This morning as we were loading up in Cottonwood and we said goodbye to a few of our neighbors. The guy behind was shaving his Australasian Shepard "Morgan" - he lives off of renting three condos that he owns in  Phoenix. He comes from a long line of German bookbinders and he showed us an 1880's bible that he was rebinding (on contract for $300). He claimed he has a thousand historic books in his trailer that he markets on Ebay. We loved the campground and all the "quirky" people that live there. We want to go back next year!

Today we moved to the Grand Canyon/Williams KOA just north of Williams, AZ.

We pulled into our KOA site, hooked up, and low-and-behold, a tire was flat on the Tahoe. It must have deflated quickly because we didn't have any problems driving on the highway (lucky it didn't happen out on the freeway).

We put on the spare tire and took the flat to "Eddie's Tire" in Williams. It turned out to be a faulty valve stem - not a nail or puncture. Not too sure how that happened.

Eddie is an Hispanic and was super efficient with the tire repair. Because of his prompt and friendly service we tipped him $5 and he was very gracious. We have been surprised how folks respond to tips when they are not anticipated. We learned how important tipping was from Nick when he worked at the Portneuf Valley Brewery. From wine stewards at tasting rooms to Eddie it is really gratifying to see their appreciation.

Tonight we barbecued kabobs on the the Cuisinart - thanks again to the Schowengerdt family for the gift!

Tomorrow we tour Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater, and Wupatki Ruins near Flagstaff - then off to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

To Steve: Sharon thanks you for the compliment!!!!!!!!!!!!! She says it is great to no longer huff and puff on the hikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday we were told by one of the permanent residents in the RV park that the person who owns the park also owns the adjacent parcel of land that contains the hill-top archaeological site. After confirming this with the owner we hiked up there this morning before it got too warm (the high today was 80 degrees). Consistent with our description of lower portions of the site that we posted a few days ago, the top is littered with collapsed walls and thousands of pot sherds (and some stone flakes). It is clear that some work has been done because a few rooms have had the rubble and fill removed - but it must have been a long time ago (perhaps by the CCC at the same time they were excavating Tuzigoot) because they are filling in again.

Looking down the upper slopes from the top, linear features (collapsed walls) are visible in every direction.

And a few of those rooms have obviously been excavated (we failed to ask the owner what she knew about the history of excavations here). Portions of the RV park are visible at the base of the hill, and the Rio Verde is just beyond the RVs.

After walking all over the hill top it is clear that there was a community here of nearly the same size as at Tuzigoot and that dates to the same time period. We had a great time and we have been chatting about all the fun archaeological work we could do here (but there are a lot of details that would have to be figured out).

After descending the hill it was almost noon so we turned on the air conditioning and left Abby in the RV while we headed for Old Town Cottonwood to visit the Arizona Stronghold Winery.

The winery is half owned by Maynard James Keenan, the lead singer in Tool and the same man that owns the Caduceus Winery that we reported on a few days ago. The wines here are amazing and much more affordable than the Caduceus wines so we sipped many and bought six bottles of our favorites. While sipping we asked the server where he liked to eat (since there are numerous restaurants in the Old Town area) and he told us about the Red Rooster. So we went there and it was really good and very reasonably priced. We hope to go there again someday.

We have really fallen in love with this area and are talking about returning next winter for a month or two (because there are so many things to do around here that we haven't had a chance to enjoy yet). With this in mind we checked out a large RV park outside of town to get some comparative information to better evaluate where we might like to stay. It is a very nice and large park but it cost more than where we are now and there is wifi only available at central locations (not at camping spots). So that pretty much eliminated that choice. We talked with the owner of the park we are in about monthly costs and this park is quite a bit cheaper (and quirkier) and she informed us that she is installing wifi throughout the park this summer. Therefore, the nicer river-side spots will have wifi next winter so this is probably the place for us to be.

We finished the day by picking up our prescription refills and grocery shopping. We bought a section of a rack of lamb so that will be on the BBQ soon. Tomorrow we pack up and head for Williams, AZ, for a couple of days. Then off to the Grand Canyon. We have to be back in Pocatello around the 10th so we can finish our taxes and dog sit Shep while Nick and Marie go to the Society for American Archaeology conference in Tennessee (we are extremely proud of them both!!!!!!).

