B-Field. Bako. Buckowensville.

And then we went to Bakersfield...

Why, you ask?

We are asking ourselves the same question.

I think the last time we went to B-Field, it was for Suzie and Kirby's wedding.

Yep, they selected the fine smog-free city of Buckowensville for the nuptials of a lifetime.

Why, you ask?

We are asking ourselves the same question.

This time we went for a BBQ at my sister's house.

Why does she live in Bako?

We are asking ourselves the same question.

We made a weekend out of it.

Took the Scamp.

Took the dog.

Took our lives in jeopardy by driving over The Grapevine on a Friday afternoon with 4,892 speeding crazed truckers trying to get home for Friday night dinner.

Camped at Ditch River View RV Park.
River?
Ah ha ha ha!
Twelve ounces of water being let down the dirt ditch to appease some marathon going on.

We had a great time!
Put our Disneyland lights outside the trailer.
Dog got to sit on grass.
And we got to see family.

And eat.

Lots.

And take pictures of each other taking pictures of each other.

And stick out tongues out.

Well, not all of us...

And look at the lovelies.

And pose for group pics.

All the typical stuff you would do at a family bbq.

And Now Back to AZ...

Hot in desert in AZ!
So let the dog play in the stream.
They called it a river, but really.
It was a stream.

Tried to get the ball and chain dog to fetch the ball.
She did it a few times.
Til she decided she'd rather sniff the flowers instead...

Then oh so conveniently tucked the ball up under a root in the stream riverbank to never be seen again.

Pretty cottonwoods.

Or so I would assume these things were...
We were in the town of Cottonwood after all!

Antiquewood.

Coololdsignwood.

Spent a morning at Tuzigoot Indian Ruins.
Dog friendly paths!
And the best museum full of way cool Indian relics.

Arrowheads.
Baskets.
Bowls.
Amazing!

Not that I took any pics of all that cools stuff...

Lunch in Cottonwood.
Explored the antique stores.
Poked around.
Still hot, so back to the stream.
And enjoyed a nice glass of vino to top off the day!

We Interrupt This Long Drawn Out Vacation Recap For...

A huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY wish to my mommy!

Happy 90th (yes 90th!) Birthday to this amazing, strong, beautiful, patient, smart, giving, lovely mother of five, grandmother of eight ~ Margo!

Who, btw still lives alone and still drives a stick shift.

Montezuma's Castle

Montezuma, who by the way, was never in Arizona somehow managed to get a castle in Arizona named after him.
I would like something really, really incredible that I had nothing to do with named after me.

It was really cool!
Quite amazingly built on and in the cliffside.
And still stands.

The poor people must have lived down at the bottom...

The path through the park was dog friendly - YAY!
Because it was getting hot.
The dog had dried off.
And we really didn't feel like taking turns walking around while one sat in the car with the hot ball and chain dog.

Arizona Wine Tasting

An oxymoron, right?
Arizona Winery.
It just sounds weird.
Especially to a California resident and wino.
Almost as weird as when we went to the winery in Kentucky.
Complete oxymoron.
So it's just odd, weird, doesn't make sense and did I say odd?
But we tried one.
After walking into a first one that actually had pourers with an attitude.
In Arizona.
First one didn't seem to care that I was there.
Not dog accommodating.
Not a hello, welcome, come taste our crappy AZ wines, nothing.
So off to the second one.
Beautiful place!
Great patio.
Dog bowl was brought out.
Wine was poured.
By a server with a smile.
And friendly attitude.
Still didn't make the wines anything close to great.
Or close to California wines.
Or anything that we should have bought.
But we did buy one.
For fun.
And memories.

"Granite Dells" or "Yay, Let's Go Swimming"

ME:  Look at this cool picture of this lake in the guidebook!  This place looks amazing ~ let's go!

JIM:  Where do I turn? Holy, crap this road from Jerome over the hill is insane.  We are NOT taking the trailer this way.  No way.  Where do I turn?

DOG: In the car! I love the car!  IN THE CAR! OH BOY! 
MY FAVORITE THING!
Oh tired. Nap... favorite th...
WATER! I WANT TO GET IN IT!
Swimming!  SWIMMING!!  
MY FAVORITE THING!!

