favorite was the Mariachi Band.

We had a great time.

Yuma, Arizona

After the dog show, we settled ourselves into the Cocopah Golf and RV Resort here in Yuma. We'll be here for the month of December. Tom immediately decorated the palm tree behind our RV with Christmas lights. This park has a regular 18 hole golf course as well as a driving range, so Tom is happy.

I have a friend who spent some time in Yuma last winter and made the trip to Mexico to have some dental work done. She told me her dentist had state of the art equipment and low prices. So when part of one of my fillings fell out a couple days after we got here, I decided to call her dentist to get it fixed. They got me in the next day.

We drove to the border and parked the car on the U.S. side, then walked across the border into Los Algodones, Mexico. The dentist's office was only a couple blocks away. Everyone in the office spoke english which made it easy on us. Turns out the reason my filling fell out is that my tooth was cracked all the way through. Which meant simply replacing the filling was not going to work. The entire tooth actually had to come out and I was fitted with a temporary bridge - two crowns attached to "real" teeth with a fake tooth in the middle.

Today I went back to have the permanent bridge installed. All went well.

While we were there, we decided Tom should also have his teeth checked since it had been awhile since he'd had a checkup. Poor guy had six cavities!

The good thing about it all is the cost was probably about half what it would have been at a U.S. dentist and insurance should cover the majority of it.

After the dental work was complete this afternoon, we wandered around town a bit and bought a beautiful ceramic bowl and a colorful planter in the shape of a frog. We have named him Francisco.

Thanksgiving weekend show in Yuma

Gracie was entered in four days of dog shows starting the day after Thanksgiving. So Thanksgiving day found us on the road to Yuma, Arizona. We put a turkey breast in the crock pot, using a recipe that would make the turkey, gravy and stuffing all together, and had that cooking as we traveled down the road.

Once we got to the Yuma Fairgrounds where the show was being held and got ourselves set up for the weekend, the turkey feast was ready to go.

As for the show, we had a great time. Our friends Tish and Orville were there and we had fun getting to know some other Norwich exhibitors better.

We showed Gracie the first day and she was second in her class. The next day, she took first in her class and then went Winner's "female dog" which means she got points towards her championship. It takes 15 points to become a champion and the number of points a dog earns at each show is determined by the number of dogs competing in that breed. Among the 15 points, you have to earn two "major wins" of 3 - 5 points (5 being the max available at any show no matter how many dogs are entered). So once you get to 9 points without any majors, the dog is said to be "singled out" meaning it needs majors now to finish its championship. 1 or 2 point wins won't help. After Saturday's win, Gracie is now singled out. Now we need to find shows with a big enough entry for major wins. So we didn't show Sunday or Monday. If she had won the points, it wouldn't help her and it would take points away from another dog who could use them. Plus, if truth be told, we had early morning ring times on Sunday and Monday and I'm not a fan of early.

Our next show will be Palm Springs in early January and we're hoping for a big entry there.

Casa Grande Ruins

A couple of weeks ago we visited more ancient ruins, this time in Casa Grande, Arizona. This was a ground dwelling village built by the Hohokam people hundreds of years ago. They used "caliche" which they found just a few feet below the surface and is much like cement. When mixed with water, it formed a mud that dried extremely hard and almost an entire house has survived the elements over time. Several other partial walls of houses and other structures remain from the original village. The roof over the "big house" was built in the '30s to help preserve the ruins.

Tucson Dog Show

We just got back from 3 days of dog shows in Tucson this past weekend.

The first day Gracie won "Winner's Bitch" which means she earned more points toward her championship. The second day she won her class but that was it and the third day she again won her class and then took "Reserve Winner's Bitch" which is sort of like Miss America Runner-Up. No points, but nice to know she was close.

Our friends Jeff and Karen were there too and our motorhomes were parked next to each other so we got to do a lot of visiting. They had a big pot-luck gathering one night and then they came to dinner at our place the next night. It was great to be able to catch up with them since we hadn't seen them since we left Arizona last spring.

Are You Ready for Some Football?!?

I am a diehard San Francisco 49ers fan and last Monday they played the Arizona Cardinals for the Monday Night Football game and we got to go watch the game live! We went with Tom's daughter, Shannon and her husband, Pat who is also a huge Niners fan.

It was a well fought game that was decided in just the last few seconds. Unfortunately, the Cardinals won but we had a great time cheering on our team right to the end.

