Prescott and Flagstaff, AZ

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Sorry I haven't blogged in a couple of days, we have been checking out the local real estate and there was not alot to take pictures of, unless you wanted to see houses, inside and out. I doubted you did.

We have been in Flagstaff since Monday, (I think), its horrible when you do not know what day it is.....

We scoured around Flagstaff for 2 days, after meeting with a Realtor. She told us of several neighborhoods to check out but we really do not love any of them. (I'm telling you, Telluride spoiled the crap out of us! Everywhere we go we compare it to there).

We did go into Sedona, which is beautiful, but again. way too expensive.We decided to look outside the town/city limits for better prices. We had a great day in Sedona exploring it! The church there was incredibly beautiful.

This morning while I was doing my normal routine of  vacuuming and such inside, Tommy was out on the patio and I heard him talking to some women. No big deal, we tend to talk to everyone in every park we stay at. (Sire is  a big draw, especially to women). All of a sudden the door opens and in walks Kathy. (From Kathy and Bill that we met in Moab). They left us 3 1/2 months ago for Alaska. OMG!!! They are at the same KOA in the same state as us at the same time. Unbelievable! We are so excited.

We planned on meeting up with them in Albuquerque for the balloon festival but it wasn't definite. How cool is this?!! We hung out most of the morning, to catch up, and  then we each did our own thing for the day.

Tommy and I drove down to Williams, AZ to check out the real estate there - but that was a bust. Then we continued on to Prescott. Very cool town. We stopped in  a realtor's office but they were closing and we were pressed for time so we just took literature and left. After an hour and a 1/2 drive through the mountains we finally got back home to meet back up with Kathy and Bill.

On the way back we passed through this town called Jerome. I cannot even begin to describe it except to say it looks like the Almafi coast of Italy. I sincerely hope the pictures help describe it. It was one of a kind town. Incredible and unbelievable how they built these house and stores and still are occupied today. It was a huge mining town. Just amazing!

When we got back to camp Kathy cooked us dinner. They have pounds and pounds of fish from Alaska. We had Halibut tonight. She cooked it over a bed of red peppers and onions and baked it in the oven. AND she made 'mexican' corn. Bill cooked corn on the cob on the grill and when it was done we lathered it with mayonnaise, yes Hellmans' mayonnaise instead of butter, and rolled it in 'mexican' Parmesan and added cayan pepper on top. MMMM, MMMM, GOOD!!!

All Tommy and I had to do was bring cheese cake for dessert and a bottle of white wine. It was great! They are such great people and we are so fortunate to have made friends with them.  While we were sitting outside dinning, we saw a skunk walk by. It was SO cute. Bill was afraid it would spray because its tail was straight up, but we all thought he looked like Pepe La Pu.!Eventually he ran away.

The ironic thing about Kathy and Bill is that we were supposed to pull out today and head towards Albuquerque, but we decided to stay another day. If we would have left we would have missed them. We are now staying another couple of days to hang out with them.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, and they make some kind of sense to you.....hehehehe, Kathy and I drank an entire bottle of white wine tonight...

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend. Stay dry if you anywhere near Nicolle.

Mesa Verde, CO

Sunday, September 26, 2010

The first couple of pictures you will see are of me following Tommy across the pass. It was not fun, but we made it!

Today we went into Mesa Verde National Park. Yes, I got another stamp for my passport. Its getting pretty full. The park entrance is 13 miles from the visitors center and it took 40 minutes to drive there. The park itself is 20,000 acres in total. The roads are twisty and full of switchbacks. The scenery is beautiful but not what we expected. We both thought the rocks were going to be red, as in Moab. They are not. They are sandy  in color. Still pretty though.

We hiked a while and visited several cliff dwellings. The pictures we took,  at first,  look like clay models. But they are not. They really are inside a cliff and were made over 1000 years ago. Some of the 'villages' as they are called, you cannot walk through. All of them are made of sand stone, which is fragile. Some of the villages you enter into and truly explore them. In one village we climbed down a 8 rung ladder to an underground ceremonial section. It was very weird, but cool.

We also visited the museum while there and ate at the restaurant they have. (I packed a lunch, but when we pulled into the picnic area and set everything up - I forgot to put the sandwiches in the cooler. We had everything but the food!) Hence, we at the extremely over priced, over cooked, and total tourist trap of a restaurant.

We came home relatively early so we can cook a good steak for dinner and sit outside and watch the Dolphin/Jets game. The temperature here is 74 degrees and just lovely. We are still quite high in altitude - 7400 feet.

Tomorrow we hit the road again. It will be a long ride. 288 miles to Flagstaff. We want to spend a while there before heading to Albuquerque because we want to actually house shop there. The place we both would love to live in forever is out of the question, so Flagstaff is another option we're hoping pans out for us. (The place we want to live in is Telluride, but a 1 bedroom condo is almost 800K.)

Okay, time to start dinner and watch the game, thanks for reading and have a good week coming up!