Day 1: January 16, Pasadena, CA to Cottonwood, AZ

Yesterday we drove.  9 hours.  Well, technically Catherine drove and Denise rode.  After saying goodbye to Christine, Geoff, Chris (Geoff's brother), Patu and Alela, we headed out of Pasadena.  Denise never even saw Caltech, but she did see an Allen's hummingbird.

There weren't many highlights (and only 2 pictures).  We took the 10 out of CA.  Apparently they weren't kidding when the book said RVs descend on Quartzite, AZ every winter.  There were thousands maybe tens of thousands of them.  Larie would get stuck in the giant yard sale.

A bit past Quartzite we picked up the 60 and drove through more RVs up to Salome, home of a mystical "historical marker."  We got to it and found this:

Up close and personal it says "Dick Wick Hall."  According to Google (as having info would be far to useful at a historical marker), he founded the town and was a bit of a character.  He had a dance hall and a dancing frog.

We got to Prescott on 89 and after a bit of a detour, we found 89A.  This highway deserved its scenic reputation -- we even saw a bobcat cross the road.  Denise was rather glad it was getting dark as we snaked down a canyon.  Surprisingly, the town of Jerome was on the side of the mountain (as in houses facing the road had stilts holding up their back sides) and came into view rather suddenly around a hairpin turn on the side of the mountain.  We drove through the expensive tourist trap and made it to Cottonwood, tired but happy to have 400 miles under our belts.