This was the first time Tom had ever been to a live professional football game and the first time I'd ever gotten to see the Niners play in person so it was a thrill for both of us.

Tom's favorite team is the Washington Redskins and we're hoping maybe we'll get to go to one of their games when we are on the east coast next year.

Pickleball

What is Pickleball you ask? Well, it's sort of like tennis but on a smaller court, with paddles instead of rackets and a whiffle type ball instead of a tennis ball. It's also a lot of fun! They have Pickleball courts here at the RV park where we're staying this month and the park's Pickleball club offers lessons. We took the lessons a couple weeks ago and enjoyed it so much we went right out and bought ourselves our own set of paddles. We've been at a few other RV parks that have Pickleball courts so hopefully we'll have the chance to play often as we travel around.

Back in Casa Grande, AZ

We are now in Casa Grande, AZ at the Palm Creek RV and Golf Resort. We stayed here for a month this past spring and enjoyed it so much, we made a point to come back again. It's a very nice RV park with lots of ammenities including two swimming pools, billiard room, exercise room, computer lab, sewing room, silversmithing shop, etc.

But our favorite ammenity is the 18 hole "executive" golf course. An executive golf course is one that has all par 3 holes, or mostly par 3 and a few par 4s. No par 5s like a regular course would have. So this course is easy enough to be fun, but still has a few more difficult holes to make it challenging. And the best part is it's very inexpensive for residents of the RV park.

We arrived here on Monday afternoon and Tom was out on the course Tuesday morning at 7:30 am!

We will be here until Thanksgiving so we should have lots of chances to work on our golf games.

A Visit with Aubrey

On Friday we drove an hour north to Flagstaff where my niece, Aubrey, goes to college. Aubrey is a music/voice major and is part of the elite jazz choir at the school. They had a concert on Friday night. It was the first time I've actually been able to watch her perform. What a treat. Before the concert, we had dinner with Aubrey and her boyfriend, Ben. It was so wonderful to spend time with Aubrey and get to know Ben better. I wish we'd had more time together.

Jerome

We took a day last week to visit the town of Jerome. In it's heyday as a major copper mining area, Jerome was once the 4th largest city in Arizona and was sometimes known as the wickedest city in Arizona. After the copper mine shut down in 1953, it almost became a complete ghost town, but is now a small community just outside of Cottonwood. Most of the buildings are the original ones built back in the late 1800s. The town is built on the side of Cleopatra Hill which has about a thirty percent incline, making for steep streets and precariously perched buildings. But it also makes for beautiful views of the valley below.

Montezuma's Castle

Today we visited Montezuma's Castle (a national monument) which, like Scotty's Castle in Death Valley, is not a castle and was never lived in by the person it was named for. The early modern day settlers who first saw it mistakenly assumed it was an Aztec structure which is how it came to carry Montezuma's name. Somehow the name stuck.

Montezuma's Castle was built by the Sinagua people in the early 1100's in the Verde Valley. They started with natural caves found high up on a sheer rock wall near some fertile land along a creek and then built walls to close off the face and form individual rooms. It is five stories and has 20 rooms and they say it is still about 90% intact. It was reached by a series of ladders which could be pulled up if there was a threat.

The Sinagua lived in the area for about 300 years but sometime in the 1400's they just seemed to disappear and no one knows if they died out or moved on.

Sedona Scenery

Yesterday we took the short drive up to Sedona. I'd really been looking forward to spending a bit of time exploring their "downtown" area which is supposed to have a lot of unigue art galleries, shops and restaurants. But when we got there, the entire area is in complete chaos due to some major road construction going on. So we decided not to try to stop but just drove on through and got out of the way as quickly as possible. Still, it was not a wasted trip. The scenery in and around Sedona is beautiful. Everywhere you look there is an interesting rock formation or canyon or something unigue to look at.

Williams, Arizona

We stopped in Williams, Arizona on our way down to Camp Verde, Arizona with the idea that we would go up to see the Grand Canyon today. It's about an hour north of here. But somehow when we woke up this morning, neither of us could muster up any enthusiasm to make the trip. So it seems we'll just have a lazy day at home before we continue on to Camp Verde tomorrow. Maybe later today we'll have enough energy to do a little exploring around the historic downtown of Williams which was a center for the railroad, ranching and lumber industries in the late 1800's. It was also one of the towns along the historic Route 66.

