Sunday, March 1, 2015

Copper Venus


Weather reports all said that up in the Flagstaff area they were expecting a foot and a half of snow. Also there were supposed to be high winds. I was heading to Cottonwood AZ which is about an hour south of Flagstaff so I was a little worried on several counts. One, Snow – the main reason I'm down here is to avoid snow. Two – we all know how I feel about high winds. Three – the road I am going to travel on crosses a mountain and made it into my Mountain Directory of Roads that have big changes in altitude. I decided I was going to make a run for it and just see how it goes.

The wind was about 20 miles an hour and was pretty much a tail wind so that didn't seem to hinder me too much. When I got to Milepost 281, there were all those signs warning truckers to check their brakes, sharp decline, truck runaway area in a couple of miles. All signs that fill you full of confidence. Not.... The speed limit was 65, but I cut my speed down to 55 and even though it was seven miles at 6%, I never had to downshift and would only apply my brakes sparingly. I would say it wasn't too bad except for the big drop offs on my right side. Actually, it is times like this where I wish somebody else was driving because the little glimpses I had out the window were drop dead beautiful.

Rolled into Dead Horse Ranch State Park. Once I got settled, I disconnected the car, threw Miko in the car and headed down to the Ranger Station to ask about which trails were the most scenic. After I got my list, I headed over to the trail that went around three Lagoons. It was an enjoyable trail – it was nice to be next to some water. There were ducks in the pond – haven't a clue what type they were except they were not mallards (the one duck type I knew).

I took lots of pictures but I seem to have lost my camera. It has to be someplace in the RV but it seems to be hiding. I have 256 square feet I'm living in. You would think that there would not be that many hiding places in the RV.

It started raining at night – It is nice to hear the rain on the roof. It rained and rained. What to do on a rainy day. I could clean house. I could stay in bed and sleep in. Naw – none of those sounded appealing. Miko and I took a walk in the rain around the campground and ran into a woman from Alaska who told me about a copper art museum in Clarkdale, the next town over. Sounded interesting so off I went.

This Copper Art Museum was fantastic and informative. The museum is located in the old Clarkdale High School which was built in 1928. You start off learning about copper, what it is, the mythology around it. Copper is associated with Venus, Women whereas Iron is associated with Mars and Men. There were a couple of informational signs talking about the difference between Copper/Woman and Iron/Men.

"Venus refuses to conform to any other planet in the solar system and spins in the opposite direction of any other planet; just to be difficult"

"The high levels of methane gas found in Mars atmosphere is significant evidence to suggest that men do indeed suffer from flatulence to a greater degree than women."

Seriously though, this museum had so many different rooms dealing with different aspects of copper. Did you know that turquoise is composed to a large part of copper? Who knew. There was a room that dealt with military use of copper, helmets and such. What was interesting here was that there was something called Trench Art. Back in WWI, soldiers would take used shell casings and adorn them with flowers and grapes and religious or nationalistic themes. There was a whole wall of this Trench Art. There were rooms that had copper jewelry or copper kitchen wares. I spent a couple of hours in this museum.

Trench Art

Then it was on to Jerome. Jerome is this tiny little town perched on the side of a mountain. The town was originally a copper mining town that has morphed into an artist colony when the mine shut down. The town is so small, the back side of the houses on one side of the street plunge into the valley and the back side of the houses on the other side of the street have the valley view also. Serious mountain town. I wandered around, bought some glass coasters that were handmade.
When I got home, Miko was happy to see me. Then there was a knock on the door. A couple of folks were standing outside. I had met the man earlier that day when I was walking the dog in the rain. He and his partner had a pizza and were inviting Miko and me over for dinner. I jumped at the chance and headed over. Joe and Katie are from Fort Collins Colorado and have a 28 foot Class C. They travel with their golden retriever and two cats. Miko fit right in with the group. Excellent conversation and excellent pizza. There are a lot of really nice and generous people that show up in this lifestyle.

1 comment:

  1. I knew about the copper in turquiose thing. You asked who knew, so I had to answer. :) Jerome is awesome! Loved it there. HT

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