Ovens of Patagonia - A Great Place to Eat

Here is a short blog post on an eatery in Patagonia Arizona. A person must have sustenance now and again whilst touring about the country side and this place “Ovens of Patagonia” is a great stop.

This is the restaurant as seen from the street. It is much more than just a sandwich and dessert place they have lots of collectible items inside as well as wonderful eats.

In the above image you may have noticed a blue colored object in the right hand side. This is that object and it is a water dispenser. In many parts of Arizona the water is terrible for drinking so you can buy water in bulk and take it home in your container.

Here the water is treated using the reverse osmosis technique. The untreated water can be very high in mineral content and tastes terrible, unfit to drink.

This little sign outside provides the general offerings from the Ovens. It is a bakery, hence the name, and they have sandwiches and wonderful desserts.

Finally we are at the front door. They have a nice logo to identify their business.

It is a bakery after all and so they have baked goods, great pies, breads and decadent breakfast pastries.

They also, for your sweet tooth, have fudge, lots of fudge. We are not big consumers of fudge so we will just accept that it is great fudge.

You can tell you are in birding country, one of the fudge varieties is named “Vermillion Flycatcher” after a beautifully color red bird often seen in the area. The fudge is not quite as red as the “Vermillion Flycatcher” but trending in that direction.

For those of you not familiar with the Vermillion Flycatcher here is an image of one. This is a male that is brightly colored red and hence the pinkish coloration in the fudge variety.

As an aside, Patagonia Arizona is the called the pollinator capital of the United States with many species of native bees, 300 types of butterflies and moths, 14 hummingbird species and two nectar-feeding bat species.

Not only do they bake goodies for us two legged folks but they also provide treat for our furry friends.

Our two Westies really enjoyed the peanut butter variety. The Border collie in the image on the sign appears to be smiling; he must like the treats as well.

With all the temptations and being weak of will in passing on great desserts, we decided to support this establishment and try the “I Love Chocolate”. It is soft serve chocolate ice cream served over the top of a chocolate fudge brownie. To say it is decadent with the whipped cream on top would be an understatement but it was very tasty.

As we were leaving we noticed this sign and it is not bad advice. We are much more into the dreaming side of the equation but will work for dessert on occasion or at least stop and sample one when they are available.

We hope you enjoyed this brief look around the "Ovens of Patagonia" it is a great place and a must stop on your next trip to Patagonia or south east Arizona.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

All the best – George & Deanna

Looking Around and Finding Things

This is the view from our kitchen table watching the morning sunrise. There are, obviously, no RV sites to the west of us. We are parked along the fence line of the property. Coyotes will roam the area and various bird species flit about.

We went over to Whitewater Draw one day. It is about 48 miles east of where we are staying and is a fabulous birding area. It is located in the Sulphur Springs Valley, is an Important Bird Area, and often has a lot of Sandhill Crane there in the winter.

Here are two Least Sandpipers that were foraging along the shore. We were surprised to see the small shorebirds there.

Also at Whitewater Draw we saw this Eared Grebe another surprising bird for us. The water is rather shallow and they are diving birds whom often eat fish but also aquatic insects and other small water creatures.

On a different excursion we went to La Cienegas which is a large grassland area north of Sonoita. It is a working cattle ranch and access is allowed

There is a road that runs essentially north and south through the area. Often times we will see Pronghorn Antelope along the road.

At one point there is a pond adjacent to the road. Frequently, on our visits, we will see a wide variety of sparrow species and other birds but this time the only birds were a pair of Killdeer. You can find this species almost anywhere.

In Patagonia Arizona, which is a short distance west of La Cienegas, we ate lunch and then wandered around a large central park open area. This colorfully painted building is towards the west end of the open space and it is a public restroom.

Here is the entrance to the men’s room, a brightly painted image of a Montezuma Quail, Hummingbird and other Arizona scenery items.

As we walked around Patagonia we found this little gentleman hiding in the bushes in front of a small church. He is a most interesting individual.

Looking further around in this neat little town, there is a restaurant named Velvet Elvis. Despite the name it is a great place to eat, excellent food and courteous, efficient service(more on Velvet Elvis in a later post). At the door going into the restaurant lives this brightly painted frog. It is a fascinating representation of a frog and very well done.

On one of our trips we went to Wilcox and had lunch at “Big Tex Barbecue”. In both men's and women's restrooms they have these sinks formed into the state of Texas. It is a cleverly implemented sink.

This image shows detail of a Long Billed Curlew. They are the largest sandpiper regularly occurring in North America being about 20–26 inches long and 24-35 inches across the wings. We had taken this image in the past but wanted to use it for reference to the following image.

There is a waste water treatment pond near Wilcox and we stopped by there after lunch at Big Tex. There was a flock of Long Billed Curlew, about 26 total birds but we could not get them to all get in the picture at once. They sure have long bills. They make a single note call that is fascinating to hear especially when there is a large group of them calling. We normally do not see large flocks of curlew, this was a fun sighting.

Picacho Peak State Park is along I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson and there are many hiking trails and large spaces for the RV. Here we see one trail leading off past the Saguaro and heading towards the peak. It is a great place to camp and very convenient during our travels.