Lake Havasu

Yesterday we took an hour drive south to Lake Havasu to see "The London Bridge". It was originally built in 1831 over the Thames River in London, England. It was bought by Lake Havasu City in the early 1960's when it was going to be torn down in London. Each brick was dismantled, cleaned and numbered, then shipped to Lake Havasu, Arizona and rebuilt on a man made canal off of the side of Lake Havasu. It is guite amazing what a community will do to attract tourism! Hey, it got us there didn't it? It was a fun day and we even took the dogs and had a picnic in the park beside the lake.

Tomorrow we will leave Bullhead City and drive about 150 miles East to Williams, AZ which is close to the Grand Canyon.


The London Bridge















Lake Havasu

Bullhead City, Arizona

From the dog show we drove about an hour and a half south to Bullhead City, Arizona. Bullhead City is just on the Arizona side of the Colorado River at the southern tip of Nevada. We're staying at another of the parks in our campground membership network. So another park where we only have to pay $1.00 a day. We're feeling pretty good about our decion to buy into the park membership networks. The RV park is only about one half mile away from the river and thus the state line and our site gives a great view of Lauglin, NV. Here's a day and night view.

Dog show in Boulder City

We had another show this past weekend in Boulder City, NV, just outside of Las Vegas. We showed Gracie in the classes (for dogs who are not yet champions) and Dash in Breed (for dogs who are already champions). There was only one other class girl entered. Both girls acted like little bunny rabbits the first day, hopping around the ring instead of a proper trot. The judge was good natured about it. She gave winner's (which is what a dog needs to earn points toward its championship) to Gracie. Hooray! Dash took best of breed but did nothing in the terrier group. On the second day, Gracie behaved a little better and again she took winners. Dash took breed again but it was cold and windy and we were the last group so we decided just to leave early and not show in group.

This weekend gave Gracie two more points so now she has a total of 6. It takes 15 points to become a champion, so she's almost half way there.

Lake Mead and Hoover Dam

During our stay in Las Vegas we decided to do the tourist thing again and visit the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead on the Colorado River. Hoover Dam is about 30 minutes east of Las Vegas as is Boulder City. Boulder City grew because it was the area that all of the workers who built the dam lived in during the time of construction.

We took a tour of the hydroelectric power plant at the dam. This brought Tom back to his power-planting days in the not (at all) distant memory. The plant is a heck of a lot quieter than the oil fired turbine plant that he was in.

We were able to walk across the dam and back from the Nevada side to the Arizona side. To see the dam up close and personal was a truly awsome sight and made you think of the major undertaking that the men of our country performed. It is an absolutely amazing feat of engineering.

The waters of Lake Mead flow into the intake towers and then cascade down to the water turbines of the power plant which turn the generators and then exit to the other side of the dam to the Colorado River. There are two banks of hydroelectric generators, one bank per side of the river.

Death Valley and Scotty's Castle

Before leaving Pahrump, we took a drive west back into California and Death Valley National Park. The terrain is vast, varied and forbidding, but strangely beautiful too. This picture is from an overlook near the south east edge of the valley, still at the upper elevations, around 3000 feet. You can see the valley floor, which drops down to about 200 feet below sea level, in the distance behind Tom.

From here we drove down into and through the middle of the valley to the north end, a drive of close to 60 miles.

At the north end of the valley sits "Scotty's Castle" which is not really a castle and was never lived in by Scotty. "Death Valley Scotty" was a rather colorful character. He claimed to have found a gold mine in Death Valley and convinced several rich businessmen to invest in it, all the while living large off their money and never actually doing any mining. Most investors just dropped out after not seeing any profits, but one, Albert Johnson from Chicago, made a trip out to Death Valley demanding Scotty show him the gold mine. Instead of exposing Scotty for the fraud he was, Johnson fell in love with the area and somehow he and Scotty became fast friends. Johnson and his wife built the mansion in the 1930's as a vacation home and Scotty began telling everyone he was building it with the profits from his gold mine, a claim Johnson never disputed publicly. So, the house became known as Scotty's Castle. We were able to tour the house which still contains all the original furnishings.

There is a picnic area on the grounds with a sign saying "Don't Feed the Coyotes". Which we thought was rather odd until we saw a coyote resting in the shade of a tree on the lawn.