Month: September 2018

Today we went to Walnut Canyon National Monument outside of Flagstaff, Arizona.  On our way, we drove through smoke from a fire.  On the way back we saw where the fire was.

Cliff dwellers lived at the park from approximately  500 – 1250 AD.  There was no water there so they collected rain water during the rainy seasons and stored it in pottery jugs.  It is believed that the population varied from a low of 40 to a high of  400.  People grew crops and hunted small prey.  Archaeologists believe that the women built the rooms.  People left because of years of drought.

Today Dave did some chores and uploaded our pictures.

We ate lunch at The Grand Canyon Brewery.  It was very nice.  Dave couldn’t decide between two beers so the server brought him free samples.  She brought me a free sample of their chili.  We ended up ordering 1/2 pound Angus Beef cheeseburgers with their huge beer battered onion rings.

 

 

 

Today we went to the South Rim of the Canyon.  Even though it is the end of September, there were thousands of people in the park.  They run trams in the park.  We took the red tram which makes 9 stops on the way to the Hermits Rest.

It is absolutely beautiful out.  Clear and not very hazy.

We left Camp Verde and drove to Williams, Arizona.  We are staying at the Grand Canyon Hotel and RV Park.  It is run by Xanterra.  There is a train to the Canyon, a cowboy gunfight, a pool and hot tub at the hotel as well as restaurants.

After we got setup, we drove back to Flagstaff.  We went to Planet Chrysler, Dodge Ram.  We got an oil change and had the fuel filters changed.  I can’t believe that we have 15,000 miles on the new truck.  When we left Las Vegas on June 1st, we had 600 miles on the truck.  Our trip has been 14,400 so far.

 

Today we went to Cottonwood, Arizona and had lunch with Rick Rosenzweig and Jason Federbush.  We thought that we hadn’t met Jason before but he reminded us that he met us in 1982 when we lived in Gilroy, California.  He visited with his mother, Marcia.  We met at Dave’s parents house.  We had a very nice visit.

We arrived in Camp Verde,  Arizona Friday evening, September 21, 2018.  It is outside both Cottonwood and Sedona.  We are staying at Distant Drums RV Resort.  It is by Cliff Castle Casino.  Both are owned and run by the Yavapai Apache Nation.  It is a very nice clean campground with a nice pool, separate hot tub, laundry facility, and separate restroom/shower facilities.  They have free 24 hour shuttle service to the casino.

Saturday, September 22,  2018 we went to Montezuma Castle National Monument which is approximately 5 miles from the campground.  It is Indian ruins in the side of the mountain.  People can’t go up to the ruins anymore to the damage that was caused by  previous generations.  It is beautiful.

Today, Sunday, we went to lunch with Dave’s cousin, Rick. in Sedona.  We saw marvelous scenery both on the way there,  and on the different route we took back.  We had a nice lunch at Steakhouse 89.  I wouldn’t recommend their clam chowder or tomato basil soups.  Their house salad is very good, the French dip is average, but the Avocado Noble Toast is great.  The steaks are supposed to be very good.

We went to the Padre Island National Seashore.  The endangered Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles as well as Green Sea Turtles lay their eggs on the beach.  Volunteers gather the eggs and incubate them  The babies are the size of Oreo Cookies.  The are released within a day or so of hatching.  We actually saw a couple of green sea turtles swimming by the campground pier.  We haven’t been lucky enough to see any Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles.  It was a beautiful day.

 

 

Today we went to Port Aransas.  The oil drilling platforms are in port as the oil company is waiting for the price of oil to go up.  The  damage shown is from last years Hurricane Harvey.

 

 

 

We are currently at the Padre Balli County Park on Padre Island by Corpus Christi.  Fishing has been interesting.  I have caught 5 black tip sharks, a sting ray, whiting, and lots of catfish.  Judy caught a stingray, which caught me on the finger, lots of whiting and a perch.

The weather has been fine.  It has been raining yesterday and today but we had no problems with tropical storms.

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