It’s wet, cold, and raining in Prescott Valley this morning (Monday), so we’re just hunkering down…  we got here on Friday and I’ve used the last couple days to play catch-up on the blog since we didn’t have connectivity during our week-long stay at Alamo Lake State Park.  Now let me bring you up to date on our time here so far…

As I said in my previous post from 28 February: “We are now in Prescott Valley at the home of Scott and Julie Richardson. Julie is a friend and former co-worker from my days at the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). We were both in the MDA Contracting Directorate together at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Julie retired at about the same time that I resigned from my position back in May of 2014 and moved here to their lovely retirement home in Prescott Valley, AZ. We drove straight here from the lake (about 150 miles) when we learned that they were home and also willing to put up with us for a day or so.”

It’s great to see Julie again… we haven’t seen her since May of last year at her retirement party in Colorado Springs.  After we arrived on Friday afternoon, we got caught up on recent events and old times a little bit and shared what little knowledge we had about mutual acquaintances’.  We also got the “grand tour” of Scott and Julie’s beautiful home, aka., “Richardson Retirement Ranch” or (3R).

We parked the Urban Escape Vehicle in front of the 3rd garage so we wouldn’t block the driveway.  Then we ran an extension cord to the garage outlet so we wouldn’t have to run our generator to charge the batteries.. the residential-type refrigerator sure sucks them down.  Thanks for the juice Scott and Julie!  And also the moochdocking, – er, I mean boondocking spot!

On Saturday, we took a little driving tour to catch some of the sights in the area.  Julie acted as our tour-guide and we all piled into her car.  We went north on AZ-89A aka the “Prescott Jerome Hwy” towards Sedona.  We hadn’t gone very far up the winding pass before we spotted snow on the higher mountain tops around us.  Ugh… thought we’d left that behind in Colorado.

We stopped to enjoy the view at a pull-out.  It was windy but not raining yet.

When we got to Jerome, AZ, we decided to park and walk around a bit… what a neat town nestled on the hillside.

Here’s a pic I swiped from Google Images:

And here’s some actual pics we took while wandering around a bit.

Anyone recognize the lamp in the window?

We heard that the hotel in the pic below is supposed to be haunted.

We drove on down the pass and finally rolled into the picturesque town of Sedona.  (don’t forget to click on the link for more info).

As you can see below, the rain picked up once we arrived in Sedona.

The rain didn’t stop us from shopping for some t-shirts though…

We passed by Pink Jeep Tours, who has quite a large fleet… and the crummy weather didn’t appear to be stopping tourists from lining up to take tours in the rain.

How about a couple more pics of the area:

Our downtown area walk was cut short with a brief downpour that made us dash for the car, so we headed on over to the Golden Goose Cafe & Bistro for a late lunch / early dinner.  Scott and Julie treated… thanks again guys, you didn’t have to do that.

After our fine dining experience, we drove over to the nearby Chapel of the Holy Cross.  Don’t forget to click the previous “green” link to go to the official church website, or here for more pictures from Google.

We were able to park in the upper lot and made the short walk to the semi-circular walkway up to the chapel.

The views from inside the church windows looking out – were awesome.

And here’s some views from the landing in front of the church entrance.

After visiting the picturesque church, we continued south on (also) picturesque route 179 until we got on I-17 which we took to the 169 exit, and then back to the house, effectively completing our loop for the day.

On Sunday, we stayed close to the area.  Our highlight for the day was a trip to the local IN-N-OUT Burger.  Yummm.  This time Scott and Julie allowed us to treat.  Julie acted as our chauffeur once again.  Thanks Julie!!

Then we drove through the Bob Stump VA Medical Center… reminded me of an old Army base stuck in the ’50s.  Check out the officer’s housing area:

Unfortunately, the museum here was closed.

In downtown Prescott, we stopped briefly in the rain for a picture of the courthouse.  The crummy weather prevented us from wanting to wander around.

Then, on the way back home, we stopped at the Phippen Museum for a little “Art and Heritage of the American West”.

However, only a small portion of the museum was currently open for viewing due to new exhibits being put into place.  So we opted to save our $7 per person entrance fee for another time and just browsed the gift shop.

Then we headed back to the house to relax again and hide out from the rain.

And that brings us to the present… here it is Monday (my new favorite day of the week since retirement) and it’s still raining outside.  It rained all night, and it’s even been snowing a little bit this morning.  At least it’s not sticking.

So we plan on just staying inside to wait out the weather.   There’s a lot of cool stuff to see around here, but none of it’s quite so fun to do in the rain and cold.

As a parting shot… Julie shared this picture of an eagle with me that she saw in the back yard just the other day.  We haven’t seen it since though… probably hiding from the cold weather like we are 🙂