April 26_Wrapping up in Cottonwood

We starter the week off with relaxing in DaGirls Rv.. Then slowly progress to cleaning. After a couple of days of this off we went to be tourist. I have lived in AZ for over 34 years, and I have never spent much time in seeing the monuments/parks.
So off we went to Tuzigoot and Montezuma castle.

Excerpt from
“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuzigoot_National_Monument" “

Tuzigoot National Monument (Yavapai: ʼHaktlakva, Western Apache: Tú Digiz) preserves a 2- to 3-story pueblo ruin on the summit of a limestone and sandstone ridge just east of Clarkdale, Arizona, 120 feet (36 m) above the Verde River floodplain. The Tuzigoot Site is an elongated complex of stone masonry rooms that were built along the spine of a natural outcrop in the Verde Valley. The central rooms stand higher than the others and they appear to have served public functions.^[3] The pueblo has 110 rooms.^[4] The National Park Service currently administers 58 acres (23 ha), within an authorized boundary of 834 acres (338 ha).^[5]

Tuzigoot is Apache for "crooked water", from nearby Pecks Lake, a cutoff meander of the Verde River. Historically, the pueblo was built by the Sinagua people between 1125 and 1400 CE. Tuzigoot is the largest and best-preserved of the many Sinagua pueblo ruins in the Verde Valley. The ruins at Tuzigoot incorporate very few doors. Instead they use trapdoor type openings in the roofs, and use ladders to enter each room.
Finally off we went to the Montezuma Castle Ruins.

Excerpt from
“ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montezuma_Castle_National_Monument “

Montezuma Castle National Monument protects a set of well-preserved Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings near the town of Camp Verde, Arizona, United States. The dwellings were built and used by the Sinagua people, a pre-Columbian culture closely related to the Hohokam and other indigenous peoples of the southwestern United States,^[4] between approximately 1100 and 1425 AD. The main structure comprises five stories and twenty rooms, and was built over the course of three centuries.^[5]
Neither part of the monument's name is correct. When European-Americans first observed the ruins in the 1860's, by then long-abandoned, they named them for the famous Aztec emperor Montezuma in the mistaken belief that he had been connected to their construction (see also Montezuma mythology).^[6] In fact, the dwelling was abandoned more than 40 years before Montezuma was born, and was not a "castle" in the traditional sense, but instead functioned more like a "prehistoric high rise apartment complex".^[7]

Several Hopi clans and Yavapai communities trace their ancestries to early immigrants from the Montezuma Castle/Beaver Creek area. Clan members periodically return to these ancestral homes for religious ceremonies.

Friday, Chris  & Barbara (Moon Bus) came up from Dewey for a short visit. You see during the Rally, Susan won a $500 gift card from Alfateer’s RV service. Chris made a comment, now what are they going to use that for. Well, instead of us holding onto it we sold it. I mean we had done just about everything we needed to do on DaGirls Rv, we did not need anything, so we sold it and put it to much use for someone. We also went to lunch at Bings Burgers in old town Cottonwood. “ HTTP://bingsburgers.com “. Old style burgers cooked the way you want it and located in a old car service station. Yum on the burgers, the onion rings are hand dipped in batter and are really yummy.

Later that day, we went to the music show down at the Thousand Trails Rec center for some oldie, goldie style music. We also enjoyed the company of Ron & Sheryl Johnson. Ron went to Alaska on is motorcycle in 2014, so we enlisted his aid as to his adventure. Even though they have a 2001 SOB, we enjoy the company and discussion about Alaska..

A big thanks to MaryAnne and Ray, while Susan was shopping for supplies, a car stopped by and a wonderful couple name Chip and Julie introduced themselves, seems MaryAnne and Julie are close friends and she informed them of our wear-about, We must have spent over an hour talking about our trips, friends and where we are heading. Julie explained that her bucket list is growing Vs. shrinking and sometimes it seems there are not enough years to see it all. Susan and I can relate to that.

Our plans have changes from traveling up CA 395 and heading west on 120 into Yosemite. After a few word of wisdom and of course checking on the roads, we will be going up CA 99. Although the 395 is a great road for spectacular views and boon docking location, CA 120 is not for DaGirls RV, even though we have driver worst.

For a look at more Photo just click on the words "Press Here" Below.

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Safe Travels & Journeys

from DaGirls         "Della                     &                Tilly"

Apr 21_On the Road to Somewhere

DaGirls Rv is back on the road again, we left Apache Junction around 10:15 am. We visited our last friends who were still in AJ, this morning. Completed a little business, one last stop at Harbor Freight, can’t be too careful as you never know when you will see another HF on the road.

