I made it to Dead Horse Ranch State Park for the weekend with RVW in Cottonwood. It is right up the street from the Thousand Trails RV Park I used to go to for FREE when I was on with Bette & Suzan. Here is my first picture of this great weekend!
I’m sitting in DAISEE2 with the A/C and fans running. The A/C feels good and only runs for about 2 minutes and then shuts off. I’m hoping it will be in the 50’s at night here. It’s 88 degrees right now outside. I do miss Metaxa, but it does give me more freedom without her – I always wanted to be with her when I was camping. She is here in spirit now! I have a fly in here so I’m opening my door so it will “FLY” out! I HATE FLIES! I think it is gone! I think I may go for a bike ride. I took the bike down. I took some more pictures of my site: Same as last year!
This is going to be my view most of the weekend. And I have a “pet” fly on my leg! I hope the flies aren’t that bad this weekend:
I have my meeting in the morning and I have my alarm set, we’ll see if I get up for it. I do have my “stuff” for it so, we’ll see. I’m closing this down for the night now. See you in the morning. My temp is 79 inside and dropping. TUG!
Good Morning Everyone. It is now Thursday, April 9th. These are the temperatures I woke up to:
I just noticed that last year we were here in October and it was HOT, HOT, HOT! The sun is coming up. I did get up in time to make my meeting and this is proof – from WAGGLE!
Note the time – that’s 5 AM!
It is now 6:15 – waiting for Jack to get up. Too early to call him. But I did send him a couple of pictures! This is the latest – SUNRISE!
I just made a reservation for April 21 & 22 – it’s dry camping. I invited Shannon. Jack is “thinking” about it but if Shannon goes, I’ll go by myself. I could ask Sue too. So time will tell. Elk #6 – it looks like a pull through.
I went on a walk this morning to close my ring – it worked, they are closed. Anyway, here are some pictures from the walk: First one is Jerome on the side of the mountain!
Next was up the road where I found a couple of corralled horses:
Here is a grave marker:
I think this may be the Tuzigoot National Monument. I’ll go and visit it tomorrow so I’ll find out then. It was toward the end of the road: Yes! This was Tuzigoot.
Finally along the road I saw this bunch of flowers which looked very fake but wasn’t!
I made a reservation for Catalina State Park for our rally in April 2027. 2027 is booking up fast!
It is now Friday, April 10th. These are my temperatures this morning:
I decided to go on the hike this morning rather than Tuzigoot NM. Shannon said she would go tomorrow instead. So the mystery of the “ruins” will have to wait. The hike is about 30 minutes from here and we’re leaving at 7:30. I’m making coffee at 6AM and it smells SO GOOD! I need to get my “gear” for the hike. I think I’ll wear my fanny pack. It has some essentials in it like bandaids! I’m going to squeeze into my hiking pants. It’s better that I wear long pants rather than shorts. Need to wear sunscreen – HATE IT! I still need to get a sticker for this rally. May stop on the way back to the campground later today if I remember. I’ll mention it to Shannon so she can remember too and maybe she will because she’s 15 years younger than me!
You can see by the picture of the temps this morning that I have reflextics in the BIG BEAUTIFUL WINDOW. It makes it feel a little cramped in here, but the sun blasts in on that side in the afternoon and heats up the place. So it stays. It looks cloudy today so that will be good for the hike. There are 5 (plus a dog) of us going on the hike. I hope 7:30 isn’t too late to start the hike, time will tell!
We set up a rally at Catalina State Park – I think I mentioned that before. I love that State Park. Shannon is signed up too. I found a better place to hang my bears: I love it there! Much better than at the door!
Still missing Metaxa in here, but I slept with my little Harley Bear so that helped a little. I smelled a skunk last night. It must walk by my rig each night because I thought I smelled it the first night too. I just hope it doesn’t spray anything.
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SO this was good news this morning! I got the permanent credit for that Thai Airways ticket for $2200! What a great way to start the day! I’m going to credit Hoda from BOA whom I spoke to yesterday for doing it. We’ll see if it lasts. I hope so! What a nightmare!
This is where we went on our hike today:
I decided to go on the hike in Sedona today with the group. Here we are: Some Japanese couple took the picture and they took about 6 extra. ANYWAY – this was the best one.
It was a wonderful hike. So beautiful. I got a lot of pictures. Let’s see if I can get them from my pictures here on the computer because my phone is charging – went down to 12%.
I didn’t realize how close we were to Sedona. The rock formations along the hike were spectacular. The one above looked like a cub scout to me with a cap on.
Shannon and me above and below, some other rock formations that were amazing!
