The Lodge at Ventana Canyon

Looking to pamper yourself and experience the country club lifestyle for a weekend then stay at the Lodge at Ventana Canyon.    This is a gated entrance where you will be greeted with details of your stay. Walk into registration and get personalized attention.  We stayed in room 224 which is a corner room on the 2nd floor in the middle of the property.  You will split the difference between the dining, bar and lobby with the pool and hottub area.  This hotel only has 50 rooms so booking can be an issue when there are large parties.   You will have ice waiting in the bucket for you along with a small kitchen stove, dishwasher, range and refrigerator.  The only thing I would change is the pillows bring your own as theirs are flat.

http://www.thelodgeatventanacanyon.com/

Pannenkoeken

A pannekoek (plural pannekoeken or pannenkoeken) or Dutch pancake is a style of pancake with origins in the Netherlands.

My opa used to say that if you ain’t Dutch you ain’t much.   This recipe is an old family tradition.  All the way from Holland this breakfast treat can be made with several twists.  The 2 flavors I created today were cinnamon and apple and cinnamon and vanilla.

  • 4 eggs
  • 3⁄4 cup milk
  • 3⁄4 cup flour
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
  • 1⁄4 cup sugar
  • 2 apples, peeled and diced or other fruit
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1⁄4 cup sugar
  • 1⁄4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1⁄4  teaspoon vanilla optional

  1. Heat oven to 410°F.
  2. Beat eggs, flour, milk, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl on medium speed for approx. 1 minute.
  3. Prepare apples or other items and fold into mixture.
  4. Melt the butter in a 9×13 glass pan and then pour egg mixture in pan.
  5. Combine sugar and cinnamon or other flavors and sprinkle over mixture.
  6. Bake uncovered until puffed and golden, about 25-35 minutes.

John Dillinger

Earlier that evening, Dillinger had been taken into custody by three Tucson police officers at the bungalow at 927 North Second Avenue.

 

In the early morning hours of January 21, a fire broke out in the Hotel Congress. Firemen swept through the building, banging on the doors of the sleeping guests. Oddly, a resident of the top floor seemed more concerned about his luggage than himself, and he put up a fuss when ordered to leave the building. Out on the sidewalk, he persuaded two firemen to re-enter the burning building to retrieve several expensive-looking bags.

Three days later, one of the firemen noticed a strong resemblance between the man who had been very protective of his luggage and a photo in the lineup section of a detective magazine he was reading. The face in the photo belonged to Russell Clark, a member of the John Dillinger gang.

Meanwhile, the same man and two of his friends had attracted the attention of a couple of tourists who had crossed paths with them the previous evening in a nightclub. He was boasting how easy it was to make a living robbing banks.

The tourists went to the police, who began an investigation. It was determined that Harry Pierpont (the man in the middle), “Fat Charlie” Makley (the one on the right) and Russell Clark — all notorious members of the Dillinger gang — had come to town. And police surmised that Dillinger himself was not far behind.

In quick order, Makley was arrested in a downtown radio repair shop. Pierpont, said to be the most dangerous of the gang because he killed for pleasure, was stopped at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and Nineteenth Street for a “routine” check of his automobile papers and arrested.

Clark was the most difficult to arrest. Traced to a rented house on North Second Avenue near the University of Arizona, he put up a vigorous fight that left him with a lacerated scalp. A search of the premises revealed the expensive looking bags firemen had rescued from the Hotel Congress. In them was an assortment of machine guns, pistols, ammunition and bullet-proof vests.

With the members of the gang in custody, the search now focused on the elusive Dillinger. Confident he would eventually show up at the Second Avenue house, the police placed it under surveillance.

Meanwhile, Dillinger had registered under an assumed name at a tourist court on South Sixth Avenue. At 6:30 p.m. on January 25, he came to visit his cohorts. As he made his way up the walk, three police officers sprang into action, and Dillinger was arrested without incident. Caught wholly off guard by the stakeout, his only words were, “Well, I’ll be damned!”

Excitement swept the city and the nation at the news: without firing a shot, the Dillinger gang had been apprehended in a small Southwestern city. The public treated Dillinger more like a celebrity than a notorious outlaw. Fox Movietone News rushed in a camera crew from Hollywood. Some 2,000 people converged on the county jail, hoping for a glimpse of the man. His meals were catered by a nearby restaurant, and he was allowed to have his terrier puppy in jail with him.

