After leaving Hot Springs National Park on April 13, we headed to McKinney, Texas, just north of Dallas, to have our window shades replaced in the motorhome. We still have over 2000 miles before we get home and 3 1/2 weeks to do it. Do I sound a little anxious?
From Arkansas, we headed west into Oklahoma and rain, then south to McKinney while the rain continued. So far we have been lucky to have missed the more severe weather that had been happening. The week before, damage from wind and/or a tornado occurred in towns on either side of McKinney and a week after leaving more severe weather was predicted. We are now in Cottonwood, Arizona and have had some pleasantly warm and sunny days until today, it's cold and rainy (April 26).
Amazing! It has been almost a month since I started this. I had planned to publish it by the time we left Verde Valley Thousand Trails in Cottonwood. A number of Thousand Trails parks are a bit remote so internet isn't the best. Although this park is near civilization, it is full of hills and valleys so Verizon didn't work so well and I just never got to the library to use their internet. When I tried to upload some pictures, it was practically impossible so Lee took my computer to the top of a hill, downloaded them in no time, brought my computer back to me to work on my blog and I managed to lose everything he had just uploaded. AAACCCKKK!!! There are days when I really dislike computers. So I put it away and decided to wait until I got home to write "The Final Chapter". And now it has gotten to be very long!!!
McKinney, Texas is about 30 miles north of Dallas and was first settled about 1841 when the state of Texas hired colonizers to bring settlers into the area by offering free land, up to 640 acres, a gun and help building a cabin.
As I said, we were in McKinney to have the pleated window shades in the motorhome replaced with MCD roller shades. So after having the windows measured and while we were waiting for the installation, we set off to do some sightseeing.
The Performing Arts Center, Historic McKinney, Texas
Historic downtown McKinney, Texas
Foote Baptist Church was built in 1908; when it was moved to its current location, the name was changed to The Chapel at Chestnut Square, McKinney, Texas
John H. Johnson house, built in the early 1870’s. He was a Captain in the Confederate Army and a politician. His descendants occupied the house until 1987 when it was acquired by the Heritage Guild for restoration. McKinney, Texas
Built in 1916 for Mrs. Joseph Dulaney, this is now the Dulaney Museum, McKinney, Texas
The only significance of Angel's Beverage Center in Plano, Texas (about 15 miles south of McKinney) is that when we decided to buy some liquor we couldn't find a liquor store in McKinney. They do sell beer and wine in McKinney but not spirits because it is a dry city. We knew about dry counties but not about dry cities. It has been interesting traveling throughout the U.S. and encountering the numerous liquor laws which vary greatly by state. Anyway, back to Angel's. Plano also was a dry city until May, 2013, when the voters voted to sell liquor in Plano. I guess they were tired of driving to Dallas to buy spirits! Angel's was the first store in Plano to sell alcohol and it has been very popular ever since. When the store first opened, they had to close their doors an hour before actual closing time in order to process all the customers.
Denison, Texas, supposedly named for one of my relatives. If anyone can document the link, the local museum would love to have it!!! Denison was also the birthplace of President Dwight D. Eisenhower on October 14, 1890.
The house where Eisenhower was born
Downtown Denison, Texas
Downtown Denison, Texas
St. Patrick Catholic Church, Denison, Texas
Our new shades were installed on Wednesday, April 16, 2014, and we love them! We can now see out the windows without people looking in, unless the lights are on in the motorhome. We left McKinney on Thursday and headed to Verde Valley Thousand Trails, Arizona, a 3-day drive in the motorhome. A stop near Amarillo, Texas, had us checking out "The Big Texan" where one could get a free 72 oz. steak. The catch is, one had to eat the steak and its accompaniments in one hour, and no sharing. Success meant it was free, failure meant it cost $75.00!
Now that's one hunk of meat!
A chili pepper is more interesting than a slice of lime!
Getting closer to home
Now that is one bright pink overpass on Hwy. 40! New Mexico
A more traditional looking overpass on Hwy. 40, New Mexico
April 19, 2014 - Snow still in the mountains around Flagstaff, Arizona
View from Verde Valley Thousand Trails, Cottonwood, Arizona
Verde Valley Thousand Trails, Cottonwood, Arizona
Historic Cottonwood, Arizona
The following pictures were taken in Jerome, Arizona, once a busy copper mining town founded in 1876. Today's Jerome is a popular tourist town and artist community. At one time, the mines produced three million pound of copper a month!
Jerome Town Hall
Blast furnace used in 1912. According to a sign at the site, "This little furnace used coke for fuel. The nearest source of supply was Wales, Gr. Brit. more than half way around the world in travel distance! Small sailing vessels carried the coke across the Atlantic Ocean and around the Horn of South America to San Francisco. From there it was transported by railroad to Ashfork, Arizona where it was loaded into mule drawn freight wagons and hauled 60 miles over the mountains to Jerome". WOW!!!
Holy Family Catholic Church, built in 1894
Inside of Holy Family Catholic Church, built in 1894.
An interesting old movie projector
Another day we went to Slide Rock State Park, just north of Sedona. It was beautiful and we were glad it was off-season. It is a very popular place in the summer and the parking lot quickly fills up. The park was originally a 43-acre apple orchard started when Frank L. Pendley acquired the land in 1910 under the Homestead Act and planted apple trees and developed an irrigation system that is still in use today. There is a 1/2 mile stretch of creek bottom that has an 80-foot slide worn into the sandstone, plus numerous pools for wading. I can imagine how crowded it gets in the summer when it really gets hot in Arizona.
Our last adventure while at Verde Valley TT was a first-class ride on the Verde Canyon Railroad.
Verde Canyon
After leaving Verde Valley we made one last stop in Arizona - visiting our friends Harold and Judi and Ron and Marilyn in Meadview, Arizona, which is about 60 miles north of Kingman. We met all of them the first time we went to Baja, Mexico, in 2005.
Stockton Hill Rd, north of Kingman, Arizona, on the way to Meadview
At Harold & Judi's in Meadview, Arizona, looking at the western edge of the Grand Canyon
Sunset in Meadview
We're home! I must say, though, after seeing so many other "Welcome to . . ." signs, California's is rather boring!
After an overnight stay at the Elk's Lodge in Needles, California, we made our way to Paso Robles and our Blue Meanies RV Club campout. We had a great time visiting with friends and we even did a little more sightseeing. By this time we had less than a week before arriving home.
Mission San Miguel Arcangel, founded July 25, 1797. This church was built between 1816-1818.
The interior walls are the original paint which was made from ground minerals mixed with cactus juice! Amazing! The ingenuity of "primitive" people.
Mission San Miguel Arcangel, San Miguel, California
Mission San Miguel Arcangel, San Miguel, California
I would guess this tree has been backed into more than once!
Mission San Miguel Arcangel, San Miguel, California
San Miguel, California
The Pacific Ocean, Cambria, California
After leaving Paso Robles, we stopped in Modesto, California for two nights to visit our daughter and son-in-law and two grandkids. We also visited with my sister and brother-in-law and my cousin and her husband. And finally, on Wednesday, May 7, 2014, we arrived home! We had been on the road for 9 months and 1 week and added 12,500 miles to the motorhome. We also drove our Jeep another 8,000 sightseeing! It was an excellent trip but now we're ready to stay home for a little while. At least until November or December and we take off to Baja for the winter. We'll probably take a few short trips during the summer. Then next year, we plan to take off to Alaska again.
THE END!!!
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