Saturday, 22 April

We sat outside enjoying our coffee and soon were joined by our neighbors, Genie and Larry and their giant cat.  We actually ran into them on the trail coming back to camp on our first day.  They were walking their cat.  It is about 2 times the size of Bella and she is afraid of it.

They came into our fenced area and joined us for coffee and a chat.  They have a home in Virginia and recently bought into Casa Grande which is sort of like our Ranch, but super crowded and smushed together.  Not at all pretty.

Anyway, they wanted to pick our brains about Nevada.  They have never been there and wanted to know where they should go and what they should see.  We picked their brains about South Dakota.  They hadn't really been to Oak, Neb, or Kansas so didn't really have anything to share about them.

They had friends coming and we were going to do a bike ride, more of the Prescott Circle Trail.

We hiked from our abode down to Watson Lake Park to take Bella out for a romp.  She doesn't get to go biking with us so it  is nice to wear her out with a romp first.  There is a huge grassy area down there so we let her off to run around.

We hiked back and got ready for our ride.

I have had my bike now for almost a year. (We have been on the road now for almost a year, amazing) Anyway, we took my bike into a bike shop a couple days ago to be tuned up and serviced. The plan for today is 20 miles on the trail, but as a shuttle so rather than out and back it is one way.  I followed Rob into town to pick up my bike.  They we drove together to the start point and dropped the bikes off and locked them to a tree.  From there we drove to the end point and dropped the truck off there.  Then we drove my car back to the start point. Phew!! We started the ride and about .3 into Rob realized I didn't have my helmet on, just my sun visor.  That is not a good move, so we rode back to the car to get it. Man I was feeling out of shape.

We took off again and almost immediately I had trouble.  The trail was steep and rocky and I couldn't get up it riding.  I had to push my bike, which meant that Rob and I had to switch bikes (mine weighs 65 lbs) so he could push mine and I could push his.  We'd start off again and zap, I couldn't make it and push we did again.  Rob checked the map and said we were on a really rough section and it should get easier soon.  But, when we got to "the easier section" it was still awful.  Then, pushing the bike I tweaked my lower back.  Just about then, also, Rob decided this was a ridiculous trail and that we should go back.  But, his plan was to lock my bike up and then he would do it without me.  Forget that.  So, we did go back and took his bike apart and put it in my car and he went on a did the trail on my bike.  Part of the problem was when they serviced my bike they left the chain on the hardest chain ring in the front.  I kept trying to down shift, but I just thought it was the trail and didn't think to look at the front shifters.  Needless to say, Rob realized it when he was riding it and had an easier time of it.  But, he said it was still a rough ride and that the whole time he was riding it he was thinking, "Cat would love this part, Ooh, Cat would hate this part".  Anyway, I went to JoAnn's and then to Safeway, and then came on home.

Rob called every 30 min to let me know that he was still alive and to tell me where he was on the trail.  That is the deal when he goes off on his own.  That way, if he happens to get hurt, I know where to send help.

He got back just as it was getting dark.  We sat outside with the fire for a bit, but my back was killing me so I went to bed early.

Friday, 21 April

This morning we have to move.  When we made our reservation for 10 days at this place they said fine, but you will be three nights in spot 67 and then have to move to #93.  Ok fine.
So, we have to move.  We also want to go to Sedona today.  The problem is, the person in 93 doesn't seem to be making any progress toward moving out.  I walked by once or twice and saw no movement.  Then, so as  not to look quite so obvious, I walked down to the office just to verify that we in fact do have to move.  We do.  Check out time is not until 11:30 and it is now only 9:30.  
So, we decided to go to 93 and let him know we were having to move into that spot and would it be ok if we put some stuff there.  He said sure! He said he was almost finished and would be out in a jiffy.  30 min later he did move out.  It was pretty easy for us to get into the spot because there was an open spot right scroll from it that we could pull into first and just back straight in.
It took us just under an hour to get everything hooked up, slid out, fencing etc and then we hit the road.
I love Sedona and have wanted to go up there ever since we talked about coming to Prescott.  It is such a beautiful place.  I fear that living there would be like living in Incline Village.  Another visitor area so expensive and crowded.
The drive up was nice.  

