Visiting Alcantare Vineyard, Staying at Verde Valley CG

When we left Sun Valley, Arizona heading to this Thousand Trails campground in Cottonwood, Arizona, the clouds were hiding the mountains.  I thought it was amazing.

Sometimes the scenery is breathtaking

Then when we got to the turn off  the main road to head into TT it was just a dirt road.  We weren't sure it was the right road and with a motor home hauling a trailer, you just don't want to go down any road. We turned and when we saw someone on the road, Ed stopped and flagged them to stop and asked if we were heading the right way.

The path leading back to the campground, it just didn't look like it was leading us anywhere

Next to TT there is a winery, so we thought we would go and check it out.  They said they had free wine tasting but we never found the person who was giving out the tastes so we skipped that part.  Neither of us are wine drinkers anyways.

We were both impressed with the winery.  It covered a lot of land.  Even on the hills they had grape vines growing. 

every layer was lined with rock, looked like a lot of work

This is where our rv park is

Inside the building we found interesting paintings and other things. 

table made out of a tree root

interesting what they do with tree roots

house made out of wine corks

Ed standing by a old wine press

I'm resting

in case you need a reason to drink wine

Ed found this painted on the inside of a satellite dish and I just had to include it.  LOL

We are enjoying our time staying here at this TT.

I already have two more things for the next blogs so hope you are enjoying our travels.  We are.

Bye for now,   Love  Ed and Lyn

Siteseeing in Holbrook Arizona

Sometimes you never know what you are going to see in the small towns.  We went looking for a grocery store to get some milk and the town of Holbrook was the closest place to go.  Although we had been to the petrified forest and to the gift shops there, when we got to Holbrook we saw this store saying they were the biggest seller of petrified wood and they had a lot.  This was only one side of the building.  It still amazes me how much it cost when there is this much.  But eventually it will run out.

This was also setting in the parking lot of this store.  It seems like everywhere we go we see old cars.

 Ed says this has to be the most expensive fish pond he had ever seen.  It was surrounded by the petrified wood.

While there we came across this Wigwam motel.  It was unique so we decided to go check it out. 

Here is the entrance, which it seemed like a unique place to stay but as you see below, inside it was just a small motel room

nothing special inside

Outside the wigwam were all these old cars. At first we thought it must be some kind of car show.   Some looked like they could be driven and some were in pretty bad shape.  Ed talked to the owner and he told him he owned them all.  It was interesting looking at them all.  And I'm not even that much into old cars.

Can you imagine these cars all just sitting outside this motel.  I wonder if the guy will ever do anything with them.  The last couple were up by the office and looked in pretty good shape.

That was our day.  You just never know what you are going to find in these small towns.


HAPPY TRAILS       ED and  LYN

Petrified Forest Nat'l Park

We spent 3 days at Root 66 RV Park. Most rv's just spend one night and than leave early the next morning.  We had 3 days before our next reservation and this place was close to the Petrified Forest.  A place Ed says he has always wanted to see.  I had heard of it but really didn't know much about it.  When we got there we had an unexpected surprise.  Because of Veteran's day they had a free weekend, so we didn't have to pay.  So we saved $10. 

We were able to drive through the park and get out and explore different areas.

This petrified wood had amazing colors in it

Some of the pieces were huge

Some of them was a whole section of the tree.  This is the way they break up.  It looked like someone had taken a chain saw to it.

This one was unusual because of the way the bark had separated from it. 

The petrified wood's colors come from minerals in the waters that at one time covered the wood.  The wood is surprisingly heavy, remember it is like a rock. 

It is illegal to collect or remove any of the wood from the park.  All the petrified wood sold at the gift stores come from private land.  Everywhere you go in this area you see places selling  it.  They shine the pieces and they are beautiful but, they sell starting at 5,000 and up.  They make benches,  slice the top off and make tables and smaller pieces make book ends. 

The road through the park was 26 miles long.  We could have been there longer but because we got a late start we ran out of time.

You can see by the way we are dressed it was cold

We didn't see much wildlife, actually all we saw were a few birds.  Ed tried to make friends with this one but this was as close as the bird would get to him.  He was feeding him a nutri-grain bar.

Route 66 went through the park at one time, it is no longer there but they had they spot marked with this car.

The car had been stripped but it was still interesting

 By the time we left the park it was after closing.  We came up to a gate that was closed.  At first I thought we were locked in.  But, as we got closer it opened for us.  Than we headed home, I tried to take a picture of the sunset.

The perfect ending to a perfect day.  ( although a little warmer would have been nice)

HAPPY TRAILS!!    ED AND LYN

 




We are heading farther into Arizona plus a little more south.  The weather is suppose to get warmer.

The "Grand Canyon of Texas"

We were in Amarillo, Texas and  heard they had the second largest canyon in the United States.  It consists of 18,438 acres.  What was nice about it was you could drive down to the canyon floor.  We have never been to a canyon so we were impressed.  Hopefully we will make it to the Grand Canyon one of these days.  Here are some of our pictures.



They had several cabins made out of stone

the road down into the canyon

Ed climbed up to the rocks

look at the colors

Ed lifting up the rock

Did you notice I had a jacket on and that Ed is in a t-shirt

Ed falling down

notice the layers of rock and the cavern

doesn't this look like a rhinoceros

We stayed in Amarillo 2 days and then headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  They have an aerial tram that takes you up to Sandia Peak.  At an elevation of 10,378 feet the peak has an 11,000 square-mile panoramic view.  I was really looking forward to this, but when I called they were shut down for maintenance.  Then we found out we could drive up so we decided that is what we would do.  The view was pretty could but it probably would have been better in the tram.   We also found out they had snow up there. 

Ed showing you the snow

Isn't this pretty

there were a lot of towers at the top

The pictures just don't do it justice

All in all we are enjoying our trip to Arizona, just wish it wasn't so cold.  It was down to 33 degrees last night and suppose to be colder tonight.  It was warmer in Elkhart this morning than here.  Just doesn't seem right.  We were suppose to be heading to warmer weather.  Hopefully it's coming. 

HAPPY TRAILS   ED AND LYN