This is a close up of the spines on the Saguaro. One needs to be careful and not get skewered by these. The close up gives us a greater appreciation for their capability to inflict pain.

Some friends, whom travel full time, Don and Sharyl, sent us this picture of a sign they drove past. Sure hope the road was not as rough as the sign indicates.

We hope you enjoyed this brief look around at some different sights and places and birds. We are enjoying our travels and hope you like seeing some of what we have seen.

As you travel on with your life try and stay off some of the rough roads though they often can lead to fascinating places, avoid the cactus as much as possible and look around at the beauty and wonder that surrounds you. Most of all have fun.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

All the best – George & Deanna

Jerome AZ and Other Sights

We went to Jerome in early December for a look around. It is a neat little town with kind of touristy and hippy like vibes. It is a fun place to visit and there is a lot to see. Of course there are lots and lots of shops from which you can buy things and eateries where you can spend your money.

When you visit be sure and take your walking shoes. There are many stairs and steep sidewalks some of them not very smooth. Here is a really brief look around Jerome trying to give you a feel for the place in hopes you’ll stop by there if in the area. We really enjoyed Jerome.

We borrowed the above image from the Jerome Chamber of Commerce web site.. The visibility and air quality did not provide decent images looking up at Jerome while we were there.

Since it is on the hill there are some stairs to get up and down between the streets. These were interesting older steps that were a really low step height easy to walk up.

Many of the sidewalks and streets are uneven and bumpy and you have to watch your balance as you walk around. There are some newer sections of sidewalk such as we see here that are smooth and easy walking.

Then there are sections that are rough and tumble. It would be difficult driving along this section of road much less walking on it. Fortunately this was a side road and not the main thoroughfare.

The roads you drive in Jerome are narrow with lots of twists and turns. The town is built on the hillside and there is not much level ground. From a road width perspective it is much easier in a small car than a large pickup truck.

You will see lots of retaining walls to hold up the hill. This is just one small example. The retaining walls are constructed of various materials and are in varying degrees of needing repair. This example seems fairly stable.

This is a fascinating eye-catching sign for a series of shops. There is a building with the name “New State Motor Company" and this is adjacent to that building. Well done, eye-catching sign.

As you walk around the town you are likely to see anything and everything. Here someone has used old license plates, wired together to provide a sun shade for their patio, at least it appears that way.

Shops and shops and more shops. They used to mine copper and other minerals in this area. Now they mine plastic and get the money you leave when you swipe your card. I would think Apple pay has reached Jerome though we do not have that and didn’t try that capability.

There were several of these smaller billboard types of signs providing directions to various businesses.

There were also these types of signs giving directions. Jerome is not really a big place but it is handy to have a lot of directional information.

One of the eateries in town is the “Haunted Hamburger”. This t-shirt was hanging in the window advertising their burgers and shakes. The place had a great view across the valley.

Their building is supposedly a haunted dwelling and you can read more about that at Their Web Site

One of the shops that we walked by was a pottery shop - "Made in Jerome Pottery". This was their sign hanging over the front door. Neat sign the type of which you don't often see identifying shops today.

Just to the right of the Pottery Shop, in a small yard they had this kiln for firing their pottery. It looked well used and well kept. It seems to us to be a very large kiln.

This is a view from one of the streets looking to the north and west from Jerome, which sits on Cleopatra hill. You have tremendous views to the red rock formations and out across the Verde Valley.

So this concludes our look around Jerome. This was neither an exhaustive visit nor a detailed write-up of what you can see and do there. They have lots of tours, old mining sites, museums, and a myriad of other places to visit. It is a fascinating place but we are heading out of town.

Oh, this is not our vehicle it was just parked along a side street. We thought it an interesting image.

We are now not in Jerome, and we will take a brief look at an eatery we visited.

To the north and west of Camp Verde about 17 miles is a small community named Cornville, in that town is a great place to eat called “Grasshopper Grill and Spirits”.

Painted on the outside walls are some wonderful artwork. These were very well done, lots of detail and quite realistic.

One thing that caught our attention, besides the great food, was the marketing aspect. Here is the menu advertising a hot dog. “Mustard's Last Stand” is quite a good play on words and it presents a hot dog that is on the menu.

Looking further at the menu we find they also have “Grasshopper Legs”. In keeping with their name they had these appetizers available.

In reality they are green beans lightly battered and fried. Of course we had to try them with a name like "Grasshopper Legs". They are wonderful even with the interesting marketing name and the wasabi dipping sauce was a great accompaniment.

We often post about birds we have seen but we have not been in great birding country or at least we have not seen lots and lots of birds as of yet. Here is a most cooperative Rock Wren that posed for pictures.

Outside the RV one evening there was this sunset with what looks like the sky on fire. Deanna quickly took a couple of pictures as the sun doesn’t wait too long when going down. You can often see some wonderful sunsets and sunrises here in Arizona.

We like different signs and saw this one at one of the places along the way. The recommended action seems appropriate in many cases.

We hope you enjoyed this brief look at Jerome and the other sights. We certainly enjoyed visiting them and hope you have some interest in seeing these locations as well when next you are in the area.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

All the best – George & Deanna