Summary: We went camping at Dead Horse Ranch Campground.

Tuesday, June 11th: We got up early at 5:00am (it was light outside). We left about 6:30am and drove to Dead Horse Ranch Campground in Cottonwood, AZ. We took the scenic Hwy 89A route through Skull Valley and Jerome with a lot of narrow, twisty mountain roads. We arrived about 11:30pm.

We had reservations for 8 nights, June 12th through June 20th. Did you notice that this was June 11th??? When we got to the Ranger Station to check in, the Ranger told us we were a day early!! LOL!! He was able to get us into the same campsite that we had reserved for the 8 nights, so that was good!! As we were walking back to the Roamer after checking in, we saw a roadrunner!!

Dead Horse Ranch got its name when the Ireys family came to Arizona from Minnesota in the late 1940s looking to buy a ranch. At one property they discovered a dead horse lying by the road. When Mr. Ireys asked the kids which ranch they liked best they said, "the one with the dead horse." The family named it "Dead Horse Ranch," and when Arizona State Parks acquired the park in 1973, the Ireys made retaining the name a condition of sale.

We unhooked the Jeep and drove to our campsite. We got set up and visited with neighbors, showing off both our Roamer and their camper. We remembered that we'd forgotten to bring ice cube trays while we were talking to the neighbors. Oh well, we could fix that (there was ice at the Ranger Station).

We sat down in our chairs, relaxing and started planning the next few days. We wanted to visit the Palatki ruins, drive through Oak Creek Canyon, visit the Out of Africa Park, visit with Don (Carl's 5th grade teacher) and the Montezuma Castle ruins. We made reservations for the Palatki ruins for the next day. And then....the A/C went off. After some troubleshooting, we determined that it was not an easy fix and that we were done!! There were too many things going wrong and we weren't supposed to be here camping. We packed up and stopped by the Ranger Station for a refund. We got back all but the one night that we weren't supposed to be there!!! But...Carl cut himself on the door to the Ranger Station and was bleeding all over the place. After some quick First Aid, we drove out of the campground for the 5hr trip home at 3:30pm.

It was a lo-o-o-ng trip home!!! The light hookup to the Jeep was intermittent and we'd forgotten to fix it, but figured it would be OK because we weren't going to be driving in the dark. We took the quickest route home--all highway. It was getting dark by the time we got to Quartzsite and we finally got home at 9:30pm. P.S. The lights on the Jeep were working when we got home to Parker.

Carl made sure the Roamer house batteries were safe, while I unloaded the refrigerator. We grabbed what we needed for overnight, took showers and went to bed. That was the end of that adventure.