The abstract for their paper reads: Holmer, Nicholas (Idaho State University), Monica Tromp (Idaho State University), Marie Holmer and John Dudgeon (Idaho State University) [109] Bone char as a proxy for archaeological bone? An assessment of diagenetic element uptake in biological material. Distinguishing diagenetic trace element uptake from biological incorporation in bone for reconstructing archaeological life histories is an important, but not well understood problem in bioarchaeology. Bone char has been suggested as a suitable analogue for studying diagenetically-altered bone, despite the fact that it does not approximate archaeological bone either biochemically or structurally. We assess the validity of bone char as an archaeological proxy by comparing elemental uptake in bone char with archaeological and modern bone (altered and un-altered). We propose that bone char does not adequately represent the various classes of diagenetic modification and overestimates the effects of post-depositional processes.

Nick is a co-author of another paper: Schlader, Robert (Idaho State University), Nicholas Clement (Idaho State University) and Nicholas Holmer (Idaho State University) Data Capture and Manipulation at the Idaho Virtualization Laboratory: Making the Physical Digital. Before an object can be included in a digital repository or museum exhibit, that object needs to be "virtualized." The Idaho Virtualization Laboratory has established a process for laser scanning objects that produces archival quality digital surrogates while ensuring minimal disturbance to the original object. Utilizing a variety of technologies to capture a digital record in both 2-D and 3-D, we combine them to produce highly accurate and realistic reproductions, suitable for virtual displays and detailed metric analysis. In this presentation we will describe our process, from initial cataloguing, through data capture, editing, and production of the final model.

Yesterday we drove up to Sedona, a ritzy destination resort community of shops, galleries, eateries, and retirement homes located at the base of red-rock cliffs (the photo below is one of their promotional images - not ours).

Oak Creek Canyon connects Sedona with Flagstaff and the canyon road provides spectacular views of the red rock.

Although the town and area is beautiful it is far too touristy and glitzy for us - we are liking our quirky little RV park in Cottonwood more and more.

After leaving Sedona we diverted along a secondary road and visited the Javelina Leap Winyard tasting room outside of Cornville, AZ. We sampled several young wines (they don't have any aged wines left) and bought a couple of bottles of their Rock Slide, a cabernet/merlot blend. It, too, is too young to drink now but tastes like it will be really good after aging a while.

There are two other wineries in the immediate area but we didn't stop - we picked the Javelina Winery over the others because Sharon has become fascinated with javelinas (wild peccaries native to the SW).

Abby is also fascinated.

We devoted the afternoon to laundry and getting some prescriptions refilled.

Today we are going to explore Old Town Cottonwood which has three wine tasting rooms - plus we plan to revisit the archaeological site on the RV park propterty.

This morning we drove to Montezuma Castle National Monument but when we arrived we found a full parking lot - not one spot left for us and the dozens of other cars and buses that were arriving. So we left and drove the short distance to another portion of the monument, Montezuma Well, and found a couple of available parking slots. Both the Castle and the Well are pet friendly areas so Abby got to learn more about the ancient people of the Verde Valley.

Montezuma Well is a large "cenote" or limestone sink which is a collapsed portion over an underground stream exposing a small lake in the surrounding desert.

In the vertical walls of the cenote are a few cliff dwellings.

And on the surface above is a small pueblo of about 30 rooms. Archaeologists estimate that about 200 people lived there between  A.D.1125 and 1400.

Nearby the terrain drops precipitously into the Verde Valley and the underground stream emerges in the cliff wall.

At that point the prehistoric residence had constructed a mile long irrigation ditch that diverted the water to an open flat where crops were grown.

After we toured the Well area we drove back to the Castle hoping that things had cleared out a bit, and they had. It was about 12:30 so maybe lunch time is a good time to visit these popular attractions. The "castle" consists of two sections: a 20 room five-story cliff dwelling in an alcove 100 feet above the valley floor,

and a nearby six-story 45 room pueblo built up against the cliff base.

