Sunday, March 31, through Saturday, April 27, 2013: In Cottonwood:
The 155-mile trip to the Verde Valley Thousand Trails Preserve in Cottonwood, Arizona, was easy. We took a nice pull-thru 50-amp site in Section A.
This park is a favorite of ours because the sites are good-sized, and the park is large and rural, but just a few miles from the center of Cottonwood---with all the shopping and other amenities.
A lot of our pickleball friends from Palm Springs are here.
Monday morning was the time to reconnect. I played a few games and wasn't too embarassed. The wind came up a one point and the balls were flying crazily. It was quite a challenge.
Tuesday afternoon, we hosted a potluck afternoon gathering of the pickleball gang. More than 20 people showed. It was fun.
Wednesday afternoon, Becky had her hair done and, on the way home, reported that the dashboard computer showed that the batteries were not charging. I took the truck to the local Chevy dealer, who joined in my suggestion that the alternator was probably kaput. It was too late to do anything on Wednesday, so I left the truck at the dealer overnight. Thursday morning, the service writer (Anthony Valenzuela; nice guy) confirmed that, in fact, the alternator had died after 218,000 miles. I picked up the truck Thursday afternoon. Kaching!
Friday was the day to play some pickleball in the morning (I played decently)
and visit some wineries in the afternoon. We chose three: Page Springs Cellars, Oak Creek Vineyards, and Javelina Leap Vineyard & Winery, all of which are near Sedona.
We bought a bottle at each of the first two; the third had unduly expensive wines. On the way home, we picked up a late lunch/early dinner at the Panda Express in Cottonwood.
Saturday we visited the nearby Montezuma Castle National Monument, including the Montezuma Well section.
The Castle is a five-story cliff dwelling built 100 feet up the mountainside by the Southern Sinagua Indians 600 years ago. Impressive. The Well is a limestone sink formed by the collapse of a huge underground cavern.
It's fed by underground springs that pass almost two million gallons of water every day through the Well and, ultimately, into Beaver Creek.
We tried to play pickleball on Sunday, but only one other player showed up. It was Bowlegged Eric, who is a very good player. He essentially ran a clinic for us for an hour or so.
The weather then turned ugly, so we stayed in the rest of the day. The weather forecast for Monday called for serious wind and a little rain. We decided that pickleball was out and it would be fun to make a field trip to Prescott, Arizona, to shop and have lunch. We expected to go via Rte. 89A past Jerome and through the mountains. We got only ten miles into the trip when we decided to stay closer to home. So we stopped at the Cottonwood dog park for 15 minutes, then returned to the Thousand Trails preserve. The dog park was very nice, and Ramsey was able to stretch his legs.
We made the trip to Prescott on Tuesday, instead. It had snowed in the mountains on Monday and the snowed had remained---on the side of the road, anyway. It was actually quite beautiful. But the winding road was a pain and we decided to return by a different route.
In Prescott, we loaded up at Costco, then went to lunch at Murphy’s, our favorite restaurant there. I had a huge hamburger. It was delicious, but so filling I was uncomfortable for the rest of the afternoon.
Wednesday, I took it easy while Becky played pickleball. I started a book about Roger Ailes that we bought at Costco. Becky took Ramsey to the courts, leaving him in the truck---something he has always liked. This time, though, he got bored, and shredded his bed for entertainment. He made quite a mess.
Thursday and Friday were uneventful---mostly pickleball, reading, and walking Ramsey.
We picked up
The Life of Pi and
Hitchcock from the Redbox on Saturday, on our way to the post office to mail our annual income tax return extension request. Becky watched
Pi on Saturday and didn’t like it. We both watched
Hitchcock on Sunday, and liked it even though it was a little weird.
We also watched the end of The Masters golf tournament. Very exciting.
The forecast for Monday (Tax Day) was for heavy winds, so Becky decided to forego any attempt at pickleball. I took the truck to the nearby GMC dealer first thing in the morning because the “check engine” light had been on for several days. (We never react to it immediately, since it has a habit of going away after a day or so.) After being told there was nothing that really needed to be done to the truck, we decided to go to Sedona---a half hour away. The red sandstone geology around Sedona is magnificent, and well worth seeing.
But the town itself is overbuilt, over-hyped, and overcrowded. We bought some supplies at the one of the local health food stores, had sushi for lunch (at Hiro‘s; delicious), bought a new dream catcher so Becky could sleep more peacefully, and headed back to Cottonwood. We couldn’t get out of Sedona quickly enough.
The big event of that day, of course, was the terrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Quite naturally, it dominated the news. I hope they find the perpetrators quickly and execute them on the spot. I know that is not going to happen. Whoever they are, there will be some who will try to justify what was done. And getting to any trial will take years. Disgusting.
Several years ago, a bird slammed into the (cheap plastic) grille on our truck and left a hole the size of a volleyball. I have wanted to do something about it for years, but couldn't think of a solution (other than simply replacing the grille which seemed too easy). While I was hanging around the dealer on Monday, I noticed an after-market chrome goodie that simply fits over the grille. The mounting brackets that came with the part would not work because they relied on having the missing part of the existing grille. Tuesday morning I figured out an alternate way to attach the part, and returned to the dealer and bought the substitute. It took me about a half hour to install the thing. Magnificent.