Local authorities knew that wherever Dillinger was, trouble usually followed, and they were anxious to get him out of Arizona as quickly as possible. Among several states vying for the right to try Dillinger, Indiana was chosen, at least in part because it was holding a murder warrant for the killing of a man during a bank robbery in East Chicago. Dillinger was extradited on January 31 and delivered to the Lake County jail in Crown Point, Indiana. The jail was dubbed “escape-proof” by Sheriff Lillian Holley, but she soon had to eat her words. On March 3, 1934, he escaped from the jail. Accounts differ as to whether he was armed with a submachine gun or with a piece of wood painted black and carved to look like a gun.

Dillinger went back to robbing banks. In July of that year, he was shot and killed by FBI agents as he tried to escape from a trap they had set outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago.

Dillinger Arrested In Tucson

Garlic Festival Dragoon, AZ

8th Annual Garlic Festival

Triangle T Guest Ranch 4190 E Dragoon Rd, Dragoon, Arizona

Step back into the Wild West for a fun weekend of garlic, food, arts, live entertainment in one of the last few ‘dude’ ranches left in the Old West.

The food was amazing we bought garlic pickles, horseshoe decor and a garlic seasoning.

Scrapbooking craft fun

Fun Facts about Idaho:
– Idaho is called the “Gem State”, because nearly every known type of gemstone has been found in the state of Idaho.
– Idaho’s Capitol Building is the only one in the United States heated by geothermal water. The hot water is tapped and pumped from a source 3,000 feet underground.
– In Idaho law forbids a citizen to give another citizen a box of candy that weighs more than 50 pounds.
– Soda Springs, Idaho is home to the ‘Soda Springs Geyser’, the only captive geyser in the United States.

 

 

 

Jerome AZ Ghosts and more

Jerome, AZ

Jerome’s known as America’s Most Vertical City. In 1875, the first mining claims near the Town of Jerome at the base. The hills were later name Cleopatra Hill and Woodchute Mountain. The camp was named Jerome for Eugene Jerome, a major financier of the United Verde Copper Company. The town thought to have been lost to abandonment is a unique weekend get away. The city was home to more than 10,000 people in the 1920’s and as of 2010 census, its population was 444. Jerome made news in 1917, when strikes involving the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) led to the expulsion at gunpoint of about 60 IWW members, who were loaded on a cattle car and shipped west.

Haunted Hotel
Founded as the United Verde Hospital. The Jerome Grand Hotel is well noted to be the highest commercial building in the Verde Valley,
being at a height of 5240 feet above sea level.

The hotel is said to be haunted. Many guests and hotel staff have heard and seen what appears to be a 4 or 5 year old child running down the hallway on the 3rd floor, sometimes crying or laughing. Rumor has it that this child also likes to appear at the foot of the bed in various rooms, staring at the bed’s occupant.

Many guests have reported seeing the apparitions of two ladies, one in a white gown, and another one in a nurses outfit, as well as someone who appears to be a doctor or nurse, in a long lab coat carrying a clipboard, roaming the halls.

A Spirit Cat is a frequent visitor to the hotel. Its origin unknown, the cat has been heard meowing, hissing and scratching at
doors and walls.

Room 32
One former miner confined to a wheelchair reportedly climbed over the balcony railing to this death, and a businessman Thomas Taylor shot himself there.

The trip would not be complete without dinner at the Asylum.  The Rocky Point Shrimp with the Tomatillo Salsa is a 5 star hit.  Plan ahead and reserve a table with the view.

Other fun facts Bobby D’s is in a historic English Kitchen building, the oldest operating dining facility in the state of Arizona.

 

 

Fort Thomas, AZ

The earliest military presence in the area was former Camp Goodwin, constructed in 1864 and named for Arizona’s first territorial governor, John N. Goodwin. The camp was abandoned after a short time due to failed buildings and malaria from a nearby spring. In 1876, the current site of the community was chosen as a “new post on the Gila,” selected to replace Camp Goodwin. Initially, the site was named Camp Thomas in honor of Civil War Major General George Henry Thomas. Until 1882 the area would be known by several names including Clantonville, Camp Thomas, Maxey and finally Fort Thomas.

At its peak, the fort consisted of 27 buildings, all constructed by the occupants of the fort and made of adobe. Malaria remained a problem throughout the occupation of the area, and led to Fort Thomas being called the “worst fort in the Army.” The fort also had no government funding until the year 1884. After the capture of Geronimo in 1886, the Army gradually removed the troops stationed there until the fort was handed over to the Department of the Interior in 1891.

The early town had a poor reputation, and was home to several houses of prostitution and saloons. In 1895, the community grew significantly when the Southern Pacific railroad’s construction in the area was halted due to native Apache people refusing to let the railroad continue construction through their reservation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Thomas,_Arizona