Exploring 05/06/20

Dead Horse Ranch State Park, Cottonwood, Arizona

Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD. ~ Proverbs 23:17

We began today with trips to Home Depot and WalMart for groceries and other supplies you can’t pick up in regular grocery stores. At Home Depot, Blaine conceded to purchase a Mother’s Day gift for me – even though I’m not his mother. To clarify, we don’t usually buy Mother’s or Father’s Day gifts for each other. I guess because neither of us have ever been much into gifts for each other. It’s not our love language. Instead, we’ve always taken on preparing meals for our large extended family. My two small plants were much less expensive. 😊

So here’s what I bought to set in front of my kitchen window –

I confess, the Venus Flytrap was just intriguing. It’s strange and unusual, and truth be told, I’m anxious to see if it works. So now, not only am I physically squishing bugs (most notably stink bugs), but I’m now sadistically cultivating them. I found one shortly after we returned home, and put it in the plant. The bug seemed quite happy there. But as far as I know, despite my poking and prodding and manually moving the bug around, the trap was never sprung. Darn!

Just in case you want to read about them. : )

In an effort to avoid some of the heat in the middle of the day today, we left to just walk around historic Cottonwood. We hadn’t done so when we were here previously. Truthfully, there wasn’t much to see. It’s not all that historic compared to other towns we’ve visited, and of course all the restaurants and shops were closed, or only open for carry out.

This is about the only vintage thing we saw downtown, and it’s actually new and made to look old. : )

There was a rose bush near the main street we were walking on.

See Blaine reflected in this restaurant’s windows?

Somebody’s working on something, but we don’t know what.

You find all sorts of strange and unusual things in the shop windows around here.
Not much different than Sedona.

What a nice patio this restaurant has!
Too bad no one’s allowed to use it. : (

This is the Cottonwood Community Club House, built in 1939.
There was a sign, but it was huge and positioned at an angle that I couldn’t even hardly read,
so there’s no picture of it.

We did, however, stumble upon a community trail that was shady!

Some water at the start of the trail we found.
Looks like someone built a canal . . .

It’s called the Jail Trail, and although they had some information boards up along the way,
nothing said why they named it that.

The air-conditioned Jeep was a welcome respite and we took advantage of being out without actually being out. We drove over to check out the possibility of kayaking on the Verde River at some point during our remaining days, and then just took a scenic drive.

We drove a Jeep road up to here.
Nice views, but very hot!

Prickly pears were getting ready to bloom!

Heading back down the hill and across the valley.

I made Blaine stop so I could check this out. : )

As we were driving a Jeep road close to home, we came upon abandoned ranch land.

This was the barn. Now there’s a bunch of giant bees buzzing around it. (maybe carpenter bees??)

All that’s left of the Huntsbroker farm house. : (

It seems back in 1953, Joseph and Miriam Huntsbroker brought their three sons and a small herd of cattle from Texas to start a new ranching life here on 300 acres. Unfortunately, losing two of their three sons to illness, the heat of the summers, and lack of an easy-access water supply eventually did them in and they left sometime around 1957.

The property’s been abandoned ever since.

I just made all that up.

But you believed me didn’t you? 😊

Actually, we have no information about this property. Only that it took us a few miles on rough road to get here.