It’s been a while since our last blog post partially because we are lazy and really enjoying the nice weather, but also because the internet has been down much of the time here in our RV park. So this post is being uploaded via our smartphone hotspot. Oh, we've also been catching up on chores.

We spent much of the last week continuing to explore the various nooks, crannies, and neighborhoods of Cottonwood and surrounding communities like Cornville (where Sen. John McCain lives) and Clarkdale. The purpose of this exploration is to decide what we really want to do in the future. Our journey prior to returning to Cottonwood this winter helped us realize that there is no place like the Verde Valley. It suits us much better than any other place we have visited throughout the Southwest from Southern California to Central Texas, and this place feels like home (or, at least, a second home). So we drove around looking at land for sale – some of it out in the boonies and some actual building lots in town.

Everywhere we go we find spring-fed creeks and marshes.

And Abby enjoys fetching sticks even out of the smallest stretch of water.

We took breaks from exploring by taking walks in one of our favorite places – Dead Horse Ranch State Park.

It was Easter Sunday and there were lots of people fishing (even a few fly fishermen) and there are lots of fish.

And our heron friend from previous visits kept an eye on us (see some previous blogs for heron pics).

Back to our property explorations. We have looked at new developments where you pick out a floor plan and a lot and they build you a house (with your own finishing touches). We even looked at a new development designed for manufactured homes (i.e., “doublewides”). After looking at lots and floor plans and calculating the costs we decided to look at existing homes.

This process actually started last winter when we were here and our interest has been reinforced this winter - we really want something permanent here as a winter residence. We’ve driven through just about every neighborhood we can find and we keep returning to one that we discovered last year. So we contacted a realtor and met with her last Friday. She was recommended to us by our friend and summer Pinehaven neighbor, Bill Hurst, who recently bought a large view lot at the base of the Mingus Mountains (southwest side of the Verde Valley). We met with him for lunch at the Village Tavern in Old Town Cottonwood last week and picked his brain about real estate here. He is from Arizona and recently sold his home in Falgstaff but still owns a home in Scottsdale (which he would like to sell if the market there ever gets better). The market here in Cottonwood is very strong – sale prices have increased by at least 10% over the last year and it looks like this trend will continue so if we are going to buy something now is the time to do it (actually, last year would have been the time to do it). And, interest rates are increasing and are expected to continue to increase.

The neighborhood we like is called Cottonwood Ranch and it is a Del Webb development started in the mid 1990s. Below is a small house like we want but this one sold before we could look at it (it was only on the market for a few days). The development has a swimming pool and walking trails throughout.

We looked at a couple of houses in our size range (2 bedrooms, 2 baths) and our budget. We really like one of them which only came on the market late last week. One of our greatest wishes is to share this beautiful place with family and friends, especially Grandma Shirley.  We’ll keep you posted.