COWS, WINE BARRELS AND BIRDS

Our campground was about 2 miles from the main road. Every time we went in or out we saw cows on the side of the road. A few times we had to stop to let the cows cross.  Their mother certainly didn't teach them to look both ways before crossing the road. There was also some No Trespassing signs. The cows must not know how to read either.  They wandered everywhere.

I'm sure most of you know about the painted pigs in Seattle. They represent Rachael, the pig, at the Public Market. They are painted by local artists and placed all over  the city,  to be auctioned off  for charity. Here, they have painted wine barrels. They are also painted by local artists to be auctioned off  for charity.  Wine Tasting is big in the area so wine barrels are a logical choice.

A few days ago, a beautiful bird entertained us for quite awhile. There is a tree right outside our window. He was on the tree, then he would fly to the window and back. Sometimes he flew into the window. Ouch! He kept this up for a long time, then we didn't see him. We thought he had flown away somewhere.  After a while, I noticed him perched on our window. He stayed there for a long time without moving. . I think he was looking at his own reflection. He was fun to watch.

The bird was pecking at the tree looking for bugs. Very colorful

Cottonwood, AZ

November 12th

On Saturday, they had an art festival called "Walkin' on Main".  I like to go to the local functions and see how other people live.  Our friend, Lynn Ausen, has a cousin, Muriel Bostrom,  who lives here. We met her for lunch, wine tasting and looking around. It is fun to know someone local.  We had a great time.

As you can probably tell by some of my postings, I love history.  Everywhere we go, I usually buy books that tell about the history of the people that lived in the area.  These kind of books aren't usually on my Kindle.  I am now reading about a young girl that was captured by the Indians in 1851. She was held for 5 years and was able to be bought back by her brother.  This book was written in 1858. I have never read a book published so long ago. It is a very hard read. I didn't realize how elaborate their language was back then. Alot of sentences are 70-75 words long, with several comma's and semi colon's in between.  Sometimes it makes it hard to understand what you are reading.  The sentence is so long you forget the beginning. You could make several sentences with one of theirs. Sometimes the girl, Olive Oatman, speaks  in her own words.  The language is very elaborate and cumbersome.

Our truck has never had to have an Emissions test. We never gave it a thought even tho we left so early. It is due in November and we get it before we leave.  This time it required a test. Oh No! What to do, what to do!  Since we don't have a printer, we had Darin download the paper we need and send it to us. We had to get it notarized that we are out of state.  We did that and sent it back. They want to send it to you where you are living at the time, not to your house. We wrote our new address in Cottonwood, but also wrote our Renton address for the registration. Got it the other day and they changed our registration  address to General Delivery, Cottonwood. Seems like someone wasn't paying attention. That won't do.  We will carry our notarized paper with the registration to show the correct address.  Of course, I can't get thru on the phone.

The weather is getting better. We have had to keep our water running some nights because it gets down to 29 degrees. The days have only been in the mid 50's.  Sweatshirt weather. Today it is getting in the mid 60's. About time.

Jerome and Tuzigoot National Monument, Jerome AZ.

November 11th

Today we decided to do a little sightseeing. We went to Jerome, which is only about 10 miles from here. It was established in the early 1800's.  It is an old mining town built on a hillside. Amazing how they built it on such steep hills. In the 1950's the mine closed and it went from a population of 5,000 to 50 people.  It has become a haven for artists. About 450 people live there now. Fun town to see and explore.

Overview of town, hard to see but the hill is fairly steep

View of the mining pit. In the far right, you see a large building. It was built in the 1880's  as a single home, 8000 sq. ft.  Large even for today's standards.

You can tell how steep the hill drops off beyond the wall

Before we got to Jerome, we went to the Tuzigoot National Monument. This is the remnants of  a ancient Indian village around 1000-1500 BC.  There are no doors. People went from one room to another on ladders.  Amazing site.

This is an inside room that was rebuilt to show how they lived. When the site was first excavated, they rebuilt alot of rooms. Most have been removed. Now, they just want to show what is excavated, not rebuilt.

Can you imagine living like this? I think not.

Sedona, Arizona

November 4th, 2011

We traveled to Cottonwood, AZ on Oct. 2nd. It is about 100 miles north of Phoenix. It is a good central location to visit alot of sights, Sedona, Jerome, Prescott and many more.

Day before yesterday, we went to Sedona, the area of red rock cliffs. The drive was beautiful, the contrast of the red cliffs, yellow fall foliage and blue sky was awe inspiring. The drive took us up Oak Creek Canyon, almost back to Flagstaff. It is one of those All American Highways that I mentioned earlier. There are thousands of scenic drives in the US, but only 27 All American Highways. They are so beautiful that it is a destination all in itself.

This is an overview of Sedona.

Between 2 campgrounds, we will be here 5 weeks. Since we left, we have been hustling to see the colder areas that we have never seen before. Now that we are down in AZ, so we plan to do alot of relaxing and revisiting sites we have seen since 1996.

Sedona red rocks

When I took this picture I was at the top viewpoint of Oak Creek Canyon. You can see in the distance 3 levels of roads, which we came up on. It's a long ways down.

I tried to download more pictures, but gave up.

Back to the Red Cliffs Area, Hurricane, Utah

This is called an Antelope Canyon, where the sides are so close together you can touch. We tried to go furthur up but the mosquitoes were too thick.  This is Jim, the husband of a couple that I was hiking with.

When we were in Hurricane, we did quite a lot of touristing besides seeing  Zion. The Red Cliffs Area was just down the road from us. We met some nice people from South San Francisco that I went hiking with. This is the most beautiful  tent camping area I had ever seen. All along the road there were very well kept tent areas. Too small for RV's.

This time of year you see so many flowers in bloom and turning colors

Since I have caught up with the blog, I'm trying to go back to places that I couldn't upload any pictures because it took so long. It doesn't take quite as long, but still very slow

Four Corners

When we left Mesa Verde National to go back to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, we passed Four Corners. It is the only point in the United States that 4 states meet each other. They are AZ., CO., New Mexico and Utah. Of course, we had to stop.The exact point is where the four lines intersect