Wintering in Bullhead City, AZ

We have now been here in Bullhead City near my sister, BJ and her husband, Brian, for over six weeks.  Bullhead sits right on the Colorado River.  When you cross the river you are in Laughlin, NV and have an hour time change.  Oh brother, just a little confusing.  To add to this, if you go a few miles south and cross the Colorado at the next bridge, you now are in California!  Always interesting!   Bullhead is a sleepy small city with the biggest problem being Burros in the road!  

   

This is my sister and me!

Thanksgiving dinner at BJ"s with Brian's sister, Diane, and us.  

On December 6th - 13th, sister Barbara and husband, John, flew to be with us here for a week.  It was great being with both sisters and spending time together.  Our cousin, Nancy and her husband, Leon, came over from Phoenix to spend some time with us.  Great family time!!

One thing that was a must do...baking Christmas cookies together!!  FUN :)  

We ATE cookies together, too!

Going to Oatman, AZ, about thirty miles away, was one of our family outings.  Oatman is on historic route 66, an old mining town with lots of wild west aura.  Burros are allowed to roam free in the streets.  Hmmmmm...

After lunch at the local hotel, we drove the rest of the way, 28 miles, to Kingman - switchbacks and all!  What a narrow, winding, interesting road.

This is a working gold mine up in the mountains.

It was a fun day driving with our two guys who love the stories of America's historic byways.

So you can see we have been busy and having a good time.  We also have travelled to Las Vegas two different days.  It is less than a two hour trip and gives us a nice destination.  

First trip, we went to see the sights.

Our second trip, we went to see the Ethel M Chocolate Factory, part of the Mars candy family.  Besides wonderful candies, they have a three acre Cactus Garden.  So many kinds of cacti!  

Who knew??  

YUMMY!!

Here is Christmas day at my sister's.

Bj"s tree!

And our RV decorated for Christmas!  

 This is our Advent calendar.  The only place to put it is on the bedroom mirror!  

Thanks for following along!  We will be going to see Mike in Bend, OR by car next week and leaving the RV here for ten days.  It doesn't like the cold.  Neither do we, but looking forward to seeing our guy!!  We'll travel up route 5, right in the middle of California.  Please pray for safe travels.  Thanks, friends.  We"ll write again when we get back from Oregon.  Happy New Year!

Beautiful Arizona!

As we drove into central Arizona, near Flagstaff, we climbed and climbed.  We turned our rig south toward Sedona area, and started downhill!  It was a lovely drive down route 17, later hearing the road can be quite dangerous.  Oh well, apparently what we don't know....  

We stayed in Camp Verde, south of Sedona.  Another special spot along the way. The day after we got there, the town opened their brand new library!  We had limited wifi at our RV park so were able to make great use of this lovely new facility.  Found a great church that Sunday and worshipped with a friendly group of folks that were so welcoming.  Plus heard a mighty sermon!  

We went to a copper-mining town up in the mountains, called Jerome.  It felt like we were going to Brigadoon, so steep a climb on a narrow road.

Sedona and the red rock country was as beautiful as you have heard.  We spent a couple of days there.    

We visited Chapel of the Holy Cross.  Beautiful!  Peaceful and reverent.  

The giant rock formations and brilliant blue sky are stunning.  

Prickly Pear Cactus

The Coffee Pot!

Another favorite Sedona spot was Oak Creek Canyon.

Our last adventure in this area was right in Camp Verde.  We had to see Montezuma Castle!  And just a few miles down the road is Montezuma Well.  These were named for Montezuma because the first early explorers thought they were of Aztec origin.  But Montezuma never came that far up into what is now Arizona.  This ancient cliff dwelling was built and used by the Sinaqua people, who are the ancestors of several tribes of southwestern Native Americans.  Amazing to see.

This is a diorama.

Montezuma Well is an artesian well.  One and one/half  million gallons of water flow through the well each day and have for centuries!!  The water kept

 the ancient tribes alive and still gives water to one of the local towns.  It is still and quiet around the pool, never to guess what is going on beneath the surface.  

We left that day for Williams, AZ.  Once there we realized we had enough time to head up one hour drive to the Grand Canyon to see the sunset.  The last time we were there, it was with Mike and Robin, twelve years ago.  It made it a little bittersweet for us, but also brought good memories of our trip together.  Some things will always be hard, but so worth doing.  

Now we are in Bullhead City, AZ for the next three months.  A good place to spend the winter, as we are hearing that the Syracuse area has two to three feet of snow today!!   

Our RV park is lovely with all kinds of amenities and lots of friendly people.  A good place to be. Plus my sister and her husband are just a few miles down the road!  

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!