Cowboys...

Today was all about the "good ole western days". We took a short scenic drive through Old Town Cottonwood and the road ended at Verde Canyon Railroad. The train ride was very interesting and beautiful. The landscape went from lush, green valleys to red, dry rock within only a few miles. We saw old Copper mines, Indian dwellings (caves carved into the rock), homes and deserted ranches. The boys enjoyed the journey for the first 2 hours, but lost interested on our way back home. Luckily my genius husband bought a deck of cards at the gift shop before we boarded the train! Overall it was a beautiful, relaxing ride.
Our next stop was Blazin' M Ranch. It was only about 10 minutes from the railroad station in Cottonwood. We arrived early enough to visit the gift shops, pet the animals and shoot a round. What's an Old West experience without a 6 shooter? I'm impressed with our little family, we all did really well! I felt like Annie Oakley for a few seconds :)
The dinner bell rang at 6:30 and after chomping down on some delicious bbq chicken and all the fixin's we enjoyed some cowboy songs and poetry by the Blazin' M Cowboys. It was much funnier than I expected it to be and very family friendly. During one song in the show they interrupted with a comedy act (which was scripted) and a few things happened unexpectedly which made the singers laugh. You could tell they didn't mean for it to happen but it made the act funnier and then the singers got the giggles and kept trying to pull it together. It was funny.


By the way, while California is experiencing a heat wave with humid weather and record high temperatures we are keeping cool here! On our way home it was about 70 degrees. It's supposed to be 85-95 all week. So ironically we came to Arizona to "cool down".
Tomorrow we are visiting the Indians...