 We drove through the small town of Jerome nestled into the hillside.  It was a cool looking town, but complicated for parking and exploring.  Perhaps another time.

Then pulling into Sedona I'm always blown away by its beauty.

 We are here to enjoy the beauty of it and go for a hike.  We did a combination of trails.  We started with Chapel Hill trail.  We parked on the road and had to walk up the road (yuk!, asphalt and steep) to the chapel. 

It is quite beautiful inside.  We didn't go in this trip, but have in the past.  

Across the street from it is this huge house.  We were here when they were first starting to build it.  We walked past it and I took a couple pictures of a portion of their landscaping, through their fence.

From up at the chapel I took a couple of the whole house and yard.

It is an amazingly huge place.  There is a dog running around, and I saw a person, but I think he was a maintenance type person.

Once I was able to close my mouth we found our trail head and headed off. We did a combination of trails.  Some of them we have biked before in the past.

There were a lot of flowers blooming along the trail

We stopped several times just to take in the amazing view. 

Bella loved it.  At first I was a bit worried about her.  It was hot and a we were hiking quite a bit over the rocks.  I was worried about her feet, but there would have been no way of stopping her.  Eventually we got more onto dirt trail rather that the red rock.

I absolutely love this place and will come back as often as I can.

We had dinner at a restaurant that we had gone to before. It was good, but it has changed and I don't think it was as good as last time.  Also, last time they had a margarita tasting tree.  It was really cool  It looked like a tree and held 5 smaller size margaritas.  They only do that on rare occasions now.  Too bad.

We drove home and went to bed soon after arrival

Thursday, 20 April; Prescott, AZ

Today is golf.  We enjoyed the morning in our chilly woodsy spot with our coffee.  Then we headed out to Stone Ridge Golf Course.
It was really pretty.  I was playing so lousy though.  Rob, of course, was playing just fine.  We practically had the whole place to ourselves.  We hit a few balls at the driving range and practiced putting a bit and then headed out.
We were just a two some and no one seemed to be ahead or behind until all of a sudden there was a single.  We let him play through and he disappeared off in the distance.  
Since it was only the two of us and the course went out into

the desert we cheated and let Bella off leash.  She would get out at the Teeing Grounds and sniff around and watched us Tee off and then she'd get back in.  A couple times she got out when we headed for the the putting greens, but we would shoo her back.
I was doing so lousy that after losing 2 balls Teeing off on 10 I decided I would just ride along and caddie for Rob.  Bella and I had much more fun that way.
After we finished our round we sat on their patio and had an adult beverage.
We returned to the Rig for another adult beverage and a bit of dinner.

Wednesday, 19 April Prescott , AZ

We sat outside enjoying our coffee then Rob decided we should go into town to the marina at Inez Lake and go have breakfast.  Awesome, I love going to breakfast.  As we were driving in Rob checked the directions and realized that the restaurant was not open on Wednesdays.  OK fine; so, we went to another restaurant and had breakfast. Afterward we drove out to Thumb Butte and went for a hike.  It was a pretty good hike.  It was a circle up, up, up onesie and down, down, down the other.  

Thumb Butte from afar

Part way up

At the top there is a memorial for the 19 Granite Mountain Hot Shots from here in Prescott who were over run by the Yarnell Hill Fire in 2013.  They all perished.

Granite Mountain Hot Shots Memorial

There were some nice views up here

To include this interesting house

We finished our hike and went back to the rig.  

We dropped The Boo off and then went out for a 20 mile bike ride.  There is a trail called The Prescott Circle it is 53 miles long and goes all around the town of Prescott through the hills, brush, pines and even a couple paved sections.  Obviously we are not going to do the whole thing in one ride.  Even with my cool bike that is too much mountain riding at one time.

