Tuesday - Wednesday, April 15 - 16, 2014 (Cottonwood, AZ)

Tuesday

We didn't have far to travel today as we were breaking up our trip to the Grand Canyon into two trips because we had several passes to go over and didn't want to do them all in one trip.  We didn't get on the road quite as early as we wanted because as we were packing up, our neighbors came out and started visiting.  They were from the Corvallis area and had been on the road for about 3 years in their Landmark RV.  They gave us some pointers on some of the things they did while at the Grand Canyon.  Apparently the gentleman had just had a heart attack about 3 weeks ago and was still recovering.  His story was pretty amazing.  He was getting their rv ready to leave and was working outside and fell down with his heart attack.  The gentleman across the road who happen to be an EMT saw him fall and came over and gave him CPR which apparently saved his life.  His wife has to drive the rv now until his ribs heal up.  She encouraged me to learn to drive our 5er just in case......sigh....I know I should, I just haven't worked up the courage yet, it's such a responsibility to be driving your "house" around.

We finally said our goodbye's and headed down the road.  Our travel day went well, pass included, which is always a relief.

What goes up, must go down, all the way to the botton of the canyon.....

We got to our new campground Verde Valley RV Resort & Campground which is actually a 1000 Trails campground.  We had never stayed at a 1000 Trails in our travels yet and weren't sure what to expect.  We checked in and were told that even though we had reservations that we didn't have a site reserved; you just drive around until you find one you like.  Okey dokey that's different.  So off we went and it was a tad bit scary because where you check in is at the top of a hill and the campground is down this rather steep hill.  There were around 3 sections to this campground and they were rather spread out so Rich  just pulled into the first section and found a site and pulled in.  I was all for going scouting to make sure we had the "best" site, but in looking around just in our section, decided we were already in the best site - good choice Rich!

After we got set up, we had a late lunch and then decided to get our bikes down and ride around the campground and check out the other sections.  We haven't ridden our bikes since Lake Havasu, it had been awhile.  To get to the other sections we had to continue going down a hill which wasn't bad until you thought about the fact that we had to ride back up that same hill.  I guess we are getting our workout today.

After our bike ride, we decided to take the truck into Cottonwood and fuel up.  We didn't spend a lot of time exploring Cottonwood, we were just ready to get back to the 5er and relax.

Rich relaxing in our camp site as the sun goes down

Sunset at Verde Valley RV Resort & Campground

Wednesday

We had a nice relaxing morning and about mid morning decided to drive to Camp Verde and have a Starbucks coffee.  We found the Starbucks and had our coffee; yummy it's been awhile.  While we were sitting outside there was a "visitor's information" next door so went in to see what attractions were in the area.  While we were waiting to talk to the attendant, I happen to "eavesdrop" on the conversation the attendant was having with her customer and realized it was a "sales" pitch to visit a resort and for your time you got some reduced priced attractions like helicopter rides, etc.  Yikes, let's get out of here, we've done enough "touring" lately and didn't want to get caught up in another one. 

We decided to head back to Cottonwood and visit the Tuzigoot National Monument.  We are glad we visited, though we both thought that what we were going to see were some Indian cliff dwellings but that is actually at Montezuma Castle Monument.  What we saw were some ruins of an Indian pueblo village.  I couldn't figure out how they would get into these rooms, until we saw a display that showed what they would have looked like and realized they entered the rooms from the ceiling with a ladder.  OK, now I get it.  It was pretty amazing to see all the rooms and envision how many families must have lived here at one time. 





Inside one of the rooms

View from the top

Another view from the top with the Verde River at the base of the plateau

So far we have not seen any rattlers on our travels which is a good thing in my book

Looking up toward the top

A friendly lizard along the path

On our way back to the 5er, we stopped and took a picture of the hills in the distance.  We are only around 30 miles from Sedona. 

After our sightseeing we just kicked back around the 5er.  Rich met our neighbors and had a nice long visit and I sat in the lounger reading my book.  A nice way to end the afternoon.

After dinner we took another bike ride down the hill.....yes I know when you go down the hill, you have to ride back up again....but we needed a wifi connection to check our route in the morning and the campground only had a connection down by the pool.  While we were down by the pool, I came across this gigantic rose bush....I had never seen one so huge before, so Gracie and I had to have our picture taken by it.