Visiting friends and "Preskett" and Jerome

Some of our friends from the Escapees (SKPs) Christian Fellowship group (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2021/01/our-unrally-begins.html) stay and/or live in Prescott or Prescott Valley, so we had let them know that we'd be "nearby" and would like to get together. We set Friday as the day to get together for lunch near the square in Prescott to get the "Preskett experience", as one of our friends called it.

Before meeting for lunch, Janice and Steve had invited us to their house to see the boulders surrounding it. I'm not sure what I was expecting (maybe a rock wall?), but... they have BOULDERS around their house...

This was beside their front yard -- Janice said that their daughter had broken her leg falling off of one of these boulders when she was young.

Looking toward the back yard

More toward the back "yard" -- isn't that amazing?

Carl said that he thought his grandsons would get a great kick out of playing there, but that they would need helmets and maybe other protective gear!

This house had been Janice's parents' home. Both her mom and dad passed away last year, and she and Steve decided to move into the home -- she said that she didn't think she would be able to stand looking out the window at those big boulders, but that she is adjusting and they are making it their own while continuing to remember her parents.

We went into downtown to have lunch at Rosa's -- we all enjoyed our meals, and then walked down to the courthouse square...

The courthouse

Right across the street is "Whiskey Row"

Some information about Whiskey Row: https://www.prescott.com/whiskey-row

Our group -- the Williamses, Hershes, and Snyders -- it was SO good to get together with these friends.

Since we had driven down to Prescott via I-17, we decided to return via Jerome. 

Link to Google map

Some of the views on the drive to Jerome:
 

Down in that valley is Cottonwood (maybe under the shade of the cloud)

It was *quite* a windy road.

We didn't stop to look around in Jerome -- it is an "interesting" town - built into the side of a mountain - the road goes right alongside the houses with just a bare amount of space to spare.

Maybe we should have read this account (https://passionsandplaces.com/2019/07/19/exploring-the-best-and-quirkiest-attractions-in-jerome-az/) before we drove through... there may have been some things that we would have enjoyed!

We ended the day tasting olive oils at the Verde Valley Oil Traders in downtown Cottonwood. I had some flavor infused oils from that shop on Miss Doozie, and we had just finished the last bottle up a couple of weeks ago... so it was time to replenish. We think we got a couple that will be good on salad, and one that might be good for a meat marinade.

Thursday to Sedona

One of the places that we wanted to visit from Cottonwood was Sedona, so Thursday was the day we decided to go there.

A friend had recommended Javelina Cantina for lunch...

We got a table on the patio...

And enjoyed our lunch!

The small shopping center it was in had a number of art stores... one had this "stone rocking bench" outside...

There were views of the red rocks too.

The art gallery also had these glass sculptures that would turn in the wind -- this one is the "Glassinator".

You can own it for $9500...

Check out its moves:

There were a lot of these glass wind-movement sculptures:

I suggested to Carl that we could mount one on top of Gracie and we thought that it would really go around in the breeze as we drove down the road... until we went under a low overpass...

We decided to go to the Sedona Airport - I had remembered an overlook of the city from there -- when we got there, we found that there was a charge for parking, but we decided to go ahead and pay the fee because it looked like the views were very nice...

Looking out over Sedona

Obligatory selfie

We had been planning to drive to a trailhead to take a hike, but realized that a trail headed out from the parking area where we had paid to park to see the overlook of the city, and decided to take it instead...

Appropriately named "Sedona View Trail"

There were beautiful views over Sedona

On our way up to Sedona, we had talked about jobs that we were glad that we had not had to do... Carl saw these guys working way up high -- and that is a job he *had* done and not liked at all!

I don't know if you can see that there is a guy in the cherry-picker basket, but there is also one on the ladder that goes up the side of the pole. Carl said that working from the basket was much preferred to climbing the pole.

The trail was well-worn, but there were lots of rocks that made tripping hazards...

Especially if your attention got drawn to the beauty across Sedona!

I zoomed in my camera on this one to try to get a picture of what appeared to be a hole through the rock...

I don't know whether it has a particular name or not...

We enjoyed our trip to Sedona!

Wednesday around the campground

We had noticed that the campground prohibits flying drones within the campground, but that they have an RC field for remote controlled aircraft and drones. 

When Carl had tried his drone when we were in Indiana (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2021/03/a-walk-and-new-toy.html), he found that the component that should connect via WiFi to his phone was not working. He contacted the manufacturer, and after a number of back-and-forth messages (overnight each time as the support and the manufacturer are in China), the support person agreed that his unit was defective and agreed to send a new camera. The connection to the phone is important as that is the way you can "see" what the drone is seeing, and one of Carl's goals is to take pictures of our rig or campsite from a viewpoint that we'd otherwise not be able to see.

So, we cannot "see" what the drone is seeing until that camera arrives (it has been on its way for a couple of weeks -- we wonder if it is on one of those container ships that have been stuck in or stuck behind at the Suez Canal!) - but we decided to try flying it to see if Carl could at least take some pictures with it, guessing what it was pointing at.

At the RC airfield, getting the GPS calibrated so he can control the drone's flight.

Take off

Hovering -- can we take a picture?

You might think it is a speck of dust on your computer screen, but the drone is pretty far up in the air and on its way back to us.

When Carl got back to the rig, he took out the memory card to see what pictures he had gotten. Unfortunately, the picture-taking component of the camera is not working either. We are hoping that the replacement camera will fix both the WiFi connection to the phone and the picture-taking ability... if the replacement ever gets here!

After "flying" we decided to take another walk/hike around the campground, this time down to the Verde River that flows just below the campground. We walked down to another section of the campground and out a gate to access a trail that took us to the river.

It was really pretty...

...very peaceful.

Looking back up the hill toward the RVs in the section we had walked through to get to the gate.

Looking downstream.

Most of the trail was in an area that must frequently flood (seasonal flooding) -- this part of it had a lot of vegetation, but a lot of it was sandy and stony.

After walking downstream a ways, we walked back up the hill into another section of the campground, and, after one wrong path choice, got on one of the paths that we had hiked on Tuesday to get back up the hill to the part of the campground where Gracie is parked.

An additional note: Carl had emailed our service advisor at NIRVC to see if she has had success in getting the awning parts that are needed, and asking if we could come in next week to get the slide topper and awning installed. He had not heard anything from her, so called, only to be told when he asked to be connected to her that she no longer worked there... uh oh... so, Carl left a message with the manager with whom he had talked a couple of weeks ago. The good news is, when the manager called Carl back, he seemed to say that all the parts are there to install both the slide topper and the awning!!!! And, that we can come in on Monday afternoon to have the service done on Tuesday to install both!!!!

At this point, we're, uhm, doubtful... but we haven't lost all hope... could it be that by a few days from now, we will finally have the awning that has been missing for so long (since October, 2019)? That we could be free to leave the Phoenix area without a need to return to get the awning installed in the future? Is it possible?