By the way, I did not mention, on April 20, 1951 at 8:30 CT I came into this world. I turned 64 yesterday. My plan was to enjoy a little company and relax. No dinner plans, no parties just Susan and I. Well like all plans, they go different then you plan. Charlie called and said let’s do lunch with he and Donna, well I just couldn't say no to them, as they are wonderful people to have as friends. I really did want to see them one more time before we left.
As we were leaving Charlie's place, he slipped me a cute card for my B-day and I found something else he had slipped me. Did I mention they are great friends? Anyway we left, Susan and I finished our running around, I dropped Susan off at the rig and proceeded to Wayne and Kathy’s place to retrieve a small box I had stored there. Another great couple, if you ever want traveling companion's, then they are the best. You lead and they will just follow you everywhere.

Kathy,Wayne, Charlie and Donna were planning on taking me to dinner, but I pretty much ruined it, as earlier I said I was dinnered out. So we said our goodbye’s knowingly that we would see each other in the winter.

Later that evening I had the surprise of my life, guess who came bearing Ice Cream Cake? Yep  Kathy,Wayne, Charlie and Donna bringing that Ice Cream Cake. What a surprise, This is truly a great way to end a rally and head out to a new adventure. 

Well we sat around enjoy the cake and talked a little before it was time to say our final goodbyes to each other. Charlie and Donna leave in about a week and will be heading to Colorado to their home 

and Wayne and Kathy are getting ready to leave for Alaska with S.M.A.R.T. caravan group. 

Who knows if the wind blows us right we may see them all during the summer.

Now you might be thinking that was the end, and it was the end. However, I did not tell you the beginning. On Saturday prior to leaving Palm Creek, MaryAnne and Ray 

stopped by the rig bearing a card and gift for Susan and I as wagon masters and for my birthday. Nice surprise, I mean a really NICE surprise, especially since MaryAnne and I have birthdays in the month of April, hers is on the 22nd. 

Ray, handed over some of his spare parts he was giving away. One item was a slide motor which I checked out and it works great. Now I have a spare in case we need one.

Susan and I always say that Alfa owners are a Framily. We all come together in time of need of helping others, to have a fun time together or just a gathering of good friends.

Safe Travels & Journeys

from DaGirls         "Della                     &                Tilly"

Apr 19 - Ending to a Wonderful Rally

Wow, what a week or was that 2 weeks. In case you missed it, the 2015 Alfa Rv Casa Grande Rally was a huge success. Our Roadrunner Pre-Rally had many first timers, some of whom were new owners of their Alfas. Final count of roadrunners at the Pre-rally was XX with an additional XX attending the Main Rally. I was amaze at how many Alfa owners hit it big, renewing friendship while making new friends. We had Alfa’s come as far away as Florida and Hawaii. Well the Alfa did not come from Hawaii, but the new members/owners did.

This year’s event included pizza night welcome party, sheriff’s dinner where $140 was raised for the Valley Humane Society, located at 15699 W Aniceto Rd, just north of I-8  on Trekell Road, Pat was a great help in delivering the check. Thanks Pat and all of you Roadrunners who helped.

On April 12th we concluded our chapter dinner where your current officers were re-elected. We requested members to review our By-Laws, which are open for all members to read and make suggestions along with members to review the accounting books.

Susan and I had been tossing around the idea of a photo album for Roadrunner members. This year we enlisted one of our new members into taking/gathering photos. Kathleen Bustamante along with Pat arrived back on the mainland in 2014 from Hawaii and purchased a 2002 Alfa. She jumped right into the fire creating a Photo album which will be posted on the Roadrunners Web site in the future. Susan or I will be sending out an email when she has completed arranging the photos.

During the pre-rally many small events were held including our Pre-rally tech-talk in front of DaGirls Rv. The talks included maintaining your Generac generator, working with the Yahoo Groups by our own Dave Rypma and concluded with an explanation into the working of the battery bank charging system for the layman.

Also during the week Vonis and I were busy inspecting battery banks, solving problems and concluded with me driving one of our member’s coach to Sierra Vista as he was taken ill. I will go into more explanation later as to what I found and help correct.
This week was so busy, I did not take the usual time in capturing photos. But I did get a few:

Annette, Kelly White (new members) talking to Becky Godfrey

Dave Volker & april zvan (new members) enjoying the show

Hal Chase and Jim Godfrey

Safe Travels & Journeys

from DaGirls         "Della                     &                Tilly"