Verde Valley Area

This is a picture of Bradley's Wife Janice and his children. Kelly, Jonathan, Cipriano, and Amanda at Jonathan and Cipriano's football game. Bradley is Helen's nephew, Sylvia's son.


This is a picture of the Sedona area taken from a distance. You can see the town and the mountains in the distance toward Oak Creek Canyon.


This is a picture of Helen standing by a huge Ponderosa Pine on the west fork oak creek trail.


This is a red bluff wall somewhere along the West Fork Trail.


This is Michael wading in West Fork Oak Creek along the trail.


This is an ancient indian village abandoned about 1450. The name of the village is Tuzigoot.


Michael and I have thoroughly enjoyed our time here in the Verde Vally area. There are so many things to see and do, and the weather is perfect. Thus far we have toured Sedona with it's beautiful red rocks, driven the Red Rock Loop Road, visited Red rock State park, Jerome State Park, The Chapel of the Holy Cross, rode the Verde Valley Train, went to Tuzigoot National Monument (Ancient Pueblo Ruins built by the Sinagua Indians) and hiked several trails. There are several more things we plan on seeing before we leave the valley.
We have also gotten to visit with my nephew Bradley Childers and his family. Bradley and his wife Janice have four lovely children, Kelly, Jonathan, Cipriano, and Amanda. They live in Winslow,AZ. which is about 120 miles from our resort, so we split the difference and met them in Flagstaff 9/14 for lunch, and then on Saturday 9/20 we went back to Flagstaff to watch Jonathan and Cipriona play Football. It was such fun watching the little guys run and tackle. Amanda was fun to watch on the sidelines also.
Check out the link to Thousand Trails Verde Valley Campground. It has some other links to several attractions around this area.
This one picture is of Helen standing against a Pondarosa Pine on a trail along West Fork Oak Creek on one of our four mile hikes.

South Rim of the Grand Canyon

We moved to Williams, AZ Thursday, September 4 to see all the sights around there which definitely included The South Rim. Helen and I were in Williams in 1985 as part of a fifteen day vacation when I worked at Armstrong Ceiling. We had stayed at a KOA campground then named Circle Pines KOA. We didn't stay there this time but we went out to see if we remembered much. I guess either our memory is very bad or things really changed in twenty-three years. We also had visited the South Rim in 1985 and that place has changed also. We stayed at a campground named Grand Canyon Railway RV Park. We arrived at our campground Thursday and kind of just drove around Williams and got reacquainted with the town. Helen also lived here for a while before we were married. Friday we went to the South Rim and drove along the Scenic Auto Route to Desert Vista and stopped at several overlooks along the way. The actual Grand Canyon looked about the same as in 1985 but after all the places we have seen on our travels we weren't as awed as in 1985.
The North Rim is just as awesome, even more so in some ways. Saturday we took the train to the Grand Canyon. That is a very nice ride that any one should take if they have the opportunity. It is a sixty-five mile train ride and is very relaxing and nice. We spent three and a half hours hiking the Canyon rim on the same trail that we were on in 1985 which is the most awesome view at the canyon. Check out the link to all the National Parks and find the Grand Canyon. You will see some awesome pictures there that other people have posted on that site. We caught the train and headed back to Williams. Along the way the train was robbed by some cowboys on horses. They boarded the train and everyone had a fun time. It was all part of the show of course.
Sunday I ask Helen if she wanted to go for a ride and check out Bill Williams mountain she said yes of course but looking back I'll bet she wouldn't be so anxious. We drove as far up the mountain as we dared until the narrow gravel road got too steep. We turned around at a view point called Finger Rock which was about 9,500 feet above sea level. Then we went on toward Jerome,AZ which was supposed to be mostly on paved roads but as it turned out about 30 miles of it was on gravel mountain narrow roads. Very scary!!!! Sometimes I wonder how I get us into such messes and why Helen would ever trust me again. But she always does. I guess she loves me and knows that I love her more than anything and would never cause her harm deliberately. After we got to Jerome we found a paved road, Hwy. 89A which is a scenic road through Oak Creek Canyon. I was going to move to this campground on this road but changed my mind. The road is very beautiful but there is one seven mile stretch where the elevation changes 3000 feet.
Very steep and very sharp switch-backs. Vehicles over 50 feet long are not allowed on the hill.
We moved Monday to this very beautiful and peaceful campground in Cornville, AZ. We will be here ten days but in this general area for six weeks. This is a very scenic area and we will have some pictures. Jerome, Cottonwood, Sedona, and this whole Verde Valley is a great place to spend some time.
We are all doing fine and Silly is back to his ornery self. There are some cats around this campground so I will watch out for him, don't want the same thing to happen again. Helen really enjoys this life style and so do I. We miss Lascassas, Open Bible, and all our friends and family and look forward to being back in March of 2009.

New look to our blog.

Helen and I would like to thank Patrice for the new look to our blog. She has really brought excitement into our blog that was missing. Our blog now looks like that of someone who is traveling and enjoying life on the road. Again thanks Patrice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our Cat Sylvester

This is Sylvester,our famous cat. Silly, as we call him, was hurt real bad about a month ago and had to go to a vet. He is doing fine now and is back to his ornery self. He has really taken to travel and looks forward to our next campsite. He doesn't like a leash so I have to watch him real close so he doesn't get into trouble. He says meow (hi) to everyone.

Around Las Vegas

We have been able to see lots of things around Las Vegas that most people don't get to see because they fly in, but of course they see Las Vegas from the air which must be one awesome sight. We went to the Red Rock Canyon, the Spring Mountain State Park, Mt. Charleston and Lee Canyon. We went down to the Las Vegas Strip one evening and didn't leave until around 8:00 P.M. We saw several casinos and The Eiffel Tower of Las Vegas. We saw the Bellagio Conservatory which was very nice. We went up to the top of the tower and took several pictures and a video of the Fountain show at Bellagio. It was especially awesome from that high above the city. Spring Mountain State Park was owned by several families when it was just a ranch one of the former owners was Howard Hughes. He bought it from an actress and it was a resort for the rich and famous. Check out the link that I added showing Las Vegas Attractions. When you go to the website scroll down and find a long list of attractions that are in and around Las Vegas. Many of them have pictures and videos. I will try again to post some pictures. The last time I posted about Hoover Dam I couldn't post pictures with it. We are having a wonderful time and are thankful for the opportunity to travel. Thank everyone for your comments on our blog and any suggestions as to how to improve the blog would be appreciated.