We met up with our good friends Jim and Becky
for a ride through parts of Arizona most tourists don’t see. Jim spent much of his adult life in the Phoenix area and took us on a personal tour.
First stop was Cordes, so we met at Bloody Basin Rd (no kidding) and headed off into the hills. Most of the towns we stopped at were established during the area’s mining years. Not too many people are still hanging around.
The Cordes General Store is only open on weekends and is obviously a busy gathering place for locals and tourists in the know.
There were a lot of relics from a time gone by.
Of course there were also plenty of out of service automobiles
and some creative curb appeal landscaping.
Our next stop was Cleater and I was pretty sure that the town population was less than 11.
There was a bar, general store
and a perpetual yard sale.
Yep that was the extent of the whole town. But they packed a lot of character into the town.
The yard sale guy was a real hoot. He had a little bit of everything
and was very creative with his odds and ends.
And you thought I had fun decorating my baboon skull. This guy went over the top with his skull.
You know we just had to stop at the bar and look around. There was a lot of John Wayne stuff and this was my favorite poster.
The token deer mount was in rough shape….like the bar and its regular patrons.
I liked the sign hanging over the bar. You can see a painting of James Cleator in the background.
Anyone know who the Black Widow was? I haven’t looked it up yet.
We had a hard time taking pictures that would convey the immenseness and variety of terrain in this part of Arizona. One minute you are in desert
Turn the corner (literally) and you are in a forest of tall pines with running streams that cross your path.
The road we travelled from Bloody Basin to Prescott (pronounced Press-kit, they are sensitive about it) used to be a stagecoach route. One of the stagecoach stops was the Palace Station and the last stop on our trip.
The Forestry Service still uses the original the building.
After 7 hours of traveling we arrived in Prescott where we celebrated with some beers and food. We can’t wait to get together with Jim and Becky again. We always have so much fun together.
