Then we went to Montezuma Castle. Rather amazing. This is a 5 story, 20 room dwelling, built in the 1100's by the Sinagua Indians...Check the last part of the name,"agua". Sinagua, spanish for without water.. There is a nice large well and and river nearby though. There was a 6 story 45 room dwelling near it, and now all thats left is the floor you see and some walls. The explorers in the 1800's gave it the name Montezuma as they thought the Aztec Indians had built it but they were wrong.....

I hit the wrong button and before I got to correct, it published...so will go for more. The big building at the top was the hospital and now its the hotel-resturant... real nice.

We recently went to the City of Jerome Az. To get there we had to go through Prescott and climb 7100 ft, snow on both sides...This is Arizona??? Anyway, its a ghost town making a comeback. Its propped on the side of a thirty degree mountainside. The streets are narrow switchbacks. 1500 ft seperate the upper dwelling from the lower. It was a old copper mining town of 15000, it became a town of 50. Then the artists took over and made a cool, cool town out of it. We ate at a fine resturant high on the hill, it was a old hospital, then sat empty for 40 years now its being refurbishe to a grand hotel and fine foods and the biggest wine list I have ever seen. The mine is at the edge of town, about 6 blocks away, so the hospital was build to stand the 100,000 lbs of dynamite blasts....It is very very well built to say the least...Anyway its very cool and I could stay there for days

Wandering Around....

We recently visited the Hassyampa River Preserve here near Wickenburg. Because of all the rains they recently had, the grass is coming in very green...the leaves have not come out yet,

however. We hiked around the trails, and Tom tested the waters, but decided 'not yet' for the

raft trip.....

We also drove down a long bumpy dirt road to an old gold mining area, where we found a very charming little abode with a blue door.

After visiting Yuma we decided to try desert camping north of Quartzite. "Roughing it" was pretty nice after being crammed into one of the many so-called RV resorts.

La Paz County Adventure....

We spent a week at the La Paz County Campground, which is located between Parker Arizona and Lake Havasu City Arizona on the mighty Colorado River....

The view from our camper...

The line up....

And the famous London Bridge of Lake Havasu City ....

Here's June in Super Bowl 3 D...

Inside our "house"....

Here are a few pictures of where we're at, inside our place....and a corrected picture from the previous post showing unusual street names.....

First I need to correct my previous posting....Wickenburg has 10,000 people in the winter! And 5,000 in the summer. I was off a tad....

On January 17 we took a 30 minute drive to nearby Lake Pleasant. It was a beautiful sunny day....

June went to a fashion show with her sister at their country club. It may have been January but in Arizona the flowers were blooming as if it were spring/summer....

Just north of where we are "camped" is a town called Yarnell. While driving around there we found a couple of interesting street names and had to take pictures for proof to y'all....

Out Wickenburg Way

Wickenburg is a town of about 2,000 full-time residents (more like 5,000 in the winter!) that is located about 60 miles northeast of Phoenix. Wickenburg is on the highway between Phoenix and Las Vegas. It is famous for having several dude ranches in the area and is definitely very much a western cowboy town.

Right after we settled in at North Ranch, June's sister, Joanie, and her husband Lon, took us on a walking tour of downtown Wickenburg. They wanted to show us some newly installed bronzes, donated by a generous Wickenburg resident. These bronzes are all life-size and so realistically painted, you have to get up close to make sure they're not real.

Here is a gila monster....

And here is Tom getting up close and personal with a rattle snake.... The snake is so real looking that people were frightened to walk by it so they put a little red scarf on it, but it doesn't show in the shadow....

Here is Tom checking over the supplies on a miner's donkey....

And here is June getting up close and personal with a prisoner at the Jail Tree....The actual tree is still here, and we would include a picture of that if we had one....maybe next time!

WATCH OUT for the big, hairy tarantula!!!!

Here a cowboy is hoping to become acquainted with a dance hall girl outside one of the bars...

Here we Are...

THE PICTURES APPEAR IN THE REVERSE ORDER OF MY TEXT....SO LOOK AT THE LAST PICTURES FIRST...! I'LL GET THIS FIGURED OUT YET.. I HOPE!

Here are some pictures of our spot at North Ranch. We are located north of Wickenburg AZ and south of Congress AZ. We are in a 5th wheel which has been permanently placed on a lot in the RV Park. It has an Arizona Room attached and the wall was taken out so the living area is actually one big room - very comfortable. During the day we spend most of our tiime on the deck there in the front, soaking up the rays. As you can see, our neighbors are pretty close - good thing they're all nice!!! I will send interior pictures later...

There is another deck at the back entrance, as well as a good-sized fenced back yard. Casper likes the yard, although he, too, spends most of his time soaking up the sun out front...

Here you can see our back yard! The building on the left is a storage building and it also has a washer in it. There is a dryer but it isn't hooked up so we're using solar energy (aka clothesline) to dry our clothes! The people in back of us on the other side of the gate are from Hood River, OR!

There is a lime tree in our yard, so here is Tom, picking his first-ever right-off-the-tree lime....

and then putting it to good use.....

Tomorrow we'll send some sights of Wickenburg..... and maybe I'll learn how to do this better!!!

Here We Go....

This blog will be an attempt to record and share stories and photos of our adventures as we ex
plore the world of retirement. Our first adventure began on January 5, 2009 as we headed south to enjoy some sun and warmth. We were full of excitement and anticipation as we drove south on 97 on snow-covered roads. Finally once we got into California we found dry pavement and the promise of a sunny future. Once I learn how to do this, attach photos, etc there will be a lot more to share. We are currently enjoying a sunny Groundhog Day with temperatures expected to be 75, at North Ranch in Congress Arizona.