Sunday, March 13/2016 - Saturday, March 19/2016

Not sure why this pic is upside down!!
One of the headstones we saw in the "old" cemetary of Cherry Hill.

This week, after we worked.....we headed up to the hills around Camp Verde.  There is forest there and it was actually quite nice to smell the pines and hear the wind blowing through their tops which towered a hundred feet above us!!

It is a curvy highway to Cherry Hill Campground but the pavement
was a welcome change

We saw two of these carved bears on the way to Cherry HIll
Bears with sunglasses!!

The tall pine trees.

Out of Cherry Hill and onto the shelf road that would
eventually lead us down to Camp Verde.

Firefighter Ave in Cherry Hill

The village of Cherry Hill has one main road bisecting the town.  To the left lies what remains of the old Cherry Hill Fire hall and the Cemetery.  We took the time to get out of the truck and take a quick look at both these historic sites.  The cemetery was by far the more interesting with graves dating back many, many years.  There were three tiny graves in a row with only one word written on the wooden board...."Baby".  Many headstones were so old that the writing on them was faded beyond reading.  Some didn't even have birth dates on them simply a question mark "?".  There is so much history in these old cemeteries that one could almost feel it.

The old firetruck and water tower

The old hall

Cherry HIll Cemetary

Baby - Baby - Baby....  I guess these little ones remained nameless

Another bear carving 

Picture overlooking Verde Valley

Once we were out of Cherry Hill, it was shelf road all the way to Forest Road 361 and Man, it was a long way down.  There were also several one lane bridges that had to be crossed and I was always happy to see no other vehicles headed towards us!!  The whole trip today was on trails with a "1" and "2" difficulty designation so it was pretty easy on the truck.  Once we hit 361 the trail did deterriorate to the point where four wheel drive was required but all in all, it was indeed and easy trail.  Abit off camber and bumpy but John being the pro that he is handled it well, as did the little Blazer!!

The shelf road

Our road......

Forest Road 361

awesome little road but four wheel drive required

One of the remaining wall left over from the mining era

Our new run about aka.... the grocery getter!!

We eventually hit the town of Camp Verde, accessed Interstate 17 and headed to Black Canyon City where we stopped at the infamous Bar Rescue site of Chilleen's on 17 for supper.   I had made a silly bet with John and Kay last football season that didn't really turn out my way so had to pay up with a steak dinner for both of them.  It was here that I paid up and I must say.....it was delicious!!

The girls with John Taffer (Bar rescue) at
Chileen's on 17

Headed home

With my debt paid, we headed for home and the sat around the campfire for a bit before calling it a night and heading to bed.  It was a good day.

Paragliders

This week also held our annual St. Patrick's Day celebrations and fun was certainly had by all.  I had slow cooked the corned beef and John and Kay looked after the bbq'd cabbage.  It was totally delicious.  Marilyn brought the dessert and party favours.  Mitch stopped by for supper and even Ray joined us for a while.
Ray is headed to Mexico for a few weeks and had to be at the airport early Friday morning.  His sister Karen, was headed into Phoenix that day as well so she took him in and dropped him off.  Kay and I got to sleep in after we partied the night before!!  Life is good!!

St Patricks day started out at the Mecca Bar

Kay

Ray

Afternoon at Box Canyon

Lorne and Kay

Found this guy around the fire Sat night

Sunday, March 6/2016 - Saturday, March 12/ 2016

Back road to Bagdad

The work week is over and it is time for yet another road trip.  We headed up towards Congress again and took a rather wash boardy (is that even a word?) road over to Bagdad.  It took us through huge granite boulders and typical desert fauna and flora.  We passed the area where the rock climbing was held and continues straight on that road until we finally hit pavement.  Then, it was a rather twisty road into Bagdad.  Once we were there, we tried to find a neat little restaurant we had heard about but unfortunately, once we found it we soon found out the it was closed on Sunday!!  WHAT!!

The mighty Saguaro

This skull was painted on one of the many granite
boulders that cover this area.

Of course John needed a picture of this old thrasher

Our road

We eventually hit pavement!!

Pavement to Bagdad

With that discovery, we then back tracked to a small dirt road and accessed that in the hopes that it would spit us out onto highway 93.  It was a neat little road with many washes and actually took us past a bit of water and a few "ranches".  Talk about in the middle of "no where"!!

Santa Maria Road and hopefully our way back to the highway

Awesome little road through the desert

Santa Maria river

Back on Hwy 93 - also known as Joshua Tree Parkway.

The road did indeed spit us out on 93 and we headed for Wickenburg.  All in all, it was a good day.  Lots of stops and refreshments!!

Sooooo many joshua trees!!

Chillin in Box Canyon

Being that we were in no mood to do any more work in the park, we headed up to Box Canyon one afternoon to just relax.  It was awesome and was a nice change from our usual work week.

It is never too hot when your feet are in the water.
Time to catch a suntan!!

In Salome - the three cabaleros!!

We took another trip too and headed to Salome where we would "check out" the drinking establishments there.  This is one of the towns that Kay actually used to live in.  She went to High School here so we got to check that out too!!  There were three bars in Salome and we stopped at everyone!!  One beer in each and then we took the back roads home to Wickenburg where we stopped at the Mecca for supper.

More metal decoration

Siesta Time for this dude!!

Inside the bar/grill

All metal horse and stagecoach

Another bar in the megatropolis of Salome!

The "bikers" were having a poker rally

Just in case you didn't know where you were!!

Inside the Cactus Bar  -  again in Salome!!

It was a busy week but the fun of the weekend trips makes it all worthwhile.  It will soon be time for us to get the camper packed up and head home!!  Man, time sure flies when you are having fun!!  Life is Good....

Headed home on Aguila road

At the Mecca Bar in Wickenburg