Happy 65th Birthday, Ken!

Our day today started with grain and nut whole wheat silver dollar pancakes with grapefruit and sausage--Ken's choice for a birthday brunch. On our walk, Ken spotted this claret cup cactus (aka strawberry hedgehog). We're lucky to be here in spring, with lots of wildflowers in bloom everywhere.

Then we "showered." Actually, since we are boondocking and our water supply is low, we each used a gallon of water in a pail, standing in the shower. We got a surprisingly effective and refreshing wash-up. We headed out for our ride on Verde Canyon Railroad Wilderness Train, which starts in Clarkdale, just a few miles from our campsite, and travels along the Verde River to Perkinsville and back. Along the way, the scenery is spectacular, with views of Sinagua and Hohokam ruins, eagles' nests, the river, sheer canyon walls, a 680-foot tunnel, and lots of the famous red rocks--plus limestone and basalt and wildflowers and more.

You can walk back and forth between the enclosed passenger cars and open gondolas with sunshades. Following recommendations, we stayed outside for the outbound trip and sat inside for the return.

After the train ride, we were ready for dinner. We had found an interesting little cafe in Cottonwood highly recommended on Yelp--La Bella Cafe. We were not disappointed--the atmosphere was casual and homey, with a nice outside garden patio. We ate inside. It's a family affair: our server was the son of the owners, the chef and the pastry chef. We had one of today's specials, a chicken breast stuffed with pesto, ham and Parmesan, topped with an Alfredo sauce and drizzled with balsamic glaze, with olive oil grilled fresh bread and grilled carrots and squash. We started with a salad of fresh mixed greens (picked yesterday) with tomato, carrot, and homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

Everything is locally sources and organic if possible--and freshly made. For dessert we had one of their signature cheesecakes with whipped cream (light, barely sweet, fresh). We were so impressed that we decided to stick around town a few days longer so we can come back here to eat.

Ken got phone calls and emails all day with birthday wishes and songs. It's good to have caring family and friends.

We looked at the campgrounds at Dead Horse State Park. They're very nice, but we've been spoiled by the spectacular views of open wilderness shared by only a few fellow boondockers. We decided to take Venture into town tomorrow to dump and fill up with fresh water and then return to our site here. It was easy to find a place to dump at a nearby gas station, but harder to find a source of potable water with a screw on fitting that will accommodate our water hose. We stopped a few places and finally found a conveniently placed water faucet at the Fry's service station.