The cliff dwelling is in remarkably good shape because it is protected from the weather, but the pueblo is not protected and has mostly collapsed. This community was built and occupied at the same general time as at the Well, and at Tuzigoot (that we visited a few days ago), and at the RV park ruins.

It really is a mystery why all these sites and the many others in the valley were abandoned around 1400. All the evidence indicates that water continued to flow in springs, streams and rivers throughout that time so drought was not an issue. However, the climate was changing rapidly as the world cooled in what is known as the Little Ice Age (which peaked around 1600 prompting the Industrial Revolution in Europe). It was a time of tremendous population movement everywhere in the Americas adjusting to the climate changes, and all this generated a considerable amount of conflict as people intruded other people's territories. So it was probably a combination of factors that lead them to move to very large pueblos in major river valleys - opting for life in the "big city" rather than in the "burbs." Perhaps it is as simple as "safety in numbers."

This morning we returned to Jerome to visit the Caduceus Cellars tasting room - Chris encouraged us to visit insisting that this is the best wine he has ever tasted.

He wanted us to taste the Nagual de Judith (Judith was the mother of the wine maker/owner) but none has been made since 2008 and it is all gone. However, another label is made with the Judith grapes - the Nagual de Marzo (Marzo is the Italian grandfather of the owner who was a vintner and inspiration to the owner). It turns out the the grapes used in both are grown in the Judith vineyard - a one-half acre vineyard in Jerome that can only produce 90 cases of wine a year. So we bought some.

We tasted nine different wines (but not the Marzo because it is not available for tasting); and we bought another red that was remarkable (Nagual de la Naga).

We talked at length with the server and learned a lot about the stories behind the wine labels. We already had learned from Chris that the reason he was fascinated by Caduceus is because it was founded and owned by Maynard James Keenan - never heard of him you say?

Well he is one of the founders of the rock band "Tool" (and a few other bands) and has a passionate following around the world (and Chris is one of them).

Partially because of this (and because of the fine quality and limited quantity of his wine) the wines can only be purchased at the tasting room (although a few can be ordered on-line for a few weeks after they are released - but not much longer because they are gone).

Rick originally found this vineyard fascinating simply because of the labels: "Nagual de ......." "Nagual" is a an Aztec word for a person with spiritual power that can be used for good or evil. "Naga" is a Sanskrit word for powerful spirit, similar to the Aztec "nagual." Mr. Keenan seems to be a student of world cultures who is obviously interested in their spiritual perceptions.

After sipping wine for an hour we walked around and looked at the menus of several eateries - some of which had waiting lines. We climbed up the mountain side to Alice's Restaurant and enjoyed a sandwich. The view across the Verde Valley toward the red rocks of Sadona is beautiful but it was a little hazy today.

This afternoon we hung around the trailer and finalized the rest of out trip. We will leave our current location in Cottonwood on Friday and head for Williams, AZ. From there we will tour Walnut Canyon and other attractions around Flagstaff then on the following Monday we will drive to Tusayan to tour the Grand Canyon (we were not able to get a spot in the Grand Canyon National Park because there are no spaces available). Then on Thursday, April 4, we head for Bryce Canyon NP for a couple of days. On Sunday, the 8th, we head for SLC to spend the night with Shirley - then back to Pocatello to finish filing our taxes, and to dog-sit for Nick and Marie while they are off to Tennessee to present a paper at a professional meeting (the Society for American Archaeology).

Today we didn't do much of anything - just hung around the trailer and enjoyed the mild temperatures.

The only thing we did that took us off our camping spot was a hike up to the "Indian ruins" on the park property (Sharon and Abby are standing in one of the rectangular rooms of the "ruins").

We discovered that the small pueblo room block we spotted yesterday probably had 10 or more rooms and it looks like folks have been digging around in them for years (Sharon and Abby are standing in the midst of the collapsed wall rubble of many rectangular rooms).

There are massive amounts of pottery strewn everywhere - plus numerous obsidian and chert flakes, the waste material from making stone tools (Sharon's shoe is for scale).

