Riding the Rails

I haven't always had good internet service. The last park I was in said you have wifi service from your site, but the only time I wasn't kicked off again and again was between 12AM and 6AM. Today I bought a mifi. That's what I'm using now. I have wanted a mifi for years, but I couldn't get my questions answered. I wanted to know if I got a mifi, could I cancel my cable internet. That would make the additional cost reasonable. I did finally try a Verizon mifi, which I couldn't get to work at all at my home. Then they wanted to charge me $200 for the time I took trying to get it to work. Did they think I would just accept that?

At this park you pay an outside service for internet. For a week it would have cost me $10. That convinced me to get the mifi. The people online and at the store say that I can get service at home with my current microcell, which boosts the service from the cell tower. And so...it shouldn't cost me much more than I pay now.

 So, I've been busy. Sedona is a very pretty area - red rock, beautiful sunsets, many scenic roads and views. I went to a quilt show, went hiking, checked out the rocks shaped like animals or objects, drove some very scenic roads - again listening to Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and The Who (Tommy), had my car jumped twice, bought a new battery, got my hair cut, bought a new jacket to replace my very most favorite jacket, which is pretty much the only jacket I've used for the last 4 years and left somewhere (boo hoo), read 8 books, and painted my car, which somehow got scrapes on it from cutting the corner too close.

Verde River at bottom of canyon

Turtle

But the most fun I had, was riding the train through the Verde Canyon. I was in the coach class, so no service or free food, but we had our own outdoor car, and I stayed out there the whole ride. We had a guide/conductor with us to tell us some of the history and point out interesting rocks, caves and crevasses. The railroad was built to carry copper from the mines. It went all the way to Jerome. Currently it carries freight on one run and passengers on the other. We passed by caves with charred roofs which indicated cooking fires. Again these cliff dwellings date back to 1100-1400AD. We passed a number of rocks that the guide pointed out - the Budweiser frogs(?), a turtle, the Presidents' range, etc. The Presidents' range was funny. First you saw a natural rock sculpture of Lincoln, and then on the other side of the crevasse, one of Nixon. His nose was pictured exactly as a cartoon sketch of him. I got very good at picturing/imagining/seeing all kinds of shapes in the rocks - dinosaurs, birds, bull, cowboy hat, and many more. When we started, we were high up in the canyon, and then we continued` to go lower. Toward the end we were close to the river, and beside  the flood plain. The trip ended at Perkinsville, which was actually the Perkins ranch, still operating with cattle and sheep. Then the locomotive moved up from the back to the front, and we saw the other side coming back. All the way, it looked like rocks were going to fall off the sides of the canyon any minute, and I guess they do frequently. Before the trip, maintenance takes a run to remove the fallen rocks from the rails. The guide said if he jumped off, we should too. What a beautiful ride! The guide/conductor was great, and so were my fellow passengers.

I went back to Jerome again. I love this town/ art colony/ ghost town. It is so picturesque and unique, climbing up Cleopatra Hill. I visited the museum, which is housed in the former Douglas Mansion. The town was named after Eugene Jerome. I found out he was a cousin to Jenny Jerome, who married Randolph Churchill, and mothered Winston. I read the biography Jenny years ago, and loved it.


In its heyday, when the mines were at their busiest, Jerome's population grew to 15,000. Then when the mines were closed down, population fell to less than 100, and now is at approximately 500. Jerome's history talks a lot about fire. One building was destroyed by fire 3 years in a row. They also had to worry about buildings sliding down the hill, or some of it. One building that did slide was the jail. But, they didn't lose any prisoners, and the building stayed intact, so all they had to do was change the address. I suppose that's all they'd have to do, even if they did lose prisoners.


The weather is not in the 80s; more like the 50s-60s. I had planned to leave my last home and go northeast, but when I checked the weather forecast, it said days in the 30s and nights in the single digits, so I headed southeast. The days are beautiful, but nights this week are in the mid-20s, so I'm not connecting my water this week. I'll use the water tank and pump. Snow was on the ground when I left my last home, and it was beautiful. I drove through snow for about 2 hours, and it stopped 2 miles before I got off. Well planned, I thought.

Tomorrow, I hit Tombstone, and the OK Corral.