Arizona

We left Grants, NM early on Sunday morning, May 15 at 7:15 with Acey’s mileage at 84,154 and Thor’s 102,682, and 1,994.6 miles on our bicycles. We stopped at a rest area to Zoom with our Sunday School class, but apparently Zoom was not happening today. We had more scenic views as we drove past Gallup, NM

We crossed the state line into Arizona – another state we visited in Acey in 2020.

We saw mountains as we approached Sedona

We arrived at Thousand Trails Verde Valley just past noon and checked in – we planned ahead and reserved a 50amp site, which we did not know was the policy when we were here in October 2020 for 2 weeks – we will need 50amp as it is 100° this afternoon! We got set up and made lunch and did some laundry and cleaning Arizona does not follow Daylight Savings Time, so family Zoom was at 4pm. It’s always nice to see the family and chat for a bit – our connection kept cutting out, so after an hour we quit! There was to be a lunar eclipse tonight, so we checked on what time we should go out to watch it. There were some clouds blocking our view of the moon that finally cleared – we soon saw the shadow of Earth begin to pass over the moon.

wouldn’t you know there were more clouds in the way as the eclipse continued! And it had been fairly clear all day… We continued to watch, but the moon could not be seen. Looking on the internet, we found a photo of what we might have been able to see – this photo was taken over Columbus, Ohio on Sunday – a Blood Moon!

Monday, we drove to nearby Camp Verde to have lunch with some Compson relatives. We had met Pam (Compson) Cross and her husband Chris in 2020 – Chris was unable to come today, but her sister Sherry joined us, and it was good to meet her! We had a nice lunch at Low Places – yep – we had family at Low Places! 😊

Their father Rick Compson moved from Michigan to Arizona around 1955 and his parents followed him. Rick’s father Leo was Jim’s uncle (Jim’s Dad’s brother) – so it would be that Jim’s relation to Pam and Sherry is first cousin once removed. Somehow Jim never had connected with the Arizona clan as he grew up.

After lunch we headed to beautiful Sedona – lots of red rock there!

On Tuesday it was 96° — too hot for a bike ride, so we visited the Clemenceau Heritage Museum and walked around Historic Old Town Cottonwood. The museum is in a building that was a High School at one time and had a lot of information about the history of the Verde Valley area. Here’s a photo from their website:

One of the first things we saw was an operator at a switchboard – the apparatus came from nearby Jerome.

Jerome had a large copper mining industry going there 1920-1953 – we visited there a couple of times but had not been to Old Town Cottonwood yet. Slag was considered a waste product from the smelting process but has been found to have a new use today especially in road construction.

Copper was strip-mined in some areas, but underground mines were used in Jerome.

Here is one of the 2 doll houses at the museum.

There was a schoolroom set up, as this building used to be a school!

We saw an elaborate railroad diorama in another room with several model trains running. During the 1920’s -1950’s, there were seven railroads operating in this area.

An old organ, furniture and quilts on display

Some old Post Office equipment.

A display about the USS Arizona – we have visited the memorial in Honolulu.

There was much more to see; it was an interesting museum, and we enjoyed our visit! Then we went to walk around the Old Town of Cottonwood.

Lots of shops and places to eat here! It was a fun day but hot!

We came back to Acey in the afternoon, Linda worked on the blog, Jim worked on future reservations, and we got ready to move again in the morning – our next destination is Las Vegas and more family – we will visit Jim’s nephew Dave!