It looks like this is a small room block peripheral to the main part of the site located on top of the ridge above (just like occurs at Tuzigoot with one small group of rooms near the base of the ridge and the rest on top). We saw an historic photo while at the Tuzigoot visitor center taken before the excavations in the early 1930s and it looks exactly like the top of this ridge - mounded with stone rubble just the right size for wall construction and massive amounts of pottery scattered below (plus we could see a geometric pattern possibly suggesting two different levels of rooms).

We didn't explore the ridge top because it is not on the RV park property and there are "no trespassing" signs on a fence so we obliged. However, back at the trailer we got onto Google Earth and explored the ridge top - it looks like one very small portion of the top has been excavated (possibly by looters) revealing five contiguous rooms (on the Google image below the small room block that we explored and pictured above is just off the lower left corner, and the picture of the ridge top immediately above was taken from just off the bottom of the image). There has to be a lot more rooms up there to have produced the tens of thousands of pot sherds we observed scattered below.

Tomorrow is another day. We have talked about going to Jerome to visit the winery, but nothing is decided yet. We still have several cliff dwellings to visit and a few other attractions so we will keep as busy as we want (or as "unbusy" as we want).

Yesterday (Friday) we drove from Holbrook to Cottonwood, AZ, via Flagstaff (which is still under a blanket of snow from the storms of a week ago). We arrived at the Rio Verde RV Park early in the afternoon and had a chance to walk around the park property. We weren't too sure what to expect - people who have reviewed the park on-line have used descriptors like "quirky" and "it is what it is." One reviewer claimed that people either love it or hate it - we haven't decided which group we are affiliated with yet. There are big glamorous snow-bird rigs ($300,000+) parked next to 30 year old run down full-timer trailers (with piles of stuff stacked outside). There don't seem to be any rules - and maybe that is what some people love and some hate. There is a nice area of the RV park overlooking the river but it is more expensive and there is no wifi there - so we are in the cheaper area with wifi but no view of the river.

During our explorations yesterday we hiked up to one of the two "Indian ruins" on the property (since we hadn't planned ahead, we didn't have a camera so no photos for the time being). It is on a butte overlooking the river and pottery sherds and stone flakes are scattered everywhere (but no obvious pueblo structure). Since there are no "rules" in the RV park we actually collected a representative sample of pottery and Rick spent an hour or so this morning reading some technical reports and was able to classify them. We have Tuzigoot Red Ware, Verde Brown Ware, and Prescott Grey Ware all dating between A.D. 1125 and 1400. From the butte we looked down upon the other "Indian ruin" which appears to be a small four or five room pueblo. We will hike there sometime in our stay here and report on what we see (and get some pictures).

Today we visited Tuzigoot National Monument. It is a large 77 room one-story pueblo constructed on top of a linear butte overlooking the Verde River Valley (and all the farmland they were using to grow crops).

The people who built it are now referred to as the Sinagua Culture and are different people with different traditions than the folks who built the sites we visited around Albuquerque. Most noticeable is the size of the rooms - these rooms are huge compared to Pecos, Salinas, Bandelier, etc., and they apparently didn't use subterranean kivas for their religious/political/commercial activities.

Based on the pottery we classified, the site on the RV park property and Tuzigoot date to the same time period and are only about five miles apart.

From Tuzigoot we could see the town of Jerome across the Verde River Valley high up on the opposite mountain side so we took the short drive up there.

Jerome is where Chris's must-visit winery is located - check out the Caduceus Winery website (click on the book after the raven delivers it)! Jerome was absolutely packed with tourists with no visitor parking spots left - it appears to be a real tourist magnet. We decided to come back on a weekday and hopefully the town won't be so overwhelmingly busy.

We haven't decided what we will do tomorrow, but the choices are almost endless. Maybe some prehistoric cliff dwellings - or maybe not. The joys of retirement!

We spent today hiking through the petrified trees and archaeological sites of Petrified Forest National Park. The day was beautiful, ~70 degrees with a light breeze (which really felt good after a few miles hiking). A great attribute of the park is that all trails are pet friendly so Abby got to learn more about archaeology, geology and paleontology (and the millions of new smells along the trails).