View from the top:
Janet brought her dog Daisy on the hike. It’s a very cute dog but I’m glad I don’t have a dog to contend with:
At Tlaquepaque I saw this beautiful Mosaic. This would be a fun hobby for my future:
Good Morning Everyone! It is now Saturday, April 11, 2026. These are my temperatures this morning:
It rained last night so my “camp” is pretty wet this morning. I need to dry off my bike because Shannon and I are going to ride it to the Breakfast this morning at the pavillion. She was smart and covered her bike!
Last night Shannon and I went to the Blazin’ M ranch just outside of the park. It is a ranch with a little town built for activities like taking pictures in costume, going to Jail, Ride the Bull and other “stuff”. It was a little hoaky but turned out to be a lot of fun. I wasn’t expecting too much, but it worked out to be A LOT OF FUN! Here I am in JAIL:
It was hysterical! Shannon did it also!
I couldn’t get up on it so the nice young girl came in and let me step on her leg. There were no stirrups!
This was the stage:
Turned out that the owners were also the entertainment. They dressed up in costume and sang like Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and of course ended with ELVIS! Their musician (1) played all of the instruments and was amazing. He looked like ZZ TOP! He sang just like Willie Nelson. It seemed like everyone had a great time. 3 others from our Rally – the “Nancys” (Pinky) and Allison. I met them at Lost Dutchman – they were right beside me:
My Waggle is working today – funny it’s in Black and White!
Jack sent this picture of the kitties yesterday after he woke up from his 3 hour nap:
One of the best things about the evening was the FOOD. They had a wonderful system to feed all these people in a timely manner:
Each person went down the “cafeteria” line and they plopped food right on the tray. It was so funny but worked fantastically and the food was surprisingly hot and tasty:
Pulled Pork, Chicken, Mac & Cheese, Mashed Potatoes and gravy, Prickly Pear Slaw and Corn Bread. There was a dessert too, but I gave it away to our neighbors. Slopping it on the trays was ingenious! No dishes! Just silverware and trays. So much fun!
Shannon and I went on a bike ride this morning. Stopped by the Verde River to see about Kayaking. Looked a little sketchy for that though. It was closer to the campground than the Lagoons, but the Lagoons look a little easier to kayak in. We rode up the road where I walked yesterday:
This was the sign at the end of the road:
There is a lot of good hiking at this State Park also. Not quite as pretty as Sedona, but different. We did a great craft today under the Ramada:
I made two of them:
These rallies are SO MUCH FUN! Card BINGO this afternoon at 2. I’m going to take a nap now if I can, we’ll see. It’s just beautiful weather and I’m charging up my BIKE. It got down to 1 bar.
We did a baked potato bar for dinner. It was great. I learned how to bake potatoes in an Air Fryer. Met a new woman tonight – Sue Rounds. She is recently widowed. She is going to join our chapter. She is very nice – a bit chatty, but it may have been nerves.
Today is Sunday, April 12th. It’s travel day and I’m looking forward to going home. This has been a great rally and I had so much fun. I ended up cancelling my 2 days near Payson because I’m ready for a break and looking forward to my trip to Williams in May. Shannon will be there too. Plus Marci and Char and I’m not sure who else, but it will be great too. Anyway, speaking of Sue Rounds, she was the 2nd woman to join this weekend. Pam Baumbach did also. She was a nice woman also.
It’s chilly this morning. Let me see if it is the coldest so far this trip. YEP! I didn’t make it to my meeting this morning – sorry Jeff! I could have, but decided to stay under the two blankets I had on. I got a good amount of sleep though, so I’ll be fine driving today. My GOOGLE map takes me home on the 60 so I’ll go that way. Ever since the GPS took me on and off the 101 the last time, I don’t like going that way. So I think I’m set. I looked back in my pictures and found this one at the Grand Canyon in September of 2021 – wow 5 years ago. Before Jack and I got together in October. I met Sue and Genie at this rally. It may have been my first RVW in Arizona trip:
I’m still amazed by the Grand Canyon. I am so blessed to be living in the “Grand Canyon” state of Arizona. I love it here. So happy I moved from Florida, although I did love Florida and especially Naples for those 43 years. Jack asked an interesting question the other day and wondered where we would be in 5 years. He likes the idea of going back to Tucson. I like Tucson, but I don’t think we would ever find a situation there like we have today:
I was looking for a picture of our house with Daisy on the slab, but couldn’t find it. ANYWAY, we’ve put in two 1/2 slabs so we can store my toys. It’s the perfect place for us. It’s little inside, but made of block so it’s indestructible. We have a new roof, A/C and appliances. The only pending replacement will be the hot water heater. 2 years and counting!
Next time I go to Dead Horse Ranch, pick sites 2-6 in Quail Campground. The first site is too exposed as the pictures above show. I like to be “in the middle” of the pack! A couple of other pictures of this great rally:
I’ve got Lucy for the next adventure to Williams.
Waggle in COLOR!
Waiting for this flower to bloom. I’ll be back when it does:
