Bullhead City

OK....here's the update!

Wednesday, we left Verde Valley RV Park and headed north to Flagstaff, where we caught I-40 west. It was a very uneventful travel day (thank goodness) ending in Bullhead City, Arizona, right across the river from Laughlin, Nevada.

We got a wonderful site at Ridgeview RV Resort, sitting on a bluff overlooking the river and the casinos across the way. Not much to look at during the day, but they sure are pretty at night.

The downside to this place is the 110 degree heat. Tooooooo hot! The air conditioning runs 24/7. But the park has a big clubhouse and nice pool.

Thursday, we spent running some errands so we wouldn't go spend the kids inheritance at the casinos. (Ha ha ha.......inheritance.......he he he)

In the afternoon, we decided to take a ride north to Hoover Dam. But a sign along the highway a few miles out of Laughlin caught Doug's attention and we decided to take a detour instead of Hoover. The sign read Christmas Tree Pass. Now, how could we miss such an interesting trip in the 110 degree heat!


So, off we went down another dirt road. (What is it about Doug and dirt roads?) We discovered we were in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and kept going.

Shortly, another sign to Grapevine Canyon detoured us again to a small parking area and trailhead. I remembered reading something about petroglyphs in the area and we decided to hike a short ways into the canyon. It was hot and definitely rattlesnake season. Thankfully, we didn't see any since we were very careful.


What we did see when we reached the entrance to the canyon was these huge boulders covered with drawings. And once we climbed down into the wash that runs through the canyon, it was easy to see hundreds of the petroglyphs as well as caves all through the rocks.


Of course Doug couldn't resist a cave and while I waited below, he climbed up the trail into the rocks.


He made it to the big cave, but decided it might not be a great idea to enter. Although, he could see evidence of fires that had been lit inside. We hiked back to the car instead of going further down the canyon. I had no hat and wasn't prepared for hiking today. We saw zillions of little lizards and birds and rabbits in their natural habitat.

We continued through Christmas Tree Pass, all the time wondering how it got it's name. The road was pretty bad in a few places and we considered turning around but we figured we were halfway to Highway 95 and we might as well continue on.


I noticed a brilliant spot of red on a tree as we wound through the hills and asked Doug to stop. We were both in hysterics to realize the red thing was a plastic pointsettia wired to a tree branch.


And as we continued, we discovered trees covered with tinsel and small Christmas ornaments. Someone has a great sense of humor! It was a wonderful drive and about 6pm we arrived at Hwy 95. From there, it was a 35 mile drive back to Bullhead City.

So, that catches us up to our moving day again.

Leaving Treasures Behind

Well, we've spent the last couple of days being lazy. Every morning, the sun is gorgeous with lots of blue sky and warm, warm warm. But, by 2 pm, the clouds start rolling in and within an hour the rain is dumping. Yesterday we got some wild winds and thunder too. (No lightning!)

So, we have just stayed around the park getting some work done. Doug's job has been to sort through the gazillion rocks and decide which ones to part with. He loaded all that he could bear to leave behind into the back of the car and took them to an undisclosed section of the desert so he can retrieve them later if necessary. Lol

We knew the coach needed to be lighter and I'll bet we get better mileage too. Although at 32,000 pounds, any mileage is good. For a car, we get terrible mileage, but for house, it's great!

That's the extent of our excitement. We'll be moving on tomorrow and have some pictures to share. See you then....

Night at the Clubhouse

We met our neighbor! Yup....it's Almost Willie with his almost Prevost bus. This ex-funeral director dressed up as Willie Nelson for halloween 25 years ago and won the contest. He bought a guitar, taught himself to play, then learned the lyrics to Willie's songs. Voila! Almost Willie.


Almost has been performing all over the country and performs occasionally in the rv parks where he stays. Obviously, we couldn't miss his show.


So, along with all of his other fans, we spent the evening in the clubhouse enjoying the sounds of Almost Willie Nelson. It's truly amazing how much he looks and sounds like the real thing.

The evening entertainment was punctuated with thunder and lightning as another wild storm rolled through.


We watched the lightning, standing outdoors, for quite a while and Doug got a few good pictures. It was outstanding to watch.

Phoenix & Back

The day was overcast a little as we headed south in the car to Phoenix. Mick and Adrianna moved into their new house a week ago and wanted to share it with us.

It was a beautiful drive through the mountains where the saguaros were starting to bloom and lots of color was showing off in the hills. I-17 winds through hills and small towns until it arrives in Phoenix. Not quite so pretty then!

Thanks to the gps, we found their new house easily and had a terrific visit. Mick took us to lunch at On the Border where we tried Taco Melts. Yummy! Then back to the house for more inspection and visiting.

All in all, a fun day. Sure hope we get back down there again before we leave this area.

Montezuma Castle

Our visit today was the Montezuma Castle National Monument. It has been described as the best preserved and most dramatic cliff dwelling in the U.S.