The wind had returned Tuesday morning, so Becky came back early---to ooh and aah over the new grille. We celebrated by going to Wal-Mart for some goodies, including a haircut for me
and
Django Unchained from the Redbox. I didn’t want to watch it, but Becky did---and didn’t like it. Early that evening, Ramsey and I had a slight misunderstanding. I misread his body language as I tried to take him out of the truck and he bit me. I’ll survive.
Wednesday was windy again, but Becky braved it for the sake of pickleball, while I started my new book, a 25-year old novel by Stephen Coonts, "The Minotaur." That evening, we had delicious takeout from the nearby Panda Express again. After dinner, Pat and Bill Wheeler stopped by to say goodbye.
They are leaving on Thursday for Tonopah, Arizona, on their way to start up the coast to Washington.
On Thursday, we first stopped at the dog park to let Ramsey run for a while, then headed for the nearby Tuzigoot (pronounced “two-zee-hoot“) National Monument. Like the Montezuma Castle, it was the location of a group of Southern Sinagua Indians hundreds of years ago. (Note: “Sinagua” comes from the Spanish term for “without water.“) Unlike the castle, though, this place did not survive the weather very well. It has been largely rebuilt from the piles of rocks that were left when the buildings collapsed.
Nevertheless, the archaeologists have been able to reconstruct what they think the first floors of the buildings looked like. The main building had 77 rooms on the first floor. Pretty impressive. The pueblo sits 120 feet above the valley floor, and provides a terrific view of the surrounding area.
On the way home, we stopped in the picturesque old downtown section of Cottonwood and visited the tasting rooms for two local wineries. (The wineries are local; the grapes come from California and southern Arizona.) The first, Pillsbury Wine Company, is owned by Sam Pillsbury, a New Zealand filmmaker. The second, Cellar Dwellers Wine Company, was right down the street. We took home some wine from both.
Friday, we had lunch at Mai Thai. I had Cashew Chicken, of course, and it was delicious. Becky had Pad Thai.
We followed that up with ice cream cake at a small gathering to celebrate the 65th birthday of Joe Clark, part of the traveling pickleball crowd we run into everywhere we go.
That evening, the Boston bombing escapade wrapped up with the capture of Suspect #2. It was a welcome development.
The Saturday highlight turned out to be, ironically, watching
Smashed, an anti-drinking Redbox movie that was surprisingly good.
Sunday our 21-day stay at the Thousand Trails park was up and it was time to move on. We went the whole
eight miles to the Camp Verde RV Resort at 10:00 am and settled into a nice grassy, 50-amp site. It required backing in, which we were able to do easily since the street was wide enough. We will be here a week.
Sunday afternoon we returned to the TT park to attend a party of pickleball players at Laurie and Mark Irwin’s site. They were pouring margaritas, so I naturally drank them. I wonder where my Monday morning headache came from.
Monday was a typical day for both of us. Becky played pickleball (back at the TT park) while I read. and we shopped a little in nearby Camp Verde.
On Tuesday, I dropped Becky off at the TT park to play pickleball, and I went back to do some minor chores at the park where we are staying. I picked her up late. We hit the Redbox for
The Impossible, the 2012 film for which Naomi Watts received a Best Actress nomination by the Academy. It's about the huge Tsunami a few years ago. Very good.
Wednesday was a day to go to Prescott. On the way, we stopped in to see Sue Kreutz and her dog, Lil Bit, at an RV park there.
Her husband Jim was sleeping. (He works the late shift at a local company.) We worked with them at the South Rim. They’ve been in Prescott for a couple of years. It was nice catching up with their exploits. On the way home, we stopped at Alcantara Vineyards, next door to the TT park.
We were last there about six years ago. We bought one bottle of wine and ended up with two nice 20-ounce Alcantara 2013 wine glasses.
Thursday, we both played pickleball at the park where we are staying.
They have two courts but only one net---and it’s a volleyball net so the balls just go through it instead of being caught by it. It takes some getting used to, and occasionally it’s not obvious whether the ball went through or over.
For the second court, we rigged up a yellow tow strap that we used for the same thing in Florida two years ago. It’s sometimes hard to be sure whether the ball went over or under the faux net. Anyway, we had a lot of fun and there are only about ten of us so we get to play without waiting long.
Late Thursday afternoon, we all met at Sue and Jack Schuckhart’s rig for happy hour. Snacks were barred, so the party didn’t last very long.
Friday after pickleball we went back to Jerome to have lunch at what is supposed to be the best restaurant in town called Quince.
Quince is Spanish for 15, but the 15 refers to some mystical Chinese thing about modesty. That’s artsy-fartsy Jerome for you. I had a Santa Fe Cobb salad. Wonderful. And two margaritas. Fabulous. On the way back to where we parked the car, I stepped into one of the wine tasting rooms in Jerome to use the restroom, and we walked out 20 minutes later with an expensive piece of artwork. And we didn’t even have any wine.
After pickleball on Saturday, we watched
Parental Guidance, a Billy Crystal comedy (from the Redbox, of course) that was better than I expected. We then went into Camp Verde to do some shopping, and then prepared to leave on Sunday. Our time in Cottonwood was drawing to a close.