But, we did do 20 miles.  We started out here in the RV Park and rode along part of Watson lake, then into the desert country.

We came out on the corner of Pioneer Parkway and Williamson Valley Rd. That was 10 miles.

I took this picture of Rob and then we turned around and headed back from whens we came. 20 miles total.  It was a really fun ride.

Tuesday, 18 April. Fountain Hills, AZ to Prescott, AZ

Yippee, we are moving today!
We sat out and enjoyed our last coffee with the birds, snakes, scorpions, tarantulas, cactus etc.  The  packed up to move out.
Rob had to dump.  We have been here for two weeks with water and electric only, no sewer.  We did really well.  Black tank (toilet) has never really been a worry, but the two gray tanks which one is for the kitchen and the other for the bathroom sink and shower are always a concern.  But, we never filled them.  Anyway, while he was dumping tanks I went into town to find the redox so I could return the movie we watched last night.  It took me a while, but I finally found it and dropped it off.  From there I headed up the road to Prescott, AZ to "Point of Rocks RV park.
The drive was fine.  I talked to Mom along the way.  I hadn't had decent phone service so couldn't talk to anyone for awhile.
It was a two hour drive and the area is pretty.  I found the RV Park, checked in and found our spot.  I called Rob and he was only about 5 min away.  I waited for him at the entrance and then led him to the spot and helped direct him in.  Then we hooked up and set everything up.  Bella is always so happy once the fence is up and she has her house back.
We were both really hungry so we went into town to find a place for lunch.  
Prescott is a cute little town. 

 There is a really nice town square park and we found a place with a roof-top patio where we could eat and look out.

 This is the Courthouse in the center of the park.  There are 4 entrances to it with nice large stair ways leading in and different statues in front on each side.  

While we were at lunch we looked at the maps and "things to do" pamphlets they gave us at the office.  There is a lake a 5 min. walk from our campsite and there are tons of hiking and biking trails right there.

Naturally, after lunch we decided to go on a walk about and go check out the lake.  We discovered a trail that goes all around our Watson Lake and decided to go for it.

So the Watson Lake Loop is about 4 miles.  If you look at the map above you will see 4 hiker symbols.  We started at the upper right one.  That is also where we are camped.  So we started out following a nice dirt trail and soon it turned into "follow the dots across the slick rock.  Looking at the map, we did the Northshore Trail and soon we turned into mountain goats scampering, climbing over, slithering down and scrambling over boulders, stone steps, slick rocks and craziness. We went along the Over the Hill Trail, Down to Secret Cove Trail and Tree House Loop and finally followed that little trail over to Peavine Trail which was a nice wide gravel biking/hiking/running trail.  We followed it for about a mile back to Discovery Trail and back to our camp site.  It turned into 5 miles.  I was very tired, but it was pretty fun.

It was sooooo pretty and half the time we were scampering over these huge boulders and marked rocks.  Even Bella did an awesome job over the rocks.

 Pretty plant life with blooming cactus

 Right in front of me (above) on the ground, you can see a big white dot painted on the rock.  

 The base of the dam

 Letting water out of the dam

 Rock Climbers.

We actually started following the wrong trail at this point and had to go back to the dam to take the correct trail.  See the white dots to the left in the picture.  Again, those dots where what we were following over the rocks. As you can see, Bella had no problem with it

.

It is really pretty out here.  I found a nice flat rock and
decided to stretch my back out on it.

It was nice to finally find a flat dirt trail

 These were the signs we were finding.

It was really nice to finally get onto the Peavine trail.  See how nice and "flat" and wide it is.

It was still a long way back.  Even Bella was tired and wanted a ride for a little bit.

We finally made it back to the rig, had an adult beverage while sitting around our little fire, then went in, had dinner and watched NCIS & Bull. After that we went to bed