Week 27 - Arizona: Cave Creek, Mesa, Clarksdale, Prescott Valley and Phoenix - 02-18-2007

Hello again from Arizona,

Each day Ellen accesses AccuWeather and figures out where to go next. And the answer keeps coming up as Arizona! We left Pete's sister Donnalee and our Atascadero neighbors, Ben and Sid in Tucson. Donnalee and her friend Don are off to Costa Rica. Ben and Sid headed back to Atascadero.

We headed to Cave Creek, northeast of Phoenix. We stayed a couple of days at the Cave Creek Recreation Area. Here we created and mailed out 106 invitations to all the Phoenix-area high schools. While the basketball season has ended for most Arizona teams, we are hoping that a few gung-ho coaches are preparing for next year. We invited them to come to our RV park or set up a meeting at their school.

Our GPS showed a road from our campground to the town of Cave Creek. It turned out to be a horse trail.

This is Cave Creeks Frontier Town. We had lunch at Crazy Ed's Satisfied Frog. Then we rode our bikes back to camp. Total ride was about 20 miles.

In Mesa Arizona, we met up with Jon. Jon has been our Atascadero friend since the 1980's. Pete and Jon went to Promise Keepers in Fresno. They have been meeting for breakfast every month since 1994 until Pete and Ellen left on this trip.

Pete's sister, Donnalee, won two tickets to the Verde Canyon Railroad. It is a 4-hour train ride from Clarksdale to Perkinsville and back. Here is a picture taken from the train. The train track runs along the Verde River.

This Road Runner came to visit us in Perkinsville at the end of the train ride

Our tour guide, Bryce, told us stories about the area as we rode in the sun in the open air car.

Leaving Clarksdale, we headed south on route 89A. There were no signs saying "No vehicles over 40 feet", so we headed up the mountain to about 7,000 feet. The motorhome had no trouble going up the very steep hills. We, however, were a bit panicked about the fact that the roads were narrow and there was no shoulders and many rocks trying to autograph the coach. This is the town of Jerome, totally built on a hillside.

Another view of the twisty 89A on the way from Jerome to Prescott Valley.

We stayed a night in Prescott Valley and then settled in for a week in Phoenix. We went the the Goodyear Senior Rodeo. All of the participants were from 40 to over 70 years old! This bronco bull rider was 68.

These Brahma bull riders were 50 years and older. Yee haa!

Sunday we went to Calvary Chapel Goodyear and visited with relatives. More on the visits next week.

You may have noticed our new mascot. This was a gift from Ben and Sid for helping them empty their wallet of unneeded cash. What do you think his name should be? We were thinking of:

1. Speteo (pronounced Speedo)
2. Kokopetti (pronounced Ko-Ko-Pee-tee, similar to the Southwestern United States image Kokopelli

3. Ben-Sid-cle (pronounced BenSycle)
4. Your idea?

Please email us with your votes. We will announce the winner next week.

Have fun, stay warm,

Love, Pete and Ellen

Photos from Feb 2007