Helping A Friend Is Never Work, Arizona

Sitting outside HOWE (footnote 1) and enjoying the perfect weather in Cottonwood, Arizona, we then decided to go for a drive. We took off and turned down a road to Black Canyon Forest Service Road. Immediately the road was rough with tons of pot holes and washboard as the road went down into the canyon. We almost turned around but saw there was river access so we continued. It wasn’t too much farther. At the end we saw the Verde River and got out. There were two couples fishing, which was cool to see. We both said this is a good place to get away and relax and bring your chairs. 

After that we went to Cottonwood Cemetery for Find A Grave (footnote 2).I wanted to check out the rest of the grass area (see a previous post about the goat heads). This cemetery’s uniqueness is that some of the headstones include the deceased person’s signature.

Our friend, Wendi, texted me that she had gone to the container store and bought a bunch of organizational things to put in her sewing room closet. Maybe I should come this week and help her organize, she said. I told her I would love to help. She said she would come get me and if Kevin wanted me back, he can pick me up! 😆 I asked how long it would take to get her sewing room and closet organized and she said a week and a half; maybe until Wednesday, or Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. HAHA

Since Wendi lives 2 hours away from the campground we could meet her 1/2 way. Yes, early, before her work meeting and Kevin’s meeting. We both went an hour and met at 7:00 a.m.! She got me started by folding fabric into 5 inch shape and then fold over once. I have not seen this way before and asked her about it later. By having the fabric 5 inches wide and then folded down, she is able to put it in large bins and now deep drawers and see all of them. She has some tables set up in the living room for her mini sewing retreat next week so I used one of those to do the folding. After her work meetings, we moved everything out of the sewing closet and put the tall organizing bins, on rollers, in. We did a few ways to see what was best. We worked, both of us doing things, from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. We were exhausted! She said we could go out to eat but I suggested we just stay home since we were spent. Did she have something we could make up easily? Yes, mini chicken pot pies that she had frozen. Hers are so good! We were too tired to play games and went right to bed.

I slept until almost 8:00 a.m.! My room was dark and I was tired. HA Another day of both of us doing things from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It is amazing how things are coming together in her closet! Part of this day was going through kits, labeling them, and placing them. We have most of the fabric put away. Every once in a while she would find some fabric, on the desk, for example, and laughingly tell me to get to folding! We teased each other about how we kept pushing each other to work.

On Saturday, we met up with Kevin at First Watch south of Anthem for breakfast at 9:00 a.m. to pick me up. 🙂 Kevin and I went straight up to DA Ranch in Cornville, AZ; it is a winery that hosts events. They had a Pottery Festival going on. What a great thing to see! The grounds are just beautiful and perfectly set up for very large events. There were 15 booths of professional pottery artists. It was so interesting to see the difference in each artist. Kevin said the live band was excellent; jazz. Under the pavilion we went to a class where two ladies showed techniques. One was rolling the clay into a rope, made a circle, and then took piece of clay, flattened it, and place it around the circle. Kevin told me she got started in this way when years ago she had fallen and the clay went everywhere. The way it laid she thought it looked so neat. She said, “A happy accident made unique pieces.” The other lady was making a rabbit head. I didn’t realize that it would be hollow. Neat to watch. We then bought Kevin a coffee mug a person there had made. Great time; we were there about 2 hours. 

Drove on home (footnote 3) and we got packed up for travel day tomorrow. On pack up days, I say “the kitchen is closed” because everything it tucked away so things don’t fall when going down the road. We went out to eat to national chain diner. We sat and waited and waited. I had texted Bridget as we arrived so I knew the time. We waited for over 25 minutes and still no one came over to take our order. We walked out. There was a couple in the booth behind us that were there before us and I saw they still had their menus, too. We went to Calavera Bar and Grill.  We have been here before and also this time. So good! We got our order in fast and food came deliciously hot. Great service. The waiter told Kevin the Spanish name for steak. We thought that was so cool. Kevin taught him the American Sign Language sign for steak. The guy loved it!

*The blog posts are taken from my daily travel journal. Would you believe – it takes me a 1/2 day every week to whittle down a week’s worth of journal so it won’t be too long for the post each week. HAHA Thank you for reading!

1. “HOWE” is what we named our Alliance Avenue 36-ft 5th wheel. See: Home On WhEels and we pronounce it Howie. We live and travel in it full-time around the country.

2. Find A Grave – https://www.findagrave.com/about

3. “Home” is where we park it. Home is our 2022 Alliance Avenue, 36 ft, 5th wheel.