Arizona, Camp Verde Mar 17 - Apr 7

Camp Verde RV Resort, one our Western Horizon parks.  We will be here for three weeks, along with John & Terry Edwards and Mark & Mary Nichols.  We have been traveling with them for 10 weeks now.  Camp Verde is located about 50 miles south of Flagstaff, AZ.  We really enjoyed the three weeks we stayed here.  Was a lot of things to do in the area.

Camp Verde, AZ
Kayaking adventure down the Verde River

Standing on the bridge over the Verde River checking it out for a launch point.

Standing on the road at the Clear Creek launch.  What a trip getting the kayaks down to the water from here.

John and Terry down by the river at Clear Creek launch.

Do I really want to walk down this bank with my kayak?

The Beasley Flats take out on the Verde River.

Loading the kayaks after a good run down the Verde River.  Kay did not go with John, Terry and Marty on the first run .

Here we are getting ready for our second run down the Verde.  Kay is going with us this trip, also, Ray a friend we meet at the campground.

Once we got all the kayaks down that steep hill, it was easy to get them into the water.
Kay - Ray - Terry - John. Since I was the only one with a camera, you will not find any pictures of me.

The river was quite calm and wide most of the time.

Another view up the river.

Terry Edwards

John Edwards

Ray Woodard

Kay Edwards

Nice fat mallard duck.

We always can find a Blue Heron along the rivers.

Kay headed for a little bit of rapids

Ray in the middle of the rapids.  One had to watch out for big rocks in the rapids.  I hit a few of them when I went down.

Ray waiting for John to get through the rapids.

Here we see Terry after she should have leaned to the right and not the left coming through one of the dog leg rapids.  The river was not very deep at this point, so Terry could just stand up and walk to the shore.

Dumping the water out of Terry's kayak.  Like she said, this makes for an interesting adventure.

Cattails along the edge of the river.

Another Blue Heron,  they seem to pose for a picture.

Ray coming through another set of little rapids.

Here comes Terry.  This time she had no trouble getting through.

Now John making his way through.  The front of his kayak rides very low in the water, so he gets a bit wet going through some of the rapids.

I thought this big old tree was worth taking a picture of.

Just beyond the boulder in the water is a very nice set of rapids.

This part of the river has very tall bluffs, with lots of holes in them.  The native people used these hole in the walls to live in.

There were not many flowers along the river this time of the year.  But  I did manage to find some, just for Kay.

Some of the caves used by the native people that lived along the river.

This is the take out point at Beasley Flats.  What a great run down the Verde River.  Kay and I will do this again when we get back to this part of the country.

Tree with mushrooms.  Kay took this one while we were loading the kayaks on the truck.

We found this Gennie Hen as we were driving down the road .

Our trip to Montezuma Well National Monument.

Montezuma's Well is a sinkhole, a collapsed underground limestone cavern filled with water. More than a million gallons of water a day flow continuously, providing a lush, verdant oasis in the midst of surrounding desert grassland. Montezuma's Well is 368 feet across and 55 feet deep; it sits at an elevation of 3,618 feet.

Early settlers to the area concluded that the stately cliff dwelling belonged to the Aztec emperor Montezuma. Actually, the "castle" was home to the Sinagua -- not the Aztecs -- and was deserted nearly a century before Montezuma was born.. Montezuma never lived in the castle named after him nor did he drink from the well's waters.

Flowers around the well.

Cactus found at the well.

My first flower with a bee on it.  I love getting pictures of flowers and insects.

Baseball adventure with the Dow family.

The Dow Family on Spring  Break, Deana - Paul - Riley - Gabby.

It was a good day at the baseball park, but it did get a bit warm in our seats.

Time for a break in the shade.

On the way to the dougout store with Grandma.

Is a good day for a baseball game with family.

Riley and Grandpa waiting for the rest to them to get out of the Dugout store
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Montezuma's Castle Nation Monument.

 "The Castle, a 45-50 room, pueblo ruin was excavated, uncovering a wealth of artifacts and greatly enhanced our understanding of the Sinagua people who inhabited this riparian "oasis" along Beaver Creek for over 400 years.

Jeff and Paula Hamilton joined us to see the Castle one day.

Kay and Paula have been friends for many-many years.

Jeff - Paula - Kay

Street Fair in Camp Verde

Kay and I went to the street fair in Camp Verde and found this young lady and her forge making iron stuff.  She did make me a home made nail which I will use on the next house I build.

At one end of the street was the old jail.  Was going to keep Kay in the cell but she got out anyway.

So for trying that stunt on her, she had me locked away.  Had too pay my own bail to get out.

I had to take a picture of this old telephone.  It is just like the first phone we had on the farm near Redfield, SD.  I can still tell you the phone number and sound.  two longs and one short.

One of the booths in the Activity Center was this guy that made these beautiful dolls.  The price was good also, from $500 to $1500 each.

Back at the campground

Kay and I fixed supper for the group one night.  We did a pork loin on the rotisserie.  Sure did come out good.

The camper down the street had two of these rabbits.

Here is Max making friends with the rabbit.

The burger trip to Jerome

The six of us drove to Jerome, AZ which was west of the campground to have hamburgers at the Haunted  Burger Restaurant.  That night the burgers were half priced, and all the drinks were $5.

This is the Bloody Mary most of us ordered.  They had to raid the refrigerator to make this one.  It had one slice of bacon, one stock of celery, one whole boiled egg, slice of lime, and a slice of lemon as well as the olive.  If I were not driving back to the campground, I would have had another one of them.  Oh So Good.

Our adventure to Sedona, Arizona

On our way up to Sedona, there was a Forest Service Information Area we had to stop at.  This old 1927 pickup was on display by the front door.  The Forest Service had found it up in the hills in very bad shape.  It took them a few years to get enough money together from donations to have it restored.  Here it is today, what a good job they did in restoring it.

As you get close to Sedona, the hills start to turn red.

After many years of searching, I finally found my old class mate Ron Olson from Redfield, SD.  He is living in Sedona with his friend Linda.  You will not believe the business he is in.  They raise earth worms, and sell the worm poop.  It is quite an operation they have set up.

Ron and Linda

This is the view from the back yard of their home.  Now I could live with that view any day.

One of the many Iris in Linda's garden.  Worm poop really works.

After visiting with Ron and Linda, we took a drive up HWY 89A towards Flagstaff.  The rock formations were so breath taking.

This little lodge was tucked away in the canyon.

This is the road up to the lodge.  Can you see the man fishing?  That should have be our son Trevor there fly fishing.

The fly fishing man.

The view looking down stream.

The next few pictures are of the awesome views of the canyon.

The trip to Prescott Valley to see more old friends.

Kay - Karen - Diane.  Diane is Karen's cousin and is the one that lives in the Prescott Valley.

Marty - Karen - Don - Diane

Karen and Diane fixed a wonderful supper for us.  After supper we had a very intense card game of 6 UP.  Of course I had to let Diane win the first game.  Fat chance, she whipped up on us good.

The steaks Don BBQ'd for supper.