Our Anniversary Train Ride

Almost 37 years ago, Jan and I went on our first official "date" together (after a month or so of swimming in her pool) to ride the White Mountain Railroad that ran from McNary to Maverick, Arizona. That was a beautiful ride, through the tall Ponderosa pines on the last narrow-gauge railroad in the state. To commemorate that ride, we celebrated our 36th anniversary a little early by riding the Verde Canyon Railroad that runs from Clarkdale to Perkinsville. Perkinsville is a lot like Maverick, in that neither place exists anymore.

We left the train station at 1:00, traveling past a big slag pile that covers 40 acres 40 feet deep. The molten rock was poured there over the period of 40 years, and it is really something to see. After we passed the slag pile, the train took us on a two-hour trip up the Verde Valley. It was a beautiful day, just a little breezy, and our first class car was very comfortable to ride in.


In Perkinsville, the locomotive disconnected from the train and attached at the opposite end of the train for the two-hour ride back to Clarkdale. There was a long tunnel that curved through the mountain, long enough to be totally dark inside. Back in one of the coach cars, a whole car full of school children screamed all the way through the tunnel.


After the train ride, we drove into Cottonwood to the Blazin' M Ranch for an evening of cowboy cookin' and singin'. If you have ever been to the Rockin' R Ranch in Mesa, you have seen both. The food was identical, the layout was identical, the music was identical, but it really was a great time.

The next day we drove into Jerome, then on to Prescott where we picked out the tile for our new master bathroom. We looked and looked for something to match the tile we already had, but couldn't find the right stuff. Finally the sales person said, "If you want, I can show you some of the discontinued tiles we have in the back room. You can't return them, but they are only $2 a square foot instead of $6.50." What the heck, we thought, it would be worth a look. The first thing we looked at was the exact match of the tile we had brought with us! We got all of our tile for about 1/2 of what we had budgeted. So that was a great end to a great trip. Happy to have that decision made, we got in the car and drove back to Pinetop.

It was a fun anniversary trip. Happy 36th, my love.