And what a sight! Unlike the Gila Cliff Dwellings, we were unable to actually enter the homes of the Sinagua Indians and had to view them from the ground. Still, there were plenty of signs describing the rooms and buildings as well as the lives of these semi migratory people.


The self guided tour begins in the National Park building with displays of Indian life in these 19 rooms ending about 1400 when the castle was abandoned.


It's a 1/3 mile walk through the Arizona sycamore trees where rangers are stationed to answer questions and protect the remains of the ancient buildings. Just past the castle, are the remains of Castle A where up to 200 people lived in the 45 - 50 rooms built closer to the ground and river. Unfortunately, this was destroyed by fire thousands of years ago.

Following our visit to Montezuma Castle, we drove north on I-17 about 10 miles to Montezuma Well.


This is a natural limestone sinkhole that is about 11,000 years old and provided a natural oasis to many unique species. Underground springs replenish this well with a flow of over 1,400,000 gallons a day.


As you can see, the Indians took advantage of this water supply and build their homes in the cliffs and overhangs of the limestone well.


We both enjoyed the variety of wildlife. There were muskrats swimming in the water and building homes, lots of different birds and we were warned to stay on the path due to rattlesnake sightings.


We followed the trail down to the 55 foot deep lake where we discovered more ruins built in the shade of the limestone overhangs.

What a wonderful way to spend a cool, overcast day in northern Arizona.

Verde Valley

Another day on the road, albeit much shorter, brought us through Flagstaff and then south through the Kaibab National Forest.


Our destination was Verde Valley at the Thousand Trails Park. Since we are up in the mountains, we expected the temperature to be quite pleasant. Think again! It was 103 and still rising. As we checked in at the ranger station, we were told that there are only 17 sites with 50 amp power and that they were first come first served. The ranger didn't believe there were any available, but someone might be leaving tomorrow and we could move quickly to claim the site, then let them know at the station. There is a $3.00 charge for the 50 amp sites.

We drove down into the park in the valley where we unhooked the car so we could drive through the 3 sections and find a perfect spot. Lo and behold! The first 50 amp site we saw was empty. Doug quickly brought the coach and backed into it while I called the ranger station to verify the spot was available. Yea!!!! It was. By now, we were both melting from the heat so Doug plugged in the power cord and turned on the air conditioning. Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh..........



It's a nice park with lots of trees and grass. Just too bad about the power situation. Doug sprayed for bugs and we finished setting everything in place while the coach cooled down.

After a few minutes to relax, we decided to take a ride into Cottonwood which is only 5 miles away. It's a decent size town with everything we might need for the next couple weeks. Then we continued exploring and followed the signs to Jerome.


Jerome is a historic copper mining town that is sometimes called "America's most vertical city". At one time, it was the 4th largest city in the Arizona Territory and now is a thriving tourist community. Most of the homes and business are perched on the 30 degree incline of the mountain and gravity has already claimed some.


We continued to follow the road and signs up the mountain to the Gold King Mine & Ghost Town. It was getting late in the day and a thunder and lightning storm that had just rolled in kept us from touring the ghost town. It looked interesting, but Doug wanted to get us off the mountain before the storm got crazy.


The storm and 10 drops of rain cooled the air down to the low 90's. It was quite comfortable by the time we arrived back at the coach.

Meteor Crater

We got our usual early start (11am) from Albuquerque and drove west on I-40 through rolling hills. The day was gorgeous, in the 80's and sunny with blue sky all the way.


We stopped at a scenic view pullout at the Pueblo Laguna. It's an old, old indian village and set up in the rest area were a series of shacks filled with Indians selling jewelry. We had a nice visit and found that most of the stones used in the jewelry came from other states. But the Indians made the jewelry.

We continued our journey and hours later, arrived at Meteor Crater RV Park. This is a lovely park that sits only five miles from the Meteor Crater. It's the first, proven meteor crater on earth and is huge. Our intentions were to visit the crater, but you know how it goes with the best laid plans of mice and men. Next time!


The park is spacious with wide sites and very well maintained. By the time we set up and relaxed, the temperature climbed to 103 degrees. Thank heavens for air conditioning!


As the sun went down, the air cooled and we had a pleasant evening visiting with our neighbors. They are future fulltimers and had lots of questions.


This sunset was our view from the front window. What a life!

Cochise Stronghold

The storm from the coast finally made it to us. Thankfully, it had just about worn itself out. We had no rain, but heavy winds and lots of dark, threatening clouds. By noon, the skies were clearing and we got our heavy coats and drove into the canyon of the Cochise Stronghold.


The Apache Indians, led by Cochise, used these rugged mountains like a fort during the early 1800's. It was home, sanctuary and protection for the indians. In fact, Cochise was born here and after a blunder by the U.S. Army, conducted many attacks on the white men from these hills. After his capture in 1871, Cochise was transfered to a reservation where he died a few years later. His body was returned to his stronghold and is believed to be buried here somewhere.


We drove the winding, narrow, dusty dirt road up into the rocks where a campground has been provided by the Coronado National Forest. From there, we walked the Nature Trail for about half a mile.


