National Monuments, Sedona, and Jerome, Cottonwood, AZ - November 21, 2016

Besides wanting to pick up another Thousand Trails park on our list, we wanted to see this area and visit with Sherry Collins, a RV Dreamer we met at a rally in Harrisburg, OR back in 2012. Unfortuantly, she was under the weather so our meet up will have to wait till next time. Get well soon Sherry, and happy birthday today!

We did spend the day, Saturday, doing the 'tourist' thing.

First, we headed for Montezuma Castle N.M.

Pretty awesome looking at the ancient ruins. The weather was perfect today, and of course we played Pokemon Go on our phones all day long too.

Then on to another N.M., Montezuma's Well.

People even lived in the caves above the water.

Ancient cliff dwellers.

An amazing watering hole here in the desert.

The third N.M. for the day was at Tuzigoot N.M.


On top of the hill,

It sure is neat that this place has been made a National Monument. What a history lesson we have had today.

Then we drove through Sedona. This is such a beautiful area. A camera just can't capture what our eyes see.

The scenery here is awesome in all directions. Many resorts, good hiking, cool shops, we definately will spend more time here, and visit Sherry, next time through.

The next day, we drove up to Jerome. At first, I thought it was just an old mining town.

Then in the middle of town, there were the neat little shops and all the 'ghost' town placards. A lot of history here, and a fun little town too.


Scooter Trash - An Eclectic Mix of Random Objects.  A cool name or what!

Some of the old building ruins.

This old bank is accepting deposits. If you look close, there are many coins down there.

The 'Ghost 'town theme abounds.

The Haunted Hamburger.

Then we hit Walmart in Cottonwood on the way back home. Donna did some laundry and some sewing this day, and I am watched the Seahawks win their football game. And rain is coming.

Today, we had thought about leaving and heading to the Yuma area, but the storm is here. There is rain, thunder & lightning too! A good day to chill, catch up on my blogs, and tinker around the RV.

Maybe I will work on the annual Ferguson Christmas newsletter and get ready to get our Christmas cards ready to go out. Yep, we do that.

Our next move will be tomorrow, when the weather improves. We will be taking the 101 Loop around Pheonix. Another new route for us.

Stay tuned....

Verde Valley RV Resort, Cottonwood, AZ - November 19, 2016

We have driven all over the western part of the US, and we enjoy trying out a new route and seeing some new sights. Upon leaving the Lake Mead area, we headed towards Kingman, AZ on highway 93. After passing by Hoover Dam, we were on a new road for us. It was a good road, just typical Arizona mountains and desert.

Once on Interstate 40, it was up, up, and up. Quite a climb. At Ash Fork, we headed south on highway 89, a new route for us too. Through Prescott and north on Interstate 17, and we were at the Verde Valley Thousand Trails resort just outside of Cottonwood. It was a 269 mile drive day. This is our 42nd (our of 59) Thousand Trails park we have camped at. This completes WA, OR, CA, NV, AZ, and MI. We have half of Ohio and most of Texas completed also.

Here is my walkabout of the park.

The entrance and check in station.

Down the road to one of the 4 camping areas.

This is Section B, kinda of a 'park' setting.

The Pool Lodge and pool.

And the mini golf.

The Main Lodge, by us in Section H.

This is some shots of Section H where we landed.

Here we are, in Space H 79.

This is our new fire pit.

Beautiful scenery in the area. Temps are around 75 during the day, and down to 30 at night. Glad we have hookups here.

Time to explore the area tomorrow.

Death Valley 49er's Encampment, Death Valley National Park, CA - November 17, 2016

After the Christian Fellowship rally, most of us hung around (with a million other RVers) for the 67th annual Death Valley 49er's Encampment. The dates were November 6 to the 13th.

The events included everything from line dancing, horseshoe tournament, arts & crafts, cowboy poetry, and lots of music. The 'Fiddler's Stage was going every night.

Here we all are waiting for the parade of the 49er wagons arriving.

And here they come. This parade starts off the week long event.

We will have been boondocking a total of 19 days in a row. What a gorgeous place.

We hiked all over the place. This mountain we called Chocolate Syrup Mountain.

We went up there several times.

Quite a view from up there.

While we were here, there were several great sunsets,

and a super moon too!

Our last Sunday church service there.

We packed up and headed up and out of the valley on Tuesday the 15th. We left a little early so we could spend a few more days on Lake Mead.

After driving through Las Vegas (not too bad either), we stopped at the Boulder Beach CG on Lake Mead. A nice boondocking spot with water and vegetation for a change. $10.00 a night.

While here, we hit Walmart, Lowes, and Costco in Henderson. We even found a propane firepit at Lowes on sale. With my veteran's discount, we just paid $67.00. Can't wait to bask by the evening fire.

Three nights here and we will be off to Verde Valley Thousand Trails campground in Cottonwood, AZ.