JEROME and SEDONA, AZ

Three pronghorns

Entering lower Jerome

Lots of old buildings

The old copper mine is in the background

Old hotel at the top

One way streets to minimize road footprint leaving more room for buildings 

The two snowy peaks are the San Francisco Peaks way beyond Flagstaff

We drove up to Jerome on Tuesday and that was interesting.  The elevation of Jerome is 5,246 feet and there is a few hundred feet difference just in the town.  We saw three pronghorns on the way up which was a bonus as we didn’t know they were native here.  I wandered around Jerome with my camera for a while.  Later, we carried on over the 7,000 foot plus mountain pass to Prescott where we found Bill’s Grill who served a gluten free bun for burgers.  Aileen was all primed for sweet potato fries but I saw a posting (by a customer) on the board mentioning that the fries had a coating on that contained gluten.  Our burgers were very good.  Luckily, no reaction for Aileen.

We wandered home along the Old Black Canyon Highway for all its length.  There were several dirt sections in between fancy subdivisions.   We took 69 then 169 back over to I-17 then a short hop up to Camp Verde in time for Aileen to grab a nap before supper.

We sat through the high pressure sales pitch at 9 Wednesday morning.  It made it seem like this company was the be all end all for us RVers.  There were a number of prices offered but the biggest objection was having to buy right then.  I don’t take to kindly to being stampeded!  I said we’d go back to the motor home and discuss it more, which he grudgingly agreed to.  He seemed to think we’d make up our minds to buy the whole package on the spot.  I went online and it didn’t take long to find lots of dirt on the company so that was the end of it for us.  It looks to me that if a person really wanted to belong to one of these member parks, you can buy resale memberships very cheaply.  We both went to the pool and hot tub in the evening.  No heat on in the pool so it was only 65F but Aileen did go in for a brief swim, very brief!

Today, we moved up the road a few miles to a forest service two week free camping area that we found yesterday.  One of the people’s blog that I read, discussed it a few weeks ago so I had it mind and it wasn’t too hard to find.  It is only a short distance from the pavement and just a few miles from Cottonwood and we can also see Jerome perched up on the mountain above Cottonwood.  There are about a dozen and a half RVs scattered around.  We managed to get a spot at the end of the trail so nobody will park beyond us.  We really struggled with the weak internet in the campground but I didn’t feel like putting up the big antenna for the short time left.  Out here boondocking, we have strong 4G service without even using the booster.   How great is that?

We went to Tuzigoot National Monument late morning to purchase a national parks pass which will also cover us for national forests and the Sedona area.  After we had a look at the inside displays, I walked up to look over the ruins, if that’s the correct term.  Didn’t look like a fun place to live in my estimation.  We grabbed lunch in Cottonwood before heading toward Sedona.

The weather has been hazy ever since we got here and we had the same conditions in Sedona.  We tried to find some different viewpoints from when we visited three years ago.  I worked my way up a series of streets to the base of the red rocks on the west side of Sedona and parked alongside a private yard.  Aileen was most impressed when a large tortoise came wandering over to visit.  It was about three feet long and wasn’t afraid of us or the barking dogs in the yard with it.

We managed to find some new views and got home for a late supper, so no nap for Aileen today.  So far it is pleasantly quiet here even though we can see the cars whizzing by on the highway.  Not sure how busy things will be around here over the long weekend.  We plan to stay here until Monday then perhaps move up to within striking distance of the Grand Canyon.   

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