There were lots of small signs with information about the different plants in the area and how they were used by the native indians. We were the only ones on the trail and it was easy to imagine silently walking the paths in mocassins while searching for food and shelter.


There were longer hikes available too. But neither of us felt like a six or ten mile hike this late in the afternoon. So, we simply admired the fabulous scenery and absorbed some history. Just think of how much more we would have learned as children in school if we had been able to follow the physical footsteps of our ancestors.

Geocaching Willcox

We were expecting an overcast, cloudy, gray day today. So, we decided to find some geocaches in the area. That way, if or when the rain started, we could head home without interrupting something like hikes in Chiricahua.

Our first stop was in downtown Willcox. This old railcar is across the street from the historic train stop. It's just down the street from the Rex Allen Museum. (For those of you old enough to remember Rex Allen)

It only took Doug about one minute to find the cache tucked up under the back side of the car. It was a tupperware type container with a few little goodies inside.

After that easy find, we drove to the other side of the freeway, where we found Stout's Cider Mill. Next to the store, was an empty lot with a display of a mine entrance and a couple of coal cars.


And, that's where Doug found the next cache. In fact, he tripped over it before he found it. The cache was a fake rock that blended in with the rest of the scenery perfectly. We signed the log book and tucked this back with the other rocks for the next geocacher.

Of course, we had to check out the cider mill. When we entered, a sweet, older lady poured us samples of the cider. Good stuff.....but, we aren't really cider drinkers. While wandering around the store, we discovered a bakery in the back. They bake world class apple pies using three pounds of apples per pie. When the crust goes on top, it looks like a volcano. I have never seen pies this tall! Of course they have lots of other items for sale too.

Also next door to the cache is a visitor center. We stopped in briefly and then continued on our way to the next cache.

We went from cider to wine! Unfortunately, the winery was closed today. Doug searched for the cache while the gps signal was bouncing all over the place. He was having trouble nailing down the coordinates so I walked over to the information container hanging by the front door.


Guess what I found inside! The cache! This geocache was just a log book. I signed it, returned it to the inside of the info box and we were off again without sampling any wine. Bummer.


Our next stop was the Willcox Playa Wildlife Area. The Willcox area is known for it's population of sand cranes. These beautiful birds travel from as far as northern Canada to feast on the grain fields that are so prevalent in this area. We saw several flocks flying overhead, but there were none at the viewing pond.


We did find the cache though. And inside was a gold dollar! We pocketed the cash and signed the log book. That was a fun one! We did leave a watch in place of the coin.


As you can tell from the blue sky in all of the pictures, we never got the predicted rain. So, we continued to our fifth geocache. This was in another wildlife viewing area that was provided by the Arizona Electric Power Plant. It's a nice picnic area with a raised viewing platform that includes high powered binoculars for watching the birds in the fields as well as the nearby lake. I took a picture, but the birds are so far away they look like little white spots. The cache was in an Altoid tin attached magnetically inside one of the metal hand railings of the viewing platform.


Our final cache for the day was near the small town of Cochise. Being an ex postal worker, I had to get a photo of this sign out by the highway. It's for the Cochise Post Office established in 1886.


The geocache itself was right out on the highway. In fact, attached to the highway sign! I stayed safe and sound on the side road while Doug dodged the traffic and found the tiny metallic box stuck to the back of the tall part of the sign.

After signing the log book and returning the geocache, we turned the car towards home.


We found this sign that gave us both a chuckle and thought we would share it with you. We never saw the earth fissure, but we drove carefully anyway!

One of the things we love about geocaching is finding places that never show up on brochures in the visitor centers. There are so many out of the way parks and historic sites that keep life interesting.

Willcox, Arizona

We got a semi-early start this morning. Well, ten o'clockish. First, we stopped at Gas City for our propane then headed east on I-10. The drive went fine although the weather was gray and cool.


We arrived at the Fort Willcox RV Park about 11:45 and found an older park. It doesn't have the "it" factor for us but it's convenient to some of the sightseeing that we want to do. Doug hurried to get the satellite tv dish set up so we could watch the nascar race. Since Arizona doesn't use daylight savings, all of the tv shows are an hour earlier than our clock. Throws me off every time! So, we had an hour to kill until the start of the race.


The park is nearly empty except for a few park models and some older rvs that are extended stay vehicles. The park appears to be under new ownership so maybe there will be some improvements.


The rec hall is worn and tired just like the town of Willcox itself. It was sad to see that about half of the buildings were shuttered and dead. Out near the freeway are the usual dozen fast food joints, gas stations and a Safeway.


We are parked next to the propane tank and the dumpsters. But, we have 50 amp power and excellent phone and internet service. I guess not every park can be a resort. The owners are nice and it's a Passport America park, meaning the price is 50% off for us so we're not complaining.


Besides, we have some really nice neighbors. Everywhere we look are birds and bunnies.


And maybe we will get some nice sunrises out the front window. We do have a nice view of the Chiricahua mountains. (I think)