Cowtown

Vickie and I got away this weekend to a cool place about an hour from home. Wickenburg is a small town on the way from Phoenix to either Las Vegas (north) or Los Angeles (west). Originally founded as a supply stop to service goldminers during the gold rush, it later became an important place for ranchers to move cattle onto trains to Chicago.

Today it has turned itself into a CUTE cowboy town and much of the shops are reliving that era. We visited the cowboy museum which was WONDERFUL and walked around town to see the lifesize replicas of people from 140 years ago.

 And the place we stayed at had more cowboy stuff than you could imagine. We could never live in this much clutter but it sure was homey and warm. Just perfect for a restfully time.

We also visited the preserve and took a gentle walk around this un-characteristicly wooded area, saw butterflies, a roadrunner and a flowing stream which gave water to the stand of cottonwood trees in this small area. The registration and information building was located in an old main house from a dude ranch that was built to attract visitors from Phoenix who took the train to this small resort of yesterday.

If you need a getaway from the heat of the desert this is a nice place to try. We aren't experiencing as much heat right now, which made the spot even nicer with the warm sun on our walks.

OK, back to the real world.