Time Challenged

We had a another busy-fun day on Monday in Arizona. We started with a bit of a laid back start to our day. Now this may not sound like much but when you are getting on the road traveling for many days - a day of starting out slow is a treasure. Once we finally did get going we took off for a walk about the property at the Escapees North Ranch RV Park. Like some of the other Escapee "Rainbow" Parks, North Ranch has its "Campground" portion which works like any other RV Park - and then it has the deeded lot portion where folks buy their lots and improve them however they wish. Some put nice houses with gorgeous landscaping on their lot - and some keep the lot "natural" with hookups for an RV as the only lot improvement. One really nice part of this particular park is the Memorial Garden kept in desert landscape with plenty of nice examples of local cacti and other desert plants.

After walking through the garden we walked about the streets with the deeded lots enjoying a nice morning and getting some much needed exercise.

After returning from our walk and getting some late morning showers - we jumped into the Vue and took off to visit the city of Prescott, AZ. I have heard nice things about Prescott for many years and I happen to know an ex Maine Yankee friend who moved there in the mid '90s - so since we were sorta nearby - off we went. The drive from Congress to Prescott is more than interesting as you wind your way through some mountains climbing from around 2,000 feet up to 6,000 feet as you watch the desert landscape turn into lovely ponderosa pines. 

Back when Prescott was founded it soon became the Territorial Capital of the Arizona Territory. Although the Capital was moved to Tucson later on - it soon moved back to Prescott. The center of Prescott contains a very nice Courthouse and square in the center of town surrounded by some interesting eateries, antique shops and hotels and includes a number of old buildings once known as "Whiskey Row."

After arriving in Prescott - Peggy and I parked near the courthouse and found our way over to Kendalls - a 50s style burger and ice cream shop that looks like it hasn't changed much at all since those days. Peggy and I both had burgers and shared an order of onion rings. The burgers were great and the o-rings were good as well as long as you like "heavy" batter on your rings. Overall I give it 3 stars on the Mikee scale. Nice atmosphere - decent food - but overpriced. A bonus for you classic film buffs - some shots from the 1971 film Billy Jack were taken inside Kendalls!

We left Kendalls and decided to take a walk around the square checking out the western wear shops, antique stores, and such stuff. Several hours later - having purchased absolutely nothing - we returned to the car to give our legs a break. Although we didn't buy anything we did have fun checking out all the "stuff." I especially liked the stuff in the Antique store - until I realized that the stuff they are calling antiques is stuff I played with when I was a kid. Have I become "antique?" Don't bother answering that question - I suspect I know the answer.

After doing a little more shopping around Prescott we drove back to the historical downtown area and met my friend Linda and her husband Larry Fuegan for a reunion of sorts at the Prescott Brewing Company. We had lots to catch up on so we ended up having about a 3 hour dinner - followed by about a 1 hour drive back to Congress - on an unfamiliar mountain road - in the dark. That was fun too!

With our Arizona goof-off day complete we needed to make some miles today. So we left Congress this morning and headed a little further south to just north of Phoenix, made our way over to I-17 and then made the 100 mile trip up to Flagstaff climbing back up to a little over 7,000 feet. As we made it to Flagstaff the weather got much cooler and windy as we headed due east on I-40. We pulled in for the evening in Holbrook, AZ just as a storm cell passed through bringing very high winds and some rain for a few hours. I was sure glad NOT to be driving in that mess! Once the storm moved through the skies cleared right around sundown.

It looks like we are in for a cold night tonight with a low right around freezing and cooler temps tomorrow as well as we continue east into New Mexico.

I figure we have about 4 driving days to go before we reach Branson, MO where we plan on spending a few days seeing some sights. I know we won't be driving for the next 4 days straight - not if I plan on getting back to Maine with Peggy still on board - but our focus is on making miles east this week. So tomorrow we gain an hour as we enter Mountain Daylight Time from Mountain Standard Time here in AZ, and then we'll gain another hour the next day when we enter Texas ... and then we "Fall Back" on Sunday with the national change to Standard Time. I hope my new smart phone knows what time it is - I sure won't!!