We have arrived! Well to be truthful not quite, but we’re close. We are in Williams poised to visit the Grand Canyon before the state runs out of money and it closes again. We left warmer conditions so that we could visit the Grand Canyon. We figured if we waited any longer it would be closed again or too cold. Wimps we have become. It is now 39 degrees at 9 p.m. at the campground, and last night the low was 25. So, we gotta get this done and head to a lower elevation and more southerly location.

Until today, we had been at Camp Verde since last Wednesday staying at an RV Resort run by the Yavapai Apache Nation. Nice valley and nice view. Our volunteer friends from Ohio had worked at the campground several years back, and we were able to get some ideas what to see in addition to Sedona. Anyway, it has been a nice campground, reasonably priced, and located in the midst of enough historical and cultural things to do that we were reluctant to move out of the campground today and head north to Williams.

But, perhaps I need to catch up since the last blog post. We left PEFO early on Tuesday morning a week ago and headed to Camping World west of Flagstaff to get our satellite TV antenna connection looked at. We told them three times what our situation was and what we suggested was the problem. I naively thought it would be an hour fix at the most. Our appointment was for 10:30 Tuesday morning. An hour fix would get us back on the road by 1:00. We spent Tuesday night in the parking lot at Camping World and didn’t get away until mid afternoon on Wednesday. When they finally did listen to us, the problem was fixed in less than an hour but by that time it was 1:30 on Wednesday afternoon before we could get on the road. Spending hours at Camping World seems to be the norm for RVers. We waited with at least two other parties who finally gave up and left before their rigs were fixed because they got tired of sitting around with nothing happening. However at the end of the day, CW did not charge us anything for the fix because it was a CW mistake when the antenna was installed even though that happened in Savannah, GA. An opportunity to save $350 means more scrumptious meals at locally famous dives.

Two highlights of our stay at Camp Verde were visits to Sedona, of course, and Jerome. I think, for me, Jerome was more significant and will probably be the one highlight that will stick in my head from our time at Camp Verde.

 Jerome is a town built on the side of a mountain next to a couple of copper mines that operated in the late 19^th century until the 1950’s. One of the mines was the largest copper mine in the Arizona Territory. In addition to copper, silver, zinc, and gold were also mined. Because so much tunneling and blasting were going on early in the development of the mine, parts of the town slid down the mountain. When one is visiting today, one is easily reminded that town slippage may not have been something only confined to the past.

The main street in town, and I’m not sure the town has many other streets than the main street, switchbacks up the mountain. You orientate yourself in town by remembering what level you are on. Walking the streets, it’s either up or down. The town is also haunted and many swear you can still experience ghosts and the shenanigans ghosts engage in to seemingly entertain themselves. Of course there are lots of tourist shops and good food places. We ate at a recommended place called the Haunted Burger, and despite a 45-minute wait, or maybe because of the 45-minute wait, we ate the best hamburgers we have ever sunk our teeth into. Jerome should be on everyone’s list that visits AZ.

 But Sedona is obviously the cherry on top of a mighty fine sundae. Everyone has told us that we had to go to Sedona if we ever get to AZ, and I guess now that we have experienced Sedona, the advice was good.  When we told our volunteer neighbors at PEFO that we were going to Sedona, George said, “Bring money.” Indeed.

 We made two visits to Sedona, walked the streets and ate good food. It is in the middle of a National Forest; so, the USFS visitor center was not open but all the private entrepreneurs tried to fill in the gaps. On the second day we took a jeep ride up a canyon to the north and east of Sedona which allowed us better views of the red rocks and formations around Sedona. It’s a place that will be on our list to revisit if we are back this way again.

But now it is time to stay warm, head to Grand Canyon, and tomorrow see if that big hole has gotten any deeper than it was 44 years ago when we visited it as part of our honeymoon.