We have a lot of catching up to do on this blog. This entry is organized like the rest of the blog beginning with what we have done today and then digressing through our activities over the last couple of days.

Today may well be the high point of our trip so far for Sharon. As we have mentioned, she has a javalina "fetish" and has been anxious to see live ones in the wild. This morning we walked down to the RV park office and a mother and two baby javalinas came up from the river, crossed the road right in front of us and headed up the hill. Neither of us had a camera so we didn't document the sighting - too bad. Other than that excitement, we did other things like laundry and a short hike up the hill behind us conducting further exploration of the Senagua Pueblo (seen discussion below for additional info).

Yesterday we left Abby in the trailer and drove up Mingus Mountain to Jerome (about a 20 minute drive). We walked around for a while then had lunch at the Haunted Hamburger Grill.

We split a Philly cheese steak sandwich (with grilled onions, green pepper, mushrooms and green chilies)  seated on their deck with a great view of the Verde Valley and the snow-capped San Francisco Mountains in the background.

With our stomachs full we walked to the Caduceous Cellars Tasting Room - you may remember that this winery was the reason we visited the Verde Valley last winter. Chris was the original instigator - the owner and winemaker is Maynard Keenan the founder and lead of the rock band Tool (and a couple of other bands). Chris insisted that it would be worth our effort to visit (and buy him some wine). We did and here we are back for a second year in a row.

So we entered the tasting room and begin a tasting. Since last year they have created a second label (not so expensive) named Merkin (after one of their vineyards) and have entered the white wine market. We began our tasting with the whites and progressed to the spectacular reds. As we were sipping and enjoying the atmosphere we noticed a bottle of wine placed in a place of honor. The bottle is a 2008 Nagual de Judith - undoubtedly Maynard's most famous product and most desirable, but it has not been available since 2010. The bottle is signed by Maynard (dated 2013) and was recently removed from Maynard's personal archive cellar. While sipping our currently available wines Sharon sent a text to Chris telling him about the signed bottle. He had to have it so we exited the cellars with it carefully packaged in a box. The back and forth text messages go something like this:

• S: A signed Judith for $_00, interested?
• S: A 2008 from his personal cellar.
• C: Yes!
• C: Yes please!
• S: R U sure?
• C: Yes!
• S: $_00?
• C: Yes :)
• S: The deed is done.
• C: Thank you very much...........don't break it ;)
• S: I made them box it special ;)
• C: Awesome! 

So Chris has purchased a very expensive bottle of wine - we wonder what it's future will be. We will hand deliver it when we drive to Washington in late May.

The previous morning - Sunday - was cool and beautiful so it seemed like a great time for a hike. We walked up the hill adjacent to our trailer to further explore the collapsed Sinagua Pueblo that covers the hilltop and much of the upper slopes.

It was built and occupied around 1125-1400 A.D. and is littered with collapsed walls and 10s of thousands of pot sherds.

Abby gets thirsty too!

Last year we identified four types of pottery that occur around here - three types that were made locally and a fourth type that was a beautifully decorated Jedito Black-on-Yellow trade ware from the Hopi Mesa (which dates to the later end of the site's occupation). On our Sunday stroll eagle-eye Sharon found three more decorated sherds that are three additional types (probably also all trade wares). We haven't done the research yet but we will be able to find out when and where they were made - we'll report on that when we get around to it. Interestingly, the three new decorated types were found in the same area as the Jedito sherd found last year (the midden area below a 10-15 room annex located on the ridge directly above our trailer).

The room block is in the center of the photo and our trailer is

the small white one at the bottom of the draw with the

white Yukon parked diagonally beside it,

It is difficult to estimate how many rooms were in the pueblo but simply walking the area of collapsed wall rubble suggests that 60-90 may be a reasonable guess. Some more research on our part will probably give us a better estimation.

Looking down from the site at our trailer confirms that we are the smallest one here.

We love it and if it weren't for Abby we would have all the space we need. Fortunately we spend so much time outside the tight indoor space isn't really an issue. And Abby has really learned how and where to move to stay out of our way. But probably when we get older and more decrepit then a larger trailer might be in order (as mentioned in a previous blog).

After the three of us descended the hill we visited the Mexican food vendor parked adjacent to the RV park.

We purchased enchiladas de pollo (chicken) and quesadilla de assada (beef) to-go. We walked back to the trailer and with a couple of cold beers we enjoyed a wonderful and very authentic meal.

There was a lot of food (and we ate it all)  so we weren't hungry for dinner and didn't have any. We will go back and try their tacos or other things. The menu lists tacos with beef tongue or brains - Yum! An interesting note: the Mexican food was delicious and resulted in no stomach problems for either of us (which can be a problem because we have eliminated so many bad things from our diet) - the Philly cheese steak sandwich we had in Jerome was also delicious but it tore our stomachs apart (both of us) probably because of all the grease used in frying the contents. Live and learn.