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