(Rick and Abby at a Painted Desert overlook)

(Sharon and Abby by "Old Faithful" - the largest fossilized tree in the park)

The story captured within the park begins about 225 million years ago in the Triassic when the area was a vast tropical forest flood plain. The trees would die and topple over to be covered by sands and silts deposited by periodic floods. Also buried were dinosaurs of various kinds and reptiles related to modern crocodiles. Over time, the trees were petrified and the bones were fossilized by water-dissolved silica and minerals.

Well after then, the climate changed and the layered deposits began eroding uncovering the hardened remnants of ancient life.

A long time later - around 10,000 B.C. - people show up on the landscape. To date, more than 800 archaeological sites have been scientifically recorded in the Petrified Forest although less than half of the area has been surveyed. We visited a few sites - the ones that have been developed for tourists to enjoy. The earliest site is called Agate House because it is built entirely of petrified wood (and it was partially reconstructed by the CCC in the 1930s during the development of the park and who knows how much of it is accurate).

It was originally built around A.D. 1100-1300 (determined by the types of pottery present) and, because of its small size, was probably an seasonal outpost overlooking crops along a sandy ephemeral wash below. It only has eight rooms and does not have the range of facilities common to full time residences (like a kiva).

A younger site dating to A.D. 1300-1400 that we visited is the Puerco Pueblo overlooking the Rio Puerco. It was a rectangular one-story pueblo of about 100 rooms surrounding a large central plaza containing three rectangular kivas. It was partially excavated by the CCC - enough to expose the basic plan and to collect enough artifacts to estimate the date of construction and occupancy.

A large number of petroglyph panels are nearby and are probably contemporary with the Puerco Pueblo. Just about every motif that we saw in Petroglyph National Park near Albuquerque is also present here.

It was a great day - we stopped for lunch and ate left over home-made pizza that had been reheating in the sun for a few hours - and it was delicious!

Tomorrow we pack up and head for Cottonwood, Arizona. The small community is located in the midst of several archaeological parks and is near a winery that Christian says we must visit. We will give a full report of things as they happen.

The wifi here at the Albuquerque KOA has been very erratic to nonfunctional since the high winds of Sunday and we haven't been able to post anything for the last couple of days. The winter storm continued Monday with cold temperatures and wind, although no snow or rain. So we used the day for "maintenance." We took the Tahoe for an oil change and general checkup (we have driven over 3500 miles since leaving on this trip), filled two of our three propane tanks, puttered on a few other minor tasks, and relaxed.

Tuesday the cold continued (it was 28 degrees when we woke up and the water hose to the trailer was frozen) and it continued to be breezy.  We spent the morning at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, described as the "gateway to the 19 Pueblos of New Mexico" located in Albuquerque.

The exhibits are very interesting and represent their own perspectives on the prehistory, history and contemporary situation. The exhibits are remarkably balanced and objective with no resentment expressed about how they have been treated - but they are also honest about the reality of history, both Spanish and American (i.e., the exhibits are supported by empirical facts, not just assertions and unsupported interpretations). We learned a lot about traditional culture and how it has been stressed and modified throughout the last 500+ years of Anglo contact, including the legal history of laws and acts, both federal and state, that have sometimes challenged and sometimes supported the preservation of their culture - fascinating!

Much of the exhibit contains art - both contemporary and historical from the last century or two (plus they have a limited exhibit on prehistoric artifacts including the pottery of the region - it is interesting to see the continuity in contemporary art with the ancient examples).

A big attraction that we didn't see (because of their winter schedule) are the traditional dances (the ones that are appropriate for non-natives to see).

After an enjoyable morning at the Center we visited the Gruet Winery. It was recommended to us by Pat Hogan and Lynn Sebastian when we had dinner with them the other night. They said that if we were to visit only one winery in the area, this had to be it and they were right. They specialize in sparkling wines and we sampled several. We enjoyed them so much that we joined their "club" so we will be receiving a shipment of two or three bottles each month (except for during the heat of the summer but they send a big shipment in April).

Today we depart for Holbrook, Arizona, which is the nearest community to the Petrified Forest National Park The weather is supposed to warm considerably - back up into the 70s - which we are looking forward to; and the winds are supposed to be calm. Hopefully they will have a better wifi connection so we don't end up going days without a post.