ME:  This place is beautiful!  And so uncrowded.

JIM:  Check out the sign ~ we are missing The Highland Games by one day!

DOG:  WATER! 
Look at all that WATER! 
WATER! 
MY FAVORITE THING!

DOG:  COOKIES! 
I WANT COOKIES! 
Or maybe go back in the water. 
Or cookies. 
Mmmm or maybe nap?

ME:  Wow, wouldn't this be an amazing place to go kayaking?

JIM:  Cool rocks.  A beer's starting to sound good about now...

Sedona Drive

Sedona is a "don't miss", right?

Well we missed the tourist Sedona.

Missed the galleries and gift shops.

Missed the expensive restaurants and boutiques.

We went for the rocks!

Amazing rocks!
Red buttes.

Pink cliffs.

Green in between.

Absolutely stunning!

We didn't even bother to buy the Red Rock Parking Pass or whatever it was called.
Some piece of paper required to put on our windshield if we parked ANY where.
We hovered instead.

The hovering in lieu of hiking worked out well for us.
Remember, it was desert.
It was hot.
And our dog was wearing a black fur coat.

And Out of The Woods...

And into the frying pan desert.

Out of Flag early with hugs, pets and licks to Al, Debbie and Lucy Dog.
And down the amazing Oak Creek Canyon.
It would have been a little more amazing if we weren't towing a trailer...
Yikes - some serious hairpin turns!
And yay for the map / GPS system on my phone :)

Through the equally amazing Sedona and down the highway to Dead Horse State Park.
Where we set up home for a few days.
Got the lawn chairs out.
The tables.
The rugs.
The dog.
The wine and beer and cheese and crackers and nuts and books and music.
Heaven in a Scamp.

This was a great place to be a base for day trips!

The first one being the mile high city up the crazy hairpin turn road Jerome!
Tourist shops and wine tasting.
Which we did about two of the first and none of the second.
Iced coffee was a better choice on a hot day when we had to drive back down the crazy hairpin turn road...

Having the ball and chain dog along dictated what we could do.
So we could not go see the former hospital turned hotel with a bed pan for a candy dish at the front counter...

But we could walk around a bit, check out a few shops and admire the view of The Verde Valley below.

And go back down the hill for amazing burgers at Bing's Burgers in Cottonwood.
Because Bing's has a dog friendly patio.

Then back to the Scamperific for wine and reading "Death in Grand Canyon" until the sun went over the horizon.

And left us smiling and content in a warm, calm desert eve...

Flagstaff and Maya Dog!

In to "Old Town" Flagstaff for an afternoon of filling up our water tanks, buying ice, poking into shops and tormenting our dog with 8 other dogs tied up in front of the brew pub having a beer!

Flagstaff has some cool old buildings and signs.

And odd ones...

Al had to be dog holder a couple of times.

Which he was quite good at.

Back to camp full of water, ice and beer.

And had our friend Katie and Lexie's friend Maya come!

This is Maya, not Katie.

Maya and Lexie are dock friends, because Maya's daddy has a boat in our dry storage.
They didn't even sniff each other before they started playing!

Or before Maya started chewing on Lexie.
Playing.
Chewing.
Whatever.

While the humans had happy hour...

Wine and cheese sounded a little better than chewing on a dog's neck...

Post Grand Canyon

Found some interesting things along the road back to our campground near Flagstaff...

This was cool ~

This was... uh... something ~

Vacation Grand Canyon

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Hell of a lot easier than typing too!

 How do humans really know that dogs don't see color they way they do?
I KNOW!
Less of a reaction when dogs see The Grand Canyon.

Amazing!

I loved it!

Could have stood there for hours...
Behind a rail of course.

The clouds made for interesting shadows.

And now, what everyone's been waiting for...

THE DOG'S VERSION!

Aaaaagggghhhhh Mama that's really deep!

Hold me!  Hold me!  HOLD ME!

Ahhhh that's better.

Don't ever do that to me again.

And wow do they grow cats big here!